In the Light of a Full Moon...

...wicked sisters seal your doom,

witches swing and ride their broom,

put a spell on some poor groom,

stir in cauldrons with NO spoon...

...in the light of the full moon. 

;)

Sorry for the poor attempt at rhyming in English but I couldn't resist. ;)

Servus, hi and thanks for stopping by today! I hope you're having a good week so far! Today I would like to share a project that I made last weekend - playing happily with my newly bought Tim Holtz idea-ology stuff and using that alongside some older Tim treasures I've been hoarding for ages it seems. 

The Vignette Tray Coffin for example has been on my shelf for quite some time - I just never came up with a project idea that I thought was good enough to put it to use...until Sunday I finally decided to use it - no matter what the outcome of my idea would look like ;)

I think the Halloween Paper Dolls gave me the needed final push to get going and create a shadow box in the tray coffin. And as I always love to put as many of my Tim dies as possible to use on a Tim project, I got out my BigZ Branches, Cauldron and Graveyard dies, the Bat Crazy, Frightful Things and Twisted Edge Thinlits dies and the good old "Halloween Shadows" Sizzlits die strip with the Trick or Treat quote (one of my all time favs). 

 I combined these with the Bitty Bats, Skull Fragments, Halloween Paper Dolls and Tombstones from this year's idea-ology Halloween release and to add some lovely Tim texture in the background and as a border I also used the 3D Texture Fades "Botanical" and the 3D Impresslits "Provincial".

I used heavy black craft cardstock and outlined the tray coffin with a pencil - then I drew another outline about the frame's width smaller and cut that out, so the coffin shaped paper fit in the opening. 

I ran that cut to size and into shape paper through my Sizzix using the 3-D Texture Fades "Botanical" embossing folder. As the folder was slightly smaller than the paper I needed to run it through twice. I tried to find a good spot on the embossing folder to "continue" the already embossed pattern...there still was a slightly visible edge where the two separately embossed sections touched but I solved that problem by gluing a branch on top to cover that up. 

Then I arranged all my die cut elements and the paper dolls until I found the perfect spots for these and took an image (mainly for my own reference).

I used Distress paints black soot, antiqued bronze, frayed burlap, squeezed lemonade, peeled paint and twisted citron to paint my die cut shapes (I also did a pumpkin but later decided it was too large so I didn't use that).

The embossed Botanical background was dry brushed using twisted citron Distress paint.

To mimic some grass to put the tombstone and skull on I cut a strip of a kind of "mummy cloth" (but not the real thing - it is some Halloween decoration fabric) and tinted it with Distress stain crushed olive.

The full moon was done using a die cut circle with Distress Oxide Ink peeled paint and Distress Stain pumice stone.

Then I inked the edges of all the elements with Ranger Jet Black archival stamping ink before I layered them into the coffin tray using stacked sticky foam pads. 

I also used the black soot Distress Paint dabber around the tray coffin's edge and once that had dried I applied some white Crackle Paint with a palette knife and toned the finished crackle down using dark brown acrylic paint. 

Some moss and other bits of the mummy cloth were glued to the coffin here and there for additional spooky texture.

I also had great fun layering the thicket of branches behind which the frightened ghost is trying to escape the evil steaming from the cauldron...I simply glued the branches to the coffin tray frame. 

The bats' bodies got a dot of Liquid Glass for some glossy texture and dimension. 

This is what's going on on the bottom of the coffin tray ...

...a tombstone in front of a steaming bronze cauldron, all surrounded by creepers and climbers...

...and the fractured skull of some poor long deceased... 

...rotting solitarily in the damp moss of the graveyard. 

I just love the ghosts from the Frightful Things dies set! This poor little guy obviously is frightened by what is going on the graveyard. We don't know what it is that the witch sisters are brewing in their cauldron, but maybe he knows...

I hope you like my fun little Halloween shadow box! 

I'm entering this project to Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge. 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx