The Black Cat Carnival - Part II

Previously I wrote about creating my Black Cat Carnival inspired by Laura Carson's Halloween Event. You can find my first post about my project HERE where I described how I made my Steampunk Airship.

Today I'll give you a bit more information on how I made the Carnival Entrance and Ticket Machine.

The Entrance:

I wanted to display a banner of the name of my Carnival, so I painted two wooden skewers silver and used E6000 glue to attach them on a wooden stand. Two silver bead caps were slid on top of each and I printed out my banner with two of Laura's scaredy cats on each side. I coloured it in with Copics. Underneath the banner I wanted to add two more of Laura's images; her black cats and moons were perfect for my theme! I also used her cat balloon images, printed them out and added Glossy Accents to make each one shiny. I wrapped wire around each and tied the bundle to the handles of the bike. The "Balloons" sign is also hers; I simply attached it to a black-inked toothpick and wired it to the bike too.

The Penny-Farthing was made from a tiny red bicycle ornament I found at Michael's (yep, in the Christmas section!). It had a regular sized front wheel, so I snipped it off and inserted a metal key ring I had in my stash - first wrapping it with wire for the spokes. Again, E6000 glue came to the rescue to attach the new wheel, after which the whole thing was coloured black with some alcohol ink.

The Ticket Machine:

I really went to town to try to create a Steampunk style ticket machine... Steampunk is all about the gears, pipes, metal rivets and mechanical devices that still retain a Victorian look. In the early 1800s, Charles Babbage (the father of the modern-day computer) designed the first computing machine, which is why I named mine "The Babbage Mechanical Ticket Machine".

I started off by pulling out a vintage metal clock piece I've had since I made my Steampunk sculpture last year. I liked the fact it had three "windows" and lots of places for rivets and gears... so this became the front of my machine. I realize it's not in scale with my Steampunk Airship, but that would have been way too tiny to create all the details I wanted. I cut seven pieces of white foamboard; four for the walls, a base, a roof and a small part for the sign on top. 

I slid a piece of clear plastic underneath the faceplate and poured Glossy Accents into each window, and set it aside to dry. Now I could place instructions behind each opening, so I printed off three steps a Carnival-goer would need to perform to retrieve their ride ticket and taped them to the back.

I used good old E6000 again (notice the new tube... um, yeah) to attach brads to gears, gears to the faceplate along with steam tubes, rivets and watch parts. After building the box from foam core, I cut different sized squares of metallic adhesive tape and layered the entire box in silver. Then I attached the faceplate and inserted the handle on the side.  I added rivets to the box by first poking a needle through and then inserted metallic brads into the pilot holes - easy!

Wow, now that's a messy desk...

The roof and base were added last, with more gears and metal bits decorating the machine's sign.

Okay, I must confess this took awhile to make; each night after work I did a bit so it could dry between steps - but it was totally fun to do!

Up next: The Carousel that used to be a photo holder. Honest.

The Black Cat Carnival

I knew after watching Laura Carson's Halloween Carnival videos, that I wanted to make something similar and participate in her Event Challenge and Giveaway. If you haven't read her post, I would highly recommend you visiting to see all her wonderful creations.

Weeks ago I started thinking about what my Halloween Carnival theme would be. As I am surrounded by all things Victorian and rusty industrial goodness, it should come as no surprise that I love Steampunk. Yep... I so enjoy movies like Hugo, Around The World In 80 Days, The Time Machine, Sherlock Holmes (um, RDJr... hello!), Sky Captain and Lemony Snicket to name a few. So the idea of a Steampunk-themed carnival was born - but to link it to Halloween, it would also be a Black Cat Carnival.

Yep. Black Cats and Steampunk - makes sense, no? ;)

So I began pulling together all kinds of gears, wire, gadgets and tiny metallic thingamabobs that I could use. A few trips to Goodwill, Michael's and even Home Depot helped supply and inspire.

Here's a shot of my carnival so far; it includes a welcome banner entrance with balloon sales on a penny-farthing bicycle, a hot air steamship, a mechanical ticket dispenser and a swing ride carousel ride. The great thing about this project is that I know I will be adding to it this year and I can continue to expand on it year after year.

The first item I made was the hot air balloon ride - a Steampunk Airship made from a light bulb. I have JoJo to thank for bringing this idea to my attention - she made a wonderful light bulb craft a few weeks back. Now I have never, ever taken apart a bulb before, so off I went to YouTube to learn the tricks. It was easier than I thought! In mere minutes, I dissected two light bulbs without any bloodshed - yes, two; in case I damaged one. I sanded down any sharp edges and kept the metal base of the bulb for the airship's "basket".

Since it was Steampunk, I used chain, silver brads and metallic tape to decorate. E6000 glue was great to attach the chain and brads to the glass.

It also held the stakes in the base so the airship would "float" above ground "held down" by its restraining ropes.

