Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Pick Your Pumpkin Layout & Steampunk Spells Apothecary Cabinet ~ Scraps of Darkness October "Gothic" Kit

Today, I am sharing two more projects created with the Scraps of Darkness October "Gothic" Kit! First up is a minimalist/monochromatic layout and second is an Apothecary Cabinet created with this month's amazing Creativity Add-On.
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Pick Your Pumpkin
I love experimenting with different styles and I decided to try a very minimalist "scene" layout with a monochromatic colour scheme. For this layout, I have used a picture from my son's trip to the pumpkin patch with his daycare. 
I started this layout by using the Crafter's Workshop 12 x 12 Branches template along with some Distress Ink - Black Soot. I just used a sponge and smudged the ink around the edges of the template to create the tree silhouettes. I fussy-cut a corner off the Anna Griffin Bat Die-Cut paper for the top corner.
I have done some selective colouring on the black and white photo so that only the colour of the pumpkin is revealed - so much fun to use photo-editing as an artistic element in your layouts! If you're interested in a tutorial on selective colouring using Photoshop Elements - I have one here. I added some Spanish Moss along the bottom of the layout to make it look like my son is standing in the pumpkin vines picking his pumpkin.....see how the pumpkin vines in the picture run into the moss!? I added in some chipboard Barley Sheaves by Imaginarium Designs. I coloured the chipboard with Distress Stain in Old Paper and Frayed Burlap and then added some Shimmerz Blingz in Gold Glimmer. Finally, I tied the two chipboard pieces together with some twine.
The title letters are also chipboard by Imaginarium Designs - I used the same technique for the title as I did for the Barley sheaves. Then I did some scribbly outlining around the title letters with a fine-tip black Sharpie to help the title stand out.
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Steampunk Spells Apothecary Cabinet
My next project was created using this month's Creativity Add-On, which included an amazing Kaisercraft Shadowbox Unit and papers for Graphic 45's Steampunk Spells collection. 

I had so much fun creating this "Apothecary Cabinet" - I love how it turned out and will definitely be keeping it on display in my craft room! I focused on the papers with Clocks and Gears for the Cabinet - I loved them and they really lent themselves well to the design. 
I puzzled for a bit as to how to put the drawers together, since they came flat and didn't have tabs or anything to attach the sides together. Finally, I decided to use some drywall tape around the outside of the boxes - I love the texture this gave them and it was functional too! I painted and mod-podged the boxes after taping them to help hold everything together and then added  "knobs" made from some of the G45 Chipboard elements!
I wanted the sides to look like peeling billboards - so I cut out two of the labels from the G45 papers and distressed/curled the edges to make them look like posters peeling off a wall.
For the top, I used some mini craft bottles, which I painted orange, green and black withMartha Stewart Glass paint. I tied the necks of the bottles with black twine and added tags from the G45 Chipboard elements. I then dripped black wax over the corked bottles - how cool did that turn out?!?! I added black glitter to a plastic skull and used the larger feather from this month's Main Kit because I thought it looked like a writing quill. Finally, I added a G45 Potions and Charms sign to a chipboard sign post (treated with Distress Embossing Powder in Black Soot to make it look like wrought iron). 
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That's it for me today! I'll have a couple more projects with this kit to share over the next two weeks - only two days until Halloween and my camera is primed and ready to take some awesome shots!

As always, thanks for stopping by my blog!

1 comment:

Aubrieannie UU said...

Your Halloween layouts are AHMAYZING!!!!!! I love that pumpkin spot color. So fun.