Halloween Mantelpiece with Elizabeth Craft Design Dies!

Recently I have been brainstorming to share some projects with a small retreat gathering at the end of this month using Elizabeth Craft Design Pop It Ups designed by Karen Burniston.  Simon Says Stamp has a fall-themed challenge this week, too, so this will be an entry there as well!  There is so much potential with these wonderful wafer-thin dies.  No size limits here, either!  So making a fun scene inside a card has few restraints.  Some of the manipulations that are available by the way the dies are positioned and cut make them very versatile, and it makes my head spin to think of ways to decorate these wonderful cards and decorative projects.  These are called triple pivot cards made with all of the Elizabeth Craft Design's pivot dies designed also by Karen, double Lorna Label platforms, etc.  Check out some of Karen Burniston's YouTube videos for ideas and instructions for these amazing adaptations to her dies.

Close up of first few panels

This decorative project for the mantel is all ready to delight my grandchildren with its spooky silhouette stamps from Tim Holtz's Stampers Anonymous stamps.  I used stamps in three different sets from a couple of years ago.  There are many sets in Tim's collection that can be used with this project.  The mantelpiece is adaptable to any size mantel.  I chose to use eight panels for this one since I could get eight panels from two sheets of 12 x 12 double-sided cardstock.  Rather than try to give you written instructions for assembling an accordion album, I have included the link to Karen Burniston's YouTube video.  She tells you all you need to know about the basics of assembly in her videos.

To reinforce the panels, it is advisable to cut panels out of a heavy cardstock and trim off the center portions, leaving only the exterior frame.  Attach the frame to the back of the panel with tape runner or a fast-drying glue.  This frame can be made from a heavy cardstock or my favorite--hot pressed 140 lb. studio watercolor paper in a pad.  I love this for stamping images to color with Copics, too, so I keep a supply on hand.  My favorite brand for this is Fabriano.  These frames can be left white or colored as you wish with Distress inks or spray them with ink spray and let it dry before you cut them.

After all your panels are cut and reinforced, stamp your images onto white cardstock and cut with one of the decorative panels that will fit onto the center area containing the movement mechanism.  Mine have three smaller panels matted with the largest one in my color choices and the remainder are not matted.  Some of the stamped images will be too big for the panels, but that's okay.  The open style of these wafer-thin dies will allow optimum placement of the die on the stamped image.  the parts that are cropped away will not be missed.  The brain automatically ignores things with only a small visual suggestion--re: the ends of the branch the owl is sitting on, the tip of the cat's tail and the bat wing, or the bristles on the end of the broom   I know, you are now looking at the close-ups to see what I didn't fit into the panels, aren't you?

Close-up of middle portion of mantelpiece

Next step:  using Tim Holtz's Distress Inks and his foam applicator tool, color the backgrounds of the stamped images as desired.  For the moon in some of my images, I punched a 3/4" circle from the sticky part of a post-it note to make a mask.  I then placed the mask where I wanted the yellow moon and sponged the purple Seedless Preserve Distress ink all over the image.  Then remove the mask and distress the moon with the golden Wild Honey Distress ink.  Hint:  use the remainder of the post-it note over the area (with the circle centered over the moon)  to keep the purple sky area free from the ink you use to color the moon.  Next decorate your album panels with the stamped pieces and mats.  Embellish these images with googly eyes, colored gems, buttons, glitter, foam ghosts, and whatever appropriate embellies you may have in your stash.  Finally, assemble the album as seen in the video.  (Click  here on YouTube to go see it again!)

The Trick or Treat title at the top of the piece shown in the close-up above is stamped and cut out with a Tim Holtz's Sizzix die.  Then it is sponged with Wild Honey Distress behind the title and edged with Seedless Preserves Distress ink.  To mount it on top of the album while displaying it, I used two of the larger discarded pieces cut from areas of the panel cards.  I glued two parenthesis-looking pieces together to make them stronger (make two of these), folded them in half, and attached them to the back of the title. To make the title sit on top, merely spread apart the "legs" and have them straddle the card as shown in the close-up above.  Later it can be removed and the entire mantelpiece can be stored safely in a closed position.

Close-up of last few panels

We plan to make a similar project at our gathering, except we will do one with a Christmas/Winter theme. Watch for a blog on this next project a little closer to winter.

Another project we plan to do at the retreat is a fall card that will be appropriate for harvest time or Thanksgiving, using Elizabeth Craft Design's Garden Bench.  You have already seen one card made with the bench on this blog, so I want to show the versatility of this amazing die.  This will be the subject of my next blog.