Wednesday, October 10, 2012

R.I.P. Witch Hazel...Or Not!

Won't you take me to... Funkie Town?!?  You know what that means everyone! This time I am hosting the challenge over at Frilly & Funkie, and I want to see a tag, but not an ordinary one...no way no how! Show us A Different Kind Of Tag (Plus A Theme).  I love making tags and there is sooo much you can do on a tag, BUT sometimes I need a slight change up. So this fortnight show us a tag, BUT alter it somehow. Change it's shape, cut it up, add several to make a book, flip it upside down, whatever, just don't let us see a regular tag. Repeating..."No regular tags this fortnight!" Let's see how creative you can be, AND use Autumn or Halloween as your theme.
If you need some altered tag inspiration, check out the other F&F DT's work.
 Linda Coughlin - The Funkie Junkie
Marjie Kemper - She Who Stamps and Scraps 
Teresa Kline - Paperie Blooms
Terry Horrall -  Terry's Work In Progress 
Sue Carrington - Stamping Sue Style 
Rebecca Deeprose - Paper Primrose
This is not exactly how I envisioned this to come out, but that is how it goes. I wanted to have Hazel pop up every time you open the coffin (Thus, not resting in peace!), but I just couldn't finagle it. I've been a bit under the weather lately, got a little better, but now feeling pretty yucky, so maybe that is why Witch Hazel is so ugly...she matches how I feel! The coffin really needs more grunge, but my swollen tonsils and feverish head keep telling me to get back in bed.
Hazel was made by stamping Tim's skeleton in Adirondack Snow Cap Pigment Ink onto black cardstock, then heat embossing it twice using Ranger's Sea Foam Embossing Powder. Below are the steps to make the coffin out of three tags.
I'm always saving packaging from unusual items. This one is from a double dose of Smooch Spritz. It work's perfectly with a #8 Tag. I traced it onto a kraft tag, and used dotted lines just inside the traced lines so I would know where to cut.
I glued these two tags together so that my tags would be stronger, but I did not add glue to the traced out area, so when I cut it out, I had two complete pieces to use for something else.
I glued the plastic into the cut out hole between the glued tags. This will be the bottom of the coffin.
Using the third tag, I measured at 1/2 inch from the top in as well as the bottom, at 1 1/2 inches from the top down, and from another 1 1/2 inches from there, doing this on both sides. I drew dotted lines to connect all these points. This will be the top portion of the coffin.
I cut on the dotted lines, and this formed a coffin shape. I placed this tag on top of the glued tags with the plastic piece, and then trimmed around it.
I found some strips of pressed Balsa Wood on sale at Hobby Lobby. Using only Tim scissors, I trimmed it to go around the perimeter of the bottom part of the coffin. Be careful...this stuff is sort of like fiberglass...it's itchy, so wear gloves.
I embossed the top part of the coffin as well as the left over center pieces from the bottom portion, using Tim's Wood Texture Fade from Sizzix.
I inked them in Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain Distress Inks, then dabbed all of them with Claudine Hellmuth Studio's Multi Matte Medium. By dabbing it on, it made great raised texture parts. After it was all dried, I used the same inks over it again.
Using those two extra tag strips of wood, I cut them into 3/4 inch strips, and glued them onto my Balsa Wood pieces. I used Rust and Pitch Black Alcohol Ink to give my hinge and lock the worn and buried look, and then attached one side of the hinge onto the bottom of the coffin, directly into the Balsa Wood.
I had some scrap red velvet, and I glued it into the coffin. I trimmed around it, and gave it a good inking with Walnut Stain. I attached the side part of the lock into the Balsa Wood on the opposite side of the hinge.
I stamped only the Witch Hazel portion of Tim's stamp, using Jet Black Archival onto the door of the coffin. I stamped Hazel's eye portion from her face stamp onto Specialty Stamping Paper, colored it in with Distress Markers,cut it out, and adhered it to the back of the tag's hole, so Hazel had a peep hole.
I attached the top portion of the lock onto the door, and then attached the hinge onto a scrap piece of kraft paper. Then I glued the scrap paper onto the coffin door where it needed to match up to the bottom portion of the coffin. I needed to cover all of this up, and I didn't have anymore velvet or white silk, so I used white tissue paper instead. Everything received a coat coat of both Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.
To make Hazel's broom, I used a Starbuck's lid stopper (I don't know what you call it!) and colored it with the Alcohol Inks as well. Then using some pulled strings of jute, I cut them and glued them onto the bottom of the stopper. I also used the jute as Hazel's hair after I colored it green with Peeled Paint Distress Ink. Hazel's wand is just a piece of twig from my oak tree, and her hat is just black cardstock.
  
 
Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!



Sunday, October 07, 2012

September ATC's Received!

Happy mail!!!! These are from the All Things Tim Yahoo Group, for September's ATC swap for a Fun Halloween theme!  They are amazing...might be my favorite group yet!
From Julie Case (How mischievous is this witch? Love her, and all the fibers...cool!)
From Pamela Preston (The cat's meow! Love her eyes and that background is so cool!)
From Claudine Criner (Scary cool...the skull in the mirror! Love the brick wall and 31!)
From Sue Bockrath (I love this! The little witches are so cool on this fab background!)
And here is mine again.

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!