Two Crones Sharing Recipes

The inspiration for this project was a bat garland I saw online that was made by cutting out bats from folded paper where the ends of the wings remained connected. You know, you probably made a paper doll garland that way as a child. Well, I had an idea that maybe the new Tim Holtz Witchcraft die might work in this way.

Here is my first attempt at cutting out the witch paper dolls.

I call them the "Butt Sisters". The two witches make a good solid connection, but stylistically it doesn't work.

After that I decided they would have to be connected face to face which looks like they are talking intensely to each other.

I cut out 4 sets of witches with the intention of making a garland with each one on a separate background piece. And then in my mind, things began to escalate into a big complicated project that would have taken until Halloween - multi-layered backgrounds with intricate decor elements. These are not my forte.

Finally, my more rational mind took over and decided to just make one panel that I could enter in some of my favorite online challenges - Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge and the Paper Artsy Challenge both of which involve metals. Also I could add another project to #holtzforhalloween.

I wondered if I could fold some paper and make the skirt 3 dimensional. That idea was because the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge for last week was "Pop It Up". I missed that deadline, but I did discover a kind of cool technique. I folded the paper for the skirt kind of like a fan and then laid it on the die and only cut out the skirt part. Then I re-folded it a bit to fluff it up and glued it to the witches. It worked!! I also used some leftover paper for the shoes. I've seen some great online projects where the witches have wonderful shoes glued on.

I used the Tim Holtz Sizzix Poison embossing folder for the base that the cauldron and the witches stand on. It's distressed with 3 Distress Oxides - Walnut Stain, Black Soot, and Peeled Paint. I added the Peeled Paint to make it look a little more toxic. The edges were torn and distressed with the paper distressed. I drew the cauldron and cut it out of black card stock and then painted it with Brushed Pewter Distress Stain. Can you believe that I don't have a cauldron die? I was kind of stunned by that realization.

Here are the other metallic elements for my project:

There is a Spells and Fortunes word band with White Distress Crayon, a spider token which has a piece of colored paper glued on the back, a POISON key highlighted with Distress Crayons and a vial with metal beads in it.

Since I work in a hospital, every once in awhile I ask a nurse to save me an empty medication vial that I can use in my projects. I coated it with Crackle Glossy Accents and added a small ephemera label.

I kept adding background layers until I figured the project was done. So that is the piece called "Two Crones Sharing Recipes". It is one of my very favorite Halloween projects. I still love making little houses, but it sure is nice to make something that doesn't take an entire week. And I can make the deadline for these online challenges:

Simon Says Stamp:Heavy Metal

PaperArtsy: Metallics

#holtzforhalloween

Thank you for visiting. Take care.