Halloween: Trash to Treasure Spooky Faux Candles

I've been on a bit of a "roll" lately. Pun intended. I have several projects I'm excited to share starting  with this one: Haunted Faux Candles made from repurposed craft rolls. We'd hoped to make another trip to Disneyland around this time but 2020 had other plans. Subconsciously, I think some of my Halloween ideas came from fond memories of things like the Haunted Mansion which this project reminds me of with its Gothic spookiness. 

Supplies: 

• Empty Craft / Wrapping Paper / Paper Towel Rolls. I used empty vinyl rolls and an empty roll from some tulle. I prefer these to paper towel rolls because they're a bit thicker and heartier. 
• Paint. I used Craftsmart Acrylics from Michaels
• Hot Glue and Glue Gun. Stash
• Rub n Buff. Available where fine art supplies are sold

Step 1: 

Drizzle hot glue along the top of your rolls to resemble dripping candle wax.

There's no right or wrong way to do this just drip drip here, drip drip there. 

Step 2: 

Once the glue has set, paint with color of your choice. I used white as shown. 

At this point it's personal preference how many coats of paint you use. I went back over with another coat then dry brushed with silver and black to age them. 

Step 3: 

Once you're satisfied with your candles, you can stop there unless you're me. I wanted to make these look elegant so I decided to highlight some of the candle drips using Antique Gold Rub N Buff. You can also do this with acrylic paint but there's a luster with the Rib N Buff that I love! 

It just so happened that a couple of the craft rolls were the right size to hold real tea light candles ( I won't burn these because "fire hazard" but I like the look) 

Where tea lights won't fit, you can rest an ornament. 

Next time, I'll share the candleholders I did for these! Until then...

Eclectic Red Barn

Follow The Yellow Brick Home

Gothic Halloween Decor Using Paint Poured Canvases

 

I shared last week about the fun I had w/ my husband and son showing them how to do acrylic paint pouring. The canvases I did were always intended for Halloween projects so I'm excited to share what I did with them and am really happy with how they turned out! 

These were the two canvases I did last week. As I mentioned in that post, I was not happy with how the white paint mixed, especially on the bottom canvas, so I decided to do what Makers do and play with it until I was happy with it so here's what I did: 

Step 1: 

Using masking tape, section off where you want to make stripes on your canvas: 

Step 2:

I painted white stripes in the exposed spaces. I ended up using 3 coats to get an opaque white

Once the stripes were dry, I went over the edges with a black paint pen. I didn't care that either the stripes or the edges were clean given the swirled nature of the canvas and I like a "messy" look anyway. 

Step 3:

I found this silicone mold at Dollar Tree last year and used it to create the skull out of hot glue. 

Step 4: 

I debated about doing the whole skeleton but decided to just go w/ the head. Once that was set, I painted white, then dry brushed it with silver. 

Step 5: 

I pulled some stuff out of my stash, little poison bottles and a small frame that I'd picked up a pack of 2  for $1.47 at Michaels on clearance. I dry brushed some silver on the frame and then added rhinestone eyes to the skull. 

It already had some gold so it matched the colors on my canvas perfectly. 

Step 6: 

I added the poison bottles on either side, added some Tim Holz chipboard Halloween themed words and finished with a few silk flowers. 

For the other canvas, I decided to go w/ a Frida Kahlo inspired Quilled Sugar Skull as the focal.

Step 1

I recently ordered some quilling strips from Quilling.com and the colors worked with this project so I gathered my quilling supplies and then cut out my base image on my Cricut Explore Air 2. 

Step 2

As I've been doing with my quilling projects, I cut two images and layered them together with foam tape. I like the depth and sturdiness of doing it this way. I lined the eyes and nose with black. 

Then went around the edges: 

And then started filling in with different swirls and coils: 

In my "Quilling Quest" I've figured out that if you have some spots that aren't perfect you can always stick another coil in to resolve it, so I don't worry about getting the base image perfectly clean. 

Step 3: 

Once I decided I was done gluing my coils in , then I finished by making some coiled roses from crepe paper I had in my stash. "I had in my stash" appears a lot on my blog and should tell you all you need to know about "my stash"! 

And now, despite not being happy when I did my paint pouring, I am thrilled with how these both turned out! 

Stay tuned...more Gothic Halloween fun to come! 

Supplies Skull Canvas

• Painted Canvas ( I used one I'd already paint poured)
• Coordinating Paint
• Paint Pens
• Masking Tape
• Silicone Mold , Hot Glue and Glue Gun or Melting Pot
• Embellishments ( I used Poison Bottles, Frame, Silk Roses and Halloween Words from my stash)

Supplies Frida Sugar Skull Canvas

• Painted Canvas ( I used one I'd already paint poured)
• Sugar Skull Base ( I cut mine on my Explore Air 2 or you could use a pre-cut diecut)
• Quilling Papers ( Quilling.com, Astrobrights Black)
• Glue (Aleene's Turbo Tacky and Elmer's)
• Crepe Paper for Flowers ( Lia Griffith Aubergine and Gold)