That's Crafty!: Hallowe’en Tombstone by Moira Sutton

Happy Hallowe’en everyone, hope you are planning lots of spooky going ons. For my make I have a That’s Crafty! Upright which as soon I saw I thought would make a great tombstone for tonight’s festivities.

That’s Crafty! Surfaces MDF Upright - Arch

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics – Green Gold, Raw Umber, Pyrole Orange, Quinacridone Burnt Orange

DecoArt Media – Gesso, Crackle Glaze, Modelling Paste in white and black, Gel Medium

DecoArt - Texture Crackle

Dina Wakley - Glazing Medium

Finnabair Art Ingredient Glass Beads – Zinc

Finnabair Art Alchemy Metallic Paints – Black Berry and Steampunk Copper

DecoArt Metallic Lustre – Silver and Black Shimmer

Black Pen

Assorted Hallowe’en themed embellishments and chipboard letters from stash

I started with gluing my text letters onto the rounded “tombstone”.

The date by the way is the death of Edgar Alan Poe, rather appropriate I thought. Next I added a coat of Modelling Paste leaving obvious palette knife marks to give the MDF an aged stone feel leaving the letters untouched and when dry gave the plaque and the stand a light coat of Gesso and I glued the two parts together.

Next came a coat of Green Gold to the front and back.

When dry I added a mix of 505 Raw Umber and 50% Glazing Medium and left for 3 minutes and checked how wet it still was.

The timing is tricky in that it is affected by how hot the room is, how thick the glaze etc. You are looking for it to be so you can wipe it off but need to use pressure to do so, this means it sticks in nooks and crannies and creates shadows. Next I added the cat using the Dinky Stencil and the Texture Crackle poking the crackle while wet to get spiky “fur” kind of look. When dry I painted it with the two shades of orange paint.

I later drew in eyes, nose and whiskers to complete it. I also added a few bats front and back using the black Modelling Paste and That’s Crafty! Dinky Stencil.

I painted the letters in Steampunk Copper and outlined them in black pen

Now I started on the coffin, again a coat of gesso and then a coat of the Prima paint. I added the spider web stencil using the black Modelling Paste in three places and when dry brushed a little of the silver Metallic Lustre over. To complete it I added a thick coat of the Clear Crackle Glaze.