Glossy Accents also proves useful to hold things in place

Aleene's Tacky glue attached sage, green and yellow Flowersoft for a grassy effect.

The chain attaching the balloon to the basket was kept stiff with a good slathering of E6000; otherwise it wouldn't "float" like I wanted. A few metal clock bits made a funky prop and brads with metal wings were added for decoration.

The "ropes" holding the balloon down were painted white and the wood coloured with Copics. I covered the Lemax Halloween guidepost and black cat with my own sign and a pointing hand brad.

After I finished it, wouldn't you know I found an even larger rounder bulb at Goodwill for 49 cents. So I do believe a second airship may be on its way...

Up next: how I made the Ticket Machine, Balloon Bike and Entrance.

Also sharing with Tee's Halloween Linky Party!

Halloween Apothecary - Part Six

Welcome to the final post on this project!

If you've missed any of the previous installments, here are direct links:

Halloween Apothecary - Part One

Halloween Apothecary - Part Two

Halloween Apothecary - Part Three

Halloween Apothecary - Part Four

Halloween Apothecary - Part Five

Okay, on to the last photos to share with you. The center portion of the cabinet is topped with a large wooden scroll with a black bat propped in the middle. On each side I placed two very cool dragon chess pieces; found at the thrift store, they were the perfect addition to the decor. Below these I hung two "lanterns". Actually they are charms to which I added a piece of orange glue for a "light". At the bottom of each is a hanging bat (if they're hard to see, click to biggify the photo). Oh, and amongst the potions is a furry lab pet - can you spot him?

Sixteen potion bottles (not including the glitter ones pre-filled and labelled) were added to the shelves of this section. You'll notice I added a ruler to the first photo, just a reminder of how tiny these things are!

Draught Of Living Death - Alcohol hand sanitizer once again this time with pink Copic refill ink.  I topped this bottle with a clear pink bead.
Dragon Heartstring - A few lengths of blue glitter wire.
Polyjuice Potion - Straight out of Harry Potter; a vile drink to turn you (temporarily) into someone (or something) else. Brown ink diluted with hand sanitizer.
Frog Part Mixture - Again, Glossy Accents poured onto my craft sheet in various shapes, left to dry then dyed with green alcohol ink.

Three Witches Venom - Orange alcohol ink and alcohol sanitizer.
Vampire Ashes - Good thing I didn't completely clean out our fireplace - yes, those are REAL ashes. Of the wood kind, thankfully.
Elixir - a two toned liquid of alcohol ink and alcohol sanitizer - I just didn't mix it up, leaving it layered for a neat effect.
Felix Felicis - "Liquid Luck" from Harry Potter. Gold glitter added to the sanitizer, Stickles added to the label and a bit of bling from an old earring make this a very glitzy potion for sure.

Worm Ducts - Imagine having a plastic envelope with micro beads of all colours. Then imagine you ONLY want the yellow and clear ones... yeah. I did that. Spent quite awhile picking out just those ones to add to this bottle. Then I sculpted a little worm for the top. Coloured him yellow with Copics, added two little black eyes, then glued him to the cork.
Three Potions - The silver tray holds three special bottles. They all have real Swarovski crystals for stoppers! I bought them in a bead store at the Mall of America (where I also picked up the crow, bat and dragon beads). Each bottle has a variation of the same alcohol ink/sanitizer solution in various colours.

Eye Of Newt - What exactly does a newt's eye look like? Well, I Googled it and yep, they are yellow with a band of gray. So I rolled out some Sculpey, baked them and coloured each one in with Copics. Then I covered each with Glossy Accents to make them shiny.
Hemlock Root - Real roots from small plants in my yard. Maybe not hemlock... er, thank goodness.
Wolfsbane Potion - This milky blue solution was vital to Professor Lupin in Harry Potter - a werewolf who kept his transformations at bay with this elixir.
Pepperup Potion - Another Harry Potter potion used for simple recovery from colds. Red alcohol ink, Glossy Accents and hand sanitizer is the recipe for this one.

Bezoars - Harry saved Ron's life with one of these; a poison antidote that looks like small rocks. I made the 1" by 2" box from an old toothpaste carton, after tearing off the printed layer. Tissue paper lines the inside. I inked and distressed the box and added two inked labels.

I also mentioned at the beginning of this series that the four drawers were lined with Halloween paper and did indeed have items in them. I thought I would also show you... here are the extra potion labels and a small folder with the tiny spider I made from wire and black alcohol ink.

So I guess that's it! If you have any questions, please ask! I hope you enjoyed this extremely lengthy series. My thanks to Laura at Artfully Musing for her inspiration and wonderful tutorials; without which I never would have attempted such a project.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Apothecary - Part Five

Well, today's post won't be too long, as there is less to talk about on the right side of the apothecary cabinet.

