I decorated each with a White Posca marker and adhesive bling. They sit gracefully at Santa's feet in my lamp post garden in front of the house. And if the weather doesn't warm up, they will be the last decor I put outside before Christmas!! Yikes, it's cold...Note in the photo below, the grass, though frozen, is still green. The weather went from mild to freezing that fast. I am so glad I stuck those metal candy canes into my grass last week...
Good morning, crafters! Today I added some new holiday decorations to my front deck. I have a ramp that extends from one end of the front of ,my house to the other, ,and this is where I put my string of Christmas lights and my new candy cane hearts.
until I discovered that all their non-credit, continuing ed classes are only offered at their other campus, with which I am not familiar, and would likely skip on those January class days when the the temps are sub-zero or the roads are unplowed or icy.
So I decided to check out YouTube and Pinterest and fill my art journal with exercises in sketching, as well as inspiration tips and tricks from other artists. This is one of my art journal pages, although it is more mixed media than plain old water colors. The main scene is water colors, but I added the snow using white acrylic paint. I think I did an okay job. In fact, I just might print this up and make holiday cards for next year. What do you think?
We are now at Day 20 of the 20 days of Christmas crafting. Have any of my crafts, artwork or upcycling inspired you this month? I hope so!!
Once the paint was dry, I used Liquid Gloss Sealant so that I could hang the set outside. I've been upcycling metal artwork since COVID, and I really like it. I have a deck in the back, as well as in front, and I enjoy changing out the look of them with each season.
Hello, crafters! Today I offer you a hybrid canvas. It's a cross stitch canvas stretched onto a wooden frame, with a painted background and stitches using embroidery thread. I also embellished my canvas with a felt wiener dog, a sticker (bells) and small sequins for tree ornaments. The branches and the ribbons and bows on the presents showcase my stitching. I guess you can call it a mixed media project!
Check out the Path of Positivity challenge blog for their newest challenge, The Power of Words: Family & Friends. They're at the midway point of the challenge...
This month I'm gifting a couple more neighbors with a portable family game center. because I was inspired by the Candyland tin to fill it with game materials. It holds a new holiday deck o cards, Yahtzee score sheets with dice and little golf pencils, and an unopened UNO dice game. I added an extra die for a game known by many names, like Foo, Farkle, etc,.
Both game centers are also decorated with bows and a small notecard telling each family how blessed I am to have them for neighbors and friends. And of course, each family has young children to enjoy family game nights. I'll be dropping these off this coming week...
I started with coloring a Rick St. Dennis image called Death on a Saturday Night with my trusty Copics. The image is one of my favorites from RSD. I made the background digitally with a paper from Rucola Designs. The moon and paper flags are free clipart from Google. In order to have the "family" appear naturally in my setting, I fussy-cut it after coloring it so it looks like it's truly part of the scene.
This is my DT make for November's challenge at Halloween & Other Occasions All Year 'round.. Besides offering Halloween all year round, as implied, each month offers challenges for each month's celebrated holidays as well. I chose Day of the Dead as my heritage may be German-Irish but my heart is Mexican...
I reached into my bag of Halloween tricks and pulled out a plastic skeleton (I bought so many of these throughout the year that I haven't had to purchase any in forever). Using his lower legs and a larger one from another bag, I formed the latter "B"., brushing it with white paint before adhering it with hot glue.
A couple black silk leaves and white felt flowers formed the letter "O" twice, and now my artwork has a title, "BOO". I added a few die-cut leaves and a small wooden gravestone to finish off my project. I hope I didn't overload the canvas, but I am NOT a fan of "white space". It's difficult for me to stop when it comes to embellishments. I hope you've enjoyed the 31 Days of Halloween here at 'Patacake's Pages. I have one more day to entertain you with my imagination and creativity this spooky season. See you tomorrow.
Challenges I am Entering:
Back to today's project. During the summer I had to replace my privacy fence. I got to use my nephew's table saw while he was "fencing" and cut some wood slices nice and thin. I painted three of them as Day of the Dead sugar skulls, hand drawing them after getting inspiration from Marisol's images from Pixel Scrappers. They are so darn cute.
I found a frame and attached jewelry items on each wood slice from which to hang them. I attached a chain to the frame and then added each slice to the chain using thin wire. It looked a little bare so I added some mica/shell slices I had in my jewelry craft supplies and I like the finished product.
There's a beautiful movie showcasing the special meaning of Day of the Dead. It's called Coco and is a Pixar film released by Disney. It's one of those movies that are made for kids with adults in mind, so the whole family can enjoy it (and the music is good, too).
The wreath is made from branches of a weeping willow (I had to look it up). Around this I wove wired ribbon with a Halloween print. Next I used up ALL my plastic skulls. I had three different kinds! After I adhered them with hot glue and E6000, I left a small space for my Skull King. Actually it's a diffuser that was broken that I had bought from Bath & Body. Looking sad and plain, so I added a small bow made from orange and black netting (tulle).
I finished off my newest Halloween decoration by attaching a spooky black floral deco that I had bought after last year's Halloween. I think you have to zoom in to see it. A single spider on a skull nearest the king finishes my project for today. And it is on my front door now (do you think I'll get any solicitors?)...
He didn't sit well in the chair until I placed a full plastic bag of like bags for his cushion. That worked well enough to get him hot-glued onto the chair. He still didn't look comfortable until I put a towel between the chair and his body. He had to have his beer sitting next to him, so I made the sacrifice and drank a Radler beer (German). To really get the feel of a man relaxing with his beer, I attached sunglasses to his skull and added his pet lizard on his other chair arm.
