Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge ; Week #3 October Guest Designer for Spooky/Halloween...."Haunted?! Nonsense!"

     October is really flying past for me- I usually do 2 to 4 projects a month, but ended up with FIVE this month! Yet, here we are, already at Week #3 for me as Guest Designer for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. And I've made one of my most ambitious projects for this New SSS Monday Challenge, but it certainly is oh-so-much-fun to see your plans really work! The theme this time is "Spooky" or about "Halloween", and our family has always been a fan of haunted houses. I think we went through the FastPass at Disney World 3 times in one day for the Haunted Mansion & I'd have gone more if we didn't spread all our time out in all of the different Parks. I'm not one for extremely scary movies like our kids are, but I'm game to scare and be scared- within reason by kids' ages. When our kids were young, we would change our name for Halloween from "Larimore" to "Scarimore". We have an 1800's cemetery out the back, and scary trips were made when the boys were in their early teens, along with tall tales told while outside in a camping tent (The Amish Werewolf ...hilarious made-up stuff). I'd start buying bags of (chocolate- the good stuff) candy 2 months beforehand. One year, we went through 14 bags of candy in one night from so many kids from school coming to "Mrs, Larimore's house". Trick or Treating was done by the ChiefHubby & his Cousin-in-Law, Roy. They'd walk up and down the road with all the neighborhood kids hanging together in one big group. Every year, each house had their own particular treat: one gave out pop, another bags of cookies to eat, and by the time the kids all got back to their own houses, the 2 Dads were totally beat! lol! Oh yeah; it always RAINS. One or both nights. In their teen years; I BEGGED the HS Band kids (including our 2 Sons) to come
Tpaper our front yard, but never got it. All those kids have grown up and the ones who grew up in this HOA have moved, but there are several new young families once again. Sadly; last year was a bust. It's meant to be just a fun holiday with candy. And blast covid-19...I'm going to have candy to give out this year- even if I have to hand out packets of antibac wipes with !! My icing on the cake would be for my LA Dodgers to win a REPEAT!!

             That said... let's hit the photo trail and see what I did!

I put my materials photos first, but they're usually always taken last.

Very rarely am I able to stick with only the items I have planned to use.

I have old stacks of paper that are basically scraps such as the blue & brown stacks above.

The Tim Holtz stamp set shown here, was purchased specifically from Simon Says Stamp 

for this project. I had my eye on these even before I was asked to be Guest Designer

with a plan for a haunted house. I got them at a very good price!

Other SSS links to purchase are shown at the end of this post.

The ribbon came from scraps/stash, but seemed perfect for this!

The first thing to do was cut several layers of last year's TH Thinlits Die Haunted.

I ended up using 5 cuts for just the house alone.

In between 2 of the layers: I used the little outer plastic from a new set of  TH Thinlits.

It's the shipping plastic that is very thin, but also very cuttable with the thinlit dies.

I wanted to add a huge old, scary tree, so out came the favorite TH Bigz Branch Tree (retired).

I needed to cut out anything that would show in the windows. It would be in the way

of the lights to shine through- you'll see how in later finished photos.

Here is where I am deciding how to situate both house and tree so I can have room

for the 'arms' to go on either side of the Tag's hole. 

I ended up not using the large Etcetera enforcer circle, because it was already very thick.

Yes; I have a PLAN!

And rarely does it all go according to that Plan A. 

That's why we have Plans B, C, & D!

Here's where I have 2 house layers, foam, then another 2 house layers.

One final layer was in the very back of these 4- facing the opposite way-

to help deflect light back out toward the front. Seems silly, but it worked better.

Now for the 'arms' to make the Etcetera Tag into an interactive one.

I used a scoreboard to make one folded 'stick' of paper about 3/4 inch wide.

To make it firmer: I added a spare piece inside and liberal amounts of Glossy Accents.

GA hardens and it dries quickly.

Here's the bottom 2 layers of the house and you can see that last layer is facing opposite

just like in the first 2 layers.

THE THING ABOUT LAYERING: The layers do not always have to meet flush!

Sometimes, I like the look of roughly met up edges on an item (such as the gates on this

project) because it makes it look more distressed.

"Perfect" doesn't always need to be.

The 'arms' going in and out (or as they will standing up- up & down)

so they move easily yet can stay put on their own.

Here's the hard part: getting that lighting to stay flat enough in such a small space.

Less bulbs (if cut down) didn't shine through the windows as much,

so my struggle with the glue gun was VERY real... and annoying.

Glue guns and the words "easy to do" just do not ever get along in the same sentence;

let alone in the same CRAFT!

Where there is a will; there is a way! *evil cackling laughter*

The gates were a tad bit tough to cut so many layers,

but the effect of the texture and look of them finished is really COOL (in moho)!!

I did trim the Etcetera shelf pieces down to fit the tag.

Here's where the RAIN comes in!

Glossy Accents used VERY LIBERALLY gives the appearance of wet gate fencing!

