Halloween Altered Frame

October is here, and I'm ready for it. I lthink I like my Halloween decorations even more than the Christmas decorations that I have. This year I decided to make a decoration of my own, by altering a cabinet card and a picture frame. Here is the "before" photo:

I found this at a yard sale for $1.00. My husband couldn't believe that I wanted it. I added a few embellishments from the Halloween aisle at the drug store, and filled in the areas underneath to blend everything together.

Once I had everything in position, I painted everything with black gesso and then with black acrylic paint to unify the elements.

It was looking a little creepy, but not believable enough, so I went over all the high spots with interference gold to make them stand out.

I used Photoshopto altere an image from a Victorian cabinet card, adding in a bat brooch, and emphasizing the bat-like collar that the woman in the picture was wearing.

I removed the original velvet from the frame and replaced it with a collage of antique onion-skin paper that had spider webs embossed in it. This is the final result. Woo! Scary kids!