Halloweenie (?) Shadow Box (yep, another one!)

I made this little shadow box from one I got at the Dollar Store – I have had it in my stash forever but I knew someday it’d come in handy and I’d know just what to do with it.  Halloween is definitely one of my top 3 favorite holidays – I love spooky stuff and candy!  The box is only 8 ¼” from the very tip top to the bottom and 7 ¼” side to side so it isn’t very big but I love the little cubby holes and I wish I had bought more. I don't have any pictures of the construction of the box as it's fairly cut & dry; if you have any questions you can either leave a comment for me or use the "contact me" form.

First I gessoed the wooden shadowbox twice.  When I am working with wood, I am careful to ensure it is totally covered because wood will just soak up whatever medium you put on it and in the case of this, with all the nooks and crannies I wanted to be sure the entire box was covered.  And at this stage, I really didn’t know what I was going to do with the box and when I don’t know I try to prep for anything <grin>.

Here's the box after I painted it.

The paint is hand mixed dark gray acrylic (I used my trusty Golden acrylics); I just used some black paint and white paint until I found the color I liked & painted the whole box.  A trick I like to use when mixing paint is I mix it in a plastic cup so when I think I am done I can pop a piece of waxed paper over the top with an elastic and save the mix; inevitably I need the paint again, either to touch something up or fix a mistake and I have kept acrylic paint for days using this trick.  The last thing I want to do is try to mix the exact color because experience has shown me time & time again I won’t be able to do it.  Then when the project is done, or at least the painting part, I can just toss the cup away.  If I only need a little paint I will use those little plastic cups that come with liquid cold medicine and then I’ll wash the cup out and keep it; I have tried to do this with the regular cups but because they have ridges on the sides I can never get the paint out completely so I toss it even though I hate adding to trash.  I can never seem to get the perfect amount of paint out of the container – I always end up with too much, so this way I can at least try to save it.

Once my box was all painted, I started to fool around with finding things that fit in the cubby holes.  I measured one of the cubbies and cut little rectangles out of black and orange card stock but I kept having to trim them to fit in the holes. I measured again and again had to trim – well, come to find out ALL the cubbies were different sizes – oh JOY – at least it wasn’t my measuring skills this time, LOL.  But I decided I really didn’t want the box to be too Halloween like (Halloweenie?) in case I wanted to display it all year (I’m lucky, my honey likes creepy stuff too) so out when all the rectangles. 

I had gotten an order I placed and forget I even ordered the DCWV La Crème stack and once I saw it I thought, it was perfect for the background of the holes.  You can only see some of the paper but I like the fact that if you look really close you can spot it.  The pictures of the skulls, web, Devil, Edgar Allen Poe and the witch are all from clip art.  I got the really cool picture of the lady holding her head from Kris Dickinson’s blog called A Nostalgic Halloween (she is an amazing artist; check out her ATCs!), the two little girls are from a collage sheet from a company that’s gone out of business and the “eyes” face I had in my stash of photos – I don’t know where it came from but I think its Charles Manson.  The poison label at the top is an authentic label from my stash of pharmacy labels.  The swirl is a piece of Tim Holtz grudge board painted with acrylic black paint (I used my tip about the tiny cold medicine cups with the black paint.  Even though it wasn’t a hand mixed color I knew I missed some spots the first time I painted it and, like usual, I knew I’d splotch out much more paint that I needed, so I kept it in the little cup – worked great!).  The adorable black plastic cat is from an eBay purchase eons ago.  The 2 medicine bottles came from The Pork Chop Show – I glued little wooden circles (the size of bingo chips but without the number) to the back of them so I could have them stand out a bit.  The Dresden trim came from a kit club I used to belong to but it is easy to find online, I got the puffy fabric bat ribbon from the same club (but again, I am sure you can find it if you really want it).  I made the black crystal ball out of a marble glued to another little wood thingie (same as the kind I used above) painted silver with a Krylon Leafing pen.  I had the little bottle & ribbon in my stash as well as the little copper nuggets that are inside the bottle (I don’t even know what I am going to use the rest of the little nuggets for – don’t even know why or where I got them! <grin>).  The black chain came from a Dazzles sheet from Paper Wishes called Steampunk . I thought it would be cool to give the pictures some dimension so I picked a few, Edgar, the witch & the web and glued little wooden thingies (the same ones I used to make the crystal ball) to the backs of them and then glued them in place.

This is a view of the dimension.

