It's STILL Halloween in the Studio!!!

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This is the little "book" I made for Mom after we did the huge apothecary project together.  We traded little things we made for each other (I got a cool coffin and a beautiful altered bottle) that you can see on her blog here:

http://ginny-ginnysart.blogspot.com/

 

The covers are chipboard covered with decorative paper and the spine is another element of Laura's from her collage sheets as noted on previous posts.  I added some german scrap and some little metal pieces for the closure that were just laying around the studio.  I broke the edges off them so they would look like they were meant to be there.  They were some sort of scrapbooking embellishment thingy from somewhere along the way (helpful, huh?)

 

You can see the altoid tin peeking out from inside the book.  The ribbon is some pretty hand dyed silk, not super sturdy.  If I had it to do over, I would have used something heavier.

 

Okay, here is the BEST part!!!  I love the witches brew stamp I have in my collection (one of my favorites) as well as the skeleton.  The key is one left over from when I did the large apothecary and put keys in the hands of the owls.  In one of the tiny bottles, I burned a little birthday candle and colored it with alcohol ink.  The little skeleton is a bead.  I stuffed little bits of moss and dyed cheese cloth to make it look a bit more spooky. 

 

I wanted to keep it!  But, one of those "Mom Lessons" is that if you want to keep it, then it must be a good gift!!!

 

Enjoy Mom!

Witches Apothecary

Here is the Semi-Finished Product, set up in my dining room/used for a music room.  It's visible from the front foyer.  There are still a few more things I would like to make, but I really wanted to get it set up!

The very last thing I finished was the little pumpkins in the front.  Mom sent them to me, and I covered them with Mod Podge and covered with glitter.  Simple, fun, and cute.

The Witches Cauldron is a tea light holder from Wal-Mart.  It started it's life as an orange glass pumpkin.  I colored it with alchol inks (Thanks, Laura, for re-aqainting me with them), and gilders paste.

"Blood of the Dragon" Witches Apothecary Box

Laura Carson is publishing a free tutorial on her blog, Artfully Musing, for the Witches Apothecary.  "Free" is somewhat of a misnomer, however, as I just never seem to have quite the "right thing", and have to go shopping either on-line or locally.  Both of which are dangerous to my checkbook! Regardless, it has been a blast so far.

I am reading the Game of Thrones series right now, and was inspired by the character of Daenerys Targaryen.  She has mystical powers, many seeming as yet undiscovered.  She is decended from the dragon and carries their blood in hers.  Daenerys has three baby dragons she travels with, they are her 'children' and her protectors.



I started with four 4x4 paper mache boxes from Michael's, painted them black and cut Halloween-y paper to size to line the inside



After I had distressed the edges of the papers and glued them in, I cut 1/4 inch strips of matching paper and covered the ugly edges that were visible.



This reflects the end of alot of work!  A paper frame edged with dresden and enhanced with rub and buff was added.  I used some of my favorite punches and glittered them up for the blood and dragons.  The owls and other embellishements were glued in place. 



For many more details on how to put together a beautiful apothecary box, please visit:  http://artfullymusing.blogspot.com/

Eyeball Bouquet

There are SO many elements and details that will be included in my apothecary and I am only just getting started putting them together.  This bouquet is made from eyeball beads, black lillies and black roses.  I then placed it in a little bottle filled with seed beads and squirted a bunch of crystal laquer on top so it would seep down, dry and hold my bouquet in place.  Too cute!

Book of Spells

I've more or less finished the spell book that has been in progress the last few weeks.  Usually my pages are much more heavily decorated and embellished, but I chose instead to add some atc's and halloween tags to the pockets of the book.  The atc's are mine and Mom's that we made together when she visited us in Wichita just before we moved to North Carolina.   The tags I purchased from another artist several years ago and they were just waiting for the right project to be included in!

For the closure, I used a Tim Holtz knob on the front and then attached a length of chain to the back with brads large enough to hold the links.  Then, all you have to do is loop the chain around the knob.  Everything was attached prior to adhering decorative paper.  It wasn't complicated at all, but gives a really big impact.

