Welcome to the 31 Days of Halloween DAY 6

 

Today's project is a craft that comes from several different leftovers. I had the swag made of sticks that I had to re-tie. The pumpkins came from a nasty wreath that I had tossed, keeping the wooden pieces for later (or rather now). I had to repaint them to give them life (call me Mrs. Frankenstein).

The leaves are the last of my collection of felt Fall leaves, which I adhered onto the branches after wiring the pumpkins to to sticks . I also made a loop of wire from which to hang my decoration. It was an assembly job, for sure, but worth scrounging around for all the pieces. 

I love to decorate my front porch for Halloween. I put things in the windows, on the door, along the railings, even in the corners of the stairs. Since I created several wreaths, I'm putting the Pumpkin trio in one of my windows this year.

CHALLENGES I AM ENTERING:

Crafty Calendar - ANything Goes

Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers - Halloween

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

Craft Rocket - Autumn or Halloween

31 Days of All Hallow's Eve - Day 10 - Pumpkin Fever

 

Been busy today, mostly waiting for paint to dry! LOL Today's project is another piece of deck decor, thanks to the Dollar Store. Last year I had bought a handful of Styrofoam pumpkins and packed them away. 

So I pulled them out and painted four of them. At first I was going to adhere each to the posts on my front porch, but decided to create one large decoration for Halloween. 

After painting on a coat of white gesso, I gave each pumpkin its own spooky character. I gave the first pumpkin lowlights by painting the cracks in the pumpkin a darker color, then wiping the excess paint off. The I drew on eyes and a mouth.

The pumpkin sitting on top of him I kept white and drew on a ghost face. On top of her is my black cat and sitting on the cat is the witch. She had to be on the top because she wouldn't give u wearing her hat. I made her hair out of some cording I had bought on clearance and stuffed into my craft bin. 

In fact, I bought nothing this year for my Halloween crafting! I've been on a decluttering binge for months now, only replenishing my adhesives and paints. Anyway, I hot glued my pumpkins on top of each other and placed them in a wooden planter that has seen better days. I put a few bricks in the bottom of the planter to keep it from falling over. I finished my Halloween totem pole by stuffing some greenery around the top.

Even with all that glue, my pumpkins look like they're about to tumble. No worries, though, they're professionals...

Challenges I am Entering:

Mirtillamente Challenges - Anything Halloween

Morgans Art World - Anything Goes

Four Seasons Challenges - Anything FALL Goes

31 Days of All Hallow's Eve - Day 8 - Pumpkin Sign Decoration

 

Remember the signs I picked up from the Dollar Store for summer? Here's the other one that I altered for Halloween. I again painted the back side of the sign so I get double use from my purchase. After it dried, I adhered designer paper, bordering it top and bottom with lace I colored orange.

I then used my white Posca marker to give it a witty greeting. Like it? I hope it made you smile...

31 Days of All Hallow's Eve - Day 7 - My very first Meme

A couple days ago, I created two Halloween characters our of skeleton bodies and pumpkins for heads. Today I created my very first meme! And, it being the season, I made it a Halloween meme. 

Using my newly-created Halloween characters, I used the magic of Photoshop to feature in this meme. The background is compliments of Rucola Designs, whose papers I adore and purchased on Mischief Circus. I wanted a speech bubble, but I couldn't find one, so the "punchline"  is just a blurb at the top in quotes. 

What do you think? Should I switch my job from crafter to meme maker? Maybe I should just stick to what I love doing...

31 Days of All Hallow's Eve - Day 5 - Pumpkin Heads

 As I continue to create Halloween makes like a mad scientist, I often take items apart, saving the leftovers for another project. Today I created these fun creatures from skeletons whose heads I had used for another project. I have an excess of small pumpkins and I remembered the story of the Headless Horseman. He rode at night, a phantom being scaring the townspeople, no head, except for the Jack o' Lantern he carried in his arm. Poor Ichabod Crane was one of his victims... 

So I attached my pumpkins to these two skeletons since they seemed to be missing theirs. I drew on their faces with my black Posca paint marker. Then I got this crazy idea to pose them by hot gluing their hands to their new heads. They look like they just woke up to find their new looks. I'm thinking about using them in Photoshop to make a Halloween meme. If I create one, it will show up on my blog during the 31 days of Halloween.

31 Days of All Hallow's Eve - Day 3 - Spooky Door Decor

 Hello, witches! My project today is a welcome wreath, Halloween-style. I unearthed a wire wreath form I had bought from Dollar Store last year and tried to weave black tulle around it. That lasted 20 minutes! So then I pulled out some leftover orange canvas and wound it around most of the form. 

