Halloween Tray with Katelyn Grosart

Hey Southern Ridge Trading Company fans, Katelyn here to share with you a Halloween project using inspiration from our current monthly challenge which is "Fall".  When fall arrives, it comes with so many options of projects you can create and it also means that wearing scarves are a must. Halloween will be right around the corner so today I've got a Halloween Tray for you that I created for our past trade shows in Edmonton, Calgary and Olds . Grab a cup of coffee or tea as this post is photo heavy and I will share with you how I created my piece.

To start I used the Nine Hole Square Tray, which is bare wood and comes in two pieces, you'll want to cover the front, sides and one side of the back piece of the tray with two coats of Black Gesso. Once both layers of gesso are dry, apply a layer of VersaMark ink to the top piece of the nine hole square tray. Once the sides, top, bottom and middle strips of the front of the tray are covered with ink, sprinkle Aged Black Enamel embossing powder over the entire inked surface. Tap off the excess and emboss with a heat tool. Once the embossing powder has cooled down, take a piece of paper towel and varnish the powder.

Before adhering the top of the tray to the back of the tray, I took two pieces of paper from Tim Holtz's 8x8 Materialize paper stash. You will have to do a bit of measuring to make sure you cover the back of the unpainted side of the tray. Once your patterned pieces have been cut, adhere them to the unpainted side of the back tray. With the patterned paper adhered, adhere the front of your tray to the back of the tray, making sure that the embossed side stays showing.

With the base of the tray complete, it's time to move on to the decorating part. For the bottom left hand corner spray a piece of cheesecloth with Black Marble Dylusions Spray. For the monster, paint him with two coats of Carved Pumpkin paint. Once the paint has dried, ink around the edges of him with a blending tool and Black Soot Distress Ink. The ghost which is found in the Happy Halloween set, will need to be painted with two coats of white gesso and when it's dry, ink the edges with blending tool and Black Soot Distress Ink. Using Valencia Alcohol Ink, colour the pumpkin charm. For the two different bat charms, which can be found around the monster face, they need to be coloured using Pitch Black Alcohol Ink. The spider sitting behind the monsters face is embossed using Slicked Smoke embossing powder.  Once the cheesecloth is dry, adhere it in the bottom left hand corner. With the cheesecloth in place, start placing the monster face, spider, ghost, bat charms, pumpkin charm, pumpkins and skull charms overtop of the cheesecloth as desired.

In the middle bottom square, you'll add the Happy Halloween sentiment which is found in the Happy Halloween set. Carefully,  paint the Happy Halloween and pumpkin with two coats of Carved Pumpkin Distress Paint. For the ghosts, paint them with two coats of white gesso. Once the sentiment is dry, ink the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink and a blending tool. Adhere the Happy Halloween sentiment to the middle of the bottom middle square.

For the bottom right hand corner, the skeleton needs to be carefully painted with two coats of Twisted Citron Distress paint on his body. The skeleton's arms, leg and head need to be carefully painted with two coats of white gesso. Once the skeleton has dried, use Black Soot Distress Ink and a blending tool and ink the edges. For the spider, it's embossed using Slicked Smoke Embossing powder. The witch in the bottom left hand corner of the square, was painted with a coat of black gesso and then embossed using Onyx Frost embossing powder. For adhering the pieces, the spider is foam squared in the middle and the rest of the pieces are adhered using liquid glue. 

For the middle right square, you'll use a zombie. Paint the zombie with two coats of black gesso. Once the paint has dried, adhered the zombie to the middle right square on the right hand side. 

For the middle square in the middle row of the tray, you'll use the spider web from the Happy Halloween set. For the spider web,  paint one coat of black gesso on it and let it dry. Once the paint has dried, apply a layer of VersaMark Ink to the web. With the VersaMark ink on the spider web,  sprinkle Onyx Frost embossing powder overtop. Tap off the excess embossing powder and emboss with a heat tool.  On the spider charm,  use Pitch Black Alcohol Ink and randomly go overtop of it. For the pumpkin charm, it's coloured using Valencia Alcohol ink. When adhering the pieces to the middle square of the middle row, the spider web is foam squared.

