ABC Tags of Halloween: Part 2

Happy Halloween!

This is the last post for my Halloween Projects Month. It's the second half of the alphabet tags I was making. So here's the end. To see the beginning of the alphabet, go to this POST. Remember these are mop-up tags mostly and I'm trying to use them up!

N is for Night:  Those galaxy backgrounds are all the rage. And why not? They are flippin' awesome. Makes for a great background for my silhouetted tree. The colors were mostly there so I just needed to darken the edges and splatter some white gesso.

O is for Owl:  Here's another thing that's trending: owls. This stamp is from Dare to B Artsy and the owl comes with three "costumes". He's just fun.

P is for Poe:  I had a few choices for this letter but how could I not do Edgar Allan Poe? I stamped him onto a a piece of patterned paper and cut him out. Stamp image is from Carmen's Veranda.

Q is for Queen (of Halloween):  Difficult letter. So I went with Queen of Halloween and that is obviously a witch. Tim Holtz rubber stamp image over my large orange dot background. I like that she's hanging off the edges as it makes her feel like she's flying.

R is for Robot:  I had other ideas for this letter but I'm a sucker for the old handmade robot costume at Halloween. Stamp by Tim Holtz again and I am reminded that I don't use these stamps enough. I really do like them.

S is for Skeleton:  This might be a Tim Holtz triptych or something. This stamp is also from one of his sets. I debated about this background but I really think it works. That stencil in the background is also Tim Holtz.

T is for Tombstone:  The background on this tag also would have made a good start to a galaxy but it makes an even better Halloween sky. The tombstone is a stamp I carved and I went with the crescent moon in the sky. I was going to add the letter in a circle like the others but the tombstone cross resembled the letter so I just let it lie there.

U is for Undertaker:  I admit that I almost (almost, almost mind you) printed out a picture of the Undertaker...the wrestler for this tag. But I got a little lazy and wondered if I could turn that Tim Holtz stamp of "the chemist" into a passable undertaker. I think I did ok. Rest in Peace.

V is for Voodoo:  While vampire is an obvious reference here, you'll recall that for my letter "D" I did Dracula. So I went with this one and I admit, it might be my favorite. The tag was merely stamped with that bubble background (Lost Coast Designs) so I added some Distress inks over the top for deep color. I wasn't sure I could draw a voodoo doll so went into my Lawn Fawn stamps to find something that might be turned into a pincushion. This little scarecrow stamp really fit the bill. I stamped it without the face and then just penned in my own. I also added the pins then cut it out. I like this transformation.

W is for Werewolf:  This image is from a collage sheet found at Joggles.com. I liked how he isn't too scary but not whimsical either. And I adore the fact that the shirt he is wearing says, "I *heart* cats.".

X is for Xbones:  Any alphabet is difficult to complete if you don't take liberties with this letter. So "X" is for Crossbones. I used this sweet little stamp on a tag awhile back and fell in love with the tag. It has the same effect here. That stamp was embossed with Prima Donna Purple from Lindy's and it's fabulous.

Y is for Yellow:  Another difficult letter but I went with a color. October is a month of yellow where I live. The trees turn yellow, the sky turns yellow, the moon turns yellow. Throw in touches of orange and red and it's a season for spooky adventures. I went with a cornfield because those dead stalks make whole countrysides that autumn yellow.

Z is for Zombie:  Naturally, I guess. I'm not a huge zombie fan as most are too gory for me. But this zombie wasn't too bad and is from a collage sheet from Joggles.com. I faked the fussy cutting but coloring in the white space with a marker that matched the background. You can tell if you're looking but overall, I like the way it blends in. The white space would have bugged me.

So I hope you enjoyed the second half of the alphabet!

This completes my month long Halloween Blog Extravaganza! I hope you'll come back again and see more stuff that I make. I post about my Art Journaling and usually canvases that I create. And I'll even put up a greeting card now and again.

I appreciate your support and all the page views. Please feel free to share these projects with friends or pin them to Pinterest.

