Halloween Blog Hop with Gina's Designs and Creative Paperclay!!!

It's time for a fun Halloween Theme Blog Hop! Gina's Designs Lasercuts Design Team has teamed up with the Creative Paperclay Design Team for this fun blog hop. We are all excited to show off our Halloween projects and even more excited about the fact YOU can win a prize.

The Prize Package includes:
1 pound package of Paperclay
1 sample package of Sandits and
$25 shopping spree to Gina's Designs Lasercuts

How to enter - each of these will get you one entry
1) Stop by each blog on the hop and leave a comment
2) Pin each project on your Pinterest site
3) Share this post on your Facebook page
4) Like Creative Paperclay Facebook page
5) Like Gina Designs Facebook page

Hi Everyone, Dianna here with my version of Halloween Bagatelle boxes using Gina's Designs and Creative Paperclay!.  I used four boxes and distress painted the outside and used scrap Halloween paper for the inside.  I did not paint the inside of the boxes because I wanted the highlights.  I punched the tag that says so spooky and distressed the edges.  The spiderweb and Spooky are from the Gina's Designs and both were painted white.  I then used Stickles for more bling.  I painted a Triptych Arch Top silver and topped it with a rhinestone string. 

I had a blast using the Creative Paperclay Delight! I bought molds and used the clay in the molds. The owl, pumpkin and bat were created with the Creative Paperclay.   It is really easy to use, just spread the paperclay in the mold and pop it out.  I waited for it to dry, about a couple of hours and then used my Copic Markers and colored them.  The markers were easy to use on the paperclay.  I look forward to using more paperclay in my projects.  

The witches hats were created with a 1-1/2 inch circle punch and then punching a 1 inch punch in the center.  I then used a 2 inch punch and then cut a triangle out of the 2 inch circle.  I then glued the sides of the triangle together and glued the top of the hat to the bottom circle. I then decorated the hats with items laying around the house. 

Items used

Gina's Designs

Triptych-Arch Top

Spiderweb Shape Set

Bagatelle 2 x 2

Bagatelle 1.5 x 4

Bagatell 3x3

Bagatelle 1.5 x 3

Creative Paperclay

Creative Paperclay Delight

An InLinkz Link-up

Spooky Sentiments and Tombstones by Dianna

Hi Everyone, Dianna here with Gina's Designs Spooky Stand Up Sentiment and Tombstone Stand Ups.  I made this project with Amy Loves' celebration of 500 Youtube Subs in mind.  I will be sending this to Amy as part of her giveaway.  Make sure you hop over and see
Amy's Youtube channel.

First I spray painted the sign black and cut the Spooky out of three different papers. I then embossed the purple with a splatter folder.  I then tore the different papers in various areas to give a more tattered look.  I then distressed the edges with black ink

I then painted the wrought iron set black and placed the large fence behind the Spooky.

I painted the skeletons white and used white and purple Stickles on all the skeletons.  I cut the arms and legs off the large skeleton, punched holes in all the pieces and used brads to reattach the limbs.  I used orange paint on the pumpkin and placed the pumpkin in the skeleton. I placed a green rosette with a black bat on the top of one of the fence spikes. The spiderweb was painted white and daubed with white Stickles.

I decided to paint four tombstones black and used black Stickles on three of them.  The fourth black tombstone I used grey Stickles over the black to create a streaked look.  I painted the last tombstones grey and distressed both with black ink.  Stickles was used on the angel tombstone and the center stone was papered with left over scrap paper.  

ITEMS USED

Gina's Designs

Stand Up Sentiments

Tombstone Stand Ups

Spooky Shape Set

Spiderweb Shape Set
Wrought Iron Set

Tombstone Stand Ups for Halloween And a Look at a Famous Cemetery

Happy Howl-o-ween, and welcome to my version of Hollywood Cemetery.  When I saw this set of tombstones from Gina's Designs Lasercuts, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.  I want to share a bit of history behind Hollywood Cemetery with you first.

Hollywood Cemetery is a large, sprawling cemetery located next to Richmond, Virginia's Oregon Hill neighborhood at 412 South Cherry Street. Characterized by rolling hills and winding paths overlooking the James River, it is the resting place of two United States Presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler, as well as the only Confederate States President, Jefferson Davis. It is also the resting place of 28 Confederate generals, more than any other cemetery in the country; these include George Pickett and J.E.B. Stuart.^[3]

My inspiration for this goulish project is simple.  As a kid, on Sundays after church, my father used to take us to this famous, historic cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, to visit relatives buried there, as well as show us historical burial sites for very famous people.  You see, my father grew up in a house across the street from this pre-Civil War cemetery, and as a boy, he used to play all over this garden-like setting.  He knew every inch of it, and knew exactly where interesting people were interred, as well as the history behind it.  It may sound eerie to some, but it is a beautiful and very serene place to visit.  Modern cemeteries do not have beautiful tombstones or mausoleums to honor loved ones, so some of the architecture here was quite stunning.  For this reason, many movies and TV shows would be filmed in the cemetery throughout the years, including a scene from the move, The Jackal, starring Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier in 1997. 

