Once Upon a Midnight Dreary... - Saturday 18th October 2014

Hello Friends,


'I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down, but with a shudder even more thrilling than before upon the remodelled and inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.' Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher


Well if there was ever a time of year for Edgar Allen Poe then this is it! I created this with inspiration from a mixture of Poe texts...The Raven, House of Usher and created a very dark scene for Halloween. The title is from The Raven (had to have crows, ravens somewhere here) and the vision is mostly House of Usher.

I love the fun of Halloween, our front garden will, as always be suitably decorated to reflect this and hopefully raise some "oohs" and 'aahs" from the Trick or Treaters ( I get a special tingle when even the teenagers compliment!), but I also like the more sinister and creepy images and tales.

I won't pretend this was easy or quick: this little scene took a long time to make in very tiny snatches of 'me' time over the last two months. I was also so tempted to keep on going with it (it just started as the little scene with the fence) but in the end I had to stop or it would never be posted...maybe next year it will expand!

So bear with me whilst I explain how it was created:

The background -  this is just A3 card, on which I painted some 'lightening' with white cosmic shimmer paint and highlighted with wink of stella pen.

The House - although the whole creation is a Poe homage, the actual house was kind of inspired by the Bates House in Pyscho. I wanted to go for a large and decrepit looking building.The main building is made from two large and one small block from the Sizzix Scoreboards xl die set by Eileen Hull. I wanted a slatted wood effect, so cut them using corrugated packaging and painted them using burnt ember acrylic paint. Once dry I brushed a layer of Cosmic Shimmer white matt chalk paint on top and then sanded it back to reveal the burnt umber and give it an old and worn effect.

The side part is made from the Sizzix Cottage die by Brenda Walton. I cut two, layering one on top of the other and painted it in the same way as the main building. I free cut the windows, details and door opening and I cut a little figure to stand spookily in the door way. I cut the steps simply by making a concertina from black card and dusting with white paint.

You can't see in the photos, but I used a glue gun over the house to create a web effect.

The Graveyard:

The fence is an mdf art part from Anna Marie crafts. I painted it with burnt ember and then sanded it back before finally adding a touch of rusty hinge distress ink. The barbed wire is simply rusty wire with knots tied at intervals. 

The tree  with the owl is an art part from Calico Crafts, as are the bats and pumpkins. I painted the tree using burnt umber and the bats in black sparkle. For the pumpkins of course I used orange!

I used dried out grapevine for  decoration and some little die cut leaves scattered on the base. The base is just some wooden packaging.

 The stamps: I used rather a lot of stamps in this project!

The owl at the top of the house  and the cat are by Chocolate Baroque

The The gravestone with raven  and 'Be Afraid' sign are  also from Halloween stamp sets by Chocolate Baroque

On the ground is a Poe quote from the poem A Dream within a Dream: "Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?" - the stamp is from Crafty Individuals. The ravens in flight above the tree are also from the same stamp set.

The pumpkins hanging from the tree are also by Chocolate Baroque. I photographed these separately as they are hard to see: they are coloured black with orange faces (Promarkers) and then coated with glossy accents, so still a little hard to see I'm afraid,

 The pumpkins at the foot of the steps (see picture 1) are a stamp from a Hampton Art set I bought in the US last year.


The moon is part of the tree; I backed it with vellum and illuminated it by suspending  a battery operated tea light behind.

 That's about it..what fun it was to make...I love doing things like this, just wish there was more time to do it!


I'd like to enter this project in the following Challenges:

Art with Heart  Tricks and Treats Challenge - 

http://www.eileenhull.com/2014/10/spook-tacular-sizzix-projects.html

The Sizzix Challenge - Halloween 

http://blog.sizzix.com/sizzix-challenge-halloween/


Artists Trading Post Mixed Media Halloween Challenge -http://artisttradingpost.blogspot.co.uk



Thank you so much for stopping by, I know Halloween, especially the darker side isn't too all tastes, but I am such a fan and it was still fun to create!


Love and Hugs,
Carole X

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