Hello everyone! I had planned to get this tutorial done a lot sooner, but I've been super busy this month. Better late than never, I guess! I'm sure most of you have done all your Halloween crafting, or maybe you're like me, creating until the last minute or even after!
The bottom of my cabinet is made up of two large vignette boxes glued together with Distress Collage Medium.
The top portion of the cabinet is three smaller boxes (about 3 1/4 x 4 1/2") glued together. The two sections will be glued together after I drilled the holes for the tiny lights.
Cover the inside of the boxes with Halloween Backdrops papers. Figure out where you want your Tiny Lights to go, and drill the holes. I started in the bottom corner, made my way across the other side and up through the top to the bottom of the top three boxes. My string of lights goes across these top three also.
Keep in mind when stringing your lights, that there are three shelves to be put in the upper cabinets.
These shelves are just made with corrugated cardboard cut to fit the depth and width of the boxes. They are covered with wood looking paper from the Backdrops package. They are glued in with Distress Collage Medium after I've made the Matchbox drawers for each end box, which they will rest on top of.
I've cut each Matchbox in half. There are three sections. These are all painted with Distress Paint. I started with a dark brown, and then dry brushed a grey and beige paint on top. For the drawer, I used some old Tim Holtz Remanent Rubs for the numbers and large Fasteners for the knobs. There's a close up photo further on.
Usually I make these little books in my spare time, so handy to have them done and ready to use! These book pieces are in the Ephemera pack. I cut small pages from an old book. I usually cut it wide enough to fold in half, add a few together, then staple them with my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. Depending how thick you want your book, glue a few sections together and then to your book cover. Ink the edges.
For my book ends, I've added some Glow Grit Paste and Skeleton Head Stickers, book clippings to the two gravestones in the Graveyard pkg. I've also rolled up some scrap paper and ephemera, distressed, and wrapped a book clipping around them.
For my Skulls, I've applied Crushed Olive Distress Glaze, then highlighted with Gilded Foundry Wax.
I've broken a few bones in half, inked and glued them into a drawer. The Mummy Cloth under the skull is saturated with Glow Grit Paste. I have a photo further down. I've also kept the lights quite loose, so they can be adjusted as I'm filling up my shelves.
All my vials have been painted first with Distress Collage Medium (this helps prepare the glass surface), then Rock Candy Crackle Paint applied after the medium was dry. Labels and book clippings were also applied. Brown Distress Crayon was applied in the cracks. I've painted the insides with paint and added in some Glow Grit Paste in some of them. Keep in mind that there will be a window in front, so make your bottles a bit brighter, so they show up better.
Two windows from the Baseboard layers pkg. are used for my cabinet. The Shattered Window pieces are adhered behind. For the top centre window, an extra baseboard piece was added. I've added a Skull Tag to the middle with Glow Grit Paste.
To make the Shattered Glass look dusty or dirty, I've rubbed a very small amount of Collage Medium with my finger on them. If you want any section left clear, you can rub it off with a damp cloth or finger as I have done in the middle of the one pane. I've adhered the windows to the cabinet at the very end of my project. All my shelves were finished and the tiny lights were placed first.
For the middle window, I've used one of the Etcetera Facades (2nd from the left), which fit perfectly behind the window and was enough for the extra baseboard arch piece to fit on.
Here, you can see the Facade from the back. I've just painted the back with Distress paint.
I've used two owls from the Ephemera pkg. and adhered them both on top of a glass bubble with Glow Grit Paste. The tall one is adhered with Glow Paste on top of a piece of foam, which was painted and Grit paste added. The shorter one is adhered onto a small round ephemera label.
These two owls are placed in the bottom shelf. I've kept them close to the edge, as a window will be in front, and they will show up better. Another larger Owl label is placed right on the middle of where the two boxes join. I've cut some of the background away at the top and just left a narrow piece where the wood edges are. There's a photo later on, that it shows up in.
A mini Display Dome has some Ephemera and acrylic bats inside. Glow Grit Paste on the bottom. The glass also has some Collage Medium on it to dull the glass. There's also Sticker bats adhered to the tiny lights.
I created these twisted twigs with a Cotton Ball, Collage Medium and Mica Stains. Just tear off a piece from your cotton ball, saturate with Collage Medium and twist it! Easy! After it has dried, then colour with Mica Stain or anything you choose.
Here's some other ones, I created for another project. My mummy cloth used in this project also had Collage Medium applied, then Glow Grit Paste. Just clip parts of the cloth so it's ragged, it will still be pliable after it has dried. I've also unrolled part of the cotton ball and applied my Glow Grit Paste to this too. Makes for some interesting shapes! For the Wizard wand, I just twisted the staff like I did with the twigs, but thicker, especially at the top, made an indentation, and glued a glass bauble on the end after I coloured it.
In this section, I've got another vial, with a label, a bone (broken in half) and mummy cloth with Glow Grit Paste. Here's the close up of the drawers after they were painted, and remnant rubs and fasteners added. Inside the open drawer, I have mummy cloth, with some Confectionary candies.
A lock and key from the Gothic Gates was added with a small chain, to the middle window pane (or I should say glass cupboard doors!) This was distressed with paint and Foundry Wax too.
Here's another close up of these two top shelves. Once you have your shelves all filled and glued down, the shattered glass frames can be adhered on to the front middle.
The back and sides of my cabinet was covered with Halloween Backdrops paper. One continuous sheet of paper across the top part and another across the bottom, to cover the boxes. I've also added some Distress Opaque Crackle paste in random areas. This was coloured with Distress Crayon and Ink. I made a little pocket for my battery pack from a piece of Halloween Ephemera.
Here's another look at my finished Apothecary Cabinet!
Thanks so much for visiting me here, and I hope you have had a great Halloween creating and making season!
Until next time,
Jan
Supply List
TH94325 Shattered Windows
TH94345 Mini Display Domes
TH94342 Spiders and Branches Adornments
TH94340 The Manor (candlesticks)
TH94341 Word Plaques &Tags
Th94339 Skulls & Bones
TH4338 Trick or Treat (pumpkin)
TH94337 Graveyard
TH94336 Halloween Confections
TH94335 Halloween Sticker Book
TH94333 Halloween Layers & Paper dolls
TH94332 Halloween Ephemera Pack
TH4334 Baseboards & Transparencies
TH94331 Halloween Backdrops
TH94343 Gothic Gates (key & lock)
TH94155 Mummy Cloth
TH93201 Corked Tiny Vials
TH92899 Corked Vials
TH94050 Match Boxes
TH94314 Large Fasteners
TH94157 Halloween Tiny Lights
TH93279 Vignette Boxes
ETC016 Etcetera Facades
TH94260 Drippy Candles
TH94180 Glass Bubbles
Ranger Ink Supplies - Distress Inks, Mica Stains, Crayons, Collage Medium, Grit Glow Paste, Paint, Foundry Wax, Alcohol Ink, Opaque Crackle Paste