DIY Felt and Zipper Bat Collar

I think I love dressing up at Halloween as an adult almost more than I did as a kid. We had some "Halloweekend" fun at some local festivities in our new hometown and I wanted to make sure I was dressed for the occasion so I whipped together an ensemble using a mini Jack Skellington themed top hat I picked up on a trip to Disneyland. I'm showing the basics of the collar here but I finished my ensemble off with a zipper ring and skull earrings. 

Supplies: (I had everything in my stash which made things even better!)

• Felt
• Flat Backed Rhinestones
• Beads
• Zipper
• Glue ( I love love love Beacon 3 In 1)
• Old Broken Jewelry

I wasn't going for perfection so I freehand drew a bat themed template on a piece of scrap paper to use as my pattern. Cut two of these from black felt. Set one aside. 

Cut both ends of a black zipper off so you have two sides. Set one aside. Measure along each side and down the middle as shown  and sew ( I just did a hand stitch) your zipper to the felt. 

I will pick up jewelry pieces when they're on sale or at thrift shops etc. because sometimes it's cheaper than buying actual supplies. These were a pair of chandelier earrings that had additional dangles I used for a different project. I found these at Top Shop for $2!  I sewed these on either side of the middle zipper as shown. 

The rest I just kind of winged. I had some clear rhinestones I glued to each side and did a little bead embroidery with gunmetal and white seed beads. I finished the top of the collar with other silver beads in my stash.  When you're done with your collar top, grab the other piece of felt that was set aside and some scrap ribbon. Sandwich the ribbon between the two pieces of felt and glue using either hot glue or as mentioned above I love Beacon 3 In 1 glue. It holds and is water proof if (not that I plan on getting this wet). 

Of course, "makers gonna make" right? I had that other side of zipper sitting there staring at me. Oh hey I could make a rosette or something! I was thinking pin but thought nah , I want the collar to stand alone. How about a ring? OK! Found a ring blank in my stash. Did a spiral rosette with the zipper. Glued to the ring. Easy peasy! 

I already had a pair of skull themed earrings I made for a different occasion. They went perfectly with my look! 

I'd made these to wear to a fun "Til Death Do Us Part" bachelorette party and shower for my BFF's daughter. 

I was really humbled by the compliments I got because we were at a few artisan markets and galleries this weekend and what creative person doesn't feel validated when other artists compliment you on your work? !

Who says Halloween's just for kids? Where's my candy? Chocolate, of course!

Easy Paper Hoop Project : Halloween Edition

I was meeting a couple of girlfriends for Brunch and I always like to bring a little girlfriend gift. I whipped these up quickly because my week hadn't gone as planned and I didn't even take a pic of the "final final" so not even sure I should post but...

I was inspired by this Christmas idea from The How To Home: 

and have these planned for Christmas. But I thought "hey, I could do something easy peasy for Halloween" to take my friends. 

Supplies: 

• 3" Wood Embroidery Hoops 
• Paper of choice
• Vinyl decal ( I cut mine using my Silhouette but you could use pre-made or use stickers or diecuts!)
• Embellishments 

This was a great way to use some papers from prior Halloween cards. I chose two sheets , traced the outer hoop, and cut out the circles. 

Glue to the back of your hoop using hot glue.  I chose a Halloween themed image from the Silhouette Library and added each of their initials in the center. 

Applied the vinyl to the center of the hoops and voila! 

I finished these ( bad blogger...forgot to take a picture!!) with a black organza ribbon bow at the top and tied a Halloween themed enamel charm with black and white baker's twine. And me, being me, added a few clear sparkly rhinestones o the broom and monogram. Super easy. Super fast. And I think super cute!!

Using My Doodles as Decor: Georgie and Georgina Sugarskull

My doodling addiction continues. Introducing Georgie and Georgina Sugarskull, the newest additions to my doodle collection and Halloween decor. I've been wanting to incorporate some Dia de los Muertos ( Day of the Dead) touches and these were an easy addition. I printed them out and framed them in black and gold painted frames to match my color scheme of black and white and  gold.  

