Poisonous Potions and Spitefull Spells - by Claudia

Hi, servus and welcome to my presumably last Halloween project for this year, dear Calico Craft Parts friends!

Have you enjoyed the Halloween crafting as much as I have? Oh, I am sure you have. And as always I started too late...so there are still bunches of Calico's fab Halloween and Autumn wood shapes that I haven't yet used. But somehow after Halloween is before Halloween, isn't it?...maybe I will do some Halloween projects in November still - and by doing so get late again with starting on Christmas projects...lol

I have created this little Halloween mixed media board that was great fun to do. Maybe I will turn it into a book cover...but at the moment I like it as it is. I love to create spells books that might have once belonged to a wicked witch....or maybe a helpful witch (like this potions "book" that I made for Calico Craft Parts last year).

Calico Craft Parts used:

- Rounded Rectangle Greyboard Mixed Media Board - Style 18
- Fancy Plaques 3 - Mini MDF Wood Shapes
- Sheet of Mini MDF Wood Insects - Style 1
- Sheet of Mini MDF Wood Apothecary Bottles - Style 1
- Word Elements - Horror & Halloween
- Skull & Crossbones MDF Wood Shape

The Mixed Media Board was first given a coat of DecoArt Burnt Umber Student Acrylic. Once that was dry I applied a thin coat of DecoArt Weathered Wood with a wide soft flat brush and waited until that was still sticky to the touch. Then I quickly and gently applied a thin coat of DecoArt "primitive" Chalky Finish paint with the same soft wide brush. I set the board aside to dry naturally.

I applied a base coat of white DecoArt media Gesso to the bottles and of "relic" Chalky Finish paint to the skull, word element and mini insects. 

The bottles and insects were then coloured with a detail brush using DecoArt media fluid acrylics Sap Green, Yellow Oxide, Paynes Grey, Quinacridone Gold, Green Gold and a mix of some of them, where needed.

The skull and word element were dry brushed with "primitive" Chalky Finish paint.

I also added a very thin wash of Quinacridone Gold to both.

The bottles had been sealed with DecoArt media Gloss Varnish before I toned them down with DecoArt media Carbon Black Antiquing Cream. 

I only wiped off as much of the Antiquing Cream to leave a kind of dark "shading" around the bottles edges.

I also added a wash of a mix of some of the left overs from the paints on my palette (from painting the insects) to the mixed media board before I sealed that with a coat of DecoArt media Ultra-Matte Varnish. That also helped dull the sheen of the Weathered Wood that still shows through where the cracks are.

I dabbed some Quinacridone Gold around the edges using my fingertip and scraped on a little Green Gold using a palette knife. Once all was dry I toned the whole board down with Carbon Black Antiquing Cream.

I glued all my pieces in place using DecoArt matte Decou-Page. Then I added some DecoArt Triple Thick to the bottles and the wings of the mini insect.

I obviously forgot to take a picture of how I did the mini plaque at the bottom. That was also given a base coat of "primitive" Chalky Finish paint. Then I hand wrote "Vol.31" and drew a thin border on it using a permanent ink fine tip marker. Once that was dry I dabbed on some Quin Gold around the edges and also toned everything down with Carbon Black Antiquing Cream.

I had some left overs from board game chipboard pieces that I used for rivets. I stippled on some DecoArt media Texture Sand Paste and then painted them with Paynes Grey and Quinacridone Gold.

I also love this detail shot because it shows how differently the Weathered Wood turns out when being applied in varying thickness. Where the tiny cracks are, it had almost completely dried (at least that was what I had thought...). They're so cool!

I didn't apply the Triple Thick to the corks - so they look more natural against the glossy finish of the bottles.

Once more the finished piece:

Hugs and Happy Halloween to you all! 

Claudia

xxx