Stashbusting September Project #1

It's three days in and I haven't set foot in a craft store! Yeah me! That may also be because I haven't left the house but.....pesky details. I went to the closet of magical mystery and pulled out some stuff that I picked up to be used "someday".

ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

I decided on a project using a cabinet door I picked up at a salvage place. Everyone keeps cabinet doors on hand for no reason right?

I had some vinyl left over from my "Wish Upon A Tray" project and the lightbulb went on. So I painted it black. The cabinet door. Not the lightbulb.

FIRST COAT

added a second coat and then tried the white glue crackle technique. "Make The Best of Things"  has a great tutorial on this. I will NEVER buy crackle medium again! Love this. Best part was that during school supply shopping, I bought a half dozen or so bottles of white glue at Staples for maybe $2 total. Less than the cost of a small thing of crackle medium.

SMEARED IT ON W/FINGERS

After it gets tacky but not dry, add another color of acrylic paint and wait for it to dry. Or not...I was not patient so used my craft dryer ( aka an old blow dryer) to speed things up and I can't be sure, but I think the heat made it crackle more:

I just did the edges so it would look like a frame if that makes sense. I added a couple of strips of scrapbook paper on the raised panel in the middle; used my "dream" vinyl leftover from my earlier project; added an embossed metal strip from the magical mystery closet (which means it was something I picked up on sale somewhere that I knew I'd use someday) along with some dimensional flowers (Jolee's Boutique I think) from another project which I dry brused w/ gold paint and silver Rub n Buff; and a butterfly from a bag of ephemera I'd bought at a stamp show. And: 

STASH BUSTED! OK, TINY DENT MADE!

You can check out the other projects in the T Shirt Diaries "Stashbusting September" challenge here

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Painted, Washi'd and Stamped Beachy Dollar Frame

Mr. Chocolate’s dad was recently in a production of “South Pacific” so I made him a frame he could use for a cast photo or other memorabilia from the show. He also lives at the ocean so even if he doesn’t use it for that , it works.


I keep a supply of those wood frames you can get at Michaels for $1 because they come in so handy.
For this project you will need:

• $1 Wood Frame
• Paint
• White Glue
• Stamps
• Pigment Ink
• Paint Pen
• Washi Tape

Paint your frame with base color. I used an aqua. Once that’s dry, go over it with a good coat of white school glue. I have sworn by this crackle technique and have not bought crackle medium since I started using it. I also use the cheapest white glue I can find…back to school sales are great!

When your glue is almost dry, cover with your top coat ( I used white). You can speed things up with a blow dryer or heat gun which will also enhance your crackle.

Beachy looking right? Not quite. First I added some strips of antique printed and gold polka dot washi tape. 

I am the born sucker JoAnn’s and Michaels had in mind with their impulse buys by the register. I love digging through the little bins for $1 stamps and had picked up a package of sea shell stamps on one trip.

3 pieces so that’s only .33 per stamp ( justification). I put all three on an acrylic block and stamped randomly over the frame using a good black pigment ink.  Set that with my heat gun and then colored in parts of the shells using a gold paint pen.

To finish, I coated the whole thing with an antique Mod Podge that aged it up just a bit.

These frames come with a cardboard inset and I like to cover them with paper so they look nice when presented as a gift. You can also trim a photo and use the covered insert as a background.
Quick, cheap, easy!

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Skully Coffin Boxes

I’m having fun with a neutral Halloween palette again this year and black and white fits right in. You’ve probably seen these little coffin wood boxes at Michaels or other craft stores. Michaels had some for $.99 and some for $2.99 that make noise when you open them. Yes, I bought both kinds.

My camera battery was charging when I was making these so I didn’t get a lot of pics along the way but it’s pretty easy to follow along even w/out step by step pics.

Decide on your color scheme ( you could go bright and whimsical with this too). I painted my plain boxes black, let dry, then painted a layer of white school glue ( plain old white glue) over the black paint. Let almost dry and then went over that with white paint. Oooohhhh crackle crackle.

Ann at Make The Best of Things has a great tutorial here.

I traced around my boxes on the back side of the scrapbook paper I chose ( Recollections Spider Web) and cut out tops and bottoms for my boxes. Mod Podged those on using MP Matte Formula ( my go to).

While everything was drying, I grabbed a Bag O Skulls. Literally:

I picked these up last year at either Dollar Tree or Michaels or Target or somewhere I was scrounging around after season. I debated whether to leave them the color they were or paint. Went with paint.

Used Martha Stewart Craft paint….that stuff sticks to anything including cheap plastic skulls.  Went over that with Martha Stewart glitter paint in sterling.

These are fashionable skeleton heads. Must have glitter! Glued them to my boxes and embellished.

Pulled out RIP letters from my stash of alphabet embellishments. These were clear acrylic which didn’t show up well so I painted the back with a white paint pen.

In addition to the must have glitter, must have rhinestones. The black on black doesn’t show well here but I like it in the middle of the spider webs and it picks up the light.

Total cost: $3 (if that)

If you want to see another great coffin box idea, check out this one from Sarah at Alderberry Hill: A Glitzy Halloween Coffin

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Halloween: Crackled and Jeweled Floral Sugar Skull Wall Art

 

I FINALLY got back to my craft room to make something last week! After the Summer from H*LL, the near septic abscess that tried to kill me followed by weeks of recovery, a move, and then surgery to remove the abscess host ovary and more weeks of recovery, it hasn't exactly been a productive Summer. But doctors know things and it was almost like clockwork when my energy level finally started coming back around week 5 post-op. 

