Thursday, September 24, 2009

Haunted House Swap


Here is my latest contribution to the fabulous Alpha Stamps Swaps. The swap this time was to create 7 "Halloween themed houses" we had to use the house shapes and various images/stamps from Alpha Stamps.


I really took some time to come up with a plan for this swap. After perusing all the sale items (for yahoo group members only so you should join!) I decided I wanted to take a slightly different approach.


I had fallen in love with the tombstone and tree chip board cut outs and wanted something to "hide" behind them. Heading over to the fabulous array of collage images I found these great Paris Show girls...and well what else would make a perfect witch than a show girl (LOL).


Found a few accent stamps and voila I was off.


To start with I wanted to use a velvet fabric that I would iron on a slight swirl image but I had never done that before and had heard that the fumes were bad, plus I was worried about melting my stamp. I was also under a bit of a time crunch so I checked out what fabrics I had and low and behold I had a perfect black cotton with a dark dark grey intricate swirl pattern (that alas did not show up well in the photo's).


Next I stamped the witch on a broomstick on to yellow fabric that I highlighted with an iridescent red paint (to tone down the yellow) and I sewed that onto the black fabric before covering the house.


On a few of the houses I painted in a bit of the swirl pattern using a pewter shimmery paint. I couldn't decide if I liked it or not do I only did half that way.


Next I hand painted the chip board parts using various shades of either grey (for the tombstones) or brown (for the tree). To get an aged look on the tombstones I stamped them with a cracked background stamp. I wanted the tree's to have a bit more personality so I added some "knots" that I hope look like a scary face but I think just look cheesy...oh well, after all I'm not a painter.


The Crow on the branch is stamped/embossed onto chip board. I just bairly tacked it down so that it sticks out over the moon which I gave a raised effect to by placing batting behind the center of the moon.


Finally everything was ready to go on and it was just a matter of placement. When I got everything on I realized I wanted some more color so I added the pumpkins that I originally got in last months Paula's Kit Club but was ecstatic when I found that Alpha Stamps was carrying them also.


Long story short...these were quite a bit of work but I think it was well worth it. I hope the swappers that receive them like them. I had a great time making them and learned quite a bit.









6 comments:

Lynn Stevens said...

Great Haunted House, who would have thought the showgirls would go so well! Awesome!
Lynn

Laura Haviland said...

I love, love and love these.
Do you just love Halloween.
You did a great job creating these.
Hugs, Laura.

Ginger said...

They are lovely and as you say the showgirl images are a great twist with the theme, love the fabric use too, infact I love the whole thing. :)

Moira said...

These are really fabulous, love everything about them.

Nancy said...

Your houses are fabulous!!! I think you did a great job of combining the Halloween with the Showgirls. I love al the texture you got with using the fabric and paint. Great Job!!

Meikoningin said...

So COOL this is ! Simply wonderful, love it :D:D Been taking a really good look at them, wow :)

On the owls i made : each "card" consist of two owls hanging on different lengths of string. They are slightly 3D because each owl is made out of three pieces of paper and have buttons for eyes. you could also make them into "envelopes" by ajusting the pattern a tiny bit, but the ones i made have no hidden compartments :)