"I Dare You" Halloween Project

Today was my last day of "vacation" and this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Halloween/Spooky got me excited to make something dark! Funny how an idea can go sideways from the beginning yet turn out just right! I had grand ideas for a very spooky make using an old printer's block but ... it morphed into something else.

Being rested, I was able to make this piece and finish another blog post. Oh, to have this energy all week long ...

This started off with alcohol ink on Yupo paper. I used Pitch Black and Purple Twilight. I added dabs of the Purple Twilight to a felt round on my blending tool then added dabs of Pitch Black.

 I pounced and swirled the ink all over the Yupo sheet (I use a large pad of Yupo).

Once the ink was dry, I added Archival Ink in Watering Can to a cool vintage printer's block, but it didn't hold the ink and wouldn't transfer to the Yupo. It was a bummer, but I decided to use an older Tim Holtz block stamp of a tree instead. I stamped the image onto the Yupo with Tim's technique of blotting the Archival with a paper towel and buffing away the excess to reveal a ghostly image.

 I trimmed the design down to fit inside the box.

I removed the Yupo and painted the interiors walls with regular old black acrylic craft paint.

Here's where I got too immersed in the project and neglected to take a lot of photos! (at least I'm consistent with this)

I used Collage Medium to add some Halloween Collage Paper to the top, one full side, and one partial side of the box. I sealed it with the medium on top of the paper.

Once the paper was dry, I didn't really like it because it was too light. I smudged on the black paint and wiped off excess with a damp paper towel. It was still too dark so I squirted the Pitch Black alcohol ink onto paper towel and dabbed it all over. I love the resulting cragginess!

I didn't want to waste all of the alcohol ink so I dabbed and smudged it onto an Idea-ology Tombstone.

I glued it to the base of the box with Glossy Accents. 

Next, I selected the Halloween Quote Chip 'i dare you.' I wanted it to be freestanding, so I found a small 'boo!' Quote Chip and glued it perpendicular to it with Glossy Accents, my BFF. Once dry, I glued the makeshift base and length of the quote to the base of the box.  After it was all dry and secure, I painted the base black to hide it. Don't make my mistake--paint it before gluing!

The piece was coming together, but was kind of bland. I got out my stash of mosses and trimmed down some to act as ground cover and glued it in place with, you guessed it, Glossy Accents. As a nice contrast, I colored the Quote Chip with Distress Marker in Carved Pumpkin. I think the letters really stand out now.

The project still needed some oomph so I topped it off with a Halloween Vignette Accent that I had dry brushed with the black acrylic paint. I used Glossy Accents to glue it in place.

This project just came together on its own and was relatively easy to make using Tim's fantastic creations. I can't believe it's almost here. Are you ready for Halloween yet???