On the 18th Day of Christmas Crafting...

I love making shadow boxes, especially for Christmas and Halloween. Today's project features a house-shaped shadow box made of wood. After lining the back with holiday designer paper, I riffled through my holiday stash and found characters, presents, trees and decorations enough to fill all three cubbies. I look for bags of small holiday ornaments and knick-knacks at garage sales and thrift stores throughout the year.

In the bottom cubby, there's Mrs. Claus baking Christmas cookies while elves are making toys. In the middle, Santa is trimming the tree and putting presents under it. The top compartment is where candy canes and poinsettias are stored. I finished the box off with holiday buttons and stickers after decorating the roof with paper doilies, a bell and a holiday greeting.

I used to facilitate workshops for shadow box making, but the store front closed after a couple years. Now I make them for craft fairs and take commissions for specifically-themed ones. 

Welcome to the 31 Days of Halloween - DAY 17

How's the weather where you live? October started in like a lamb, with unusual temps in the mid 70s, cooling off at night to around mid fifties. But as we near October 31, I know it's going to get nasty. Most years the weather is beautiful right up until the Monday before trick-or-treating. Bummer for the kids who want to show off their costumes. 

Today I upcycled a wooden cat figurine. It was originally pink and cute, but 'tis the season so I first out on its black coat. By the time I finished using my white Posca marker, the cat became a hybrid sugar skull skeleton. I couldn't decide on cute or creepy, and I got what you see here! 

While photographing my project, I decided to make the background black & white. Now the cat looks like he's camouflaged into the background. LOL I've put him in my window. I almost put him in between the glass and screen facing in, but my dog was not very happy with that! So Mr. Bones is facing out and behind the blinds most of the day.

24 Days of Chrustmas - Day 9 - Mini Lace Tree

 

I was digging in my holiday craft supplies and a styrofoam tree form rolled out. Just the one - I have no idea when I got it! But it sang to me, so I pulled out my glue gun, some pine cones and my box of lace.

I decided to go with a cream color theme and separated them from the whites and colored laces. Using sewing pins, I attached my rows of lace onto my tree. I liked the elegant look of the creamy lace, and considered what to used to decorate the tree. I had colored ornaments, strings of pearls and beads. I decided on a string of very tiny peals and adhered it onto my tree as I would a garland. It barely showed against the lace, but when I put it under a light, it sparkled!

Colored ornaments or metallic? ef metallic! I cut a string of cheap Mardis Gras beads that were silver, and one by one glued them onto my tiny tree. I found a cardboard tube that had held some lace. I was just the right size to use for a tree stand. Covering it with some pretty burlap ribbon, I finished my make for today. Oops, forgot that i put a glittered pinecone on top of the tree instead of a star. I used leftover beads from the necklace and glued them onto several levels of the pinecone...

On the Christmas gift list front, I just finished my daughter and my cousin, and am hunting down some special items for my granddaughter and a few good friends. I have 2 weeks left--I better hurry up!!

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 9 Spooky Spiders

 

I altered another book box today. This one is all about the spiders. Before covering my box with tissue paper and homemade mod podge, I drew a large spider web with hot glue. Once the paper was dry, I painted the cover black, then highlighted the web with gold paint using a tiny paint brush. This book took me hours of detailed brush work, getting the web strands thin enough to look realistic. I pulled the spiders from my Halloween craft stash, as well as the thin webbing you can get at the Dollar Store.

Besides lining the box with designer paper. I like to give the sides of the box some gold paint to resemble gilt-edged pages. I have a few more boxes to alter. Do you have any ideas for their theme? I was thinking maybe a witch's cookbook, and possibly a monster book with fangs.

Speaking of cookbooks, I tried to make devilled eggs but with avocado mixed in to make the filling spooky. I also like to make lots of tiny cracks in my egg shells after boiling. Then I put them in cups colored with Kool Ade. They come out almost like dinosaur eggs, with lines all over the whites. Pretty gruesome. They looked great but I'm not especially fond of avocado. It was a hit, though, and I took home my empty container. Here's the recipe:

Halloween Dragon Eggs

Hard boil eggs. I boil them for 7 minutes, take the off the burner, cover them and let them cool off for another 7 minutes.

Crack each egg lightly so that the egg has many cracks but won't fall apart. 

Fill a pot with some water and all the contents of a Kool Ade packet (no sugar added) of any color you prefer (I used grape for purple) Use enough water to cover the eggs completely.

Place eggs in this pot for about 15 minutes.

Dry with paper towel and crack open the eggs. You should have a cool design on the hard egg whites. 

Cut them in half, placing egg yolk in small bowl and egg whites on a platter.

Chop up the egg yolks and add some Miracle Whip and mustard (if you want them to turn green, add half a very ripe avocado. Stir until creamy. Fill egg whites and refrigerate. 

I like to sprinkle on some paprika just for looks. Garnish as you like...

If you try these, let me know how they turned out! 

Halloween is My Thing

Took me a little longer than expected, but here's my second Halloween decor item created from the item pictured below.

I created a scary Halloween scene the first time, but wanted to create a more kid-friendly one to sell at the Fall craft fair. Although it was a Christmas calendar, I couldn't utilize to holes and pegs after revamping it. It still turned out well, I think. I painted the triple-layered scene orange this time instead of black. I discovered I had a lot more cute Halloween craft items than I thought. Everything came out of my Halloween craft tub.

I used designer paper, ribbons, adhesive candy corn stickers, buttons, and even a cake topper that read Happy Halloween. You can see the candy corns on the sides of my piece.

Now the big question. The original Christmas pieces sold for $20 at Michael's.. They measure 8"x3"x6" high. I've been accused of underpricing my artwork and need an opinion. The craft fair is at an RV park where I own a trailer. I'm getting a table for the Labor Day weekend. There is a huge Halloween weekend that is open only for owners and their guests. I roughly give away over 200 pieces of candy to trick-or-treaters. There are prizes given to best-decorated trailers, carved pumpkins, costumes, etc. I've won three trophies from the pumpkin carving contests through the years.

The craft fair is close enough for Fall and Christmas holiday items to be popular as well as only available to owners and guests. I got the items on clearance for $2 each. My question is: How much do I sell these decor items? Anyone have any ideas?

Challenges I am Entering:

Arty Divas - A/G

Morgan's Art World - Anything Goes

The Creative Crafters - A/G

Two Old Bats Halloween - Mood Board (I love the pumpkin head)

Worldwide Crafters & Colorists - Anything Goes w/an image