Rest in Peace, Myrtle Mulgrave! - Halloween Fun with Tim Holtz Dies and Bubbalux Craft Board

Hi, servus and welcome to another fun Halloween project today! It seems I am on a real roll this year with Halloween projects. Obviously reducing my design team commitments has been the right thing to do. With more time for projects that are just for fun (and just for me. myself and I) inspiration finds me more often and faster. And with all the awesome Halloween projects out there you just can't help being infected with the Halloween crafting virus, can you?

I have once more used the cool Bubbalux Craft Board (as in this project over HERE) - the white and yellow one this time - and once more I just loved the many different possibilities being given by this product and especially its sturdiness - it's perfect to create 3D projects that stay in shape AND are light weight at the same time.

I was inspired by some fabulous projects from some talented ladies that I recently saw (on the inspiring Tim Holtz Addicts facebook group), on which they were using the new Tim Holtz Tombstone Overlays (for the Etcetera Tags) to create the most fantastic tombstone projects.
Being in Austria, getting one of these is not only a matter of good luck but also of a long waiting time (due to shipping times from outside of Austria) - so mostly I am late to the party with latest releases...so I decided to find a way around that and create my own "tombstone overlays" using some of Tim's fab products from my stash - mainly his Alterations Halloween dies. That was great fun! And using his dies to cut the shapes from Bubbalux Craft Board just worked wonderfully!

So I have come up with this own version of a Tim Holtz Tombstone project. I hope you like it!

I have also done a how-to for you.

And here's the list of Tim dies and die sets I have used:

- Headstone (Alterations)
- Iron Gate (On the Edge Alterations)
- Pediments (Alterations)
- Trophy Antlers (Alterations)
- Labels (Thinlits)
- Garden Greens (Thinlits)
- Feather & Ravens (Thinlits)


I started with cutting out the needed pieces from white Bubbalux. As you can see I cut out some more pieces so I could try out different designs.

I removed the protective foil AFTER die cutting the Bubbalux pieces. This way any black foam residue from the dies was removed as well.

Then I sanded all the edges and cut off the top of the headstone shape (as that was going to be replaced by a pediment piece). I also die cut another bottom part of the Headstone shape so I could layer pieces to create the impression of the tombstone sitting on a wider stone base.

I added some lines and other detail to the pieces with hand embossing.

To bend the iron gate shape to create a little fence for the grave, I heated the Bubbalux with my heat tool and quickly bent it into shape around a jar. I held the piece in place with my fingers until it had cooled down.

Then I placed the shaped fence piece onto a flat piece of yellow Bubbalux and traced along the curved outside with a ball point pen. Using large scissors I cut out the drawn shape to create my base. I left an overlap at the back for the tombstone to sit on and even added another half inch to the base's depth for a better stand.

Using some of the lovely Tim Holtz Thinlits dies sets I die cut some twigs from sturdy white cardstock to decorate the tombstone with.

The little plate shape from the Trophy Antlers die was the perfect shape to put the portrait of Myrtle Mulgrave on. (May she rest in peace!)

I used black DecoArt media Gesso to prime all the die cut pieces. I stippled the Gesso on with an old and worn bristle brush. This way I already created some rough texture with my base layer. I let everything dry naturally (as heating the Bubbalux will make the pieces warp a little).

Once dry I stippled on some DecoArt media Texture Sand Paste and let that dry naturally as well.

In the meantime I heat embossed my smaller cardstock shapes and the Bubbalux base plate using Emerald Creek embossing powders Hammered Metal, Moss Stone Green, Clear Chunk Gloss and Vintage Ivy.

The hand punched portrait got three layers of the Clear Chunk Gloss embossing powder for a dimensional look.

Using a wide soft flat brush I dry brushed DecoArt premium Warm Grey acrylic paint onto the tombstone pieces. First I had glued the pieces together using superglue.

I also used superglue to assemble all the finished pieces.

The iron fence was loosely painted using DecoArt media Silver Metallic paint and Lamp Black Americana paint. I also added touches of the Silver Metallic paint to other parts of the tombstone to visually fuse all the elements. Et voilá!

Some detail shots:

...and once more the finished piece:

Thanks for stopping by, dear crafty friends! I hope you like my self made "Tombstone Overlay". ;)

And thank you, Floortex, for generously letting me have some Bubbalux to play with for free! 

Hugs and happy crafting! 

Claudia

xxx