Hello friends! **THIS IS A PRE-SCHEDULED POST AS I’M AWAY AT A STAMP RETREAT!!** 

The weather is finally starting to cool down now and we’ve finished cleaning the yard to prepare for winter months to follow soon.  Halloween will also be here in a few days, so I thought it would be fun to make my page today with that in mind!

Today is the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month.  I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” October prompt of “ODD/Oddities” (anything unusual or strange): 

I don’t know if this is considered odd to anyone else, but I certainly do!  This weird scientist looking guy has a strange facial expression as he’s holding up a head in the bottle!  I’ve put so many details in this page that I thought you’d need to see close-up photos below.

For my background:  Starting with a 5.5″ x 8.5″ heavy watercolor paper with pre-punched holes at the top for binding later, I sprayed the background with mica sprays in Hocus Pocus, Jack-O-Lantern and Flickering Candle.  I sprayed some extra water over top to get them to blend together as they seem very concentrated and they didn’t move much over the watercolor paper after spraying a few times.  I took a leaves stencil inked over places with light brown ink.  I then ink blended the edges with black ink and stamped some lettering stamped randomly.  Lastly, I splattered with black and gold watercolor. 

Upon a closer look at the bottom:  I needed an area for shelves to hold the potion bottles, so I took some Tim Holtz Halloween collage paper and attached it with matte medium.  It crinkled a bit, but I sort of liked that look.  I then found some decorative strips in my stash and added those for the “shelves”.  The crow and “curious” ephemera was also found with all of my Tim Holtz Halloween stash….along with the paper doll “guy”.  I cut off a head from one of them to place inside the jar.  I added some thin metal wire around the jar and cut a slit in the guy’s hand to make it look like he’s holding it.  I also added a bit of color to the guy’s flower and bow tie on his jacket outfit with markers.  BEFORE popping up the paper doll guy to the page, I ripped some black cardstock for the ground underneath him and tucked in the bones.

For the Bottles:  I used a Taylored Expressions “If You Dare” Stamp & Stencil set to make all of the bottles.  I also used the TE “If You Dare Halloween Labels” to foil and cut out to place over each jar.  To die cut some extra “strange things” to put inside a few of the jars and the bones at the bottom, I die cut pieces from the TE “Little Bits Cauldron Confetti” dies.  (The die cut bats from this were also used on the top of the page.)  For more finishing details, I doodled in some of the jars and then added some colored glitter/sparkle and pearl drops for the inside contents.  If you look closely at the crow’s eye, you can see I’ve added a tiny dot of yellow sparkle.  Some of the details were popped up and some were just glued down.

A closer look at the top:  Mostly die cut pieces were used at the top and the first I put down was the spider web and spider from Whimsy Stamps called Spiders and Webs…they’re huge!  (this store is so good at spooky things!)  I drew a line with a black marker from the spider to the web.  For the window, I die cut it out from a really old Mama Elephant die I’ve had in my stash…not sure if it’s still available.  BEFORE I placed the window down, I die cut the moon from the Lawn Fawn Shadow Box Halloween Add-On die set.  I blended in some yellow and gray  and covered it with a glitter sparkle pen.  I added the die cut bats and placed the window over top.

Lastly, I took some Tim Holtz Halloween clippings word strips and added to the page.  I took a black marker and went around the strips above the paper doll “guy”.

I know there are people that are not Halloween fans or care for the spooky things, but I really enjoy the weirdness of it all and have fun making things with it!  In the words of Lydia from Beetlejuice:  “I myself am strange and unusual“.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed my page today and I really appreciate you stopping by!  I will be back later with things we’re doing at the retreat!  See you soon!

Challenges:

1. Art Journal Journey – Autumn Colors & Inspiration (Purple, orange, yellow and black!)