Through the Keyhole - Who Lives in a House Like This? by Helen Pigott

Today I've gone spooky!

I have decorated an acrylic album using some super products.

Below I have added lots of photographs to show the steps 

I have taken to get my finished result.

What I did:

This album is all about layers. I started at the back and worked forward so my first stage was to stencil the male skeleton and dog onto white card and trim it to fit the album cover.

On the next page I stuck on the stencil of the female skeleton with the cat using strong double sided tape. The stencil will cover the book ring holes, I used a craft knife with a new blade to cut these as the stencil material is hard to cut through.

You can see the start of how the album will look once all the layers are finished.

On the next page I added the cobwebs and spiders. The cobwebs are stamped with StazOn and the spiders are rub-ons. The cobweb stamp I used is from a set by Dylusions and comes with a cobweb stencil.

On the last page (or first page depending on how you are working) I stamped a cheeky little spider from PaperArtsy and painted him using Fresco paints, this is also a good page to add any other images/rub-ons to fill any little gaps that have appeared.

This now completes the inside of the album.

I started decorating the album cover by painting it with the Dina Wakley paint, 'Blackberry'

I wanted to  make a frame around the keyhole so I took a long strip of calico and cut it into thin lengths.

To keep the calico in shape I used the Prima Finnabar Art Extravagance Sculpture Medium. I highly recommend using gloves at this stage as the medium is very messy.

Once dry the calico formed a stiff frame which fit perfectly around the keyhole.

Next I painted the calico in the same paint as the cover.

Once the cover was dry I attacked it with heat embossing powders. I used a complete variety of makes and colours (it is very easy at this stage to get carried away!) I was after a good coverage in all the nooks and crannies around the calico.

When I had finished with the heat embossing I gave the cover a really good brush, the powders can easily get caught up in all the tiny spaces and I find it really annoying when bits fall off.

I painted and added some glitter to some adornments by 13 Arts.

I stuck these in place and finished off the cover with Shiny Powder and Micro Beads also by 13 Arts.

My last job was to assemble the album as above. You could add fibres and ribbons to the book rings to add a bit more texture or colour or simply leave them as they are.

What I used:
That's Crafty! Surfaces Acrylic/MDF Book - Keyhole Cover
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paint - Black
That's Crafty! Surfaces Mixed Media Paper/Card Kit
Dylusions Stamp and Stencil Set - Cobweb - Small
StazOn Solvent Ink Pad - Jet Black
PaperArtsy Cling Mounted Stamp Set - ElenaZinski Art - ZA16
Seth Apter Baked Texture
STAMPENDOUS! Frantage Embossing Enamel
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rubs - Gothic
Artistcellar Stencil - Danse Macarbe Series - Online
Artistcellar Stencil - Danse Macarbe Series - Housework
13 Arts Craft Adornments - Insects
13 Arts Shiny Powder - Red Blue
Prima Art Ingredients Micro Beads
Prima Finnabair Art Extravagance Sculpture Medium - Neutral Beige
Rangers Stickles Glitter Glue - Cranberry
Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paint - Blackberry - 1oz
Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paint - Ruby - 1oz
Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paint - Lemon - 1oz

I hope you have as much fun making your album as I had making mine, these would make fabulous albums for Christmas too.