Eyeball Flowers & Textured Vases

I've been making a conscious effort not to give into the commercialism of Halloween and I just don't need more stuff.

I did fantasize about doing a minimalist home display that would involve a giant clown I saw looming menacingly at the Spirit store and a bunch of helium filled red balloons staked all over the yard. But I really don't want a clown that would spend most of the year hiding in my basement.

There was this clown too, my daughter jokingly asked if it was a Roomba.  It's a good thing it isn't otherwise I would be tempted to buy one for every room in the house, so I could have a complete fleet of creepy cleaning clowns.  Which would result in the kids needing therapy, an end to my marriage and my never being able to fall asleep again.

Anyway Halloween is almost at an end, and all I bought was a baby octopus skeleton (Come on, it's not even humanly possible to resist that.) and some black flowers from Target.  And from their landfill fodder bins that I normally walk right past, at that.

Eyeball flowers seem to be trending this season, they are even selling them at the local grocery store, but most of them look pretty lame.

The Target flowers caught my eye because of their wonderful eyelash potential. The flowers themselves have a nice velvety texture.

Making eyeballs that don't look lame is actually really easy.  I used glass gems, the kind they sell as vase fillers.  Make sure you get clear ones without an iridescent finish.  Then simply mod podge an iris image onto the flat side.  I love these from Orestes Graphics.  I highlighted the lashes before gluing the eyes in, painters tape helped keep the petals out of the way.


The vases are Method bottles that have been revamped from a previous project.

Even if I can't appreciate the look, I do sympathize with people who can't help but bedazzle everything in sight. I want to add textures and paint to everything,  it's a sickness.

On the small center vase I used textured tinfoil, I have information on that process here.  The  larger vases are textured using the following technique:

First a layer of tissue paper to give everything something to stick to, then sewing thread randomly wrapped around.  I used mesh tape (for drywall repair) to keep the thread from slipping.  I like the mesh tape because it has it's own interesting texture so if you don't completely hide it, it doesn't matter.  

Trying not to move the thread, gently apply texture paste (paint/gesso, joint compound/spackle, glue/mod podge) randomly over the bottle.  

Then stretch out spider webbing over the texture paste.

This a sample piece, the black and white contrast shows the texture a little better.  I really love this effect.

This is some trim from an old shirt of my daughter.

And this is what it looks like on a bottle.  Below is how it looks with paint which consists of a base coat of black followed by sponging on DecoArt Dazzling Metallics* in Renaissance Brown, Festive Green, Teal and Champagne Gold.

*I'm only name dropping products, because I really like their line of metallics compared to others I have used.

How To Apply Stencils in Weird Places

Using stencils with texture paste on a flat surface is pretty straight forward.  Using them on a rounded surface gets a bit more complicated.  Using them on an odd shaped uneven surface such as this skull is practically impossible.

I've already covered flat surfaces, so let's jump right to this round bottle. This wasn't horrible to stencil. I recommend using a little tape to keep the stencil in place. The hard part here was carefully removing the stencil without mucking up the texture paste, which I wasn't completely successful at but I don't think it's too horrible.  

Next I tried to stencil onto a skull. Mind you, I only tried just a small portion of the stencil on a relatively small smooth area of the skull. I didn't do very well.  I wiped it off and tried again a few more times and decided this was not going to work.  I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm sure there are Martha Stewart clones out there that can do it, but why bother when I have a much easier method.

Stencil onto thin paper and after it's dried apply it to your project.  Yep, it's that easy.

This is texture paste stenciled onto that thin paper they wrap around your fragile purchases at the store.  I'd call it wrapping paper but that make me think of gift wrap.  Although this would be a good way to reuse gift wrap too, as long as it's the thin paper type.

Here I've applied it to a pressed cardboard shoe form, but I think it's going to be a creepy rabbit someday.  Don't see it? Maybe the following helps.  Although sadly I think I'm going to have to  build up  a lot of papier mache over the stenciling to achieve the freaky rabbit in my head, which is not this guy who is temporarily adorned with random stuff from my craft table.