Have a Happy Halloween!
-Wy

ABC Tags of Halloween: Part 1

I figured sharing a post about the whole alphabet would be pretty long so I broke it down. Watch for Part 2 later this month.

When I was writing down all my ideas for Halloween projects, I ran across a list I had started about a Halloween alphabet. That is, words related to the holiday in alphabetical order. I was stuck on several letters and not the ones that you might think. Eventually, I copped out on some of them and found a word that was "good enough".

I initially was going to make ATCs but after I saw my TAG HOARD, I figured this was a good way to use them. My TAG HOARD is large and consists of mop-up tags that are somewhat complete backgrounds. I told myself I'd try to use them as the focal point for cards but I haven't been good about following through with that. (Shameless Plug: There is a set of Halloween cards in my Etsy shop that do feature tags as the main image. Check them out HERE.)

So here we go:

All the backgrounds were basically already done so I can't tell you how I might have made them. I did have several words to pick from for some letters but I just went with one that struck my fancy at the time or that would look good on one of the tags I had.

A is for Alien:  True, not necessarily Halloween, but this was a hard letter. And whaddya know? I had a tag with alien green embossing paste on it. That alien head is a hand-carved stamp of mine.

B is for Bats:  I love this stamp image from Rubbernecker stamps and I'll make any excuse to use it. I masked off the moon and used Distress inks for the night sky.

C is for Cat:  I had good intentions with this tag. I don't like how the cat seems to get lost in the background. I tried some white gel pen to outline it but I'm not so sure it was a success. I loved the background of this tag and I was delighted to use up some Halloween ceramic buttons I've had in my stash for decades...yes, I'm pretty sure, decades.

D is for Dracula:  I had these rubber stamps of trick-or-treater heads. I figured I could just fake a body. I added purple paper then inked a stencil over the whole shebang before added Dracula on top.

E is for Eyeball:  If anyone knows me well, they know I have a fascination with eyeballs. Just be thankful I didn't glue googly eyes to the whole thing!

F is for Frankenstein:  I repeated my trick from the "D" tag. BTW: the letters are just an old alphabet sticker set. For most tags, I tried to frame them in a circle but some, like this one, I added in a space that seemed to need a little something.

G is for Ghost:   A similar background to "C", it must have been made at the same time. The backward numbers gave it an otherworldly feel...like what you'd see in the mirror. More of those stashed ceramic buttons have appeared.

H is for Haunted House:  Now don't get me wrong, I have several stamps of Haunted Houses that I just love. But I'm also trying to de-stash some of my Halloween stuff. This house was sitting in a stack of "use it or lose it" papers. Besides it matched my background.

I is for Invisible:  This was another hard letter. The other word I had come up with was just as difficult to translate visually. But hey, I think this one is kinda funny!

J is for Jack O'Lantern:  Naturally. Not ceramic buttons but I'm using up my stash!

K is for Kraken:  This was another hard letter. I struggled to find something other than this as I don't really equate this with Halloween. But it is a monster of mythic proportions and the source of many a nightmare. So what the hell? These tentacles of Dyan Reaveley's are just awesome! I'm gonna be using these all over the place. (along with a lot of eyeballs)

L is for Leaf:  And another hard letter. I did have another word but I found these tags that already had leaves on them. That background is very much the same as tag "J". The leaves are metallic gold and copper but for the life of me I can't remember what I used to create them. I know I used a Tim Holtz stencil but I don't own any texture pastes that are those colors. I either tinted a pearl paste or it's Inka Gold forced through the stencil. So at least the mystery of this tag relates it to Halloween. :)

M is for Mummy:  I bought a couple collage sheets from Joggles.com and this Mummy was one of them. I couldn't resist. This tag was a pretty basic yellow color so I added the hieroglyphics with a background stamp. I think that really pulls it all together.

Ok, so that's half of the alphabet. Later on in the month, I'll share the last half!

Stay tuned.

Remember every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday will have a new Halloween project featured here on the blog!

Thanks for hanging out with me this month!

-Wy

"Nobody saw where she went? That's a lot of eyeballs doing nothing."  --Marlin, "Finding Dory"