How To Make a Haunted Mirror

(Eleanor, Edward and Emily)

I wanted to create a mirror that had an image that looked ghostly looking back, but honestly every adult image I found was rather boring, even old Victorian Era pictures, so I came across a photo of three Victorian kids that unsettled me. That made me think about the black-eyed children phenomena, and I realized - wow, this would really unsettle!

I put it in photoshop and did a crackled aging effect and then took and did a stamp of the dark area on the boy's bow and stamped their eyes out.

I bought a large glass framed ugly picture at a secondhand store. It was like 25 dollars and 30 inches by 40. I removed the ugly picture.

I printed out the kids on regular printer paper in black and white and cut out their outlines. Taking Mod Podge glue (or you can do Elmers and water combined for decoupage mix), I glued the kiddies to the bottom of the mirror, face against the glass. I wanted to hang the mirror at a height that made them appear as if they were peering into a window at about their height. After gluing them down with the mod podge, I let them dry.

Once the kiddies were dry, I took a wrung out wet dish towel and dabbed the edges of their photos to make them moist, but not soaking wet. I began to use my finger to roll away layers of the paper, leaving the bottom layer of paper against the glass. Now, they were "sheer" around the edges. I had to redo one of the kids when I accidentally wet her too much and her eye came off. Instead, I just concentrated on making sheer the hair and outline and leaving the face mostly intact so I wouldn't ruin it. You can play with this and see how well you can remove layers of paper without going to the glass. Let them dry.

Looking Glass Spray Paint

For this large project, I used 3 cans of the looking glass spray. I laid the glass down on a drop cloth with their faces facing the ground and on the back side of the glass, I sprayed back and forth, but wanted it to look aged, so sometimes I sprayed some water on the glass and then the paint and other times, concentrated more paint in some areas, less in others. The effect was a very aged looking mirror. I let them dry well.

I painted the frame with black paint, then let dry. I painted with crackle medium, and then let dry. I then painted it ivory and let it crackle naturally.