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

If You Give a Crafter a Cookie - Mostly Black

 

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!

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!

 

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

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

Unicorn Challenges - Halloween

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 25 - Day of the Dead

 

Today's project is a re-do from one I created last year. Evidently the bin I had placed my DIY Halloween decorations wasn't closed properly and some of them got ruined or needed emergency care. This is one that I salvaged, scraping off the old and adhering a new felt Day of the Dead skull. I added new ribbon, flowers and gems to freshen it up.

Did you know that, here in the States, Halloween is almost neck to neck with the Christmas holidays when it comes to decorations and parties?!

in house decorations and parties 

31 Days of All Hallows eve - Day 23 - Jack Skellington Ornament

 

Today I made a hanging ornament featuring Jack Skellington, star of the Disney animated movie, Nightmare before Christmas by Tim Burton.

I was lucky to find a chalk ornament during Hobby Lobby's winter clearance. I thought the black chalk background would be perfect for Jack for this year's Halloween crafting. I drew the facial features with white colored pencil, then added my paint using Posca markers. There are plenty of line drawings of the movie's characters on Google free clipart.

I am running out of room in my house to hang Halloween artwork and crafts, but found the perfect spot. It's a wall in my hallway where I had put a wall sticker scene, then attached screw to hand my purse or jacket onto. It seems to make a spooky background for my ornaments as well!

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 22 - Cute Halloween Kitchen Scrubbie

 

Today I created a kitchen scrubbie with a Halloween theme. When I was younger, my Gram taught me to crochet. I dusted off this talent from the deep dark corners of my memory, using orange and black netting, or tulle that I had bought over a year ago. Using single and double crochet stitches, I formed a (round) pumpkin shape. I added more black to turn the pumpkin into a Jack-o-lantern.

These scrubbies are great to use on non-stick pans, as they won't damage the coating on the pans. I sold some at a craft fair this Spring, and those who received one as a gift are avid fans of their strength and usefulness. In fact, my nephew snagged a couple more to replace the ones he had.  I had made another one without the face (but my nephew took that one).

I think I'll make a few Christmas-colored ones for stocking stuffers this year...

CHALLENGES I AM ENTWERING

Everybody Art - Pumpkin

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 21 - Day of the Dead Skull

 Today I decorated a Dollar Tree skull and created a sugar skull for Day of the Dead. Anyway, this holiday is getting more popular in the US, especially with movies from Disney like the "Book of Life" and "Coco". It originates from Mexico, and really is more related to the Catholics' All Saints Day and, more so, All Souls Day. It is a day to honor those who have passed before us, except instead of going to church to pray for their souls, families gather together either at home or where their loved ones are buried. They celebrate with flowers and food and bring up good memories, celebrating their lives so they won't be forgotten.

The skull I found was colored with a bokeh-effect over the color silver. I filled the eyes with adhesive jewels, then surrounded each eye with a circle of yellow jewels, and another of pink pearls. After looking it over, I decided it was much too sparkly, so I attached a flower into each socket - much better...

As I filled the face of the skull, I added jeweled flowers, lines of pearls and jewels and finally flowers to cover the scalp. I had to use my Posca paint marker to color the nose socket black, as well as outlining the teeth. My partner, the hot glue gun, was a huge help! LOL

Since the teeth were the swirly rainbow on silver color, I painted them white. My sugar skull, named after special candy sold only on November 1-2, is a bright, beautiful decoration. If I display it my window, it really sparkles in the sun!

CHALLENGES I AM eNTERING:

Crafting Happiness - Halloween 

Simon Says - Spooky

31 Days of All Hallow's Eve - Day 19 - Dollar Tree Deck Decor

 

Hello, crafters! I have been seeing a lot of YouTube videos of Halloween decor made from Dollar Tree items, but today I wanted to put my own spin on one, using the Skull and cross bones fences. I have a porch light that I wanted to "cover" with the fencing but still let the light shine on for trick-or-treaters. So I cut one fence into three parts using my kitchen shears, cutting off the "stakes" from the bottoms.

Once I measured my light with the pieces I had cut, I first tied some ribbon around the pieces, attaching them long enough to hot glue them into a three-sided square or box. Since there weren't any clean edges from my cutting, I had one heck of a time getting them glued together, but it finally held.

When I put my decoration over my porch light, I discovered I needed to keep it from falling off. So I tied more ribbon above and below my decor and it works beautifully and this design was mine, not just something off of YouTube! 

As you can see it looks good during the day as well as at night. I can't wait for Halloween night. I've been getting fewer and fewer trick-or-treaters each year since COVID. I hope I don't have to eat all the candy I just bought!! LOL