PagesPat's Ponderings

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving! Christmas is Coming!


 The next few weeks are mighty busy, so I'm just letting you know how thankful I am to have Blogger and all my guests in my life. Happy Thanksgiving and I'll be back online starting December 1st for my 24 Days of Christmas blog series. Watch for those holiday DIYS, including altered items, decor, ornaments, and cards!! Until then, happy crafting!!

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 31 - Today's the Day!


 Today is Halloween! Or is I put it in my original poem, Hallowee! I hope everyone has a good time, safe and courteous and reaping in the candy!! Today I created a hybrid project, which is a mix between digital and paper crafting.

I pulled together several images that were free clipart, adding them to a paper from Rucola Designs, paper #7 from her Dead or Alive paper set. I printed them twice so that I cold cut out the figures and add them with dimensional tape. I added highlights with a white gel pen, and outlined th figures with black marker.

The poem is an original by yours truly. I was complaining to my daughter that I had lost my mojo (here, mojo, pretty please come back, mojo) regarding Halloween crafting. Shocking, isn't it? She suggested I write a Halloween poem, since I've been working on an e-book of Haiku poetry. What I came up with today is not Haiku. It's an adaptation of the little kids' poem called Five Little Pumpkins.

To qualify as a craft project, I needed to first write the poem, then use it on a papercraft project. I used Photoshop Elements 2022. The text is called Viner Hand ITC Regular. I cut out the cats, mummy, ghost and flying witch with my special scissors that I use for what I call "fussy-cutting". It's shaped like tweezers and about the same size. I can get into really tight places as you can see.

I hope you've enjoyed my series of 31 Days of All Hallows Eve. I promised one lucky person who visited and commented on my posts a prize. It's a culmination of all my coloring pages/Zen doodling I've drawn. Some have been published on this blog; others have not seen the light of day. I am putting together a coloring book early next year. I'll let you all know who won this prize during November. 

Challenges I am Entering:
Crazy for Cats - Anything Cats Goes/Meow-o-een
Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
Most Magical Time of the Year - HAlloween/Christmas
Classic Design - Anything Goes
 


Monday, October 30, 2023

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 30 - Skull Lamp

 

Today brings a little light on the subject of altered items. Namely, a cheap pumpkin light from who-knows where... Here is the lamp unaltered:

I removed the pumpkin and, after cutting a hole through the $ Store skull I had in my bag o' Halloween tricks, hot-glued it to the fixture just below the lightbulb. Oops, before I attached the skull, I pierced a hole thru a styrofoam pumpkin and placed it all the way down the lamp post.
Once the pumpkin and the skull were in place, I glued on some Autumn flowers and leaves on top of the pumpkin. To set the scene, I placed more flowers and leaves around my new skull lamp and added a  Unicorn skeleton (just for kicks).

 So, tomorrow is THE DAY. I hope you have fun, get all the trick-or-treaters you have candy for, and enjoy the day. Happy crafting, y'all!


Sunday, October 29, 2023

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 29 - Spooky Skull Candle

 

Halloween is so close I can taste it!! I'm hoping to get more than a handful of trick-or-treaters this year. I don't want to have that candy sitting around my house, hypnotizing me into taking a bite...and another...and another...LOL

Today I made a candle for Halloween. Well, I didn't pour melted wax into a mold and make it. I used a thrift-store-bought candle that was still wrapped in its plastic. Tearing off said plastic, I used a leftover Halloween napkin and peeled the two layers of paper apart. I adhered it to the candle, and I'll tell you how I did it:

I cut out the napkin to fit my candle, then cut out a longer piece of wax paper. I covered the candle first with the napkin, then the wax paper. Holding tightly to the ends of the wax paper to get a smooth surface, I used my heat gun to melt the wax from the wax paper onto the wax candle. It looks and feels like it was produced that way. I've had success with selling my candles at craft fairs, separate or in sets.

With my skull candle decorated, I added a line of adhesive pearls to the top and bottom. If I were selling this, I would place it in a plastic gift bag and tie some Halloween ribbon to keep it closed. But I'm not selling any of my Halloween makes this year. I have a whole basement of collectables and trading cards, etc., from my mom's basement to inventory, photograph and list to sell. I want my basement back in livable condition!


