Trick or treat!

Happy Sunday Tando fans! The blog has looked fantastic this week! I am delighted to be sharing something spooky with you today!

My knock a door run! Will there be a trick or treat hiding behind the door... who dares to open it !

For the base of this door I got creative and used a frame and panel from the {Layered Rowing Boat} I loved the long elongated shape.. just what I was looking for!

No need for any basecoat or Gesso.. I wanted rough and ready! The messier the better for an aged look.. the frame and panel were given a coat of walnut stain. Strips of left over cardboard cereal box were used for wooden door panels. 

Being in a creative mood! I decided to see if I could alter one of the locks from the {Locks and Latches} set.. 

I used the lock for the keyhole and the fancy edges as hinges for the door..

(cutting the lock top right)

I think it worked out quite well!

I used a couple of other halloweeny elements to decorate the front door..

{Mini - Mixed Halloween}

 along with this handsome chappie from the {Set of 3 Bats}

Time to add my trick or treat to the inside....... 

Booo !

Meet {Mr Skellie}

 

I hope you like my spookylicious decoration.

Gez ♥

Spookilicious: Lights Out Altered Switch Box

Hi friends! Dana here today sharing an altered switch box that I created for the Spookilicious theme this week. I recently went camping with my family and the kids found this rusty switch box in the woods. They were going to throw it away, but I hid this treasure away while they were on a hike! I had a lot of fun giving this piece a second life for the challenge this week!

I embellished the top of the box with a leftover piece of tombstones from the Halloween Art Room I put together last year. I also added a piece of Grass Flexistrip, a Mini Pumpkin and a skull from the Mini Mixed Halloween Set. I filled in some of the empty space with plastic bones and a bit of moss for color. (I didn't think of it until typing up this post, but I may add the Tando designer names to the tombstones!)

I attached a plastic skeleton to the front of the piece. I added another Mini Pumpkin. The entire piece is glued to a coffin piece I had leftover from the Layered Coffin with Cobweb that I assembled last year.

The wires coming out from the top of the box were the perfect support pieces for a couple Bats and a Spider. I painted the bats and spider with black acrylic paint and then covered them with a layer of flock for a furry finish.

Here is what the box looked like fresh from the woods. I didn't alter the finish at all. This natural rusting a patina beats anything I could try to recreate in my studio. I did add some fake spider webs.

If you're looking for a strictly chipboard piece to assemble for Halloween here are a couple examples:

Layered Coffin with Cobweb Detail (Hinges Not Included)

Halloween Art Room

You can find the chipboard I used for this project and more in the Tando Creative Retail Store! We'd love to see what you create for our Spookilicious Challenge! To be in with a chance of winning some great Tando goodies of your choice, please make a piece based on our weekly themes and link your project, not just your blog, using the inlinkz tool located at the top of the Tando Blog. You don't have to use any Tando product, but, if you do, you will be entered into the draw twice! There are no limits to how many times you enter, however, we do request that you only enter your piece for 5 challenges. We look forward to seeing your creations!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Animals Week - Bat Card

Hi Tando fans! Dana here today sharing a card that I created for the Animals theme this week. October is one of my favorite months and I'm really enjoying pulling out my creepy, crawly chipboard and creating some spooky projects! I applied a coat of black acrylic paint to this Bat and added some white dimensional paint to the eyes. This bat is the largest of a set of 3 and measures about 180mm, or 7 inches for my fellow Americans. ;)

Thanks for stopping by today! You can now swing by the Tando Retail Store to pick up these pieces for yourself!

~Dana

Same but different week... around Coffins !

Hello everyone, this week we have a full week a bit special for you, a "Same but Different" themed for Halloween, and it all revolves around coffins, using either the fab Layered coffin with cobweb detail or the 3D coffin, and also the pair of skeletons products manufactured by Tando Creative.

I really enjoy starting off this week because I had an absolute blast doing this coffin, putting in it this great fine skeleton after altering and painting all the elements… so much fun !!! Here's my take on these two products that can be combined perfectly as you will judge by yourself each day of the week I think !

I started by selecting all the elements I wanted to use, adding a light coat of white Gesso on each of them. From the skeletons pair that comes with two plain and sturdy coffin shapes, I took only one skeleton; I replaced the other elements in their bag for another project. I had also the idea to use my two remaining biggest bats from the set of 3 bats, as they fit wonderfully to such small 3D project, don't they ?...
Once dry I layered a thickish coat of Dreamwaver crackle paste here and there over the top and back of the coffin, as well as upon the edges and the skeleton. It was the first time I used a Dreamweaver textured paste, and…. wow, I really love this crackle medium, you can see how fab the effects are on my last close-up! For the delicate skeleton I used a pin to carefully remove the excess of paste within the holes.

