The end of October means Halloween

Even though we are very haphazard about celebrating Halloween here in Australia, I always enjoy the spooky papers, stamps and embellishments Halloween brings and love scrapping with them all too.

We didn't really ''do'' Halloween in a serious way when my kids were little, but one year the local Macca's had a competition going for the spookiest costumes, so my neighbour and I got together to dress up our children. This photo is probably my all time favourite, and I admit that I have scrapped it before, first in black & white, then in colour (my son's face is green and my daughter's is white) but this is the first time I've done it in sepia, so forgive the duplication if you've seen it somewhere before :)

The papers I used for this layout are Carta Bella's All Hallows Eve collection. I used both sides of Midnight Black/Bone Brown for the background, distressing all the edges. Tucked between them are some torn strips of Trendy Tapes - Script and Music (which are both out of stock right now so you all have them! Right?) and some pieces of muslin, which I dyed black using Black Soot Distress Stain.

Before putting the black and brown together though, I did a few things to the brown layer. First I stamped with a spider web pattern around the edges - with Embossing Ink and Zing Clear embossing powder and also with white ink. I figured out where I would be putting my photo and then I stuck a few pieces of torn dictionary paper and some more Trendy Tape where I knew they would poke out from the edge.

I smooched on a bit of white gesso to damp down the blackness of the type and then sprayed, quite heavily in places, with an orange spray I made in a Mini Mister with a mix of  Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress Reinker and water. This one has no shimmer, but if you wanted to add it you could use a little bit of Perfect Pearls into the mix.

On top of all that - Ferro Metal Effect Texture Paint through a new stencil from Tim Holtz (Eye Chart).

The photo is matted on three different papers - all distressed, and tucked in underneath and between the layers are a tiny rectangle I cut from Curiosity Cards and a skeleton tag. The hole in the tag is embellished with Black Velvet Ric Rac and some fuzzy fibre left over from a scarf my mum knitted. This very cool fibre is also wound into and around my flower clusters. A strip of black cats from Borders and some die cut gravestones from Kraft cardstock, then a random stamping with Black Soot and a script stamp finished it off.

If you bought the my2angels Halloween Embellishment kit you have these awesome gravestones in your kit, along with the cute Silver Owl I used in my flower cluster. His red eyes are just a small squeeze of Ruby Red Liquid Pearls. 

My clusters are made up of Tangerine and White Cherry Blossoms, small Tangerine, White and Black roses and Black rose buds. I have tucked in a few die cut flowers and leaves as well, and three larger flowers which I made by wetting and scrunching up various coloured mulberry flowers. When they dried I unravelled them - but not too carefully, stacked them up and threaded them onto a Black Brad. There are around 6 or 7 single flowers in each stack.

For the drops of blood I have scattered around I used some of my Glass Cabochons in various sizes (shhh...I have more than Tracy does..lol!).

I haven't seen anything in the my2angels gallery lately - except my own stuff!  

So I'm throwing out a challenge here.....scrap your spooky Halloween kids (or pets....or husbands...or even your decorated house or your favourite scary book) and put your layout into the gallery by midnight on Sunday 17th November. That gives you two weeks and a weekend after Halloween to make something awesome.

The DT Angels will choose the spookiest layout and the winner will receive a $30 Gift Certificate to spend at my2angels.

I hope I see you in the Gallery! 

Michele xxx