Dia de Muertos Crafting: DIY Sugar Skull

 

Or, as I almost titled  "This Man Stole My Skull!" 

Lemme explain. I made this as part of a gift planned for our local Mexican restaurant, owned by a family in our neighborhood, and from which we get takeout every Friday. When I showed it to Mr. Chocolate, he loved it, and as he has done a few times, he declared it was his, and then gave me a pouty face. So yes, I'm making another one, which works out because I can take some more in process pictures. Still...THIEF!

Supplies:

• Plastic Skull (Dollar Tree)
• Multi-Surface Acrylic Paint and Paint Pens
• Tissue Paper (Dollar Tree)
• Rhinestones
• Dimensional and/or Tacky Glue

For example, I didn't take a picture of my supplies. Ooops/ But this is one of the plastic skulls that Dollar Tree has every year. I painted it with multi-surface Apple Barrel Titanium White. I went over the cracks with a gold paint pen and punched two flowers from scrap paper, which I glued into the eye sockets. Then I added some resin flowers I had in my stash. 

I wanted to get the crown done first to use as a guide for the other elements. For these, I did simple paper flowers cut from tissue paper. Used a small bowl as a guide to trace my circles, then cut them out. I folded the tissue paper in fourths and used two sets of circles to make each flower.

Staple in the middle, then starting with the top layer, pull up and scrunch each layer into a flower. Glue in place using hot glue, dimensional glue, or as I did, Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue. 

For the pink and yellow flowers shown, I used crepe paper streamers from Dollar Tree. I'll show how I made these when I do the next tutorial because, did I mention? Mr. Chocolate STOLE the first one?! 

Also not shown I went around the eyes, nose, and teeth with acrylic paint pens. 

I grabbed a bunch of self-adhesive rhinestones from my stash and then played with embellishing.

I just eyeballed and placed them as shown. 

NOTE: While the rhinestones are self-adhesive, just to be safe, I added dots of Glossy Accents dimensional glue to make extra sure! 

So now I'll be working on the replacement because again, I live with a thief! 

Sharing At: 

Halloween Crafting: Nightmare Before Christmas Ornaments

 

I finally did something I've been meaning to do for a few years, which is to add some "The Nightmare Before Christmas" elements to my Halloween Tree. I promised myself after our Disneyween-a-Versary trip that I wouldn't let another year go by!

Supplies:

• Flat Acrylic Ornaments
• Acrylic Paints
• SVG Files
• Vinyl
• Cutting Machine

Every so often, I have a "TEMU moment," which is how I ended up with way too many of these acrylic ornaments. I found the SVGs online and imported them into my Cricut Design Space Software and sized to fit my ornaments. Since my tree is mostly black, white, and purple, I decided to cut the images out using black vinyl and applied to one side. 

I grabbed acrylic paints in the colors that match the characters and painted the backs of the ornaments. For Sally, I just did the face/body. For the others, I covered the whole back. 

I painted using a sponge spouncer which is why the wet paint looks, well, spongey, but it dries flat. I used two coats for opacity. 

To secure them to my tree, I used some black glitter pipe cleaners. Easy Peasy! 

TIP: If you don't have a cutting machine, you could easily trace these onto the ornaments using a paint pen, then paint the backs. I think that would give the same effect.

But wait, there's more! The Haunted Mansion also has a really cute wreath made out of bones for Zero the Dog from the movie. I knew I had some "bags o bones" from Dollar Tree in my stash, so that gave me an idea for another addition to my tree.

Each package comes in three different sizes which worked great for my idea. I laid out a basic shape, and glued a base together with hot glue. Then I just kinda added to it and built up.

They naturally formed a kind of dog-house shape! 

After it was assembled, I hit it with some white spray paint. I wanted a banner like the one in The Haunted Mansion has, so I cut two shapes from scrap paper and then wrote ZERO on by hand. 

These were super easy to make, and I love how they look on my tree! 

Sharing At: 

Sundays on Silverado 

Halloween Crafting: DIY Witch Broom Wreath

 

I previously shared the Witch Broom I made using a Dollar Tree plunger. Today I'm sharing what I did with it!

Supplies:

• Completed Witch Broom
• Wreath Form
• Decorative Mesh
• Pipe Cleaners
• Tulle
• Florals
• Skulls

I used a large wire wreath form (Dollar Tree) as my base, along with Decorative Mesh (also DT) and florals from DT and Michaels. 

Since I knew I was going to attach the broom and wanted to ensure other things were really secure on the wreath form, I added some pipe cleaners as shown so that I could use the ends to attach other elements. 

I covered the form with the decorative mesh, wrapping it so the pipe cleaner ends were still accessible. 

I used a combination of the pipe cleaner ends and some tulle to tie on the broom. Glue didn't feel like it was going to be strong enough!

I took my florals apart, then combined them how I liked in bunches, which I also used the pipe cleaner ends to attach. Once you know you're done with the pipe cleaners, trim closely, and they just blend in. 

I found this bag of Oil Skulls at Michaels, and the iridescent colors worked perfectly with my color palette. 

Then I used hot glue to add these randomly around my wreath. 

A little Goth. A little Glamour. Gothmour?

Sharing At:

Summerween: Plunger Witch Broom

 

I saw a similar one on Pinterest late last season after I was done with Halloween crafting, and actually remembered to get the supplies on a recent Dollar Tree trip! The ones I saw were more rustic and therefore probably more realistic, but I've had enough reality, thank you very much! 

Supplies

• Plunger (Dollar Tree)
• Masking Tape (Dollar Tree)
• Black Rope (Dollar Tree)
• Tulle (Stash)
• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

These are the main supplies I used. Didn't even bother showing these to Mr. Chocolate before I made my broom because how many "If you say so" comments can one person hear?! 🤣

I keep saying I'm going to refinish my work desk, but then I ask myself: what's the point, except for pictures, since it's a working desk...I digress. Wrap the handle of the plunger in masking tape, the messier the better. Squeeze and crinkle along the way.

Keep going until the handle is completely covered. You could also use the tape to create some knots and bumps along the way. Grab some paint in the color of your choice and paint the handle. I used Craft Smart Espresso Bean and a sponge spouncer. 

The crinkles and bumps from the masking tape, combined with the paint, give you a very cool effect, I think! 

Cut lengths of your rope and glue around your handle. 

NOTE: This is where you can get REALLY creative. You can use sisal rope or twine or yarn or ribbon or whatever comes to mind. You can see that this rope is made of smaller twists. We'll get to that.

Oh look, we're here at the point where you un-twist all those twists! I wanted different textures so I grabbed some tulle to add to my broom. You could however, do only rope and I woudl suggest starting closer to the plunger part if you do so you get better coverage. 

I tied up my rope strands to keep them out of the way because you know how glue strings get EVERYWHERE, and then cut lengths of tulle, knotted and doubled them over, and glued around the plunger. This gave my broom some depth. 

Then I untied my rope strands and added a few more pieces of tulle to cover any gaps. To finish, I wrapped the top of the bristles with a metallic pipe cleaner. 

Et, voila!

Back to Mr. Chocolate: "VERY Cool!"