Monday, September 16, 2013

Halloween Configuration

Hi bloggers! Today is all about configurations. 
Several years ago I took a class from Tim Holtz and we did a box. It was not my favorite project and I had no ideas how to decorate the box. I sat there for the longest time thinking and Tim would come by and tell me "don't over think it". Something he still tells me to this day! He is so right! So....being the smarty pants that I am I took on the theme of zero. Because I had ZERO ideas. LOL 


Then a few years ago I followed along with Tim's Twelve Tags of Christmas and made a configurations tray instead of tags. Here's the link for the start of my tray.

My love for configurations has grown and it's one of my favorite mediums to work with these days. When I create a configuration I get drawn in and I can't seem to keep up with the thoughts going thru my mind. I love every minute of the process. I'm so excited to share with all of you my Halloween Configurations Book that I created for Tim to display at CHA. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing a full step by step tutorial. I hope you will play along with me. On the final post you will be able to upload your Halloween configurations project via inlinkz and I will choose some winners randomly for some great prizes from the uploaded projects. Sit back, grab a configuration book, tray or configuration box and let's have some spooky fun together. 


I used several of the new Alterations dies from Sizzix, lots of Idea-ology, distress ink, distress paint, shrink plastic and even a few small pumpkins. 

It all started with the new paper line from Tim Holtz called Laboratorie, love the black and white don't you. 

Are you ready...let's get started! With permission from Tim Holtz I created a template that was inspired by the Rickety House Die. Just click here for the downloadable template! If you have trouble I can email it to you.

Once you download the template, glue it to a piece of cardstock with a glue stick. This will make it easy to trace on the front of the Configuration book. Remove all the litlle boxes on the inside before you start cutting. 

Carefully cut the house shape from the cover of your book. I used an Xacto knife. Xacto knives are sharp, use extreme caution. If you don't want to cut the cover of your book you could also cut the house from paper and just glue it to the cover. Either way is great. 

Here's what it will look like. 

Carefully sand the edges with a sanding grip. 

Cut the cover paper a little smaller then the cover (9 3/4" x 11 3/4"). Tape the edges in a few spots to hold in place.  

Flip the cover open and trace the house cut out onto the backside of the paper. 

Using scissors cut out the house shape. 

Check the fit and trim as necessary. 

 Use Black Soot Distress paint to paint box. Paint the edge on the front cover. 

I used a brush for corners and areas the dauber couldn't reach. 

Paint the inside cover completely. 

Paint the edges were the little boxes will be in the inside. 

Paint around the edges on the back. 

Paint the side of the book. 

 Sew on the edge of the paper with black thread. 

 Use the Paper Distresser on the edge and then ink with Vintage Photo Distress Ink on an Ink Blending Tool. 

 Adhere the paper to the cover with Glue 'n Seal. 

I'll be back on Wednesday to cover the inside of all those little boxes. 
I hope you will share the journey with me. I can't wait to see what you create! 

Thanks for stoping by! 
Richele 

Check your local craft store for supplies or click the links below!


32 comments:

  1. This all is so very cool, Thank you so much for the step by step information, it is very helpful!!

    See you soon!
    Majo

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  2. Your nothing is pretty substantial girl! I STILL love your 12 tags configuration box!!
    and this new stunner is too Ghoul! ;D
    I'm gonna love watching your step by step girl. Forgive me if I don't play along okay? I am just starting to build my holiday stamps/dies etc. only since DD is on the scene now- before that I never scrapped/stamped in themes.

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  3. Can't wait until Wednesday! It's so fascinating to see how these come together. Maybe this is the push I've needed to create one of my own. Thank you!

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  4. Mwah mwah mwah love it and you xxx

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  5. So amazing, every one of these. But the rickety house as an opening is genius! Love it!!

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  6. very cool! I love how you cut the house out of the front.

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  7. It's such a fabulous make... am very excited about seeing it's creation in stages like this - fantastic, thank you!
    Alison x

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  8. Fabulous is right! Love the blood dripping down the bottle.

