Skull beads and Jack-o-lantern box

Do you know how one thing leads to another? Well, that's what happened to me when I started making skull beads for the Halloween necklace. So, I had to make more; bigger ones, smaller one's, even pumpkin ones. Then I wanted to try and make a large Jack-o-lantern for this little box I bought and painted. I haven't worked with polymer clay much, and don't have much skill at sculpting, but practice does make perfect as they say. Well not exactly perfect as I found out, I learned a few things going through this process. For instance, when making a round object to be glued onto a flat surface, make the bottom flat! My Jack-o-lantern sits a little askew, but it is securely glued.

AAJ Halloween swap 2010

Altered Art Junkies have a annual Halloween swap and I've been working on mine for this year. I decided to make a box of goodies. I altered a pretty box by painting and adding a gothic looking paper witch complete with a black lace skirt accented with purple and black iridescent feathers on the lid. Inside I painted it a glossy red and added a collage of Halloween on the inner lid. Inside I'll put the contents of some cute Halloween tea towels and a canvas Halloween wall hanging I painted. I found a unfinished casket box at Michaels and painted it black, inside and out. I added a cross charm and some black polymer clay roses that I had made. Inside the casket box I will place this Halloween charm necklace I made. The charms and pendant are reversible so the wearer can choose which design they like best. The Skelly bead and the evil eye bead, I made from polymer clay. I hope who-ever my partner will be will like their Halloween box, and of course, filled with what else? Halloween candy!

AB August Challenge

For this months challenge, we were to use the theme "At the beach".
I found a picture of four vintage bathing beauties and decided to use
this as my main focus. I did a watercolor wash of blue and ocher and
while still wet sprinkled with coarse salt and let dry. This makes
a textured background. Then I added some gel medium and used
white sand to mimic drifts. Lastly I added a shell to complete the image.
I framed the sides with  complementary beach/sea images.