A Little Potion Pantry to Take Along: Make a Viola Tablet Case Insert
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There is no rule that says a colouring page has to stay tucked inside a book. Sometimes your ghosts deserve to get dressed up, take their pumpkin drinks outside, and become part of the Halloween decorating.
For this project, I took the three friends from Best Ghoulfriends and turned them into an 11 × 14-inch canvas, surrounded by red and orange autumn foliage and a raised silver cobweb border. A big bowl of candy nearby feels entirely appropriate. They do look like the sort of girls who would insist on checking the treats.
The important part of this project is the paper: we used waterslide decal paper for both the coloured focal image and the four foliage sections. This is a waterslide project, rather than paper decoupage.
What I used
I print everyday artwork with an Epson EcoTank ET-2800 using ordinary inkjet ink.
- An 11 × 14-inch canvas
- The Best Ghoulfriends colouring-page image, printed in portrait orientation on letter-size inkjet waterslide paper
- The autumn foliage background, printed as four separate waterslide sections
- A plain sheet to cut alongside the focal image and save as a positioning template or mask
- Blue painter’s tape
- Scissors
- Alcohol markers
- Acrylic paint in fall colours, with a lighter colour for the centre
- Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2X Ultra Cover clear gloss—the can labelled Clair lustré
- A pencil for light registration marks
- A shallow container of water large enough for the decal sections
- A soft brush and a soft lint-free cloth or paper towel
- A hot glue gun and silver glue sticks
Follow the instructions for your particular waterslide paper and clear coat. The timing between coats, soaking time and drying time need to come from those products.
1. Cut the ghosts and save their matching mask
Place the printed colouring page over a plain backing sheet and secure the sheets together with small pieces of painter’s tape. Trim away the excess paper, then cut carefully around the outside of the whole scene.
Keep the ghosts, table, cat and pumpkins together as one focal piece. There is no need to cut every little space between the table legs.
Separate the two sheets after cutting. The plain silhouette is worth keeping: it matches the focal image and lets you plan the placement without repeatedly handling your coloured decal. It can also serve as a mask if you add painted details around the image later.
2. Colour your ghostly gathering
Colour the printed focal image with alcohol markers. I used green for the reading ghost’s bow and book, pink and purple for the middle bow, and grey and black for the bow on the right. Orange pumpkins, autumn leaves and a warm brown table bring the scene together.
Leave the ghost bodies white. Their bright shapes are what help them stand out against all that autumn colour.
The focal image stays at the size printed from the colouring page. It does not need to fill the canvas; the space around it gives the woodland background room to show.
3. Seal the waterslide prints with four layers of clear coat
We sealed the printed waterslides with four layers of our Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2X clear gloss before putting them in water.
That includes the coloured ghost image and the printed foliage sections. Allow the marker colouring to dry first, then apply the clear coat according to its label, observing the required intervals and drying time before soaking.
This is a step to take slowly. Coverage needs to be even, and the printed areas need protection before they meet the water. Four layers describe what we used for this project; check that your own paper and sealer are compatible, and try a spare printed scrap first.
Spray in a suitable well-ventilated area, following the can’s safety directions.
4. Paint the canvas in fall colours
Paint the canvas with a fall-colour base, keeping the centre lighter and working warmer, deeper colours around the outside.
The lighter centre gives the ghosts a place to sit without disappearing into the red and orange foliage. Think of it as a little clearing in the autumn woods.
Let the paint dry fully. The receiving surface also needs to be smooth and sealed enough for the waterslide to move into place; an absorbent or heavily textured surface makes positioning much harder. Prepare and dry that surface according to the products you are using.
5. Make light registration marks
Before soaking anything, arrange the four foliage pieces on the canvas with their paper backing still attached. Check the orientation and where the branches, tree trunks and foliage meet.
I drew light registration marks in the centre of my canvas to help line up the four sections.
Keep those marks faint and check that the artwork will hide them, especially if you are using transparent waterslide paper. A straight-on photograph of the dry arrangement is useful, too.
Use the plain ghost silhouette to check the focal placement. Make sure there is room for the silver border around the outside.
6. Apply the four foliage sections—touching, not overlapping
This is the part that needs the most care.
The foliage is made from four separate waterslide sections. Their edges need to meet neatly: touching, but not overlapping.
An overlap can produce a darker line or a doubled piece of artwork. A gap can leave the painted canvas visible between the sections. Take time to match the actual branches and foliage as well as the outside edges.
Work with one section at a time:
- Soak it according to the waterslide paper’s instructions, until the film releases easily.
- Lightly wet the area where it will sit.
- Bring the section to the canvas while its backing still supports it.
- Ease a small edge into position, then gently withdraw the backing underneath.
- Align it with the centre registration marks and the neighbouring artwork while it is still movable.
- Gently smooth and blot away excess water without dragging or stretching the film.
Continue with the remaining pieces. Keep checking that each join meets cleanly before moving on. Avoid pulling at one corner to force a match; that can distort the image.
Let the background dry as directed before applying the focal image.
7. Add the coloured ghosts
Return to the position you planned with the plain silhouette.
If your focal image is on clear waterslide paper, unprinted white areas will be transparent. Make sure the area beneath the ghosts is white if you want white bodies; a merely lighter centre will still show through. White waterslide paper provides its own opaque white base.
Soak the sealed focal decal according to its instructions and slide it into position, keeping the backing beneath it for support as you work. Take particular care around the bows, leaves and pumpkin edges.
Gently ease out trapped water and air. The aim is for the whole image to lie flat, with no curled edges or folds. Allow it to dry thoroughly before adding the border.
8. Make a silver hot-glue cobweb border
Use silver glue sticks to create a raised cobweb border roughly one inch wide around all four sides of the canvas.
Keep it beginner friendly. Start with a simple fan-shaped web in each corner: a few spokes, joined with two or three curved lines. Then connect the corners with smaller repeating web sections along the edges.
You do not need tiny, intricate webs. Open shapes are easier to make and let the autumn colours show through.
Practise a few lines on a suitable heat-resistant scrap surface first. Work in short sections and keep the hot nozzle away from the decal surface. A slightly thicker join, a wobbly curve or a little glue blob is part of the handmade finish. We are decorating with cobwebs, after all. The spiders did not bring rulers.
Let the glue cool completely before moving the canvas.
9. Take your ghosts to the entryway
Hang the finished canvas near your Halloween treats, with a generous bowl of wrapped candy underneath.
I like it with a pumpkin and those wispy cobweb decorations that come bundled in a bag and stretch out between corners. Keep the stretched webbing around the display rather than across the ghost faces—you have done all that colouring, so let it show.
And there they are: three friends who have escaped the colouring book and found themselves a place in the Halloween decorating.
Make your own
You can find Best Ghoulfriends in my printable shop:
Get the Best Ghoulfriends colouring book on Etsy
Use the colouring artwork as the starting point, then make the colours and finishing details your own. The four-section foliage background is a free companion download linked above; the ghost colouring artwork comes from the Best Ghoulfriends book.
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