Altered Skeleton Bottle

I’m always excited when Mr. Chocolate decides to try a new adult beverage because he always chooses stuff that comes in the coolest bottles and eventually they’ll be mine all mine mwaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.

I had fun last year making “Pick Your Poison” altered bottles, that I wanted to make another one.
I started with this empty bottle:

appropriately called Mischief.

I was going to use the paper you see underneath it then I decided to use this paper instead:

Fishnet! Yes, fishnet paper. I thought it screamed Halloween. Measured around my bottle, cut the paper and applied to the bottle with Matte finish Mod Podge, then tore some strips of black and white damask paper and slapped that on with the MP.

Once that was dry, I cut out a circle from the All Hallow’s Eve scrapbook paper shown here, applied it to the bottle with Antique Matte Mod Podge, then applied a rhinestone circle sticker.

I had a skeleton head left over from my coffin boxes and decided it would make a great bottle topper. First I wrapped the bottle neck with black and white baker’s twine, then kind of zig zag wraped black ribbon on top of that:

I also had some spider web paper left over from my coffin boxes so I made a pleated pinwheel to make a collar for Mr. Skully Head.

Carrying on my propensity to pun, I added a key from a package of Tim Holtz keys…a Skeleton Key .I crack me up.

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BFF Open House Link Party #72 : The I'm Late Edition!

I’m late I’m late for this very important date, and very much running around like the Mad Hatter. So without further ado ( adieu?) let’s party!

Don't forget to share the bloggy love and visit some of the other partiers.  Thanks for choosing to spend part of your week here with out of control me ! 

Skully Coffin Boxes

I’m having fun with a neutral Halloween palette again this year and black and white fits right in. You’ve probably seen these little coffin wood boxes at Michaels or other craft stores. Michaels had some for $.99 and some for $2.99 that make noise when you open them. Yes, I bought both kinds.

My camera battery was charging when I was making these so I didn’t get a lot of pics along the way but it’s pretty easy to follow along even w/out step by step pics.

Decide on your color scheme ( you could go bright and whimsical with this too). I painted my plain boxes black, let dry, then painted a layer of white school glue ( plain old white glue) over the black paint. Let almost dry and then went over that with white paint. Oooohhhh crackle crackle.

Ann at Make The Best of Things has a great tutorial here.

I traced around my boxes on the back side of the scrapbook paper I chose ( Recollections Spider Web) and cut out tops and bottoms for my boxes. Mod Podged those on using MP Matte Formula ( my go to).

While everything was drying, I grabbed a Bag O Skulls. Literally:

I picked these up last year at either Dollar Tree or Michaels or Target or somewhere I was scrounging around after season. I debated whether to leave them the color they were or paint. Went with paint.

Used Martha Stewart Craft paint….that stuff sticks to anything including cheap plastic skulls.  Went over that with Martha Stewart glitter paint in sterling.

These are fashionable skeleton heads. Must have glitter! Glued them to my boxes and embellished.

Pulled out RIP letters from my stash of alphabet embellishments. These were clear acrylic which didn’t show up well so I painted the back with a white paint pen.

In addition to the must have glitter, must have rhinestones. The black on black doesn’t show well here but I like it in the middle of the spider webs and it picks up the light.

Total cost: $3 (if that)

If you want to see another great coffin box idea, check out this one from Sarah at Alderberry Hill: A Glitzy Halloween Coffin

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SteampunKEY Pumpkin. More Fun With Tissue Paper and Mod Podge

I fully admit to loving cheesy puns. I had so much fun with my script Tissue Paper and Mod Podge pumpkin that I knew I wanted to make another one. Having bought this cool key themed tissue paper at the same time, the SteampunKEY pumpkin was conceived.

Follow the same steps outlined in my earlier tutorial. I left the stem bare on the first one but since I knew I wanted to add keys etc. I wrapped this stem with copper wire and black and white baker’s twine.  I looked in my stash and had some Tim Holtz gears and some little keys. My family members actually mail me the stuff they have no idea what to do with which is how I got the keys. Thanks Mumster (my mom for anyone who's new to my craziness)!

Here’s a closeup of the little copper gear I used:

And now my script paper covered pumpkin has a friend!

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BFF Open House Link Party #71 Wrap Up and Features

Fall is definitely in the air and was on full display at last week’s party. So many fun and gorgeous Fall and Halloween ideas.  Here are just a few!

Love this  gorgeous decoupaged napkin pumpkin from Artsy Va Va.

Take a look at this faux bay leaf wreath from Carolyn at homework. I had to look three times because it looks so real!

This reminds me of the wreaths I see each year about this time in the WIlliams Sonoma catalogs.

Speaking of catalogs, this is a great knock off of something seen in Pottery Barn catalogs. You’ll never guess the humble beginnings of these spooky aspen branches from Or So She Says:

I keep chickening out on printing on fabric. Don’t ask me why. I’ve definitely been inspired to try looking at these gorgeous linen signs from City Farmhouse.

As much as I love neutrals, this colorful re-purposed garden rake from Heatherly Loves  caught my eye. It is gorgeous!

Finally, this week’s chocolate temptation are Oreo Mud Bars  from  Twirl and Taste and don’t they look delish?

Thanks again to everyone who linked up and hope to see you all again on Friday. Make it a creative week!

BFF Open House Link Party #71 and pick.print.party Giveaway Winner

Happy almost Friday party people! I woke up in a panic that I’d forgotten to post a party at all. 

Before we get to the party, we have a winner of the giveaway from pick.print.party.

And the winner is ( as randomly chosen by Rafflecopter) :

Congrats Carol! I’ll let Rebecca from pick.print.party know and she’ll be in touch with the details. Thanks to everyone who entered !

What have you been up to this week?  Party on!

Mod Podge and Tissue Paper Pumpkin Tutorial

I’m finally getting around to some Fall projects. I’m a late bloomer. This is something that’s super easy and can stay out from Halloween through Thanksgiving. You will need:

• Paper Mache Pumpkin (the one I used is about 6 inches across)
• Tissue paper (I used 2 sheets, 12x12)
• Mod Podge

I started with a paper mache pumpkin I found on sale after season last year. I’ve seen them this year at Michaels, JoAnn’s etc.

On one of my recent Michaels trips, I discovered packs of Recollections printed tissue papers in the scrapbook paper aisle. They were $1.99 for a pack of 5 regular price.

For this project, I chose the script paper. This is a good project to do if you’re in a bad mood. Not saying that I was, just saying. Why? Because you get to scrunch and tear stuff! Tear all four edges of your papers first. Then:

Wad, scrunch, ball up your paper. Unwad, then tear into smaller pieces:

The reason you’ll want to have torn your edges first is that they blend better when podging.

Apply Mod Podge ( I used Matte Finish) to the back of your paper pieces, then apply your paper to the pumpkin. Since tissue paper is thin you don’t want to oversaturate but it’s also very forgiving and gets in the creases of the pumpkin unlike stiffer paper would.

I was conscious but not OCD about making sure the script was all going the same way.

In some spots, paper got layered  making things more opaque, and in others it didn’t and I liked the effect of some of the naked pumpkin showing through.

Once you’ve got all of your paper on, coat with Mod Podge and just wait for it to dry.  I’m working on another variation so check back soon.

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