Hi Everyone!  It’s been a really busy week and as hard as it is to believe, I haven’t posted anything here since last Friday!  A WHOLE week ago! Sheesh!  Anyway, I’ve been getting LOTS of emails from ya’ll telling me that I’m evil and one tough cookie with the Spooky September Challenge requirements…heh-heh-heh!   Just to  prove to you that this is a VERY doable challenge I have made something following all of the requirements ! It has a Halloween feel/theme to it…it includes a black and white photo, I used the word “shriek!”…The bandage is wrapped around the corrugated cardboard that says “got bats?” I used a “real” key and it is also attached to the cardboard sign AND it includes a hanger! 

I have had sooooo much fun making this wall hanging too and have a bunch of ideas for several more!  Seriously, you have to give this challenge a try!  I find it refreshing to push myself and to try something new and this is definitely the challenge to do just that!  Plus, the winner receives a HAPPY HAUNTING CRICUT CARTRIDGE!!! It can’t get much better than that! 

Shriek!  Got Bats? Recipe

Supplies Needed:

Cricut Cartridges: Happy Haunting , October 31st and Lyrical Letter

12″ x 12″ piece of chipboard or cardboard for your base ( I used the back to a paper stack)

scrap pieces of a cereal box or chipboard for cutting out “Shriek!” and bats

1 10″ x 10″ black and cream tulle patterned paper by Paper Studio

1 8.5″ x 11″ black and white photo  (there’s a story behind this one! LOL!)

3-4 12″ x 12″ Coordinations black shimmer and black glitter paper

1 12″ x 12″ orange glitter paper by Paper Studio

5″ x 7″ flap from a cardboard box

12″ long Antique (old!) off-white sheer valance or a piece of ribbon or fabric will work for this too.

a key (this is from the Tim Holtz collection)

a thin wire ring (from the jewlery department in most craft stores)

off white strip of torn fabric, gauze or ace bandage to wrap around the cardboard sign

white pen

Hot glue gun

Zig glue pen

3 torn orange fabric strips approximately 1″ wide for bows.

black barbed wire rope for hanging (this was purchased at the Dollar Store about two years ago but I’m sure it can be found elsewhere  OR use ribbon or twine!)

15 rust colored flat back beads 

Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Charcoal Black

Directions:

1.  First step is to ink the edges on all four sides of the 12″ x 12″ chipboard/cardboard base.  I inked on  the front approximately 1.5″ inches all the way around the top too.

2.  Lightly ink the edges of the tulle paper then glue it to the chipboard (doesn’t this paper look like vintage wall paper?)

3.  Ink the edges of the 8.5″ x 11″ black and white photo.  Lightly pull the ink into the photo to give a more distressed look.  Glue the photo down on an angle to the patterend paper covered chipboard.  Use the photo for placement.

4.  Using a hot glue gun, attach the off-white valance to the bottom of the chipboard. 

5.  Using a hot glue gun, attach the barbed wire rope or ribbon to the backside at the top of the chipboard to form a hanger.

6.  Tear a flap off of a cardboard box and then tear to size to form a sign to attach to the bottom of the wall hanging.  A 4″x6″ is the approximate size of the cardboard used on my project. Ink the edges to distress.

7.  Tear a piece of off-white fabric in approximately a 1/2-1″ wide strip to wrap around the cardboard and tie in a knot – unravel the ends and edges of the fabric to make it more weathered.  You can also use an actual ace bandage, gauze or bandaid on the sign.

8.  Attach the key to the wire ring and thread through the knot wrapped around the cardboard.

Cricut Cuts:

1. Using the October 31st Cricut Cartridge cut out the spider web and spider.  The spider web was cut at 4″ using the Coordinations black shimmer paper (the shimmery silver/gray side) and then the spider using the Coordinations black glitter paper cut at 2″.  Attach the spider web to the top right corner of the photo. Set the spider aside for a few minutes…

2. Using Lyrical Letters Cricut Cartridge select the “Loop Dee Loo” font and cut out the word “Shriek”  at 2.5′.  Cut one time from a cereal box (or thin chipboard), then cut the letters “S, h, i, k and !” from the  black cardstock and again with the orange glitter paper.  Ink the fronts and edges of the chipboard letters.  Stack the letters with the chipboard on the bottom.  Glue the black letters to the tops of the chipboard and then off set  the orange glitter paper letters to the tops of the black layered letters so that a bit of the black shows a bit on the edges of the letters.  Glue to the top of the photo.  Use the photo above  for placement.

3.  Using the Happy Haunting Cricut Cartridge cut out seven bats using bat 1 and bat 2 in the Happy Haunting handbook.  Cut bat 1 in the following sizes:  2 1/2″, 3″, 3 1/2″, 4″ (2x).  Each bat was cut once using a cereal box for extra stability and then again using the cardstock. Cut bat 2 in the following sizes:  1 1/4″, 1 3/4″, 2″ (cut this one 3x once from each paper – glitter, shimmer and black)  Each bat was made using the Co’ordinations black shimmer and black glitter.  The solid black was the back side of the black shimmer paper.  Mix and match your layers of bats so that you have a variety made up using the three paper colors – glitter, shimmer and solid black.  Adhere the bat layers matching up the sizes.  The biggest bat which is bat 2 cut at 2″ has three layers.  I glued only the body of all three together and folded the wings forwarded to give a fluttering appearance.   Add white gel pen dots and dashes and a white dot for the eyes on each bat. 

4.    Using the Happy Haunting Cricut Cartridge cut out the letters “got Bats?” with the “Spooky Font.”  Cut at 1.5″ with black cardstock for the base and then orange glitter paper.  Glue the  orange glittered letters by off-setting slightly so that there is a bit of a black border showing around the edges.  Glue to the cardboard sign with the word “Bats?” attached to the bandage strip.

5.  Attach the spider to the top left corner of the chipboard above the letter “S”.

6.  Tie two orange bows to the barbed wire rope hanger and then make a third bow and glue to the lower left corner of the valance.

7.  Using a hot glue gun, glue the cardboard, “got bats?” sign to the bottom of the photo so that it covers part of the valance – see photo for placement.

8.  Attach the bats to the valance by using either glue dots of a hot glue gun.  I used a hot glue gun.  Because the fabric is so flimsy and light,make sure to do this on top of a heat resistant mat, wax paper or a scrap of paper because the glue does seep through the fabric -use glue sparingly! I added little dots  of hot glue here and there to the backside of the bats.  Make sure your fabric doesn’t bunch up when adding the glue so that it hangs evenly.  Add the largest bat to the barbed wire rope.

9.  Add three sets of five rust/orange colored flat beads to the edges of the photo.

10.  Hang in your bathroom for some eerie decor or anywhere you want to add a few spooky giggles to your home! 

So I suppose you are wondering where I found this spooktacular photo of the bat in the toilet?  This is a photo from our cabin in Upper Michigan that we found one day two summers ago when we stopped in on our way to a weekend in Traverse City, MI.  My husband went in the bathroom to check things out and came out SHRIEKING, “Whatever you do DON’T go in the bathroom!”   Of course, curiousity got the best of me so I peeked and then squealed as I ran back to our truck to find my camera!  The whole time I kept thinking this is going to make one heck of a scrapbook layout or project!  I have used this photo in Halloween cards and now this layout… but I’ve got plenty more things in mind! *wink*

I hope you enjoyed and are feeling inspired enough to enter this month’s challenge now! 

Olive Halloween crafts, don’t you?

xKim