 

Saturday, October 28, 2023

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 28 - Apothecary Shelf

 

Hey, crafters! We have three more days until Halloween! Anybody going to a party to celebrate the big day? My daughter and I spent last weekend at my trailer. The park is near Starved Rock and they hold a Halloween weekend celebration. We shared the trailer with my nephew and his family. The park is closed to anyone not an owner or friends of owners with guest passes, and during the 2 hours of trick-or-treating, there's no cars allowed to drive on the roads inside the park.

The kids always rake in tons of candy, and adults go to a concert on Saturday night. There was a taco bar, kids' crafts, costume parade and contest, and a pumpkin decorating contest. I won a trophy for decorated pumpkins for three years before I stopped entering mine. I had a Rubbermaid tub filled with Halloween costumes for everyone.

Anyway, today's make is Halloween decor. I inherited the three colored bottles after my mom's passing. I filled each with different things: one is oil and skeleton parts, another is a set of $ Store twinkle lights, and the last is filled with sparkly stones. After placing Halloween stickers on each bottle, I set them aside to "set my scene".

I used leftover leaves (from a old garland) on top of a piece of grey cheesecloth, placing the bottles on these and distributing the leaves  to their best. My daughter made the gravestone behind the bottles and then dropped a few sunflower blooms for color.

I placed this scene in my kitchen. I have a corner table-and-bench set I bought from a thrift store. With just two people cooking and eating meals together, my original kitchen table and chairs was just too big for us.  I carefully arranged the Apothecary shelf in the corner of it. The wallpaper in the photo is the original from I think 1962!!

Although I'm looking forward to Halloween I'm disappointed that I only have three ore days to show off my Halloween artwork and crafts! Oh, well, there's always Christmas...

Friday, October 27, 2023

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 27 - Pumpkin Succulent

 

Halloween is in the air! 'tis almost the witching hour, so let your crafty magi flow over blogland! My mission  today was to use up more Halloween craft supplies, especially those styrofoam pumpkins from the Dollar Store. Mine was white, so I didn't have to paint it.

I rescued a fake succulent I had bought from the thrift store for 50 cents and pulled it out of its cheap plastic pot. I dug a hole in the top of my pumpkin base and hot glued it in place. Next I layered fabric leaves around the plant, adding flowers, orange and black deco balls and jewels to fill in the gaps so you can't see where the plant ends and the pumpkin begins. 

I finished off my Halloween decor with a leftover piece of lace, adding adhesive jewels to it for some shiny. It is almost 4 inches wide and 5 inches high with the succulent standing tall. I love how it turned out, and I spent more time sorting thru my faux leaves and flowers than I did on putting the project together!

Are you ready for the BIG DAY? Got your costume and/or makeup at hand? Got enough candy to pass out? Is your home decorated? Just four more days!! Meanwhile, find out your Halloween name from below...


CHALLENGES I AM ENTERING:
C.R.A.F.T. - Halloween/Thanksgiving
Creative Knockouts - Anything Goes
Moving Along with the Times - October/Anything Goes


Thursday, October 26, 2023

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 26 - Golden Skull Wall Art

 


My make today features the golden skull. Why did I italicize those words? I don't know, it sounds like an Indiana Jones movie title. Anyhow, the skull came off a Dollar Store skeleton. Since he was dead already, I cut his head off his body and took off the back half of his skull. Then I painted it gold.

The "canvas" is one of the few boxes I got from the Dollar Store via the thrift store. I peeled the Easter Bunny decoration off the box and used Mod Podge to adhere part of a Halloween napkin onto it to create the background. 

As I was painting the sides of the box, the gold paint over-ran onto the front, so I made sure the gold made a sort of border. After my skull was dry, I used hot glue to adhere it onto my canvas. I pulled out a piece of laced burlap and some twine. I added some Fall leaves and a sunflower and my project is finished.
CHALLENGES I AM ENTERING:
Try It on Tuesdays - Halloween