BOO! Halloween Wall Panel

BOO! Halloween Wall Panel by Steph Ackerman

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​Hi everyone, Steph Ackerman here today and I've got a new Spooky project to share for Makin's Clay®.

​Supplies:

​ Makin's Clay® - Black, Brown, White, Earth Tones
​ Makin's ProfessionalⓇ Ultimate Clay MachineⓇ
​ Makin's ProfessionalⓇ Cutting Mat
​ Makin'sⓇ Clay Cutters - Rectangles, Halloween Set
​ Beacon Adhesives - 3-in-1
​ Mod Podge clay mold
​ Memento Fireworks Shimmery Craft Sprays
​ Sizzix dies
​ Burlap Panel
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Instructions:


​Start by spritzing the panel with assorted colors of Fireworks Inks.  I started with lighter colors then realized I wanted a darker effect so I added a darker blue and gray.
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Begin by conditioning the white, black and brown clays.  Then place each individually in the clay machine at the highest setting.  Reduce the setting on each pass until you have the thickness you need for your project.
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As I was creating a Halloween scene, I die cut a haunted house from the black clay.  To be sure the clay did not stick to my die, I place the clay between wax paper and then ran it through my die cut machine.  Although still damp, it die cut beautifully. 

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Picking up the left over black clay, I mixed it with some white clay and again ran it through the clay machine until I had a mottled effect.  I then die cut the roof of the house and placed it atop the main image. 
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As the clay was still damp/fresh, no glue was needed to adhere the pieces.​

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​Next, I die cut 2 trees using another Sizzix die.  Again, I placed the clay between wax paper so it would not stick to the die.                           

Once all my elements were ready, I started creating a spooky scene.  I began by adhering some torn strips of paper across the panel then put the trees in place.  Realizing I wanted fence posts, I used the left over black and white clay and die cut the fences.  I also had left over brown clay so I free hand cut a sign.  Using the small pumpkin cutter, I created several pumpkins, used a craft stick to create texture, then spritzed each with Fireworks Craft Sprays.  They were placed around the sign onto which I added letters spelling BOO.

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​Using the ghost clay cutter, I created a number of ghosts that I adhered to the panel.  In the upper corner I created a moon and placed a ghost on top. 

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The black cats are standing on the fence and the witch's hat is in the tree.  Yellow clay was added behind the house to simulate light in the windows then the house was adhered to the panel.  Using the remaining black and white clay panel, I used a rectangle cutter to create bricks for a walkway.

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​Hoping you have a Happy Halloween!

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​Thanks for stopping by.

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​Steph

Butterflies in Flight Wall Art

Design Team Member Leila Bidler recently shared this colorful Butterfly wall art made with Makin's Clay®.  Leila used a craft punch to cut butterflies from sheets of dry Makin's Clay®.  You can die cut sheets of dry Makin's Clay® too!

Summer is Better in Flip Flops

Design Team Member Steph Ackerman recently shared this cute mixed-media project.  Steph used Makin's Clay® and the Makin's® Sea Shells push mold to create the dimensional accents for her project.

Heart Wall Art

Design Team Member Steph Ackerman recently shared this pretty heart wall art.  Steph used Makin's Clay® to create the heart embellishments on her project. Makin's Clay® is the perfect choice for all sorts of mixed-media projects!

House Village

Create a happy little village of homes, insidea a home for your home, lol! I know it seem redundant, but you gotta admit it’s whimsical and fun to make. The tiny houses were made using a combination of Makin’s® rectangle and square cutters. Check out this tutorial to see how it all came together.   

Materials

• Makin's Clay®– White  
• Makin's®– Texture Sheet Set A, Cobblestone 
• Makin's Professional® Cutting Mat
• Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®
• Makin’s® Rectangle cutters
• Makin’s® Square cutters
• DecoArt® Americana® Acrylic paint - Calypso Blue, Warm White, Buttermilk Raw Umber 
• House substrate
• Glue

Instructions

First you need to get a house substrate. There are several makers of these house kits on the market. You can also make it out of plain cardboard. There are several tutorials on websites and YouTube that I’ve seen. If you don’t like a house shaped substrate, use a simple, small shadowbox.   

Assemble the house with glue.  

Paint the inside. I am going for blue sky background.

Work on the on the land that the mini houses will be sit on. The idea is to make houses on the side of a hill. The hill is made out of crafting foam that will be cut into step-like shape; houses will be place on each level. Using a regular knife or foam hot knife, cut the foam. The cutter gets hot and melt into the foam. 

Other ways to make the hill. Make it out newspaper by shaping into a hill and tape it down with masking tape. Using this same technique, make it out aluminum. 

Using the Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®, roll out a sheet of White Makin’s Clay® to the second 4^ththickest setting.

Texture the clay with Makin’s® cobblestone sheet from Texture Sheet Set A.

Apply glue to the entire front side of the foam.

Drape the clay over the foam. Let it cure for 24 hours. Do not cut the excess clay off.; the clay tends shrink a little bit after it dries; you risk leaving exposed spots if it’s cut before it’s cured. The excess can easily be cut after it cures. 

After the clay cures, cut the excess clay off with scissors.

Roll out a desired thick piece sheet of white clay for houses. Cut out rectangle shapes using rectangle cutters.

Using the rectangle cutters, cut out the rooftop by placing a corner of the square cutter over the middle of rectangle and push down to cut.

Make little windows and doors with a stylus or other clay shaping tools. Let the clay cure for 24 hours. 

