Monday, October 21, 2019

Creepy Skull Trio- Easy Mixed Media with Xyron

Hey, Crafty Guys & Ghouls...
I'm baaaaaack!! And this time with some spooky mixed media! I created this Creepy Skull Trio Journal for Team Xyron... It will be a cringe-worthy piece to add to anyone's Halloween collection.

Let me show you how I simplify my mixed media creations with the help of my Xyron Creative Station!




Supplies Used
Big Shot (Sizzix)
Black Chipboard (Graffix)
Black Gesso (Golen)
Gilding Wax (Pebeo)
Black Netting
Cheesecloth
Plastic Bugs
Plastic Skulls
2mm Elastic Cording (Darice)
Strong Liquid Glue 
Tweezers
Non-Stick Scissors
Paintbrush (Prima Marketing)
4" x 6" Notebooks
Clothes Pins (Optional)

I love making little books and journals. They are great as gifts but also make wonderful home decor.
I love to display my finished pieces on my living room mantle and they are always an eyecatcher.

For this book, I used Eileen Hull's new Pocket Notebook Die to create the base and cut 2 panels from black chipboard using my Sizzix Big Shot.

I use strong liquid glue on the spine to attach the two panels together. I secure them in place with clothespins till the glue sets.


While the glue is setting, I cut 2 8"x 8" pieces of black netting. I ran each piece of netting through my Xyron Creative Station. I make sure to burnish each piece with my bone folder for maximum adhesion to the netting. 

Then, I peel them off the protective film an attach the netting to the outside my book cover.

For me, using my Creative Station and adding adhesive this way. cuts down my creative process time by at least half. A lot of wet adhesive mediums take hours and sometimes days to fully dry. By adhering my materials this way, I save myself a lot of unproductivity and unnecessary waiting.


Next, I used non-stick scissors to trim off any excess or hangovers.


I found these little plastic skulls at the dollar store... loved their dimension but their heads stuck too far out. So, I cut the back half of their skulls off. These skulls were hollow so they were very easy to cut just using scissors.

Then, I added glue along the rim an attached the skulls onto the front of my journal cover.


To hide any glue, I shrouded the skulls with little wrapped hoods.

I created each hood by running layers of cheesecloth through my Xyron Creative Station and cutting them into strips and draped the cloth over and around each head.


After I've hooded the skulls, I attache plastic insect toy figures to the front and back cover.

Then coated everything with black gesso. 

Gesso dries fairly quickly. And once my gesso was dried, I used my finger to rub gold gilding wax over the raised areas. 


I wanted to have texture on the inside of my journal cover, so I ran more cheesecloth through my Creative Station and adhered it to the inside flaps. Then covered the entire inside with more black gesso.


I threaded 2mm black elastic coring through the pre-cut holes in the journal using needle-nose tweezers. 

Then inserted premade 4"x6" notebooks under each elastic band. These books were a good-sized thickness, so I used only 3 books to fill my journal cover. 


And here is my finished book...



I absolutely love how simply painting my project completely black then rubbing a metallic wax over the raised areas can look so awesome!!

Check out all the amazing dimension...

Front Cover

Look at all that texture and detail just pop!!  Look at the texture on the fly wings and those teeth on those skulls... WOW!!

Back Cover

The Entire Outer Cover

I hope this project doesn't give you too many heebee-jeebees!!

I think it is totally wicked!!

I hope it inspires you to try this mixed media hack and create something spooktacular of your own!!

Happy Haunting!
~Mitsyana

5 comments:

  1. Absolutely LOVE this ! What brand of strong liquid glue do you use? I also agree using the Xyron save lots of craft time. Did you use a sponge brush to paint your cheesecloth ? Headed to Dollar store now.

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    1. For this project, I believe I used quick grip. I did not use a sponge brush but I'm pretty sure you could but I used these... http://shrsl.com/1xbz6 brushes by Prima. I totally forgot to add them to my product list but will update the supply list with the actual item and link too the product used.

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  2. Love your super spooky journal cover Mitsyana, those skulls look amazing with their shrouds of cheesecloth. Thanks for sharing your making process

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