Collector of Curiosities

Hello friends! Today I’m sharing my final sample made for the Tim Holtz Halloween idea-ology. Longer than usual post alert, in case you want to get snacks…

This entire project is built around those awesome new creepy eyes. When I first saw them, my eyes nearly popped out of my head!

The artificial eyes ephemera from the layers and baseboard frames pack was the perfect match! That’s where I began…

Using distress markers I coloured the iris in different colours and once dry, dabbed a little distress mirco glaze over each and buffed off with a cloth. This allowed me to blend in some distress ink and handle the card without smudging the distress marker. It also made the colours pop a little.

I covered the outside of a vignette tray from the vignette set with paper from the abandoned paper stash. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love this paper. It’s hands down my favourite of all the paper Tim Holtz has ever released!

To create the creepy weeds that are growing around the vignette tray, I dyed mummy cloth with brushed corduroy distress spray and adhered it using vintage distress collage medium. You can see the example above where I practiced before adding it to my vignette tray.

I added a vignette frame over the eye chart and adhered that with some 3D foam inside the vignette tray. The vignette frame is covered with more of the paper from the abandoned paper stash, vintage distress collage medium and the creeping mummy cloth.

I love the way the idea-ology pieces sometimes fit together, like these memo pins that fit inside the back of the large creepy eyes! This made it so simple to add them to the corked domes.

I cut the memo pin down and added a creepy eye to the cork from the smaller corked dome, which I covered in mummy cloth. I added some cool creepy spaghetti (I have no idea what it’s really called). I popped the iris out of the creepy eye with a pin, added a little mushroom alcohol ink to the surround and then popped the iris back into place with a dot of distress collage medium.

I added brushed corduroy distress spray to the corks from the corked domes and corked vials.

Added distress collage medium, distress clear rock candy crackle paint and mushroom alcohol ink to a corked dome, drying between applications.

I scraped the front of the glass with a kraft knife, added a little paint to the front with my finger and once dry, added halloween remnant rubs.

I added both creepy eye displays to the top of a vignette box.

I altered a corked vial by covering with a layer of distress grit-paste. Once dry painting a frayed burlap distress paint wash over the top.

Adding labels from the halloween ephemera pack and halloween remnant rubs and wrapping with twine.

I altered one of the new halloween skull fragments skulls with distress crayons and added to the top of the corked vial.

I added another skull fragments skull to the base of the vignette box, as well as a tiny vial with a label from the halloween ephemera pack and more halloween remnant rubs. Using the same technique as the corked dome, I altered a corked vial and mounted behind a tiny vial. Adding the hand from the cryptic pack and adhering a tiny vial into the hand with distress collage medium.

To create the eye chart frame I added distress grit-paste to a deco frame adornment.

Once dry I added distress crayon.

I mounted the altered deco frame adornment over an eye chart and wrapped with wire, tucking a creepy eye into the wire.

I added halloween design tape to the edges of the vignette box with vintage distress collage medium.

I also added a mini hardware pull which I altered by adding distress grit-paste and distress crayon.

Finally I added a mini hardware pull with hardware heads added and a halloween quote chip without hardware heads added… funny story: Tim made the quote chips longer this year so that hardware heads could be added. Hardware heads are one of my favourite lines in idea-ology and I completely forgot to add them!!

However… enter Stacy Hutchinson who kindly agreed to sneak a couple on when she attended the Stampaway show! Stacy even went to the trouble of weathering them! Cool right?! Thanks Stacy!!

With hardware heads added! (Photo Credit: Stacy Hutchinson)

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your kind comments here and on social media. Your encouragement means a lot to me, so thank you for taking the time. As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Zoe