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.
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.
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
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...
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.