Monroe's grave at Hollywood Cemetery.  
John Tyler's grave is visible in the background. 

George Pickett's grave

The Sauer family Mausoleum
in Hollywood Cemetery

I took liberties decorating my tombstones, as I put the architectural elements where the names and dates would be, but art is art, and this is just my interpretation of the beauty I remember.  

I first cut pieces from the Wrought Iron Set and the Border Sticks Floral and Border Sticks Lace,  glueing them onto the tombstones to make them more ornate.  I even used some of the punch out parts from the Wrought Iron Set and put them together to make different designs.  Nothing went to waste here. 

Then I base coated each piece, front and back, with black gesso, using a dabbing motion to get some texture.  When that dried, I painted each piece with a wash of dark grey acrylic paint and water.  I used a heat tool to dry it and bubble the paint a bit for more texture.  Remember, some of these tombstones are over 150+ years old. 

I painted the smallest skeleton from the Skeleton Shape Set with grey paint, then dry brushed the white over it for an aged look. I shaped the skeleton gently with my fingers and glued his feet to the bottom of the double tombstone.

For a mossy look, I added the green Flower Soft, which was a bright green.  I wanted it to look old, so I added moss green paint to it when it dried.  See the difference on the angel tombstone where I added the paint.

I wrapped the bead garlands around the tombstones to look like vines growing up around them, some of which I colored with the orange distress paint. 

I removed the prongs from metal cross brads and glued them to each tombstone.

Here are some closeups of the different Tombstone Stand Ups in the set.

Gina's Designs Lasercuts Supplies used:

Tombstone Stand Ups

Border Sticks Floral

Border Sticks Lace

Wrought Iron Set

Skeleton Shape Set

Other supplies used:

green flower soft 

acrylic paints

white glue

embellishments (my stash)

If you would like to read more about this famous and historic cemetery, you can visit the Hollywood Cemetery website.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for sticking around for my history lesson.  I encourage you to visit Gina's Designs Lasercuts shop for all of your chipboard needs.  She has the most intricate and high quality shapes around. 

Have a very safe and Happy Halloween and stay crafty, my friends.

Barbara

Layout With Guest Designer Mona Pendleton

Hi there! Today I'm sharing my final project as a guest designer for Gina's Designs. I am honored and grateful to have been invited to join along as a guest designer on the Gina's Designs blog showcasing some of her amazing chipboard products that may be found in the Gina's Designs online store. I would like to thank Gina for the wonderful opportunity and thanks to all of you who took the time to visit and leave such kind and encouraging comments :)

For my final project, I created a layout featuring of sweet Meredith that was taken at the top of a volcano on Maui surrounded by fabulous designs from the following Gina's Designs sets: Scribbled Frames and Lines, Fern Fronds, Words & Phrases 2, and Curly Cages.

The title is one of the many fun designs included in the Words & Phrases 2 set. Both layered frames and scribbled lines at the top of the page are from the Scribbled Frames and Lines set.

To make the chipboard pieces "pop", I heat embossed all the designs.

All three fancy bird cages are from the Curly Cages set.

Many thanks for stopping by! Please be sure to visit the Gina's Designs blog daily for some outstanding creative inspiration and if you are looking to add some great quality chipboard designs to your craft stash, please be sure to visit the Gina's Designs store.
Be Sweet ;)

Gina's Designs products used: 
Scribbled Frames and Lines
Fern Fronds 
Words & Phrases 2
Curly Cages

Fairy in a Jar Tutorial

Hi! Amylove here expressing my love for fairies with my "Fairy in a Jar" tutorial. I made this as a gift for someone special and I thoroughly enjoyed the process! I began by covering my chip board pieces with Twinkling H2O's; I love the shimmer they give! I painted both sides of the chip board so that no matter where you're looking, the jar is pretty. 

Follow this link to see my step by step tutorial: Fairy in a Jar Tutorial.

Products used:

Gina's Designs

Butterflies & Dragonflies

Garden Fairy Medium

Mushroom Shape Set

my stash

glass jar

moss

Twinkling H2Os

flowers

Fabritac

Nevermore by Barb

I've been a fan of Edgar Allan Poe's work since I can remember. Of course, what's probably his most famous work, The Raven is at the top of my mind the closer we get to Halloween. I make it a point to read it every year and something in it always strikes anew. So, when I first saw Gina's Designs Gothic Chandeliers, I knew right where I was headed. 

