Halloween: Glam Sugared Skulls

 

Happy New Week! Sharing a play on words inspired project with these Glam Sugared Skulls. Living in the Southwest, Sugar Skulls, Catrinas, and Dia de los Muertos iconography and creations are EVERYWHERE and I love them. So, my brain doing what it does, came up with this idea. 

Supplies:

• Plastic Skulls (Dollar Tree)
• White Multi Surface Acrylic Paint (Waverly)
• Mod Podge
• Glitter
• Gemstones (Dollar Tree)
• Silk Roses (Michaels)

I used these plastic skulls from Dollar Tree and my favorite multi-surface Waverly paint. 

Cover the skulls thoroughly with paint. Those sponge spouncers work better to me than brushes. 

I wanted these to look like the skulls were cast from sugar so I grabbed some white glitter from my stash and mixed a bunch into some Mod Podge. Then, using the spouncer thingy (very technical term!), applied to the painted skulls. 

I craft like I cook. "Some"..."a bit"...so I don't have exact proportions but just mix until you're happy!

You can see the glitter effect here. I grabbed some of these irregularly shaped gemstones (Dollar Tree) and decided to use them for the eyes. I just started gluing them randomly and filling in. Yes, they're self-adhesive, but for better adhesion, I reinforced them with some dimensional glue. 

Mr. Chocolate had thoughts on the rhinestones I put in the noses. Pffft. 

I unintentionally made these to match us! Me, with black curly hair represented by black roses, and him, "clean shaven". I used a black rose spray from Michaels, cut it apart, and then glued leaves and flowers as shown.

Mr. Chocolate!

Me!

Us!

I'm planning a future decor tour post when I'm all done using all these projects I've made so you'll see how I used them (if I can stop making more stuff!). 

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Halloween: Glammed Up Dollar Tree Signs

This week's link party continues here.

If you've been in Dollar Tree, no doubt you've seen their collection of Halloween signs. They're cute as is but you know us Makers...can't leave anything as is! I bought two to play with. 

Supplies:

• Dollar Tree Halloween Signs
• Misc. Paints and Embellishments
• Glitter Roses (Dollar Tree)

I picked up this Skeleton sign (and a Ghost one I'll show below). I also found these glittered rose clips that looked fun to play with. I thought I was going to use this broken skeleton but ended up saving it for a yet to be determined project. 

The rose color didn't work with my palette. Enter the rose clips.

I used a wire cutter to clip the "stem" from the rose, and removed the bottom petals. 

I used hot glue to adhere the remaining rose to the one on the sign, then filled in with the other petals and clipped a few more from another rose. I used the remaining roses as shown in the corners of the frame. I used some acrylic paint in pearl white to highlight the teeth and some random "swooshes" over the head. 

I love these DT irregular gems. I pick them up whenever I see them in various colors. These I used to emphasize the eyes, combining the clear, light and dark greys randomly. 

I added some other gemstones on the spider webs and bug. 

I also picked up this "boo" Ghost Sign. Again, cute as is, but...

I went over the ghost with some dimensional glitter paint. 

I liked that it gave the ghost a little texture. And of course GLITTER! Then I used more Creatology Gems (Michaels) to accent the eyes.

More of the DT gems, this time in clear and two shades of gold. While they're self-adhesive, I used some strong glue because sometimes when you store things here in the desert, adhesives don't hold long term. For this one, I decided to highlight the candle. 

Finished by adding more small gems to the spider webs. 

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Sundays on Silverado

Halloween: Glam Bath Skeleton

 

You've probably seen multiple versions of this as candles. I did a slightly different twist on this based on randomly walking past some bowls at Walmart. Like many of my ideas, this is how they come to me.

Supplies: 

• Halloween Themed or Black Bowl (Walmart)
• Mini Skeletons (Dollar Tree)
• Aluminum Foil (Dollar Tree)
• Iridescent Vase Filler (Michaels)
• Clear and/or White Glue (Elmers, Walmart)
• Mini Bottles (Dollar Tree)
• Washi Tape

The skeleton was an extra from a garland I cut up. The bowl was $.70 at Walmart and I love the outside. 