I started my drawing by tracing a simple skull outline. I knew I wanted to give her a floral crown so I drew the flowers on top of her skull first and then kind of went wherever my pen took me. This is what I find relaxing about this. I just kind of go wherever in an image, usually without a plan and just feel my way through. 

Georgina was done first, but Georgie was named first. I'd texted him to my son, he asked if he had a name, I said "you name him" and he named him Georgie. Georgina was kind of a no-brainer after that. 

I followed the same process for Georgie, took me a while to get the hat right. If I'm adding an element like that I'll do it in pencil first, then go over it in pen but the Zentangling itself I just go for with the pen. 

The frames were inexpensive plain unfinished wood I had in my stash. I painted with a couple coats of black paint, then dry brushed with gold. 

Now, lest you think I'm allergic to color, I did color each of these in my Recolor app. 

These Boots Aren't Made For Walking: Funky Witch Boot Printable

My nightly doodling continues and so does my obsession with the Recolor App. I decided to try my hand at a Witch Boot so I drew the outline, then filled it in with random doodles and colored in Recolor. The steps to do that are easy. 

I use my iPhone so these steps are based on that. 

• Take a picture of your image using your phone
• Open the Recolor App
• In the upper right hand corner you'll see "Import"
• Click, and then you can choose where you want to import from ( eg. Camera Roll). 
• Use the options to clean up your image if you like
• I've been using "Despeckle" which whitens and brightens your image. 

Then proceed to color your image! There are free options and pay options. I love the colors in the pay options but haven't purchased any yet. 

After I was done coloring my image I pulled it into PicMonkey and then added some additional graphics from my collection and voila! 

I duplicated the boot and flipped the image to make a pair, added a coordinating Witch Hat, Sentiment, and Frame  which  are all  from Designbundles.net Crafter's Delight Bundle. 

Image is free for you to use. It's sized to 8x10. If you do, I would love to see what you do w/ it!

Signs of Halloween

Even though I thought I was done w/ my Halloween decorating, I went on a little bit of a sign making binge while we were on storm watch this weekend.  Being cooped up in the house is a good way to do some stash busting! 

These were all made from inexpensive things I'd picked up along the way and done the same way. Paint and vinyl. Easy peasy. 

Supplies:

• Wood pieces to paint
• Craft paints in colors of choice
• Vinyl
• Vinyl cutter
• Misc. embellishments

For the "Wicked" sign, I started with a plain wood box I found at DAISO ( Japanese Store where pretty much everything's $1.50). 

The large Broom sign was one of those " no idea what I'm going to do with this but it's $.99" sale finds at Michaels.

The three piece Broom sign was from a bag of wood pieces bought on another trip to Michaels. 

The process is the same for all the signs. Paint, dry brush, apply vinyl. 

Paint with the basecoat color of your choice ( I used Folk Art Titanium White and Extreme Glitter White;  Martha Stewart Metallic Gold ) . For the white signs, apply one or two coats of the plain white and then one coat of the glitter white. For the Wicked sign , two coats of the gold paint. When dry, dry brush lightly with black paint. 

Either while you're waiting for your paint to dry or the power to go out, cut your vinyl. I used images from the Silhouette store and cut on my Cameo.  When your signs are dry, weed and apply your vinyl. 

Mr. Skully's Hat and Mrs. Pumpkin's Mask

Continuing with my Gothic Halloween theme, I dressed up a gold leafed skull I made last year. I mean who doesn't make a top hat for a skull? 

My camera battery was dead while I was making this hat but it's a pretty simple construction. 

Supplies Needed: 

• Heavy scrapbook paper...cover weight or light chipboard weight. I used a chipboard weight glitter paper
• Strong adhesive or hot glue gun. I used Sookwang double sided tape or the "red liner" double sided tape works as well. 
• Embellishments ( I really just raided my stash for this)

To make the basic hat, I cut a circle in proportion to the head, with a slightly smaller circle for the top, and then a rectangle large enough to fit the circumference of your circle. Pinterest has lots of tutorials and all of the basic construction is the same.

