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!"

Halloween: Black and Copper Ode to Shakespeare

 "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio. 

A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."

--Hamlet, William Shakespeare

I'm a bit of a Shakespeare nerd. Not sure if this scene from Hamlet inspired this idea, or it immediately came to mind once I finished it. 

Since we live in the Copper State, it felt fitting to add some copper to my Halloween decor!

Supplies:

• Skull and Hand (Dollar Tree)
• Multi-surface acrylic paint in black and copper or colors of choice
• Dimensional Glue (Judi Kins)
• Seed bead mixture
• Glitter

No doubt, you're familiar with the skulls they have at Dollar Tree every year. I forgot to take a pic of it before I painted it. Used a sponge spouncer (DT) to cover with Craft Smart multi-surface acrylic paint in black. 

I used this Martha Stewart multi-surface paint in Rust, which is a deep reddish copper.

I also used this to highlight the cracks in the skull, and to highlight the teeth. 

I used a fine-tipped brush for the cracks and to outline the mouth and nose, and dry-brushed some of the paint onto the teeth. 

I used some Diamond Glaze by Judi Kins, a dimensional glue, to hold a mix of seed beads and coordinating glitter in the eye sockets. Pool a little glue, sprinkle bead/glitter mix, and then add a little more glue. It dries quick and clear. 

To finish, I outlined the eye sockets with these Creatology Gems from Michaels which I treat like your favorite seasoning and add to darn near everything lol! Used the same glue to attach, and used up some leftover dark gray rhinestones for the center and sides of the head. 

Originally, I planned to glue the skull into the hand, but it actually cradles perfectly in the hand. Like they were made for each other! 

Creepin' it real! 

Sharing At:

Creatively Crafty Linky Party #270

Halloween: Repurpose Old Decor...Jack Skellington Glass Block

 

Every time I put out decorations Mr. Chocolate unnecessarily tells me, "Feel free to get rid of stuff!"

Not that I need the reminder, and he also knows I've been making new stuff, but since he's the keeper of the bins...

I had a Halloween-themed glass block made years ago that I've debated about making over, but the lights kept working until now, which gave me a reason to make it over. 

Supplies: 

• Glass Block (the kind with an opening / seal unless you want to drill!)
• Black Vinyl and Transfer Tape
• LED Battery Operated Lights (Dollar Tree)
• SVG image of choice
• Digital Cutting Machine (Cricut Maker)

This was my original with some spider webs in each corner and decorative rhinestones. I was initially going to remove them and then looked at the block and the other side was blank so I used it and left this as is. 

Removed the broken lights, cleaned up the block, and then looked for a "Jack Skellington" face to use. I found this one here.

I missed that one of his nose holes got stuck to the vinyl as I was weeding, but didn't feel like cutting again. 

Positioned my image on the glass, and then used my scraping tool to apply the vinyl. I thought I'd just use an acrylic paint pen to draw his missing nose hole in, then remembered I had some rhinestones that would work!

I removed the other nose thingy and used two of the teardrops. 

I had some of these LED lights from Dollar Tree in my stash and thought they'd be perfect for this, so threaded those into the block, and...

It's actually a bit brighter than the pic shows. I love it when I can reuse and repurpose things, and it got the Mr. Chocolate seal of approval! 

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!). 

Sharing At:

Creatively Crafty Linky Party #270

Halloween: Glammed Up "Starry Night" Ghost Scrape Painting

 

I didn't set out to make everything "Glammed Up",  but that's how it's worked out this Halloween crafting season. Natch, I wanted to try my hand at the popular ghost scrap paintings we're seeing everywhere, but also "natch", I had to put my own signature on it! 

Supplies:

• Canvas, size of your choice 
• Acrylic Paints, monochromatic or multicolor
• Cardboard
• Gemstones

I had a black canvas in my stash which was perfect. I decided my twist on this would be to do multicolor ghosts, so these are the colors I used. 

NOTE: I'm going to show you what not to do so yours can be better!!

I made the mistake of thinking pouring my paint straight from the bottle was a good idea. Lazy! It's worth the time I didn't take to put your paints in their own bottles with sharper tips. But, I didn't, so lesson learned. 

I followed the basic steps shown in all the tutorials you can find on Pinterest or You Tube...I cut cardboard in different widths and then used them to scrape my paints. I really loved how overlapping them created different looks as the colors blended. To make the eyes, I used a black acrylic pen. A small paintbrush and acrylic paint would work, as would a black Sharpie. 

You can see here I had an oops with some residual gold paint left on my cardboard scraper. No worries. Once everything was dry, I went back over any oopsies with black paint and then did some random strokes all over the canvas. 

Humans aren't perfect. Why should ghosts be? Even my VIRGO OCD let imperfections go!

Now for the glam! I used these irregular shaped rhinestones (Dollar Tree) in clear and gray, along with golds, and started adding them randomly above the ghosts. They're self-adhesive but I reinforced them with some clear tacky glue. 

I also had some gemstones in the shapes of moons and stars that I added. 

My "Starry Night" Ghost Scrape painting! 

Let me know in the comments if you've done a variation of this popular craft and drop a link!