 Lastly, the little drip of blood running down the side is a drip of resin I made when I had mixed too much.  Once it dried, I painted it with red acrylic paint on the flat side then just glued it on. 

Stunning isn't it?

There ya go – my Shadow Box – I really enjoyed making this a lot and I have quite a stash of various sized shadow boxes so I know I’ll make another one (I know I have one more with the cubbies in it - I just don't know where it's hiding). . .hmmm, is it too early for Christmas?

I would like to enter my shadow box in the following challenges:
My Crafty Life - Anything But a Card (over the end of November)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Rhedd and Rosie Challenge - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

Get Inky! - 3D Holiday

Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes
Drunken Stampers - Goth or Halloween 
Left of Center Creative Challenges - Halloween or Creepy (entry 2)

The BOO Banner

I have seen a plethora of banners lately but this is my first attempt to make one; mostly because I have no where to hang one & I can’t draw a crooked line.  But then I got my Silhouette Cameo and I actually made my own triangles and viola! My banner was born – well, at least the idea of my banner.

 

In hindsight, I would have made them larger as I don’t feel I had enough room to truly decorate the individual triangles as much as I wanted but overall I am pleased with the results. 

First, I designed the triangles – the tops are about 5” across and the V part is about 6 ½” on each side. I cut them from more of the My Mind’s Eye Halloween paper I had (all from the old Spooked collection).  I then dug through my stash of Dresden – I knew I had these medallion-like black pieces and I thought they’d look great on the banner.  I then used my Silhouette Cameo  to make the BOO letters – I cut them out in various fonts and sizes because I am still not trusting of the measurements the machine shows me & I wanted to pick the best one for the banner.  And who doesn’t like to play around and try different things? Plus, I know I can use whatever I have left on another project.  So I picked the letters I wanted to use and glued them to the medallions.  I put a black plastic gem on each tip to, hopefully, give some weight to the paper; I had originally planned on using this wonderful orange piece of plastic folder under the triangles but I ruined it by drawing on the wrong side with a black Sharpie – so I threw the plastic and the idea out.  I got this wonderful pack of paper, called Glitter Silk from Core’dinations so I decided to punch out some stars to add some bling.  I was surprised at how easily this paper was punched – I used a small old star punch, one of those button ones (not the cool new lever ones) and it punched like a dream! I have had more issues with trying to punch regular card stock than this paper and if you get a chance to get some I highly recommend it.

So I ironed my ribbon (that I got from May Arts) that I used to actually dangle my triangles from – I know, I was shocked that I actually ironed it but I really wanted the ribbon to be creased in half & the only way to do that was to iron it.  I haven’t used my iron in years and am happy to report it worked fine.  Then I glued my banner pieces to the ribbon.  I used “ribbon glue” hoping that the glue wouldn’t show through the ribbon and for the most part, it stayed hidden.  I decided my banner needed more bling and I found a foam die cut I had made of a skull using one of the Tim Holtz Sizzix Dies and it looked blah, so I glittered it.  I also decided to punch out some more stars, just bigger, to add along the ribbon. 

That was it!  I must confess the word “boo” means more to me than just a word to use to scare someone.  As some of you know, I am the mom to four beautiful kitties, 2 boys, Spike, who will be 19,and Boo, who is 17. My girls are Monster, 16, and Mew, 4 months .  Boo is a Mama’s boy – he hates everyone but me.  Honestly.  If I am home alone he acts almost like a normal cat, but if someone else is around, he would live under the bed if I fed him and provided a litter box.  He recently had some dental surgery and I’m happy to report he came out fine and is starting to feel much better – so this banner is also a celebration of Boo’s recovery! (the pictures aren't the best - the banner is literally tacked to my wall in the laundry room.  To see them bigger, as always, just click on them).

 

I am entering my banner in the following challenges:                        
Crafty Ribbons Challenge  - Anything Goes

2 Sisters Challenge  - cute & spooky

Crafts 4 Eternity - Halloween

Cut It Up - Halloween/Day of the Dead

Left of Center  - Halloween/LOC

I am adding my project to this challenge as well - Thanks Linda!!
Craft My Life - Anything But a Card (challenge runs for 2 months)

Thank you for stopping by!  I have one more spooktacular project to share before Halloween is over – look for it to be posted in the next few days.

And if you are wondering where I found these fantastic challenges to enter just take a look at Challenges for Days – an awesome blog that lists crafty challenges!