Now we are going to paint the houses. Because these houses are tiny, they are little hard to get a hold with your finger and paint; no worries, use masking to aid you with this task. Roll up masking tape with sticky side up, adhere to the surface, and then adhere the houses to it. Paint the houses. Here I used a combination of DecoArt Craft paints Buttermilk and Warm White.

Paint the rooftops red. Paint the windows and doors with a dark brown, Raw Umber or black. Paint the foam/clay hill, created earlier.  Adhere with glue onto the house substrate. Now you have a little happy village.

Hummingbird Canvas

Hummingbird Canvas by Steph Ackerman

Do you have an item you wish you could recreate?  My mother had a hummingbird magnet that I loved.  So I decided to create a mold of the magnet and then use Makin's Clay® to create my own hummingbird.

Supplies:

Makin's Clay® - White 

Makin's ProfessionalⓇ Cutting Mat

Beacon Adhesives - 3-in-1

Imagine Fireworks! Sprays

The Crafter's Workshop Stencils
Amazing Mold Putty

Canvas

Molding Paste

Instructions:

To create a mold of the magnet, I used Amazing Mold Putty.  Once it was conditioned, I pushed the magnet into the putty.  Letting it sit for an hour or so, I ended up with a fun, detailed mold that I can reuse as often as I want!

I used white Makin's Clay® in the mold.  Don't you love all the details it picked up from the mold?





Because I wanted to paint my hummingbird in assorted colors, I let the hummingbird piece dry for several hours.

Using assorted Fireworks! from Imagine, I started by painting the lighter colors on my mold.  Once the mold dried, I painted additional darker colors.   Once it was painted, I placed it aside to work on the canvas.

To prepare the canvas, I first painted it with black gesso.  I wanted the colors I used to really stand out.   Next, I used a word stencil with Imagine's Creative Medium in Gold to add "Imagine" to the bottom of the canvas.

Next, I placed a floral stencil above the word and used molding paste for dimension.  I also placed this aside to dry completely.

Once the molding paste was dry, I masked off the lower portion of the canvas.  Then I put the stencil back in place and added colors using Fireworks! sprays.

 

Once the canvas dried, I used Beacon Adhesive to add the hummingbird.  So it sits nestled amongst a bunch of flowers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mixed-Media Sign

Design Team Member Steph Ackerman recently shared this mixed-media sign here on her blog.  She created her decorative flower embellishments with Makin's Clay! 

DARE Wall Art

Design Team Member Steph Ackerman recently shared this decorative wall plaque highlighting her word of the year - DARE!  Steph used Makin's Clay® and the Floral Push Mold to create one of the embellishments for her project.

Silver Lining Assemblage

Hello Makers!

I am fond of quotes and words in art. The idiom “Every cloud has a silver lining” goes back to around 1634. The meaning to this phrase …there is hope in a difficult situation. Today we still use this phrase and still manages to motivate me when I see in writing or think of it. This assemblage celebrates this very old, but still relevant phrase; made using Makin’s Clay® and a wooden substrate. 

Materials:

Makin's Clay® - White
Makin's® 

• Clay Tools - Roller 
• Water Drop Clay Cutters 

Makin's Professional® 

• Cutting Mat
• Ultimate Clay Machine™

White Gesso
Acrylic Paints: Blue or Aqua, Gray, Payne’s Gray, Titanium White, Titan Buff
DecoArt® Frost White Metallic Lustre™ Wax
DecoArt® Craft Twinkle Gel Silver Glitter
Baroque Gilders Iris Blue Paste
Wooden shallow cradled substrate (7 in. x 5 in.)
Tracing paper
Stylus
Micron Permanent Fine tip ink pen (.05 mm)

Instructions:

I used the lid of a cigar box measusing 7 in. X 5 in. I primed the lid with gesso. Then painted it with Payne’s Gray, light blue, Titan Buff, and Titanium white. I used Payne’s Gray as the undercolor because it make the brighter colors standout and left parts of it to simulate darker areas of a stormy sky.

I first drew my design on tracing paper to determine size and placment of the various pieces. Using the illustrations on the paper, I traced my design onto the clay with a stylus, then I cut the clay.  I like to use tracing paper because later on when I need to determine lettering position relative to the the clouds I can see through the paper.

Cut out a piece of tracing paper to fit the inside the of the box and stamp the words on tracing paper as well.

Draw the design. Use the smallest Water Drop clay cutter to trace the drops.

Roll white clay through the Ultimate Clay Machine™ on setting #1. Use these sheets for the clouds. Or you can roll out clay using a roller.  Trace the clouds onto the clay using a stylus or something pointy but not sharp.

Stamp the words. Use the stamped words on the tracing paper as your guide. An alternative is to stamp the words first, then trace the clouds over the words. The tracing paper allows you to see words on the clay. I made clouds using both methods and both work equally well.

Cut the clay. Then smooth out the edges.  

Cut out the drops using Makin’s Clay Water Drop cutter.  Stamp the words “has a” on the water drop cut outs. Let the clay dry for 24 hours.

Paint all the pieces using Titanium white acrylic paint. Use a permanent ink fine tip black pen to paint in the letters. I used a Micron pen .05 tip. 

Rub on DecoArt® Frost White Metallic Lustre Wax with your fingers or use cotton cloth on the cloth.  For the water drops use DecoArt® Frost White as well as Gilder’s Paste Blue Iris. Use Blue on the sides and a little in front; ensuring to blend both colors. Making the sides darker gives the water drops more dimension.

Add glitter around the edge of the clouds. Can’t have a quote about silver lining without bling.

Then glue all your pieces to substrate.

Here are some close up pictures.