Haunted House!

This summer at the Stampin' Up! Convention I saw Carrie Cudney's mixed media projects and thought they would be great to give a try sometime...a long time away! lol  Well the challenge for this project from the Creative Crew on Splitcoast Stampers is Scrapbook focus:  October is Self-Promotion Month.  Show us how awesome you are on a scrapbook page, mixed media project or with This & That.  I saw "mixed media project" and decided I was going to try it sooner rather than later. lol  I must say this took a lot of work and a lot of using the heating tool!  Probably because I ended up buying a glossy "mod podge" which didn't let the ink dry very well...err!  I was happy with the final result though. :)  Instructions below if you dare to read it all! lol

This first pic was the best pic since it represents how it actually looks the closest of the three pics I have.  You can see the trees on the side at least. :)  Those were the only things I stamped on the canvas.

I liked this second picture because the flash of the camera kind of gave the pic natural moonlight.  It's not this bright on the canvas, but I thought was pretty neat to see here.  You can see the trees a little bit on this pic, but not much.

This last picture is actually the darkest of the three...at least it is when I look at it in my Picasa library.  As I'm typing this I can see the trees really well, but if I tip my laptop screen they disappear.  Yup, that's the reason I took a few pics since I knew they would all look different.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Stamp Set:  Serene Silhouettes

Classic Stampin' Pads:  Night of Navy & Elegant Eggplant

Card Stock:  Witches' Brew DSP

Punch:  1 1/4" Circle

Mod Podge, Foam Paint Brushes,

White Gel Pen, Sponges

How did I make this?  Good question! lol  First things first I drew out a rough sketch of what I wanted (I Googled at a lot of cartoon type drawings of haunted houses to get ideas).  Next I drew what I wanted right on my canvas with pencil and made a few copies of it because I knew I would be cutting it up (did I say this was tedious work? lol).  After cutting out the pieces I traced them onto the DSP Witches' Brew from Stampin' Up!  (making them slightly larger than the original pieces except the windows because I needed to tuck them under each other so there weren't any gaps between the pieces exposing the canvas).  I applied mod podge and put on the first piece which is the sky.  It's actually the white/typed DSP with bats (that's how I get the moon to stand out.  I covered it with a punched out circle while I was sponging).  I applied another coat of mod podge after I applied the paper.  So I don't keep typing that, understand that every time I put on a layer of paper I applied more mod podge on top of it. :)  Then I applied the drive way (used dark typed paper) and the hills (used the black paper with splotches of gray on it).  Next was the house, piece by piece (same DSP as the hills).  Next the windows (used the DSP with summer starfruit on it) making sure I outlined them with black permanent marker.  That yellow sure makes the house's windows glow. :)  Outlined the house, hills, and driveway with the white gel pen.  Sponged (dabbed) on elegant eggplant, then night of navy for the sky.  Unfortunately I must have bought glossy mod podge because when I sponged on the ink it did not dry no matter how much I applied the heating tool.  It would just smear when I applied the mod podge.  I did a LOT of layers trying to figure this out and finally sponged on white stazOn ink to help dry it. Once I got the dark sky the way I liked it I did need to draw some of the white outlines again on the house and hills.  Just add as needed while working on it.  To get the glowing light from the windows and on the hill I would draw a little area with the gel pen then smear it with my finger until I got the look I liked.  If I didn't like it I would sponge over it and try again.  This was very forgiving! :)  Next I stamped on the trees using StazOn Black...and did a layer of mod podge.  Last, but not least, I cut out the fence posts using woodgrains that I found somewhere on the DSP, trimmed down the witch's hat, cut out a small bat and small gray gravestones (kind of hard to see).  Whew, that was a lot more thinking and typing than I thought it would be!  Hope it helps anyone who is interested in making something like this.  I would try and find a video on making mixed media and watching it because that might help you like it helped me (I watched Carrie Cudney's at this summer's SU convention).