Continuing to pull from my Halloween craft supplies gather over the years, I found a bare wooden haunted house sign that I just painted black...

and a wood and wire fence I painted grey...

and some foam flowers...

and foam ghosts that used to be part of a banner...

and a few miscellaneous pumpkins/jack o' lanterns.

My hot glue gun saw some serious action. I want to be able to show this off for the next several years.

Do you decorate for Halloween? Is it just outside, or do you do the inside of your house, too? My neighborhood goes crazy at Halloween. There are some neighbors' houses that my kids (when they were younger) would not go up to their doors for candy! Coffins and gigantic spiders and zombies, etc. I just like to put my artwork in the windows and on the doors, and a large vase or two of altered flowers/plants.  

Challenges I am Entering:

Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes, no cards

Crafting Happiness - Halloween

Get Creative - #126 Purple, Black, Green and Orange!!!

 Mirtillamente Challenge #25 - All about Halloween

 Two Old Bats - Halloween Mood Board

The Four Seasons - Anything Fall Goes Mood Board

One More Time with the Outlawz Monday Greetings Challenge

Have you checked out theinspiration at the Outlawz Monday Greetings challenge this week? Not only do our sponsors, Scribbles Designs and Melonheadz, have prizes to offer, but one of our own DT members, Christina Hor, is also an artist. Se created this wonderful autumn-themed digital image set, called   . The set comes with the image and three sentiments. I used it to create one last card for the challenge of autumn colors and twine.
Now for the good news. Christine's set will be the prize in a second bonus draw!

Only crafters who enter the challenge this week get a chance to win this set, so have fun creating!!

Happy Halloween from the Farm, Y'all!

Well, here in Chicago, we got a late start to Autumn, but it has arrived! And my cards have changed their colors as well as the leaves ion the trees. The Outlawz Monday Greetings challenge blog has a new challenge: make a Halloween card or invitation.
I created this digital card using images from our guest sponsor this week, DeeDee's Digis. The more I play in Photoshop, the more I love it. I am still learning what I can do, but am loving it all.
What about you? Do use use Photoshop to create cards and layouts? I like a blend of the two, what is called hybrid crafting.
Whatever you do, have fun. And link up your project with the Outlawz Monday Greetings this week!!

Images and sentiment from:

DeeDee’s Digis Happy Jacks set, Open Window set, Goody Jars set

Papers from:

Decosse’s Dynamite Doodles Christmas Grunge Brown; Nancy Baumiller Hello Autumn Collection

Elements from:

Nancy Baumiller Crowabout Studio: Hello Autumn Element 10 (star); RUCOLA DESIGNS  Dead or Alive Collection: Ornament 6 (flourish), Crow; Megan Mullins:  Because of You Collection (leaf sprig); Decosse’s Dynamite Doodles: Button 05
Challenges I am Entering:
Dragonfly journeys - It's the Great Pumpkin!
The Craft Garden - Autumn Colors

Gerda Stein Designs Sponsors the Outlawz Progressive Freebie

Now that the school year has truly started, I needed a desk calendar that would change with the seasons. I found a cool acrylic calendar/pen holder at my local Goodwill store for 99 cents and threw away the 2012 monthly pages.
I started with the month of October, using a digital image called "Kid with Pumpkin Handcart" from Gerda Steiner Designs. GSD is this month's wonderful sponsor at the Outlawz Progressive Freebie challenges group.

Everyone who played in last month's challenge will receive this image for free. Didn't play last month? Just go to the Shoppe and purchase it, create something with it and then link up with the Outlawz and the next month's image is free. Keep doing this and you will receive a free image every month. It's that simple!

After printing my image, I colored with Copics, and found and printed a 2015 monthly template for the rest of the year and into 2016.I chose a paper from my never-ending (or so it seems) stash. Since the space between the inner and outer acrylic faces is very thin, I had to go easy on embellishments, settling for some ribbon, a flower, a bow and a few scattered sequins.
Right now my calendar is holding a few Fall flowers and leaves, but once I bring it to my office, I'll add some pens and pencils. And maybe a few personal business cards in case people like my artwork!
Don't forget to check out all the lovely images at Gerda Steiner Designs. Hope you'll play along this month!!

Challenges I am Entering:

Crafting with an Attitude - Anything Goes

Crafty Girls Creations - Always Anything Goes

Scrap & Craft challenges - Autumn Colors

Share joy challenges - Color Palette

The Craft Garden - Autumn Colors