It's Halloween 24/7 at my house

Yep. You know how you get a little itchy when you haven't done something Halloween related in a while?
No? Really?
Well, okay. But just to mix things up a bit, it's Halloween in May at my house.
Here's a fun thing I made using Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts super-sturdy-do-anything-on-'em Chunky ATC Blanks. I love these things. They are just about indestructible and put up with a lot of mixed media, sanding, painting over and general artsy masochism.
This is a straightforward project, so I wasn't so hard on the poor things this time, but I like the visual effect.

  They are fairly simple but I like the stark contrast of the black trees (I used the 3D Chip Board Tree-3inch and just a little black silhouette of a Halloween critter (which I just drew in with a good black marker) with some borders I cut from the Graphic 45 Rare Oddities Ephemera Cards.
Easy, but effective.
Here's where it began...

I then covered the fronts of the ATC's with my chosen papers.

I cut the borders from the G45 papers and cut the trees in half. I painted them black (some are white in the photo, but later I changed them to all black).

Please note that the borders are larger than the ATC's and that is okay.

Setting aside the trees to dry, I flipped the ATC's over, lined them up and glued a ribbon down the center of the ATC's, leaving enough ribbon at the top to loop over as a hanger.
Do a dry run of the frames on the ATC's with the frames and ribbon to make sure you've left enough space for you to glue the frames on to the ATC's and not have them overlap.
I chose to have very little space between each piece, but you might like more of the ribbon to show between each one. Your choice!

After the ribbon dried, I glued the frames and the trees on the front, making sure the frames were centered as best I could make them on the ATC's. 

After the trees dried I drew in some simple Halloween shapes with a pencil and went over them with a very black marker.
I chose a bat, a cat and a spider, but you can let your creepy critter flag wave here and choose whatever you like.

Not to waste, I finished off the backs with the center pieces I cut out of the G45 ephemera cards.

Simple but effective.
Going for the simple design that has visual impact.
Hope you like it!
Thanks for dropping by.

SUPPLIES:
Chunky ATC Blanks
3D Chip Board Tree-3inch 
Graphic 45 Rare Oddities Ephemera Cards
Ribbon
Black paint
Black marker

Family Tree

This ladies origins are a mystery, but she had to come from somewhere....
Mostly just from my odd head and because I've been working with birds a lot lately and also the beautiful imagery that come with the tree of life stories that are in so many cultures.

I like the idea that the 'crown' of the tree is sprouting out of her crown.

And her roots are strong and deep.

I began with four things.....
A cabinet door I got at the resale store for fifty cents, Arch Top Triptych-8 inch and two sets of the 3D Chipboard Tree-6 inch.
I primed the cabinet door and cut up the trees and played with various configurations until I found one that looked good to me.

I set the pieces aside ( I used this picture as a reference for putting the tree back together later) and using matte medium, I glued in strips of old dictionary pages in long lengths that look like newspaper columns, but you can use any pattern or random style of your choosing.

After the paper dried, I used the center piece from the Arch Top Triptych as a template and lightly drew around the edge of the frame. I used this pencil mark as a guide for where to place my tree branches.
I glued them down and added a coat of matte medium and let it dry thoroughly.

Now comes the painting! I love playing with paint. The instant gratification that comes with adding color sings in my heart.
I used acrylic paints (colors will be in the supplies list) and some glaze to keep the colors translucent. I wanted to be able to see the words through the color, creating a layer of depth and texture.

Lots of airy blue sky and green, rooty depths. I made sure I painted the crown of the tree white because...

I want the (fairly) translucent single ply of the image from a napkin to show clearly and a white background makes the images stand out.
I peeled the napkin apart, making sure that the image is on a single ply of paper (most good quality napkins are three ply, make sure you have peeled all three ply apart and are using the single top image ply). I tore off the leaf bits I wanted to use, and yes, tearing is best, a cut line leaves an obvious edge and a torn edge blends right in. I applied a light coat of matte medium to the surface of the board and branches and the brushed more on the image pieces as I laid them in place on the top of the tree. I used my brush to sort of 'tuck' the napkin pieces around the tree branches, leaving a little air space as possible and bringing forward the texture of the branches.

Whilst letting this dry, I gessoed the arch top triptych pieces and glued in my chosen paper. Then gave it a nice coat of gold paint.

I used an image from an old cabinet card from 1900 (I scanned the image...I never use the originals) and colorized her dress with Copic markers and acrylics paints. I used an image of a secretary bird head and crowned it, adding tree branches to give the illusion that the tree is coming from her head, brain, imagination? You can decide!

And of course, I had to add my dots....

Thank you for dropping by!

SUPPLIES:
Arch Top Triptych-8 inch
3D Chipboard Tree-6 inch

Additional:
Copic Markers
Acrylic paints in;
Sap green, Chromium Oxide Green, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna
White, Ultramarine Blue.
Tim Holtz Distress paint in Broken China and Salty Ocean.
Graphic 45 Scrapbook paper from Botanical Bella
Dictionary pages
Liquitex Matte Medium
Liquitex Glazing Medium

Winter Tree by Susan Killam

Hello Crafty folks!  This week here in Maryland the heat indices have been reaching the upper 90s.  It's awfully warm!  I needed a mental break from it and this wintery scene did the trick.

This was a quick project until it came time to make the polymer clay bird.  I tried really hard to make a proper cardinal, but it wasn't in the stars.  We'll just have to use our imagination, 'k?  He's red.

I used the 3 inch 3D Chipboard Tree from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.  This tree has delicate branches with tiny connectors.  I pushed my blade into the obvious connectors and held the tree up to a light to find the not-so-obvious ones. It worked like a charm!

The next step was to gesso the whole tree, including the sides.  I used a foam sponge and a lot of patience to go around each branch.  After it dried I double checked the branch edges and filled in missed spots.

On the next layer I dabbed white acrylic paint all over.  Dabbing it on created the tree texture.  I moved the trees off the leftover paint and let them dry on the spatulas.  This step was repeated on the other side.

When dry I put the trees together.  I had to use a straight edge to clear away excess paint from the grooves so the trees were even at the base.

I used a gorgeously weathered clapper from an old wind chime as my base.  A tiny bit of e6000 on the tree holds it to the clapper.  I added bits of moss to finish off the earth.

From tip to toe this is 4 inches tall.  It's so sweet!  I'm now on the lookout for a small glass cloche under which I will tuck this lovely winter scene.

Thanks for visiting today!

Cheers,
Susan

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Used
3D Chipboard Tree 3 Inch #C1C

Other Supplies Used
Green moss
White gesso
White acrylic paint
White glue
E6000 glue
Polymer clay
Red acrylic paint

Fall Tags by Deann

Good morning. For this project I made fall tags using the X-Large tags and the 3D Chipboard tree for the base of the tags. I covered the tags in fall paper, inked the edges with walnut stain Distress Ink and the smudged white paint on some of the edges. I only used one side of the tree. I cut the tree down the center, then painted both sections brown. Once dry, I rubbed the tree with gold paste. I attached one section to each of the tags. I used the Fall Shape Set  to finish the tags.

Have a Happy Crafty Day!!!