All the shapes of my coffin (i.e. layered coffin with cobweb) have been painted in grey (PA Stone), orange (PA Pumpkin Soup and a few drops of Haystack), and teal (Studio Charcoal Classic Teal). I also sanded a bit some areas, and left a few others white, for a realistic look of a wooden coffin washed up after years in a graveyard ! I glued all the faces except the lid, and edged my coffin with black ink. At the end I also rubbed a bit of Charcoal black using a small cut’n dry piece along the main edges.
My funky bats were painted in charcoal black, embossed (except in the middle) with a mix of remaining powders from my large spooky A3 page you can see again here if you missed it (including the smallest bat of the three!), and adhered to the base. 

Here's a photo of the left side of my layered coffin, love the three hinges I made in Grungeboard from my Vintage Valise die and altered for an aged look ... It perfectly close the coffin on its left side (but need a full time to adhere using elastics to solidly maintain the whole !!).

Push open the top....and whats inside haha ??.....

My skellie has on his head a small hat cut out from an old cut'n'dry piece (the black side).

Here's the back side of my coffin. I also decorated it using a set of Crafty Individuals and Tim Holtz stamps and Stazon inks (Pumpkin, Dove Grey and Black Soot) to better adhere to the painted support. As you know, I love building small whimsical scenes and this one - a bit creepy but not too much  - made me smile !

You can find even more photos and details on my blog, pop over on it here if you like my coffin... hope so. 

Don't forget to call back again tomorrow for another member of the DT's project...For me, I am really looking forward to discovering some other versions of this great set of products made by my teammates ! Coco xx

Free For All - Meet Batty!

Helloooo!  Its nearly that night when all things creepy are around haha!!!!  Not into it myself but I couldn't help but have a play with Batty from Tando Creative!  He is quite sparkly and his eyes are bright green and luminous...shame that didn't show up in the photograph :-(  But you all have an imagination...

I have made him up to do what bats do...just hang around, even though his wings are open haha!  His body has been embossed and some Treasure Silver added and I added some 'underwings' for him to flap.  If you are into Halloween he would look great hanging around with some pals outside your front door wouldn't he?

Fangs for taking a look today, Take care out there, Karen  xxx

Hocus Pocus - Black and Orange

Hi (Coco) everyone! I'm back to bring you my vision of our theme this week. As I didn't do anything yet for Halloween except a few ATCs so far, it itched me to create a large scene on a magical world, with scary and creepy flying things ! Soooo... I couldn’t resist to set the front of an haunted house for Halloween. Mwahahahaha.... 
I did this on a large plain watercolour A3 size sheet. I used two Tando's great masks on this, cobweb 2 and Distorved hige, and a small bat from a bag of three. Hope you will not suffer from nightmares after that !!

I started off by directly applying texture paste through my Distorved Hive Stencil on my page in a few places, leaving the central part ungrunged. After dry I spritzed lightly the whole page with water (that will help to blend the inks coming after), and then used a mixture of mistable inks from different brands in grey, yellow and orange mainly, you can find the full list with the full how-to on my blog. When dry I also sprayed white ink in some areas.
I put aside my page to dry naturally, and layered a beautiful flower using scraps of watercolour and black papers inked with Distress inks and some leftovers of mistable inks (with a bit of violet) on my craft sheet. I stamped my owl (an Indigoblu stamp) in the left corner, after putting (with my finger) some blank and yellow paints and inks under it. I checked the effect using my stamp positioner (I highly recommend this tool if you don’t have it yet, soooooooo useful!). 
All the stamps of my scene were stamped using either archival ink or Versamark, being next heat embossed with a black and glittered mixture of powders. Some Die cut were added here and there, and the silhouettes were glued with pieces of cardboard under them to pop. I redrew some lines of my owl with a fine black to highlight it. Fresco Finish paints were also used in complement to add colour using a brush (or my fingers) in some areas, and sometimes also used for stamping like for my central skull. The fabulous Cobweb 2 at the top left edge was stencilled with snowflake to give it a white shade like death... I used a fine black pen for finishing, to lightly underline some areas. Can you see how beautiful it looks ?...

My bat from the Set of 3 bats was painted in black, and also heat embossed with the leftovers of my mix of powders. I introduced some Yellow stickles in their eye sockets. I did the same for my small skull hidden behind the hell door, also covered first with some Crackle Accents, as far as I can remember ! At the end I edged my page with black paint. Here are some close-ups:

I love this dark part of my scene that looks like if many flying creatures have fought strongly in the sky !... 

And I love my skull !!!!!! Hope you like it too ! If enough time, I will probably glue this page on a black painted canvas for the day of Halloween...

Here are the Tando products I used (LOVE them all!!!)

Have a great and creative week-end ! Crafty Hugs Coco xx