The "Realtor Guy" has an English accent, so I used bricks on the road

in front of the residence. The TH 3D Impresslit Folder (with some Black Soot DI

spread on the paper indent side of the folder, gave me a nice roadway.

"To the MOON, Alice!" I had at least 2 different moons to choose from out of the 

TH Thinlit sets I wanted to use. I went with the full moon on the Gate Keeper die.

After I'd already added a backing of TH Halloween Wallpaper to the backside

where I wanted the battery switch for the lights to be hidden, I ended up going

from a small "pocket idea" to a full out buildup of mat boarding to match

the thickness of the pack. That was ok, though, since I was in LOVE with that

particular Wallpaper design and it ended up looking like a great place

to add a bit more of "Mr. Not-so-honest Realtor" in the larger stamp.

This was all part of the Plan A: cuts and cuts and cuts

to adhere together so that all the pieces could stand up and out as if part of a scene.

That, and I often layer things that move 

because they will get handled more by everyone and be strong/stiff for that.

Brings to mind my Dad's saying when we kids would stick out our hands

saying "Lemme SEE!" when we wanted a closer look at something he was holding.

His answer? "Ya see which you EYES, not which you HANDS!"

Miss that man so very much! 

I even added graves to the backyard.

Can't have Halloween without a PUMPKIN!!!

So I had that entire empty back and decided to use it!

Background Story to my Tag...

A very old house sat unused on an otherwise empty lot. In the light of only the full moon, one could not see the graves with fresh dirt mounds fronting them; located in the backyard. The lone tree on the property was old. scraggly, and seemed to move of its own accord. While the showing the place (from the gates at the roadway in front of the home, of course), the Realtor rattled on about how his own family had known the previous owners - without giving honest details, such as said previous family had been deceased for over 100 years to date. When the prospective buyers first arrived in town- via their 4 hour drive, to see the house that had been listed in their own town's newspaper; they'd overheard whispers of  words such as "ghost sightings" and "haunted" in connection to their intended designation. After Mr. Realtor finally wound down a bit,  the couple pounced on him their first question:

"Is is haunted?" to which Mr. Realtor answered with great aplomb in his English accent;

"HAUNTED?!? Nonsense!"

Wish I'd seen the glue strings before I took the pics, but...

Let's just call them SPIDER WEBS, ok??

I call this one the "Ghostbusters Ghost", lol

And there's that wet fence:

rough looking and old yet still in good shape.

I'm going to give this another try with a rusted gate at some time/project.

Now it's YOUR TURN!!

Join in on this Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge; Spooky/Halloween

 and YOU could be a WINNER of a 

OCTOBER is a great time to craft those colors before they fade away!

While I was busy making this, and blogging it; the ChiefHubby set up the camper with a lot of our 

Besties, along the Wabash River. It's not far, so I was able to go back and forth. The river was up very high- higher than I'd seen at that area for some time. We've had rain nearly every single day of October, so far. Crafting is best when it's raining and cold... and when the Crafter is a Fair Weather Camper.

Our group of Besties (not all of them) getting warmer.

Sunset looking west...

...and the nearly full Hunter's Moon (just 4 days after this photo)

mirrored on the bloated and muddy Wabash River- looking East.

So much rain means the trees on our lake are barely turning yet.

MAYBE we can hope for a DRY Halloween for once??

ONE more GUEST DESIGNER SPOT to go!!

Until then...

Stay Safe &

HAPPY BLOGGING!!

Links will take you to the products used for this project: found  at 

SIMON SAYS STAMP

by clicking on the photo or on titles. 

                                             Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps INQUISITIVE CMS43

                                             Tim Holtz Sizzix GHOST TOWN 2 Thinlits Dies 665560

                                                    Tim Holtz Sizzix HAUNTED Thinlits Dies 664735

                                                   Tim Holtz Sizzix GATE KEEPER Thinlits Dies 664734

                                              Tim Holtz Sizzix FRIGHTFUL THINGS Thinlits Dies 664209

                                                 Tim Holtz Tonic TRAVEL GLASS MEDIA MAT 2633e

                                                      Tim Holtz Tonic Craft MINI SNIPS Scissors 816e

Tim Holtz Tonic TITANIUM SNIP Scissors 817e

                                     Ranger GLOSSY ACCENTS Glue Dimensional Adhesive GAC17042

                                                    Sizzix FOAM ADHESIVE SHEETS 4x6 663042

                                  Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Paper Stash BLACK KRAFT STOCK th94020

                              Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Paper Stash CLASSIC KRAFT STOCK TH93585

                            Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad GROUND ESPRESSO Ranger tdo56010

                                Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad VINTAGE PHOTO Ranger TDO56317

                                          Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad MUSTARD SEED Ranger TIM20226

                                              Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad FIRED BRICK Ranger TIM20202

                                            Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad BLACK SOOT Ranger TIM19541