But now you can see the rabbit potential too, right? Just like any decoupage/papier mache it's always better to tear around the design, the edges are easier to blend. I use a half and mixture of glue and water to apply the stenciled paper.

Next I did this skull which has more nooks and crannies and a lot of it's own texture already.

I figured I needed to use something thinner, so I tried tissue paper.  I was a little worried the tissue paper would be too fragile, but it worked great.  Stenciling on it wasn't a problem, even using old wrinkle sheets. Although if you really want a perfect stencil, a fresh crisp sheet or at least ironing over an old one would probably be best.

The only caveat was I didn't trust myself to tear around the small sections that wanted so I cut around the stenciling.  That meant having to get creative with the texture paste later to hide the edges.

Also, you don't get any second chances applying tissue paper, once it sticks there's no adjusting without tearing it.

I added a few molded pieces later, they are a lot thicker than the stenciling. Not sure I'm digging that.  Overall I'm not really happy with this guy, something is off. I'll have to figure out what it is and fix it later. Here are some more details from another angle.
 

Even if I'm not crazy about my skull, the technique is solid and the pre-stenciled sheets were very useful at the annual craft party.  I have another skull and a faux pumpkin in mind for having another go at this.

Tortured Textures

I'm gearing up for the annual Halloween craft party.  This year the main focus will be the mixed media altered bottles we started to touch on last year.  I say bottles, but really these techniques can be applied to any surface.  

I recently stumbled on Maremi SmallArt.  I've watched a couple of her videos on different methods of creating texture and a couple on creating art with junk you might have laying around.  Her videos are quite long and chatty, but very entertaining and informative.  She's like the Bob Ross of mixed media.  For someone like me who isn't very outwardly expressive it's almost cathartic listening to her. Not to mention all that joy is conveyed with the coolest accent, although being from the Midwest I think pretty much everyone who doesn't sound like me has a cool accent.  The videos I watched were long, but she covers a lot of ground quickly and efficiently.

There's one thing she said about creating art in one of her video's that I absolutely adore, "Be spontaneous. Be fearless." Alright, enough about Marta. But you won't be disappointed if you check out her channel.

One of things I loved about her texture videos (Ok I'm not done talking about her.), is she used the cardboard backing from packaging as her base.  I've been trying out different things on full projects, like twine & seeds, eggshells, plastic bugs, flowers & buttons and molded pieces.  It's been a slow process.  Watching her I realized how wonderful it could be to do smaller projects and try a bunch of textures in a short amount of time.

For my base I used countertop samples from almost two decades ago.  Can we say hoarder? When we were picking out countertops I couldn't decide and I have so many samples but I couldn't just throw them away.  I used some to make a faux floor for a pumpkin years ago but otherwise nothing has come of them.  For this I used the blank side of the samples as my canvas. Everything is painted with a layer of flat black and highlighted in champagne gold. I kept them very simple and only used items I already had.


My first texture comes from embossed tinfoil.  Using texture paste with stencils has been on my list of things to try.  So when I saw this neat stencil on clearance I figured now was the time.  Except it's not a stencil it's an embossing folder.  I didn't know such a thing existed, but now I have one.

The image is raised on one side and depressed on the other, so that when the folder is closed they nest together.  A piece of paper is placed in the folder and normally pressed with a little machine and then you have a nice imprinted design.  If you don't have a little machine you can use a rolling pin and a little muscle.

The thicker the paper the more effort required but tinfoil takes almost no effort at all.  I do recommend tearing the tinfoil into the sizes you want prior to pressing.  The other way around and you will press out the design with your fingers wherever you hold it to tear.

On the left we have a base layer of tea bag with pieces of embossed tinfoil depressed side up.  The right is a layer of tissue paper topped with embossed tinfoil with the raised side up.