 

It was a major ordeal trying to find a test tube the right size for the center spine.  Ended up buying ten off Amazon.  Oh Darn!!!  They were just a buck a piece, including the cork so I'm sure I'll find future projects for a few of them! 



My girl, Fiona, was helping me take pictures.  She's such a good puppy!



 



The crows are a Martha Stewart punch, don't you love them?!






These are the tags and atc's that I placed in the pockets of the book.
The artist who made the tags didn't sign them and I'm sorry to say
I don't remember her name, but they are very cool.



Here it is displayed on one of the shelves in my craft room.  

Now, it's off to start the Witches Apothecary project.  Mom and I are more or less doing it together via long distance....  It will be fun to see how different they each turn out.  The inspiration for that undertaking is here:  http://artfullymusing.blogspot.com/

Did I REALLY Go to Portugal????

It's hard to believe that it's been a year already since Mom and I went to Portugal to take a workshop from the very talented (not to mention smart, kind, intelligent) Michael DeMeng.  AND, I have YET another UFO in the form of my journal from the trip sitting in my studio.  So, last weekend since I was on-call for 4 straight days and unable to leave the hospital I thought it would be a good time to work on it a little.  Unrealistic in my expectations, I believed I could finish it!  (Whatever)  But, I did manage to get a few pages done. 

This particular day (Thursday) was essentially dedicated to sightseeing, shopping, and of course, eating.  We went to the beautiful town of Sintra and visited the most amazing castles.  Each one was "my favorite"!  We started the day with a carriage ride (with a most adorable driver) to see many of the sights and gorgeous homes around town. 

We also visited a toy museum.  I didn't think it would be very interesting, but I was very wrong.  One of the most unusual things was the Nazi toy soldiers from WWII era.  They were displayed in their little parade lines with their little arms up to "Heil Hitler".  Guess I never really thought about what toys little German boys must have played with in the 30's and 40's.

From the ruins of the Moorish castle, or the grandeur of Pena Palace, to the amazing Mad Man's Castle and gardens it was an amazing day.
 
I know we just barely scratched the surface of the many wonders of the area, and I could have spent a week in Sintra alone.  But, as usual, too many things to do and not enough time to do them! 

We finished the day with dinner at an authentic Brazilian restaurant.  The food was only so-so in my opinion, but the atmosphere was fun.  There were statues of hugely pregnant goddesses everywhere and the waitresses wore the prettiest costumes (ours refused a photo op).

I'm surprised at how, even a year later, looking through my bits of ephemera and photos it all seems like yesterday.  These are my journal entries that reflect our day out and about Sintra.  Click on the photos for a more detailed view if you wish.

Steampunk Debutante - Graphic 45

Another project inspired by Kathy at Paper Phenomenon http://paperphenomenon.blogspot.com/.  There wasn't a turtorial per se, but she did have a video that showed her version of the finished project.  Mine looks very similar, but the book portion is a simple accordion fold, with Graphic 45's bias tape holding the spine together.  Kathy's binding is much prettier, but I don't know her technique.  Each book page has a pocket and there are a few tags and such to add additional photos/journaling to make it more interactive.

The papers are a favorite of mine from Graphic 45, BUT their whole line is gorgeous.  I really love how the Tim Holtz configuration box turned out.  I covered the front edges with strips of black cardstock to give it a more finished look.  The tab closure is secured with a magnetic closure.  Martha Stewart has some really nice punches and I chose a gothic looking edge punch of hers to make the lacy looking borders you see in several places .

This is one of the UFO's hanging out in my studio for quite awhile now.  I think because I don't do much in the way of traditional scrapbooking I have been unsure how to finish it off.  I've decided to fill the configuration box with steampunk-y stuff and add some of my oldest black and white family photos and journaling to the book portion.  The tab closure needs just the right embellishment too.  Hmm.  Must go shopping.