Hello friends! If you are here reading this, a huge shout out with a ‘Thank you so much’! I know I am extremely sporadic with my posts and am thrilled you are here.

Well, the Halloween crafting has begun and boy is this one a bit on the spooky, creepy side. I found inspiration from a Pinterest search of High Gate Cemetery in London, oh how I would love to walk through there someday, wow!

Unfortunately, I do not have any step out shots of my process of how I did the texture on the Etcetera Medium Tombstone Tag by Tim Holtz & Stampers Anonymous. I had actually started a different project on it last year but it didn’t work out, so I pulled it out again this year determined to get a project made with it. These are discontinued but am sure you can find them online somewhere.

Basically though, I first have a base layer of black gesso on the thickboard. Then added Texture Paste with a palette knife, being sure to smoosh, indent and ‘skip’ the paste. Allow to dry. Then wet layers of Distress Stain in Black Soot, Vintage Photo and Hickory Smoke. Sand and use craft knife to cut away areas, until you get an aged look, keeping in mind there will be more layers to come so this is really about getting good crevasses and base color down.

For the layered skull, I stamped the image from Apothecary CMS138 three times on Mixed Media card stock with Archival Black Soot ink. Then fussy cut them out in the segments above.

1913 was die cut using recycled mailer cardboard and Tim Holtz for Sizzix Letterboard 663111, gluing 4 of them on top of one another. For ‘Miller’ plaque I used the alpha dies from Treat Bag 663096 but kept the negative portion. This was really easy to do using Sticky Grid and the Sidekick. I was able to make 4 identical plaques so they could be stacked and appear as if the name was etched.

Using 3-D foam dots, built the skull and then attached the three pieces using E6000 (this is a waterproof glue~ I needed the items to stay put due to adding more wet media). Add more layers of stain and paint in the above mentioned colors until the added elements blend in with the rest of the tombstone.

Super secret element to this piece is adding Distress Embossing Powder (discontinued but I bet you have some in your arsenal of crafting supplies) in Peeled Paint and just a tad of Shabby Shutters with Texture Paste Transparent Matte. DO NOT HEAT SET like you do normally with embossing powders. Keeping the grittiness appears as if it is authentic moss.

For the base I cut a slot out of cardboard and then applied paint randomly, remembering that a lot of it will be covered up.

I then started using hot glue to attach vines & twigs that I gathered up from outside (unfortunately I had a wisteria vine that didn’t do so well this year with a transplant) but any sticks will do, just vary the size of the twig. Keep adding and gluing until you get an assembly you like, being sure to weave some through the dimension in the layered skull 🙂

Add some moss here and there (be careful not to over do this step) and all done. This project had minimal components but I think keeping it simple really adds to the spookiness of this and also adds to the inspiration I was seeing from High Gate Cemetery images. A few close ups ….

Thank you again for looking and I do hope I have inspired you to create your own ‘Root of Evil’ piece.

As always, have a blessed day! Wendy xo

I am entering this into Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge ‘S is for …. (Spooky)‘