Halloween House: Part III and IV and a bonus

I have finally completed my house pages for my first Alpha Stamps exchange.  You can see the first two pages here and here.  I have really embraced the spooky spirit and I have enjoyed making all these pages.  It is neat to think that each of them will be in different and unique books.  Here they are all together.

I used this fence on two of the houses.  I really love the dimension it provides. 



I used papers from Graphic 45, DCWV and lots of Halloween embellishments. 



In several cases I ended up liking the back just as much as the front.  The bats from Coffee Break Studio were lovely.  I still have a few left over to use in another spooky project.



I have an upcoming swap with a door theme hosted by my pal Deb.  I thought I would play with my options a bit to see how things worked.  It is going to be trickier than I had thought.   

I continued to use the Dresden foil and the felt swirls through out the book.  If it was staying in one piece, it would help tie the pages together, but alas this book is destined to be torn apart. 

   

I hope they are up to snuff for the group.  I am always nervous doing my first swap in a new gathering of artsy people.  Oh well....

 

Bonus:

I also completed my Halloween pages for the Altered Ancestors swap over at All Things Tim.

 

There is a bit of variation on the background papers.  I really loved the stack I used.  It was by My Minds Eye and it was Halloween Craft paper.  The poison tags that have the little charm on them are made from left over slats from my blinds.  I love to use things in clever ways!

  

I love the backs of the pages too.  The house is from the Graphic Fairy and the moon is stamped out of some industrial waste paper intended for pill packs.  The little glittery bats are compliments of Martha as is the tape I used on the front and the back.  I can never get enough decorative tape.  

I hope you enjoyed the culmination of all my Halloween fun.  I will post when the swaps are complete and I have all kinds of other art work to share. 



Cheers,

Rhea

Dia De Los Muertos Milagros

I am happy to be participating in my first swap with a lovely little charm group.  The theme for this swap is Day of the Dead.  I found the subject matter intriguing so I decided to join in.  I am excited to see the result when everything is swapped out.  I will certainly post when the exchange is complete. 

I now love Milagros.  In researching these little babies I fell in love with all kids of imagery and subject matter related to this topic.  I love learning through my artistic experiences.

 

 

The skull beads were scavenged from a Halloween stretchy bracelet found in a big box craft store.  I thought they were perfect for altering. 

I really lucked out with supplies.  The little sequins were actually in my goody bag from Create.  We got two little samples in our early registration goody bags.  I lucked out and was able to snag a few extras when the promoters were cleaning house.  I think they worked well for the project.  The colors were not my first choice, but I made it work. 

I am tempted to doodle the backs of the skulls.  I think it would add such a nice touch, but it will be time consuming for sure. 

I can see these charm swaps being very addicting. 

Resin + Assemblage = Love!

This is another installment on my projects from the Create Retreat sponsored by Cloth, Paper, Scissors.  This class was called Resin Flooding Assemblage and it was taught by Belinda Spiwak.  Belinda was a very generous teacher and she created a calm easy going creative space for us to play in. 

 



I managed to start two pieces in the class that I have now completed.  The first one was made with a bird theme.  I love how the moss and bark I added provided such rich texture.  It is really hard to see the yummy finish the resin created on these assemblages.  I did photograph with a flash to try and capture the amazing texture and sheen both pieces have.

I fell in love with Tim's crackle paints.  These added a nice old looking crackle where they were added.  I wish that I had "blobbed" it on a bit more as Belinda had advised in her instruction.  

I found this project very freeing.  I was able to be a bit messy and haphazard in my background collage and I loved this aspect of the creation process. 

My second piece tapped into a bunch of vintage junque I had on hand.  I did get the large post office box plate from Belinda...as I said, a very generous instructor!  As many of you know, I love all things postal. 

I used my new rusting trick on Tim's feet and I love it.  Both of the boxes are Configurations from Tim's line of products as well.  I can't get enough of Mr. Holtz and his goodies.  I also discovered the joy of molding paste in this class.  While it is great to discover new products, it gets expensive! I left Create yearning for a bunch of new stuff. 



I often find it difficult sometimes to use my little treasures, but I just have to get over it.  After all, I still get to enjoy them, just in a bit of a different way. 

I finally used a piece of a typewriter I tore apart along the top of the piece.  The whistle has a long chain that I left free.  This was tricky to arrange while curing, but I love how it adds movement to the piece. 

There are so many goodies stuffed in these little compartments.  This piece is super heavy.  One thing I will not worry about is anything moving or falling off, the resin provides a super seal. I used Little Windows resin  in the bird piece and it was lovely, way easier to mix than the Easy Cast I used in the vintage one.   

I had to finish the backs of these pieces because they were a mess.  We had to pour the resin at home due to curing time, I did not think to check the backs, so needless to say I had some issues.  Nothing a bit of pretty paper and tissue tape can't fix.  

This was such a fantastic class.  I look forward to using resin a lot more in my work now that I have been exposed to how easy it really is.  I hope you enjoyed sharing in my Create experience. I have one more project to share with you, coming soon!

Cheers,

Rhea