Here are links to the first four parts to this story:


Halloween Apothecary - Part One

Halloween Apothecary - Part Two

Halloween Apothecary - Part Three 

Halloween Apothecary - Part Four


I have already explained how I made the teenie set of scales... the only other items on the top of this part include two more antique bottles and another small dragon bead that was repainted - it used to be a gaudy green and yellow.

The hook on this side holds a sprig of thyme. I wanted some drying herbs, so I pinched a small bit from my plant on the deck and wound a piece of baker's twine around it (after colouring orange with Copics) and hung it from the Tim Holtz fastener re-formed into a hook.

There are only 8 bottles in this section that are labelled and filled:

Wool Of Bat - Yep, that's real wool alright - however, it's sheep, not BAT wool... from dear Sarah at Punkin's Patch.
Flesh Eating Slug Repellant - Another Harry Potter reference... Hagrid always had a good supply on hand. This was the first potion I mixed up; alcohol hand sanitizer with green alcohol ink.
Snakeskin - Okay, it's actually glue imprints of MY skin. As I was adhering labels and getting really messy, I thought it would be cool to peel off my fingerprints in the dried glue for some neat effects.
Bubotuber Pus (Undiluted) - Simply alcohol sanitizer and orange alcohol ink.

The final four in this part:

Bat Spleen - This time I poured small drops of glue on my Ranger craft mat and let them dry overnight. Then I inked them with their Eggplant dye, rolled them up and popped them into this tall tube.
Griffin Bone - Being a Gryffindor at Pottermore, I wanted to make this ingredient extra special. So I added a crystal to the silver-painted cork and filled the bottle with Martha Stewart Extra Fine White Glitter. Love the shimmer!
Purple Potion - a mysterious concoction in a real laboratory 10ml flask. A mixture of alcohol sanitizer and purple Copic refill ink.
Witches Brew - I added a silver base to this bottle and adhered a metallic marble for the stopper. Black and silver acrylic paint was layered on the inside and also painted for a striped effect on the drip making its way down the outside of the bottle.


One more post to go to complete this project... up next, the center section.

Halloween Apothecary - Part Four

In case you missed them, here are direct links to:

Halloween Apothecary - Part One

Halloween Apothecary - Part Two

Halloween Apothecary - Part Three

Today I'll be showing a close up of the left side of my Apothecary cabinet with details of the potion bottles stored in this section. The top is decorated with a small dragon bead I got while in the US over the summer. I painted it black and silver and attached it with E6000 glue. Next to it is my teenie home-made hourglass, two antique bottles and a set of three black candles (simply birthday candles cut down and glued to a painted bottlecap for a base). On the side I glued another Tim Holtz fastener (the same kind I used for the drawers) and opened the ring to create a hook, from which I hung a string of chain. The only other non-bottle item in this section is a very small birdcage; a charm I added a new handle to, then used black alcohol ink to age and distress.

Okay, on to the potions. I've removed the bottles from the cabinet for a clearer view. Most liquid contents are a combination of liquid alcohol hand sanitizer, alcohol inks for colour (Ranger or Copic refillers), paint or Glossy Accents glue. Of the 15 potion bottles in this section (not including the four empty ones in the crate), 12 are filled with different items to reflect the label attached. Remember to click to biggify all these images.

First we have

Toe Of Frog - I used Scupley to create the "toes" and added hand sanitizer coloured green with alcohol ink.
Sliced Caterpillar - Again, Sculpey was rolled into a log shape and cut, cooked and coloured with Copics.
Coffin Nails - Toothpicks cut to size, painted black and silver.
Amortentia - a love potion from Harry Potter. Hand sanitizer and Glossy Accents mixed together. I added part of a heart earring for a charm.

Essence of Dittany - a small leaved plant, covered in Glossy Accents to preserve it.
Professor Slughorn's Tincture No. 1 Swelling Solution - Harry Potter's Potions teacher's own recipe. Actually, it's simply alcohol sanitizer coloured orange...
Blood - that's a real lab flask, but the blood's not real... ;) It's pure alcohol ink.
Tincture of Hemlock - pure black alcohol ink and some cotton for "vapors".

This set includes:

Wartcap Powder - simply ground pepper.
Scaredy Cat Whiskers - donated by each of my three felines - yep, those are real! I loved Laura Carson's idea for the cork decor - two black cat stickers sandwich a pin inserted into the cork.
Skele-Gro - from Harry Potter, an important potion to regrow bones. I used a Tim Holtz bottle of wishbones and added a solution of alcohol sanitizer and Glossy Accents for the milky white liquid. I also attached a skull charm to the string wrap.
Owl Feathers - well, okay. I don't actually OWN an owl (I wish!), so Meeka the lovebird supplied the feathers. I added an owl charm to this one as well as some silver Stickles to the label.

I found all these labels on the net and resized them as small as I could to fit these tiny bottles. I used Glossy Accents to adhere them after colouring with Copic markers or Distress Inks and markers.

Phew! Next up, the right side details...