Hi everyone! Fall is at its prettiest here now and before writing this, I went on a long and sunny forest walk. I am so happy to be here today with a fun and slightly spooky tutorial. You can use the techniques for other types of projects too and it doesn’t have to be for Halloween. One example is that if you use different rub-ons and colors, this could easily be turned into a cosy winter scene.

Spooky houses are always great for Halloween, and you can use just one or build an entire spooky town. They can be ghost houses, or as in this case, the home of a mean apothecary. The background was done with rub-ons and Distress Ink, with an easy and cool resist technique.

Start by applying Tim Holtz Halloween Remnant Rubs on the background. I planned the placement, since I wanted the eye to peak out through the window of the house, and some of the words to be clearly visible.

Ink the background with Distress Inks using an ink-blending tool. I used Spiced Marmalade, Mermaid Lagoon, Dusty Concord and a little bit of Ground Espresso.

Splatter the background with a little bit of water, for extra texture.

Cover a piece of cardstock with Tim Holtz Halloween Design Tape.

Die cut one of the houses from Tim’s Ghost Town die set. This is a very quick way of getting an interesting looking die cut. You can leave it as it is or color it.

EDITOR’S NOTE: unfortunately the Ghost Town die set is out of stock at the time of publication of this blog but dies to get comparable looks are listed in the supply section below!

Coat the house with Clear Gesso, to give it some tooth for the next step. Let dry.

Color the house with Distress Crayons, smoothing them out with your finger. Add metallic Antique Bronze to the roof. If it gets too dark, you can remove some color with a slightly moist cloth.

The rub-ons resist the ink and since they have an invisible area around them, you get this cool resist effect, with a white field around and in between the rub-ons. Fold a piece of Design Tape over itself and use as a ribbon to tie at the top of the tag.

The house was adhered with foam tape, giving it dimension. Here you can see the eye peeking out through a window. Die cut the tree from the Ghost Town set from brown and black cardstock and glue to the tag.

I added some clippings stickers from Tim Holtz’s Curiosities Sticker Book, which fit well with the theme of the tag.

Here you can see the metallic effect on the roof. I also used a sticker of a clock, matted it on black cardstock and added a clock hand with a marker.

I hope this tutorial inspired you to use some rub-ons, ink and Design Tape, for fun results.

Thank you so much for looking! Happy crafting! Anna-Karin

SUPPLIES:

Tim Holtz Sizzix GHOST TOWN Thinlits… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Sizzix BRANCHES Bigz Die… [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp VILLAGE Wafer Dies… [ SSS ] Hero Arts Fancy Paper Layering Dies… [ SSS ] Ranger Tim Holtz Distress MIXED MEDIA… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad SPICED… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad MERMAID… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad DUSTY… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad GROUND… [ SSS ] Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayon… [ SSS ] Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayon… [ SSS ] Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayon… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology HALLOWEEN… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology HALLOWEEN Design… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology HALLOWEEN Design… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology CURIOSITIES… [ SSS ] Dina Wakley Ranger CLEAR GESSO 4 OZ… [ SSS ] Therm O Web ULTRA BOND Adhesive 2… [ SSS ] Ranger BLACK Letter It Adhesive Foam… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger 4… [ SSS ] Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS… [ SSS ] Ranger Non Stick CRAFT SHEET 15 x 18… [ SSS ]

Thanks so much for stopping by, and thanks to Anna-Karin for being our guest!

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