Another Cab Card Curiosity: The Family

As promised, here's the other cabinet card I designed for the Alpha Stamps swap. This one starts as a nice family portrait on the outside. It's hinged on the bottom, and held closed with a ribbon.

When you open it though, you see that this family has some rather disturbing members: old (and somewhat creepy) dolls, and large baby-headed men:

The figures standing in front are attached so that they pop out when the card is opened, for a 3D effect:

Cracked baby heads are a priority here!

This was one of the more challenging assignments for me, but I really enjoyed it once I got my head around it! Now, on to Halloween. I got a box full of creepy Halloween art supplies in the mail yesterday, and I can't wait to get started.

Cabinet Card Curiosities

Alpha Stamps is hosting a new swap, and I'm pretty sure it's not like anything you've ever seen. The theme is Cabinet Card Curiosities, where you alter a cabinet card to look "normal" on the outside, but very different on the inside. I thought this was a pretty tough assignment, until I decided to think about what sort of secrets some of my subjects might be hiding. I love these reproduction cabinet cards from Alpha Stamps; they're sturdy and come pre-antiqued, stains included!

For this first gentleman, here he is in the photo he likes to present to the world:

And here he is, in his own secret circus: I like to think this is the exciting life he wished he had:

If you'd like to join in the fun, the swap will be held through Alpha Stamps, and the artwork is due October 15th. I made two cabinet cards. Tomorrow I'll post the other one.

Brothers To The Bird

Someone purchased Lucifer already, so I decided to make him a couple of brothers. Meet the twins, Gregor and Jasper. I just knew those antique puzzle blocks would come in handy some day!

Halloween Raven

I just listed this in my etsy shop, but if he doesn't sell, I'm going to adopt him myself! He's a feathered black raven with an antique lace collar (I gave it a bit of an orange wash to match his hat). The wooden spool he's standing on was hand painted and sanded, but the other two blocks are vintage blocks. I love the patina.

I couldn't resist adding the little clear spider sticker onto that bottom block.

Get Well, For A Friend

I have a friend who will be undergoing open heart surgery next month. His lovely wife had the great idea to purchase an old medical journal that she is going to alter for him. Sort of a giant get well card that he can have while he's in the hospital. She's asked several people to do a page and send it to her, so she can tip them into the book. Here's the page I sent.

It's a little smaller sized than the actual book, which is 6 3/4" by 10", so that there will be a little white space around the edges when it's inserted. The tag sticking out of the hospital gown says "happy heart". When you pull it out, there's a little heart with a bandaid on it.

I hope when he receives this special book, he'll realize how many people love him and wish him well.

Wicked Child Altered Tin: Captain Spaulding

I'm hosting another "wicked" swap over on Craftster with my good buddy cackle. The theme this round is "Wicked Children", and the task was to choose a wicked person off your partner's list and depict them as a child. My partner had as her number one choice Captain Spaulding. I had never heard of the esteemed Captain Spalding, but a Google search indicated he is a fictional character from a Rob Zombie movie. Best of all, he is a vicious, serial killing, evil clown. Right up my alley!

 

The back story on this character was that he grew up in a foster home and loved the circus, especially circus freaks. I decided to depict him in his room, with circus posters on the wall. He's wearing pajamas which are exactly like the costume he wears as an adult killer clown. I painted the pj's onto cardstock and glued them on top of a photo of a boy I found online. In his right hand is a knife he stole from the kitchen, and in his left hand he's holding the string to a toy elephant. That little psychopath has fashioned a noose and hung a rubber chicken!

I thought I was done when I took that photo, but later went back and added his name, Johnny, to the bottom of the tin with alphabet beads. Here's a closeup of the inside of the tin with the name added:

The clown on top is a vintage cupcake pick that I repainted to match Captain Spaulding's makeup. The feet are made from paper clay, and are painted to match his clown outfit. 

Here's one of the photos I used for reference, framed on the back of the tin.

I'm sure you'll agree that he is one creepy clown! I had the best time making this tin. The sendout date for the swap is August 28th, and I can't wait to see what everyone else makes to feature the creepy child they choose to depict. If you want to check it out later, the gallery for this swap can be found here.

R.I.P.: Tombstones for Halloween

I love it in August when it's time to start thinking about, and crafting for, Halloween. Alpha Stamps is now carrying wonderful ATC-sized masonite tombstones. They are nice and sturdy, and there are five different tombstones in a package. Here's what I did with some of mine, using images from Alpha Stamps collage sheets:

I started out by covering each of the tombstones with pages from an old book, and then inked around the edges. For the first two I did, I thought it would be fun to picture the deceased, and give a little hint into what caused their untimely demise.

The woman on the left was poisoned by a spider, poor dear. I used a clear stickers of spider webs and a spider along with her image. An old metal ruler makes a nice base along the bottoms of all these tombstones. The unfortunate spider bite victim is so pale, and her all white outfit made her seem ghostly, so that's the way she's now remembered.

The gentleman suffered a vampire attack. He probably won't be in his grave for long; if you look closely, you will see he has been turned, and is already beginning to bear his fangs. I added his tiny fangs with a little dab of white paint. The bats flying around his head are chipboard, so they're nice and sturdy.

And what's Halloween without Edgar Allan Poe? I made a Poe memorial out of one of the tombstones. I used an oval wooden frame painted black and spritzed with copper Glimmer Mist to set off his portrait, and then added some bronze roses to encircle the frame. A couple of ravens have come by to pay their respects.

I have two more tombstones to play with. Whom shall I kill off next?