Halloween Carnival - Stare Down a Gargoyle and the Haunted Carousel

Today we'll look at the last two elements I made using tutorials from Laura Carson's (artfullymusing.blogspot.com) Halloween Carnival - Stare Down a Gargoyle and the Haunted Carousel.  For more details, tutorials and videos, and to make your own version of Laura's fantastic project, please go to her page dedicated to the carnival.

Stare Down a Gargoyle - Win a Season Pass - this was a fun element because it included both building something and learning a new technique.

First the building...The main vertical construction is a masonite box (CubbyHoles 4 Compartments - AlphaStamps.com) which is easily put together.  I love these masonite constructions - I have built many different ones.  A handy supply/tool to have for these is the Quilled Creations Precision Tip Glue Applicator Bottle.  It puts out a fine line of glue - as my niece says "I don't know how we ever managed to do any crafting before we got this".

The new technique is also by Laura Carson.  It is the Tissue Paper Texture that is used on the wings behind the cubbyholes.  Check out Laura's video tutorial on this page of her blog.  I know I will be using this technique again on other projects.

An easy way to add the red "bead" eyes to the gargoyle was to use a couple of straight pins with red ball ends.  The pin made it easy to hold on while gluing, and then I carefully used heavy duty wire cutters to cut off the pin once the glue was thoroughly dry.

And now the Haunted Carousel.  I followed Laura's advice and went to a dollar store to get the main components - a cake pan and a pie pan - definitely a frugal alternative.  Plus the lighter weight metal made it very easy to just push a sharp awl through the cake pan to create the necessary holes for the skewers.  The only downside was that the cake pan was a little on the small side so the animals are a bit crowded.  In hindsight I guess I should have planned a little better and then I could have scaled down the size of the images since I was using the digital collage sheets.

To get the height for the center column I used two cans glued together.  The paper covers the seam.

I used 5mm skewers for the poles and created the striping by using 1/16" Chart Tape - one roll of this very inexpensive product will probably last a lifetime.

I decided to paint the two pans but when the painting was completed they were a little bright.  So I used some leaf trim on the top and some more of the black lace trim that I had for Boo Bash on the bottom.  The little ghosts on the bottom are thin masonite cutouts that I found online.  All the other images are from Laura's collage sheets.

The beads I found at a local part store and crafts store.  The orange set was originally gold so I used an orange Copic marker to give them more of an orange tint.  Of course I couldn't color them evenly but the varied color looks pretty good I think.  I added a little pumpkin pod to the top of each bead attachment point.

Here's a picture looking down on the top.  Some bat stickers eased the large expanse of green.  I stacked a round papier mache box lid and two cans to create the tower.  The ghosts are wired into a cork.  

And yes, the carousel does spin on a plastic spinner under the cake pan.  Getting it centered was a little tricky.  The spinner I used had a central hole about 1/2" in diameter so I used that to my advantage.  I added a chipboard round to the bottom of the central support and centered a small skewer to protrude from it.  I then punched a hole in the center of the cake pan so the skewer would go through to the bottom.  (An added bonus was this made sure the central column was centered easily).  I then added several layers of chipboard, all with holes cut in the middle to get the needed height.  Then I centered the spinner on the protruding skewer.
And to see how these elements look with all the other pieces I made for the Halloween Carnival, check out the Halloween Carnival project page.