I began with a 9 x 12 canvas panel which I coated with purple acrylic paint. I used a stencil and sponged on acrylic paint for the clock. Then I slopped on a couple different colors of alcohol ink and some bright green acrylic paint. Slopping paint and ink on stuff is fun!

The chandelier was the biggest, most time-consuming part of the project. First, I masked off the ravens with blue painter's tape, then I coated the chandelier silver by pushing an ink pad all over it. Then I coated it with holographic embossing powder and heat set it. 

I used Amplify! in black to coat the birds. After it dried, I hit them with the heat gun - Amplify! sort of puffs up when it's heated so it gives the birds a little more dimension. I "lit" the candles with irRESISTibles in yellow, and added teardrop rhinestones to the chandelier to really make it shimmer.

The feathers, from the Feather Shape Set, were very easy. I simply pushed them against a black craft ink pad. Craft ink is a little thicker than water-based inks so it gives chipboard a really good coat with less of a mess than painting.

I finished things off with a tiny apothecary jar of "poison". The poison is really just green acrylic paint, a dropper full of green ink, and a bit of Pearl Ex for shimmer. I glued the bottle to the canvas. 

Of course, no Poe tribute would be complete without the infamous "Nevermore" as "quothe" by The Raven. So, my last task was to stamp that on the canvas using rubber stamps from Blue Luna Press and black StazOn ink.

Gina's Designs Products Used

Gina's Designs Gothic Chandeliers

Feather Shape Set

Bird Shape Set

Other Products Used

Acrylic paint

Clock mask by Tim Holtz

Craft ink pad

Silver ink pad

StazOn ink pad

Holograph embossing powder

Rhinestones

irRESISTibles

Amplify!

Rubber stamp alphabet by:

Blue Luna Press

DREAM - Word Art by Lynne

Hello there and happy Monday! Yeah I know, a lot of people think those two words don't belong together, but as long as you have a dream in your heart, every day can have at least a little bit of "happy" in it! I created this piece with word art by Gina to remind me of that on days when I need a little boost.

After painting the edges of the piece, I covered each letter with patterned paper from the beautiful Prima Royal Menagerie collection and then sanded the edges with Sandits before inking them. The base was also covered with coordinating paper.

The sand dollar from Gina's Beach Shape Set was covered with homemade texture paste (I spread it with my finger to keep it from going into the cutout parts-I love to get myself messy!) and the starfish was spread with sand paste made up of sand, white glue and acrylic paint.

 

I added tulle to the base behind the word to showcase the paper butterflies which were attached to  pearl sprays. The dragonfly and shells are Prima resin pieces which were dry-brushed with acrylic paint. Some ribbon roses and pearls completed the project.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hang onto your dreams. My wish for you is that all the very best ones come true!

Gina's Products Used

Beach Shape Set

Stand Up Sentiments-Dream 

Other Products Used

Prima Royal Menagerie papers

Prima resin pieces

Kaisercraft Enchanted Garden paper (butterflies)

Autumn Pocket Letter

Hello friends and welcome to Gina's Designs!  Debbie with you today sharing a trendy new project called Pocket Letters.  This one was especially fun because it's my first one and it was exciting to create!  I used the Fall Shape Set to create this fun project.

To decorate my Fall Shape pieces I started out covering them with Gesso.  When they dried I painted them with H2O's in fall colors.  I added 2 or 3 coats to give them intense color and to finish them rubbed them with Metallic rub.

When everything was dry I embellished them with flowers and small embellishments.

Hope you give this fun project a try!  I will be doing MORE of them! Thanks for stopping by Gina's today!

Debbie

Bright Artist Trading Block

Hey all you lovelies out there. Shanna here today with a little inspiration. I know everyone is so excited to share Halloween projects, however I just wanted to do something bright and colorful! (Weird I know!)

So I grabbed my last Artist Trading Block (ATB) and got to creating. 

I used watercolor paper and did some stamping and inking and stenciling. Once my papers were ready I covered my block. 

Then I continued decorating it. I inked the cardstock doily with Distress Ink and used Distress Paints on the knob, feet, and a Punchelement. Stacking each on each other. I love the contrast of bright colors. 

The feet are dowel ends you can get at any craft store. 

Then for the final piece to make the ATB pop out, I colored the bird with some distress paint and added a Tim Holtz small chat on the front which I thought was befitting of the ATB.

I do so hope you enjoyed my little creation. Make sure you keep coming back for more design team inspiration!

Gina's Designs Products

Artist Trading Blocks (Large)

Punchelements 1 Inch Scalloped

Cardstock Doily Set 1

Birds Shape Set