GDT Country View Crafts - Something Spooky

Good morning crafters (and non crafting readers, all are welcome here).  Today I'm here with a piece I made for Country View Crafts.

When Chris from Country View Challenges emailed me to tell me that I was one of their top 3 for August it was a very happy surprise, so imagine how super excited I was when she told me that they'd like me to create a GDT piece for their October challenge!  Of course I said yes!  The theme given to me (which I had to keep all these weeks as a secret....no pressure lol) was to create 'Something Spooky'

I knew right away which image I wanted to use. It's called Withering Fairy, one of the Saturated Canaray digis.  I'd seen it when Krista Smith (the artist) first released it and right away it made me think of Gothic Romantic images....think Miss Haversham in Great Expectations, sitting in her wedding dress while the wedding breakfast rotted and dissolved around her, or Catherine from Wuthering Heights coming back to haunt her true love Heathcliff....or again Giselle, dying from unrequited love and coming back as a vengeful spirit.

So that was the kind of feel I wanted for my project.  I coloured her up in teal and purple and warm greys which I thought worked well for both the image and the feel of the project.  I used a little Frantage in Aged Wine around the image too, which helps give it that old and decaying look. I just added very minimal Glamour Dust to her wings as I wanted her to look kind of like the magic was fading away.

I found some old scraps of design papers with a mottled and aged look to them, I don't have a clue what they were I'm afraid and I've all but covered them in my project anyway, so I guess that's not important lol.

They've been distressed, inked with Black Soot distress ink and stitched with black top stitch thread.

Then I started layering my elements.  I started with Rickety House from Tom Holtz, which I  cut in both grey and white card stock,  I inked the edges of both with some Black Soot DI, and then added some Crackle Paint in rock candy, and then rubbed over a little more Black Soot.  I layered the white on top of the grey to give it some depth and stuck it to my background.

Next I cut a Cheery Lyn Clock die from a scrap of Maja paper, from the Shall We Have Coffee, collection and cut it again in grey card stock which I stuck behind it to give it a little more stability and also cut the hands in the grey and brushed them with a little black Stickles. I set them at just past Midnight...of course!  Then I cut 2 Tom Holtz trees, in Grey and White again and they got the same treatment I'd given to the house.  Again I layered the white on the grey, off set slightly to create the effect of a shadow.  I added a little Stickles in Crystal to the white tree for effect.   

I cut some white card with Graveyard Landscape by Memory Box and cut and stuck the grave stones all around the upper part of the image after sponging with a little Black Soot. Then behind that I used some pleated black tulle and finally some cheese cloth. I used some foam pads to give it some height and slipped a black doily, rubbed with a little white acrylic behind the very top.

I cut several pieces of card with the Heart Doily Border from La La Land Crafts and distressed and inked them to age them and then edged the whole project.  I finished up with a memory box spider, a little ghost die cut I had in my box of bits, some shabby seam binding, some bead string and gems and some WOC flowers which I inked in Black Soot along with a couple of glass blackberries.

Although I started with a card in mind I decided to make it into a wall hanging as I thought it was more suited to that, besides we don't really give out Halloween cards in the UK, so I thought it would see more use as a decoration.

Well that's all from me, hopefully Mr Blogger has played nice as this post is scheduled to go live while I'm heading for work.  Have a great day and don't forget to check out my Candy before you leave. :) xx