Supplies: 

• Wood Art Board (Target Clearance but available at Art Supply Stores)
• Acrylic Paints (Folk Art and Craftsmart)
• White School Glue (Elmers but store brand will work too) 
• White Vinyl, Transfer Tape (Cricut)
• Jewels (Art Minds, Michaels)
• Dimensional Glue ( Glossy Accents, Ranger)

Before all of this started, I'd stumbled on these fabulous Art Boards at Target which screamed "buy me" especially since they were on clearance for something like $3 so of course I bought all the ones they had! Seven of them for what two cost at regular price. 

I had this mega pack of purple jewels from a previous project so it became the inspiration for my color choice of Purple, Black and White which will fit right into my primarily Black and White Halloween decor.

 

I painted the board with a coat of Folk Art Violet Pansy. I didn't care about a perfect finish because that's not my thing and besides, I knew I was going to add black with the purple showing through the crackle. 

My go to process for achieving a crackle finish is good old white school glue. I stock up on it during school supply season! Apply it straight from the bottle and then spread it trying to use complete strokes in one direction. 

You want a medium coverage of the glue. Too thin and it won't crackle. Too thick and you won't have a smooth surface. Let this coat dry to tacky. I use my handy craft tool...an old blow dryer set on cool, to speed up the process. You don't want the glue completely dry. Go over the glue layer with the black paint, using the same one direction brush strokes as the glue layer. If you're patient, you can let this air dry. If you're me, grab the blow dryer again, this time set on warm to help the crackling process. 

Q: "Can I use my heat gun?"

A: NO! It's too hot and everything will bubble and peel which might give you a cool effect but it won't be THIS effect. 

Don't worry if the glue shows through. Once dry, it dries clear. Even though I help the drying process with the blow dryer, set it aside to dry completely which gives you time to work on the vinyl piece. I found this image on Creative Fabrica ( Disclosure: I am an Affiliate so if you use this link to purchse, I do receive credit to their store).

Download your image  then bring it into the Cricut Design Space Software ( these files work with all of the different cutting machines but I used my Cricut) and size accordingly. I cut this from white Cricut Vinyl, using my Explore Air 2. 

Weed your vinyl (if you're new to vinyl, weeding is the process of removing the vinyl from the negtive spaces to reveal your image) and then apply the Transfer Tape (this is clear tape, I used the Cricut brand, that allows you to position and apply the vinyl to your surface). 

Position your transfer tape lightly on your surface until satisfied then use a scraping tool ( I use the one that came w/ my first ever Cricut or they sell them at craft stores and you can also use an old credit card etc. ) to apply your vinyl to your surface. Peel off the transfer tape.  I do this slowly vs ripping off like a bandaid in case there are spots the vinyl isn't sticking. It allows you to maintain the positioning and fix any issues. 

Then it was time for the jewels! I used a strong glue (Glossy Accents by Ranger) to adhere these and just randomly placed using the different sizes and shades. 

Et, voila! 

I haven't hung it up yet because I haven't started my Halloween decorating yet but I absolutely LOVE how it turned out and I have some other projects planned using this color scheme! Happy Haunting Season! 

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Halloween: Ghosts of Projects Past...Coffin Boxes

I was in Michaels recently and noticed that they again had plain wood box coffins which they've had in years past. I've had fun playing with them and thought I'd share some ideas of what you can do with them because the possibilities are endless!  

They come in some fun and different shapes from the traditional coffin shape I bought, but the concept is exactly the same. 

Supplies:

• Plain Coffin Boxes ( Michaels)
• Acrylic Paints
• Scrapbook Paper
• Mod Podge
• Misc Embellishments

We'll go in order from left to right in the above picture. 

Skully Boxes: (Original Post Here)

For all of these the process is the same. You can do any combination of painting and scrapbook paper, including all paint or all paper or combining the two. For these I painted the sides using a crackle effect and then Mod Podg'd (because that's a word in my vocabulary!) the scrapbook paper on top. 

Decide on your color scheme ( you could go bright and whimsical with this too). I painted my plain boxes black, let dry, then painted a layer of white school glue ( plain old white glue) over the black paint. Let almost dry and then went over that with white paint. Let air dry or help along with a blow dryer.  Oooohhhh crackle crackle.

For these, I topped with plastic skulls that you can pick up lots of places, Use an acrylic paint that adheres to multiple surfaces ( I used Martha Stewart on these) and then glue wherever you like on your coffin. 

Vampire Coffin Boxes: (Original Post Here)

I had some "True Blood" fans in my life so that year I made some of these as gifts  for them. I think you can see the reason for the color choice! 

Same process of paint and scrapbook paper and on these I used different washi tapes. 

Glitter paint glams these up! 

French Gothic Coffin Boxes: (Original Post Here)

The inspiration for these were these great French themed embellishments I found that year (guess where...Michaels) along with a package of complementary 3D stickers. 

These remain some of my favorites and the Skully Boxes and these remain part of my annual Halloween decor. I hope you've found some inspiration! Grab some paints, paper, and embellishments and have fun!