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  9. Wonderful! I can't wait to see the next steps.

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  10. Please send me a copy of the template. I cannot download it for some reason.

    Thank you, your work is beautiful!
    Cindy
    cpan4@yahoo.com

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  11. Very excited! This will be fun. Lynne and Mike

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  12. This looks so cool. You are an artist.
    Thanks for showing and the explanation. Anneke.
    www.annekescardart.blogspot.com

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  13. Ok....you've got me! Just printed out the template...time to get to work! This is going to be fun!!!

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  14. This is awesome...right up my street of crafting!

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  15. Gorgeous! Crammed full of wonderful bits and bobs, so interesting to look at and discover what's hiding there . Thanks for the template ! X

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  16. Fabulous, look forward to seeing how you do the inside. I love Halloween and love this!

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  17. TOTALLY awesome!! LOVE!! Thanks for your generosity with the template too!!x

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  18. This is absolutely......well, it's just un-describable!

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  19. I'm beyond excited that you're sharing a tutorial on how to make this awesome configuration tray. I'm making it, exacto knife and all. I fell in love with the configuration box you made with Tim's 12 tags and have never forgotten it.Thanks very much!

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  20. I love this! Can't wait to get started but can't download the template. Would you please send it to my e-mail?

    onceacowgirl@gmail.com

    Thank you for sharing your creativity with us!

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  21. Love your boxes! I make cards and tags etc, and have been loving these creations but like you were I think " what do I do next"? Thanks for sharing the how to, so I can get a feel for how you to the inside of these. I would love to make one for Chrismtas. I know some are lucky to get a class with Tim to learn this but since I haven't been lucky yet, your sharing is wonderful and will help me bite the bullet and try one....Thank you!

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  22. This is Sooo cool! Off to check my stash to see if can create along with you.

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  23. This is amazing...I just love what you are doing with the Configurations. I will have to do one of if these! See you soon

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  24. Love what you are doing! Melody Plano Stamp asylum

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  25. Richelle, glad to see you are still creating. The Halloween configurations is wonderful. Lois

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  26. Hi Richele, just started this project yesterday and I'm having a blast. I love Halloween, so I'm getting a huge start on next year, lol. For me, necessity is the mother of invention, so here are some things I did wrong that turned out right. I didn't get out all of my supplies before I started, so I made some substitutions along the way. I didn't have any Black Soot Distress Paint, but I did have a Ranger Pitch Black Paint Dauber. It had the same effect, very spooky. I thought we were using the Halloween paper, not the Laboratoir paper. I couldn't find the spider web paper, but I did see that one of the sheets in the pad had a spider web resist. It was the page with the kitshy witches, skeletons, cats, etc. I took a deep breath and tried the Pitch Black paint on it to see if it would cover the design and that the spider web resist would show through. The Pitch Black covered really well, but the resist didn't show. I took a dry paper towel and rubbed the paper vigorously. The resist showed through and a little of the surface of the paper roughed up. It's Kraft Core so the paper is strong enough to take the punishment. Now it looks like suede. I distressed the edges and applied the Vintage Photo ink, which looks awesome on this paper. Next, for the stitching, I don't have a sewing machine, so I hand punched holes using the Tonic Craft Pick. I couldn't find any black thread, so I settled on a dark tan color that is similar to the kraft color of the paper. I hand stitched it which created an even more distressed look. Now it looks a lot like my grandma's antique leather couch (which is naturally very "distressed" in a cool way). Today, I am going to paper up the little boxes, and hopefully, a few more steps. I'm hoping to finish by Saturday night so I can show it to you at Sunday's Christmas Configurations class. Can't wait to see you.

    Kathleen (one of your fans from Stampers Corner)

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  27. Richele....YOU keep blowing me away with every one of your creations but especially the configuration books. They are MAGIC! You always amaze me with your little details, your "eye" for filling up spaces but not over doing them, and your just general amazing talent. I am so happy that you are breaking this one down into different blog posts so we can all really enjoy your creative process. I, for one, will thoroughly be drooling from start to finish. :) <3 Candy

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