I placed him in my almost-finished front garden with my other Halloween crafts. I have just enough space for a couple more before the BIG DAY. Are you ready? Do you get many trick-or-treaters? I have both candy and packs of trading cards to give out this year.
I used Posca markers to draw on the irises of the eyes, decorating the "whites of the eyes" with dark red lines to look like veins. They didn't look much like real eyeballs until I used Gloss Varnish on each and then they really popped. I had to trim them to fit into the center of each flower, adhering them with a combination of E6000 and hot glue.
I stuck my flowering eyeballs in a black plastic cauldron and filled it with foliage, autumn leaves, fake pumpkins and spiders, as well as adding a couple of bricks to keep my cauldron from falling down or blowing away. I placed my decor in the middle of my small garden surrounding my front light post. I also added a few other bits of decor from this year and last year and am almost finished with my Halloween garden...
Anyway, had the perfect three pieces of wood in my garage to make my sign today. I painted each a different Halloween color and then used Posca markers to fill in the words and symbols. I still need to seal them with gloss varnish. If I do so, I might be able to hang it off my front deck railing. I've started placing some of last year's Halloween makes in the yard and on the deck and ramp.
My house may be decorated to the nines, but my neighbors have me beat with their 12 foot high skeletons and air-filled, store-bought decorations.
I had to do a little repair painting, as well as drew a few Halloween symbols and lettering to get it up to snuff. I also upcycled my "new" wall art by adding the bow at top, a sticker here and there and making a small broom out of a chopstick and pipe cleaners (now known as chenille sticks). There used to be little numbers to hang on this but since they were MIA, I put the broom on the hooks and changed "days 'til" to "almost". I also added the words broom parking.
In pulling out my jewelry stash, I realized I had an overabundance (would that be an oxymoron?) of supplies. So I think I'll be creating some new jewelry; maybe not for Halloween, but Christmas is coming up and I have ideas (and supplies) aplenty.
Writing about selling my jewelry, I had posted earlier in the month how excited I was to participate in a Fall craft Fair. When I returned home from a week's vacation, I had 6 days before the Fair, which was okay because I had prepped, priced and packed everything I needed.
But when I walked in the door with my suitcase, my daughter was sicker than sick, and the next day she tested positive for COVID. Two days later I tested + as well, and my dreams of selling my Halloween and Christmas crafts were dashed against the rocks. So here I am with plenty of inventory. I am now seeking a local craft fair and hoping to sell my Christmas crafts soon.
Meanwhile, I can decorate my home to its full potential with all the stuff I've created this year, as well as the decor I created last year which you can check out on my blog starting HERE.
The paper is from the Dead or Alive set from from RUCOLA DESIGNS by Ildi Geist. as well as the digital element dancing around the fire (skeletons 2,3 &4). the campfire is actually from a photo taken by my sister-in-law in Arizona. The bats and hands reaching up from the ground are free clipart found on Google. I'm going to frame this so it will keep in perpetuity...(forever). Mwahahahaha...
Last summer, my daughter came home from Hobby Lobby with some craft projects for us to do together. One if them was painting clay owl banks. She painted hers a beautiful rainbow of colors and shades. I wasn't feeling well, so put it aside for another day. Well, today is that other day.
I wanted to create a Halloween Owl that was also beautiful, one that I could display all year 'round, so I decided to paint my owl black and added gold features and details.
Next up today is an embroidery canvas. I had to paint the material black first and let it dry. I am typing with blackened fingers because I am an impatient person... Anyway, I drew a spider web across the material with a white pencil. Then I grabbed a skein of white yarn and stitched my lines. The white against black shows up really well, don't you think?
When I reached the end of my yarn I left a length hanging from the bottom-most web part. Then I riffled through my pompom and pipe cleaner drawers and found the makings for my spider. I had to use hot glue to get her to stay on the hanging thread.
That's it! A fun and simple (and not time-consuming) Halloween craft that doesn't take a master sewing expert to make. The canvas is 6x6 so kids and adults alike can try their hands at this project!
My house and deck are filling up with my handmade decor and I can't wait for the big day. As I watch neighbors putting up huge skeletons and blow-up decorations, I have two thoughts: One, that I saved a bunch of money this year, and two, that I need to go bigger next year. My decor is on the small side, and my house only has so many windows and deck space. A little more yard planning and larger patterns is on tap for 2025...
Just a month ago, I found a way to get in, and there everything was!! My most precious memories, a history of my growth as an artist, and all the images I collected and bought and received. And the first thing I did was buy a 128 GB flash drive. I am still in the process of copying EVERYTHING onto that drive. I don't think I can ever trust the cloud again...
My project today is a Design Team make for Halloween & Other Occasions All Year 'round. I used an image from my "once lost but now found" inventory of digital images from Bugaboo Stamps. It's part of a series, and this one is called "the chosen one". I colored him with Copics and fussy-cut him out to place him into the scene, which is a cool and creepy paper from Rucola Designs via Mischief Circus (from her Dead or Alive Series).
The paper is leftover from a DCWV stack, as well the assorted stickers. The spider web is a tiny piece of lace I cut off a larger piece. The crow is a silhouette from Google free clipart, and I printed my greeting in Algerian font.
I don't make a lot of Halloween cards as I don't send them out, but I often bring a handmade treat or gift to a neighbor during the holidays - any holidays!! LOL