The middle left hand square, has a zombie which is painted with two coats of Twisted Citron Distress Paint for his body and then is feet and head are painted with two coats of Black Gesso. Once the paint has dried, with a blending tool and Black Soot Distress Ink, ink the edges of the zombie. Adhere the zombie on the left hand side of the square.

In the top left hand corner you'll find a spider and a black cat. The spider is embossed using Slicked Smoke embossing powder. The cat is first painted with two coats of black gesso and once the gesso has dried, apply a layer of VersaMark ink to the cat. With the ink on the cat, sprinkle Onyx Frost embossing powder overtop. Tap off the excess embossing powder and emboss with a heat tool. Adhere the cat and spider to the top left corner square.

The top middle square is filled with a skeleton, a bat (which is found in the Happy Halloween set) and another zombie. The skeleton has it's body painted with two coats of Twisted Citron Distress Paint and his arms, legs and head painted with two coats of white gesso. Once the paint has dried, with a blending tool and Black Soot Distress Ink, ink the edges of the skeleton. For the zombie, he's been painted with two coats of black gesso. The bat has been painted in one coat of black gesso, once the gesso has dried, apply a layer of VersaMark to him and then sprinkle Onyx Frost embossing powder overtop. Tap off the excess embossing powder and emboss with a heat tool. Adhere the skeleton, zombie and bat to the middle top square. 

The last square to be decorated is the top right corner and for the top right hand corner I sprayed a piece of cheesecloth with Dylusions Spray in Black Marble. The tombstone will need a layer of VersaMark ink and once the layer of ink is on, sprinkle Hammered Metal embossing powder overtop. Tap off the excess and emboss with a heat tool. Once the embossing powder has cooled, go over the tombstone with Pitch Black Alcohol Ink on a applicator tool that has felt on it. Set the tombstone aside to dry.  While you still have the applicator tool out with the Pitch Black Alcohol Ink on it, ink up the small bat charm and the large bat charm. Set the charms aside to dry. The monster face was painted with two coats of Carved Pumpkin Distress Paint. Once the paint has dried, take a blending tool and Black Soot Distress ink and ink around the edges. For the spider, cover him in a layer of VersaMark ink and then sprinkle Slicked Smoke Embossing Powder overtop. Tap off the excess embossing powder and emboss with a heat tool. With all the elements ready to go, you'll need to adhere the cheesecloth first in the top right corner. Once the cheese cloth has been adhered, you can add the pumpkins, skull charms, bat charms, tombstone, monster face and spider to the square as desired. 

Here's my Halloween Tray all finished. The monsters (which will be a pack of 7), spiders and tombstone are all coming soon to the store soon.

Southern Ridge Trading Company Supplies Used:

- Nine Hole Square Tray

- Happy Halloween

- Spiders

- Tombstone

- Monsters 

- Dry Pumpkins

Other Supplies Used:

- Emerald Creek Craft Supplies: Skull Charms, Steampunk bat Charms, Bat Charms, Pumpkin Charms, Hammered Metal Embossing Powder, Onyx Frost Embossing Powder & Slicked Smoke Embossing Powder

- Tim Holtz for Ranger Ink: Distress Paint - Twisted Citron & Carved Pumpkin, Alcohol Ink: Valencia & Pitch Black, Distress Ink - Black Soot, Applicator Tool & Felt

- Dina Wakley for Ranger Ink: White & Black Gesso

- Dyan Reavley for Ranger Ink: Dylusions Spray - Black Marble

- Tim Holtz Idea-ology: 8x8 Paper Stash - Materialize

- Stampendous: Aged Black embossing enamel

- Misc: Cheesecloth

Remember to play along in the monthly challenge over on the Southern Ridge Trading Company blog. Each month enter for your chance to win 4 designs from the online store - chipboard.ca -$20 (before tax) retail value of YOUR OWN CHOOSING! 

Until Next Time!

-Katelyn