61 days until Halloween

On my crafting journey to Halloween, I came across this cute MDF/chipboard kit made by Sa Crafters.  You get the boards and decorate and glue them together.  Here is the final result.  I found this wonderful lady this summer when I attended the Arlington Scrapbook convention.  She had a whole booth full of these kits and I bought 4 of them.  I'm half way done with a drawer holder for Washi tape which I will post at a later date.  I put a link to her website (which I have saved as a favorite on my computer)

http://www.sacrafters.com/

Halloween mixed media picture

"Scary" - Mixed media canvas created by Debbie Granfors

This picture was so much fun to create.  I started by using the reverse side of a canvas picture.  This particular one I bought at 90% off because it had an ugly print of something on the front that nobody wanted.  I simply painted over that with black.  On the reverse side, I started by preparing the surface.  I first put a layer of gesso over the canvas material.  After that dried, I used a modeling paste and applied it around some of the nicks in the frame but mostly to help cover the staples.  Once that was dry I layered the sides of the canvas (on the top, inside and outside) with paints, spray, and stencils until I got an old creepy type finish to them.  I used brown, black, the white of the the modeling paste and some bright green colors.

For the inside, I cut a piece of Halloween scrapbook paper the exact size of the back and used medium gel to apply it to the canvas.  The decorations are bits of paper tidbits I collected, some wide washi tape, a spider sticker and for the main focal point, a skeleton stamped onto some beige print card stock and inked arount the edges.  The finishing touches are done with a banner I made using Halloween card stock cut into a triangle shape, lace ribbon glued to the edges, lettering from Hobby Lobby, and orange yard to string it all together.

On the bottom, I used some straw like material I picked up awhile back at a scrapbook convention.  At the time, I had no idea what I would use it for but for $1.00 I knew it would come in handy someday.  I tore off a piece and sprayed it with brown ink the used hot glue to place it on the canvas.  The skeleton piece at the bottom came from Michaels.   They have a whole collection of cute Halloween minatures.

This is what the "straw" looks like before I applied it.  I think you could also use cheese cloth and that would work well also.

 I hope you enjoyed looking at my Halloween canvas and hope you give this type of mixed media art a try.  Thanks for visiting my blog

I am back to creating after being away for a long period of time.  We moved across the country and our new home was a bit of a fixer upper so, I have been very busy with that.  It still involves painting but not the fun kind!!  I am lucky enough to have a space which already came with built in cabinets so, I will be using this room for my art space/guest room.  I thought I would show you the before and after pictures of my new space.

Before - left side

Before - right side

After

The cabinets "before" were already nice but the finish was worn away in spots, especially by the window seat.  I used the original drawer pulls but did update them slightly with some black spray paint.  I may replace them someday but will wait until I find something I fall in love with.

Now with my new space, I can create even more!!  I have already been working on some Halloween things.  Halloween crafts and arts is my favorite thing to do so, you will see more postings from me in the next few weeks.  Upcoming posts will be multiple things for Halloween including ATC's, mixed media wall hanging, a quilt and I may be able to squeeze in a skeleton doll before the big day!   Keep an eye out for my postings.