He's behind you! - Spooky Shrine by Alison

Hello all, Alison with you again, and I've been enjoying getting spooky - so much so that this is a bonus extra project.  I'm not supposed to be here until Monday - but BOO... surprise!!  And here's what I've been playing with.  (You may want a pint of bat blood or witch's brew to see you through a photo-heavy post!)

There are so many amazing designs in the Halloween Craft Parts section - and some of them, like some of the bare trees for instance, will work on non-Halloween projects too.  I've been playing with just a few of them, and came up with this haunted house - I'm just not sure who's haunting whom!

I started with the Spooky Shrine Kit, and I knew I wanted to try to get in a zombie as well as a couple of skeletons.  Given their relative sizes, I needed to pretend the zombie was in the background.  And given their relative shapes, I needed him to be part way up the back wall!  So I had to create a bit of a trompe l'oeil... a corridor for him to come walking down.

I plotted the basic position and laid in the doorway and the light spilling out of it.

I wallpapered and laid flooring, adding more light over the top.

I extended the papers onto the side walls and the floor.  I also did some distressing with the DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics.  Turns out Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Quinacridone Gold and Raw Umber are perfect for creating a tobacco-stained look!

Putting in the corridor - hand-drawn dado rail and panelling - I had to cheat the perspective lines a bit, so now it looks as though the corridor arrives at a slight angle.  And I created a door frame with matchsticks painted in Raw Umber.  Once all that was done, I glued it all together.

Once glued, I cut papers to cover the back of the shrine.  I find it best to leave this until after the gluing together, as then you can work right to the edges of the walls, covering up the interlocking edges.

I had lots of fun painting my Craft Parts with more DecoArt Fluid Acrylics.  (You can see how they look "naked" in that first making-of picture above.)  The Zombie Style 2 is done with Green Gold and Viridian and maybe a touch of Paynes Grey, and the fabulous Carved Pumpkin has Red Iron Oxide, Quin Gold, Raw Umber, Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide and Green Gold.  They each got a bit more touching up after this stage.

My somewhat depressed seated skeleton needed something to help him sit further "downstage" in the room.  In the end, the simplest solution was to glue his pelvis to a small wooden reel.  As you can see, he's now self-supporting, so I was able to glue him in his position quite easily.

And here they come... the Zombie in the doorway...

Skeleton Style 1 a little further forward, supported partly by the matchstick doorframe...

And Skeleton Style 3 slumped in the foreground.

I think he's so exhausted with the whole haunting business that he can't even be bothered to warn his pal that "he's behind you"!

You'll see that the spooky old portrait on the wall has changed position - it was just getting lost behind Skeleton 1's head.

Around the back and sides, the Halloween fun goes on.  The Carved Pumpkin sits on the back under the excellent advice to "Scream".  I shaded the papers using Quinacridone Gold, Green Gold, Viridian and Raw Umber so that it would all tie together.

And on the sides there are some Bats hanging about - of course! - very simply painted with Paynes Grey.  These are from the Flying Bat Colony - a whole plate of tiny bats to play with.

Very happy with the look of the pumpkin - I think he's one of my favourite Jack o'Lanterns I've seen, even before you get the paint on him.  I'd happily use him "naked" on cards or tags too.

I love the sheen you get using the translucent DecoArt paints on the Craft Parts - very cool.

And because the Craft Parts are of such good depth and quality, the bats cast their own spooky shadows.

And finally, the Spooky Shrine front panel... same paints in action and then some DecoArt Crackle Glaze, Raw Umber rubbed into the cracks and wiped back, followed by a coat of Ultra-Matte Varnish because for once I didn't want it too shiny.

The Spooky word is done in Raw Umber with Paynes Grey - and the spider and his webs are basically Paynes Grey too.  It looks really cool over the dark wood of the basic Craft Parts.

So I hope I haven't spooked you too much...

No, I hope I have!  Mwaah hah haaahh!

I certainly hope I've inspired you to check out the Halloween offerings at Calico Craft Parts - there's enough inspiration there for even the most avid Halloween fiend.  As I said, I'll be back again on Monday - til then, sleep tight and mind the bugs don't bite!

Alison xx
Words and Pictures