And this is what they look like with stuff glued on.  Glass half marbles over pictures from a GrandinRoad magazine*, a bit of cheesecloth, a bottle cap, and a piece of scrap wire randomly twisted and lightly hammered flat.

*I admit I ordered their magazine just for the pictures, but they do have some cool stuff.  They also have some items that look like overpriced cheaply made knock-off's of stuff other crafters have done, but all the big kids are doing that these days. I did end up buying a half dozen skeleton mice from them last year, so I guess it does pay to advertise.  I got a really good deal on them after Halloween.  I bought the mice to use as rats since they are more rat size, whereas I think their rats are miniature Chihuahua sized. 

   

This is me painting already attached cheesecloth black.  I painted it flat on parchment paper, so I wouldn't get paint on the glass and after it was dried I wrapped it around the edges of the glass.  I thought this in-between moment was kind of mini work of art on it's own and worth keeping in mind to recreate something similar in the future.  

I liked the texture of these napkins and wanted see how they held up after painting.  I do like how they turned out, even though I'm a little disappointed that as different as the napkins looked, after painting I can't tell which is which.  

And here are the finished projects:

On the left more scrap wire, dismantled fake flower, bottle cap, plastic skull ring, seed beads and some Halloween clearance black stars.  The other is a plastic scorpion, tiny rhinestones, external tooth lock washers and spent (not live) primers*.

*Unless you or someone near and dear to you reloads their own ammo, you probably wont be familiar with these. This is redneck crafting right here folks.  I do clean them before using them for crafting purposes.

The left is napkin again but this time with an overlay of thread.  I've used string, yarn, jute, but never thread.  It seems so thin and insubstantial I never considered it.  Again the inspiration came from Marta, I was really impressed by her use of thread.  My example is not so impressive.  Yes my thread usage adds texture and interest, but I realized afterwards what I like about her method. First she randomly adds texture paste or thick gesso over the thread. Secondly she uses inks to add color and its that combination of bleeding and wicking that really makes it look phenomenal.  

The right side is paper towel, as opposed to the previous paper napkin.  It is thicker and the texture more defined.  

Here they are finished.  The left is another glass marble, this time over an image from an Oriental Trading Co. magazine.  Buttons, fun fur yarn, and thin macramé cord are also used.  The right is more flower pieces, scrap wire, a bead cap and plastic spider.  The spider was first painted with a mixture of dried tea (from the tea bag used previously) and black paint.


I chose the most boring neutral samples I had, in case this project was a complete bust, so the backs needed a little sprucing up too. 

Both of these were painted black and then the paint was removed with a paper towel before it completely dried.  I like how the same technique had very different results by scrunching the paper towel differently and using different pressure.   

The sample on the left already had an interesting texture, so I just highlighted it with black.  The right-hand one is finger painting.  

Here the left-hand side was painted by dabbing the surface with a cotton ball covered in paint. I thought the cotton would stick and come off in bits, it didn't.  What it did do was create a very fine texture that looks similar to sandpaper in person.  The last one is my favorite. First paint was added and removed like the first two, but then around the edges I brushed on the paint mixed with tea leaves leftover from the spider.

So that's it. I got to play around with a lot of textures in a short amount of time.  Now I have an idea of what to expect applying them to other things and I have these mini samples to use for reference at my craft party.  

Revamped Ceramic Skull

A few months ago I went to an estate sale for the very first time.  I've had more than one friend just happen on an estate sale and find the most awesome "potion" bottles.  I did not have such luck. I only found one interesting bottle, but I did get a skull for $0.50. I almost didn't buy it, it was rather cheesy looking and I had absolutely zero inspiration for what to do with it.  But it's really hard to pass up a skull for fifty cents. I mean you can always find a use for another skull, right?

It also made me wonder about my future estate sale.  I know the kids will keep a few of my prized possessions for sentimental value, maybe a severed body part or a zombie creation, but I'm sure most of it will have to go.  I can even hear possible future spouses, "No. I know you loved your mother, but that thing is not coming in the house."

