Yes there’s more! Continuing with ideas from our recent halloween design session, we’re dishing out extra tricks and treats wrapped in a deep moody palette of blood reds and black. These rich shadowy hues are mysteriously enchanting while haunting.
Potions abound, curing most any unnatural condition! With a little color magic new or recycled clear glass apothecary bottles are cloaked in Flat Black with Clear Finish Matte or misted in Glossy Wood Tone. Vintage style clip art downloaded from the internet labels the elixir. Mist Glossy Wood Tone on the bright white printed paper to antique the label then adhere to the bottles with Tack 2000.
Feel like you’re being watched? A dried seed pod from a tropical plant becomes host to eerie eyeballs in this unnerving centerpiece straight from the Little Shop of Horrors. Flat Black colors it then lightly brushed with lacquer thinner weathers its look. (Just For Flowers Thicket is an alternative colorant.) A brown maché tray houses the fresh flower design.
Twilight, that time of day-meets-night, engenders the deep tones of this bouquet. Its large glass urn transformed in color and patina… complete with blood stains… transports us into the enclave of vampires! Basecoat the urn in Flat Black then layered with Super Silver applied in the water resist technique. Blood stains are created with Just For Flowers Black Cherry applied in spots using the water resist method and spraying more water on fresh Black Cherry to create runs. Live oak branches are misted with Ink for a deep-in-the-night effect.
Display accessories detail a story. Here the dark side of aviary study is revealed in a restyled birdcage colored in Just For Flowers Purple Pansy with random bursts of Super Silver. Books used for elevation are redressed in paper covers painted Flat Black and titled with a metallic pen. Warlock journals are fashioned by adhering low profile shapes onto old books. Dots of hot glue edge the cover and swirls decorate the spine. Then a sheet of aluminum foil is randomly colored with Dark Chocolate and Glossy Wood Tone. The backside of the foil is sprayed with TACK 2000 then gently laid over the book cover, pressing down and around the figures. To highlight the relief patterns spray Glossy Wood Tone into the tip of a paper towel then lightly rub color off. Respray the paper towel and wipe as needed. Also dab color off/on flat areas to blend and age.
Vintage style jack-o-lanterns use a similar foil treatment except the color is applied in the water resist method with Orange then Just For Flowers Tiger Lily. Clear glass apothecary jars become ghostly vessels decorated in a salt-blast look using baking soda and Clear Finish Matte.
Culminating Halloween festivities is the celebration of Día de los Muertos! Sugar skulls and heritage blossoms in colors of sunflower yellow, marigold orange and cock’s comb red echo Day of the Dead traditions. A clear glass vase enriched in a silver patina was quickly and easily applied with the water resist technique using Super Silver.
You must have surmised… Shannon and I ❤️ HALLOWEEN! As Norman Bates from the movie Psycho observed… “She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?”
…Enjoy the madness of Halloween, Design Master friends!