The fun part is in the embellishments. I used some leftover tulle, paper roses and rolled paper roses that I made from scraps in my stash, along with leftover bits of ribbon and trim and a couple of glittered leaves. 

Mr. Skully needed a friend so I hooked him up with Mrs. Pumpkin, a glittery ceramic pumpkin I picked up for 60% off at Michaels. I decided rather than alter her permanently, I'd just give her a costume to wear that can be removed and she can stay on my mantel through Thanksgiving. 

For this, I just used a black masquerade mask (Creatology, Michaels) and added a nose made from glitter and metallic scrapbook paper, more rolled paper roses, and glitter leaves. Her "eyelashes" are black adhesive rhinestones! 

BOO! Don't they look ready to go to a Halloween Ball ? 

2016 Halloween: Gothic Pumpkin

I am working on some Halloween decorating and projects and whipped up a couple of fun faux pumpkins this weekend. Not showing the whole table on which these are displayed yet since that will be part of an upcoming sponsored post! 

This is an easy peasy project so I didn't take a lot of step by step pics. 

Supplies and Steps: 

• Faux pumpkin (small) ($9.99 ea less 60% sale)
• Glittered leaf bush ($4.99 lesss 50%)
• Glass Knob (Clearance $.50...yes fifty cents)
• Scrapbook Paper in gold metallic ($.10 on one of their 10 for $1 sales)
• Paper Roses (stash)
• Hot glue / glue gun

With the exception of the paper roses which I had on hand, all other supplies are from Michaels, and of course all supplies were on sale! Total cost to make two pumpkins was $10, or the regular price of one pumpkin.

Faux white pumpkin, glitter leaf bush, glass knob, messy desk

Make 6 rolled paper roses from the gold scrapbook paper, set aside. I used 3 per pumpkin. Pinterest has tons of tutorials on how to make these.  

Cut 6 leaves per pumpkin from the bush, hot glue to the pumpkin making a kind of crown. I did 4 (North, South, East, West) and then layered the remaining 2. 

I thought these glass knobs were awesome at $1.50 when they first came in but wasn't sure what I'd use them for. When I saw them for $.50 I bought several. I'd come up with something! 

Start a hole in the pumpkin stem and then screw in the glass knob. Hot glue three of the rolled roses to the stem and fill in any spaces with the paper roses and voila. 

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Happy Hallow-Week! Bone Yard and Franken Family Oreos

Pic Monkey Fun! 

I don't think I will ever out grow Halloween much to Mr. Chocolate's chagrin. Even with Grad School Boy out of the house, and exactly 0 trick or treaters last year, I can't help myself! 

I'm also not sure when GSB will stop getting holiday care packages. I thought "oh once he's out of college" but Noooooo.  

I've done all kinds of dipped Oreos over the years and this year's no exception. This time...acid green candy melts and Frankestein themed sugar decorations.  I didn't take pictures of the process because you can find the how to's all over Pinterest but here are my goodies! 

For these I covered completely in acid green candy melts and then put a candy  Papa Frankenstein, Mama Frankenstein, Baby Frank and Franken Pooch on top! The package also came with Cats and Bats. I love these things because they are so detailed and so easy ( but you don't tell people that of course!)

The rest of the cookies are a boneyard theme , just 1/2  dipped in the candy melts and sprinkled with black sugar and white sugar bones. All products are Wilton. I got mine at Michaels and Target. 

I packaged them up in cello bags along  with some Dove eyeball candies, and the rest of the goodie box contains a scarf for the cold weather he will not be used to this winter, two pounds of coffee, and of course more candy as filler! 

For some extra fun I decorated the inner flaps of the box with some Halloween scrapbook paper.  I had to include a card....cut out the "BOO" bat with my Silhouette, glittered it and mounted as shown. 

 Your kids may grow up but you will always be a mom right?