At my estate sale there won't be one lonely skull on a table amidst other holiday stuff.  There will be a whole table of skulls, next to the table of skeletons, between the body parts and potion bottles, right across from the table full of spiders.

This is the before and after of my skull.  It's a ceramic skull.  There's a big open area in the back so you can put a tealight in it and a smoke hole on top.

If you've been following along, you know I started obsessing over altered bottles last year.  It's like collaging in 3D.  There are so many different ways to go about it and I've only touched on a few so far.  Any method can be used to cover much more than just bottles.

One method I've been bouncing around in my head is using molded components.  HomeTalk has a nice video using this technique on ornaments (Creepmas anyone?)  Except I didn't have any molds and there's so many to choose from.  Investing in yet more crafting stuff requires a commitment I wasn't ready to make.

The Fates decided to intervene and I happened upon some Mod Podge molds on clearance at Michael's. I picked up the Ornaments and Royal mold.  The mold's are small, a 9.5cm square and less than $3, so not too much of a commitment in money or storage.  They are meant to be used with glue sticks, but they're silicone molds, so you can use just about anything.

For my first go-round I used a spackle glue mixture I had leftover from an ornament project.  It had lost quite a bit of moisture and was a really thick putty.  I used it for the three pieces on left which have some imperfections, but I believe that's called character.  Then I added a little water to thin out the rest, which was a huge mistake. It got all clumpy and no amount of kneading would smooth it out.  I used it anyway pressing it very firmly into the mold, but after it dried it broke into pieces when I removed it.

I also had leftover paint and joint compound mixture from my pirate ship. These pieces were lighter and more detailed, albeit a little pockmarked.  Maybe because of the sand texture?  They were also a little flexible.

A few things about these molds in particular.  Most of the impressions are pretty shallow, so whichever medium I used they were dry in a few hours.  The two domed areas on the "Ornaments" (left) mold needed to dry overnight.  You can see I got impatient and lifted them too soon.  Many of the objects on the "Royal" (right) mold were difficult to remove without breaking. Namely the top left scroll, the bee's little legs, the key and the boarder at the bottom.  For my purposes this didn't matter. Any defects just add a worn, aged appearance as far as I'm concerned.

I ended up making another batch of 50/50 white glue and spackle to make additional pieces.  Leaving a thin layer across the back of the mold made it easier to remove pieces without breaking them. It was easy to crumble off if I didn't want it, but I found I liked it.  The glue/spackle mixture isn't waterproof, so it does soften when you lay it on wet glue.  Using a small brush, wetting it if needed you can blend that thin layer onto your working surface.  

Here's the skull covered with a layer of the paint mixture to give me a good surface to work on.  The teeth and other cavities had a hard straight edge from whatever was used to cut those areas out.  I used additional layers of the paint stuff to build up and round out those places.  The "eyes" are just me playing around with pieces.



Then I started gluing stuff on, using white craft glue. The laurel wreath cut in half made a nice mustache.  I cut apart the boarders from both molds into individual pieces.  I took apart some old flowers.  I love that it doesn't matter what color they are because everything gets a coat paint.   The glass eye is just a cheap plastic gem.

   

I even used up most of the crumbly broken pieces on the back.  

Then I put some spackle glue in a disposable icing bag and piped it on to build up areas and fill cracks so the molded pieces didn't look like they were just sitting on the surface.  I used a wet paint brush to further move it around. There was some shrinkage after it dried so I went back and touched it up with more spackle glue.

After that dried it was onto paint.  I started with a solid layer of dark brown.  It took three coats to get every little nook and cranny coated, turning it every which way to make sure I didn't miss a spot.  The paint has to protect the spackle glue so you have to have good coverage. I liberally sponged on a tan coat, then a slightly lighter tan on and finally finished off with a few white highlights.  

This angle reminds me of Shakespeare, which is fitting since we did share an "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio..." moment while I was painting him.  

It just happened that after I finished, one of my air plants bloomed!