This wouldn't be great for a candle since it's plastic and I'd worry about it melting. So I decided I'd use vase filler instead! The first step was to remove the legs from the skeleton and position the torso and legs opposite each other in the bowl. I attached these to the bowl with hot glue. 

I scrunched up a wad of aluminum foil and just placed in the bottom of the bowl. Don't worry about gluing it in because the vase filler/glue will keep it firmly in place. 

I spread the vase filler over top of the foil and then used both the white and clear glue to cover. I thought I had more clear glue, but I didn't, so I used the white glue too, which dries clear, so no biggie. 

You can see the iridescence of the vase filler and I used these mini-bottles from Dollar Tree to make my bath salts and bubble bath. 

Cover the top with your glue and then set aside to dry. I left it for about 24 hours. I filled on bottle with the vase filler, the other with a glycerin/water mix, vase filler, and glitter. Wrapped each with coordinating washi tape and hot glued in place. 

And here's Mr. Skelly enjoying his bath! 

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Halloween: Resin to the Rescue Salvaged Stand

 

I love it when a plan I didn't have comes together.  I picked up a couple of those flat-ish glass round plate / dish / tray thingies. I'm really not sure what they're called but for me, they were "surface to play with!". I fugured they'd make great trinket dishes or a smaller tiered tray or something. I was thinking originally that I'd play with alcohol inks. 

While taking them out of my craft closet, OOPS! I dropped one and since we have HARD tile floors, it broke. But it didn't shatter, and as someone who likes to salvage things it looked like it could be glued back together. I then got the idea of doing Japanese Kintsugi, the process of adding gold leaf to cracks in pottery, and THEN I remembered I also had some resin from Dollar Tree to play with. Still with me?

Supplies:

• Dollar Tree Clear Glass Dish
• Chunky Glitter
• Resin (I used Epoxy Resin vs UV)

This is the dish thingy I'm talking about. They're usually with the kitchen stuff. And you can see how almost perfectly it broke. I used some Aleene's Clear Tacky glue to glue it back together. 

This is the resin I picked up at DT and the ones I've been in recently look like they've restocked it because it was impossible to find for a while. You need both A and B which work together. Last year, I also found this container of chunky glitter.

I dumped some of the glitter atop the dish and spreadh it out using a dry paint brush, making sure I covered the visible cracks. Then, following the instructions for the resin, mixed and poured.

Since the glass and resin are both clear, it's hard to see the effect in a picture, but this is after the resin was poured. I set it aside to cure for 24 hours. You can see the one piece I couldn't fill in, but it doesn't matter because whatever ends up going on top will obscure it. 

I was so happy with the way it turned out that I went ahead and used the unbroken one and another set of resin to make another! 

For now, I'm showing with this cute Skeleton Bunny I found at Walmart and fell in love with. 

Gotta love a happy accident, right? Now, of course, I want to do a couple of these for Christmas and Hanukkah! 

Pinkoween: Glam Skeleton Plaque

 

Another Pinkoween project like my Glam Pinkoween Ghost. 

Supplies:

• Wood Plaque (Dollar Tree)
• Pink, Black, and White Acrylic Paint
• Small Skeleton (Mine is from a Dollar Tree Garland)
• Hot Glue Tomstones 
• Stand

I had this wood plaque from Dollar Tree in my stash. They seem to always have them in different shapes. The skeleton was part of a garland so I cut one free. 

The edge was beveled and I painted it in black. I think it looks like a frame. 

I used white acrylic paint to cover the center. I didn't even sand the wood because I liked it better if it looked rough. 

Once the white paint was dry, I coated it with white glue. This is my go to crackle technique!

Lightly dry brushed some silver and some white on the skeleton. 

Went over top with pink paint and watched the magic of the crackling work as it peeked through. Love how aged it looks! 

Gotta have more sparkle, right? I mixed some tinsel glitter (Michaels) and Mod Podge and brushed it on the skeleton and plaque. 

You can see the glitter here (along with a little black streak because I had a dirty brush, but it works!). Glued some beaded garland I picked up at Michaels on clearance around the edge as shown. And then using hot glue and tacky glue, glued the skeleton to the plaque. Couldn't resist adding some rhinestones to the eyes and tied a simple bow around the neck. 

To make the tombstones, I used a silicone mold and hot glue and will show how in a future post! 

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Creatively Crafty Linky Party #265