Stashbusting September Project #7: Witch Wand

I love the Wizard of Oz, but true confession time...I always had a soft spot for the Wicked Witch even before I read "Wicked". Same with Disney villains...I think it's the colors because the villains always have the colors that appeal to me like black, purple, lime green and did I mention black? BUT...I always liked Glenda's wand. So when you make stuff, you make what you want! And when you're stashbusting, you work with what you have.

Exhibit A:

Bin O Scraps

Fished out some black with gold star pieces:

along with a leftover paper mache star ornament and a dowel. Traced the star on the backside of the starry paper, cut out two. Painted the edges of the star gold (along with the dowel).  Then went back to the Bin O Scraps and found some Halloweeny papers which along with the star cut outs, I Mod Podged onto the paper mache ornament.

From the remaining Halloweeny scraps, made a paper flower for the center, added an orange button. Not enough. Added a black button. Not enough. Added gold rhinestones. OK.  The "wand" part didn't go as planned so I ended up skewering the star...literally...a bamboo skewer. From the kitchen. It went easily into the star but it wasn't strong enough to be a good wand so I hot glued it to the dowel and then wrapped the piggy backed skewer dowel portion with ribbon.

Embellished with some more ribbon and some starry wire garland I picked up last year on sale at Paper Source. Things like this are the reason I'm stashbusting. No comment Mr. Chocolate! Tied a length of tulle where the ribbon wrapping ended. Another button. Another rhinestone.

I'm not sure I "love, love" it, but it'll do.   OK, you all have convinced me that I do love it! Thanks :)

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It's My Party And I'll Change It If I Want To :)

When I did my first linky party a couple of months ago, I had the idea that it would have a holiday theme. BUT... I've come to the conclusion that's too limiting and confusing and I got several comments like "I'd love to link up but I don't have any holiday projects" . So starting this month, I'm having a monthly "OPEN HOUSE" where you can just drop by and link up whatever you've done lately. Easy peasy. I figure in the heavy holiday months, that theme will take care of itself right? So join me on the third Friday of every month (September 17 this month) for a link-up-whatever-you-like Open House okay?

I admire all of you who can manage this on a  weekly basis. Maybe someday!!

Stashbusting September Project #6: These Boots Are Made For Witchin'

So my husband had these pants. Got your attention? It is about a pair of my husband's old pants that a couple of months ago, he put by the door to go to Goodwill. I thought they were too far gone for GW because the hems were all frayed but rather than toss them, of course I saw them as fabric. For what I didn't know...yet.

Since I've been doing some Halloween prep, I decided I wanted a pair of witch boots. Just seemed like a fun idea. I figured I bust some of my felt stash and then I saw the pants! They're nice cotton twill..perfect for witch boot stockings right? Out came the scissors and off came the legs. I now have a pair of shorts left. Any hoo... I downloaded a pattern from the internet and lengthened it a bit because while I'm short, my imaginary witch is tall!

Sewed the basic boot together :

Kicking Up My Heels!

Got busy with some embellishments, including a pair of earrings that for reasons I will never know were included in a jar of old chandelier crystals I bought at an antique store. I had some fabric flowers left over from another project so on those went. I had some fabric scaps sitting around so those became some more flowers. I figured I was on a flower theme here so out came some paper flowers from my embellishment bin and on those went. Of course what's a witch without some bling, so in the middle of the flowers went buttons and in the middle of the buttons went rhinestones.

Ripped some strips of scrap fabric to make "belts" for my boots and here's where the earrings came in to dress up the "belts".

Finished them off with some raffia handles so I can hang them up. I may leave them here on my end caps:

Or I may add them to a garland I've yet to make for my mantle.

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Stashbusting September Project #5: Skully Plates and Stuff

We interrupt the start of this post to say: Woo Hoo...this is my 100th blog post! So it's confirmed, just like in real life, I "talk" A LOT.  In other news, I'm really gobsmacked that I'm also approaching 300 followers! This has been such a fun adventure, getting into the blogging world and I really am  shocked but above all honored that this many people have found something worth following on this blog. THANK YOU.  To whet your appetite for how I'll celebrate once I reach 300, let's just say there will be a giveaway!

We now return you to episode 5 of our regularly scheduled program "As The Stash Busts". Once more into the closet of mystery out of which this time came some clear glass plates that my sis-in-law long ago picked up for me @ Goodwill. When I printed off  the skull graphic from The Graphics Fairy that I used on my candelsticks, I also printed off a different one. Waste not, want not and I try to fit as many images on a full sheet as possible. There was another really cool skull I wanted to play with. Cue "Bones" theme song here.

So:

Cut 2 circles of scrapbook paper, Mod Podged on back of clear glass plates

Applied Metal Leaf adhesive, I used "Mona Lisa" brand. Let dry until clear.

If you've never worked with metal leafing, WARNING...it's messy but no messier than glitter. If you use the two together, abandon all hope of neatness. A trick I learned at an art show was to crumble the sheets up so you don't end up with really straight edges when you apply. I didn't want complete coverage so I broke up pieces, scattered on randomly, and then you need a really good stiff brush ( I use a small stenciling brush) to "smoosh" the leafing on. There are some tutorials on leafing / gilding here.

Once that was done, I painted over the whole back of the plates with black acrylic paint and when dry, sealed w/ Mod Podge. Flipped them over and got out my skull graphics (trimmed really close) and adhered them to the front and:

Skully Plates

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Stashbusting September Project #4: BOO

I keep seeing all these great ideas for Halloween around blogland and it's getting me in the mood to decorate. Since my husband would look at me even funnier than he usually does if I asked him to get the Halloween bins down this early ( I'm short, he's tall, it's the way it is) what's a crafter to do? Make something of course!

I've actually been pretty good the past several years not buying a lot of new decorations. We don't really get any trick or treaters and especially since our teenager has been able to drive (away from us!), we really don't have much Halloween activity at our house so it seemed wasteful to buy or make more stuff. BUT...I keep swooning especially over vintage or more sophisticated Halloween stuff . Especially since I see more done in classic black and white!!! Ooohh la la.

So since I can't buy anything this month , I went to the mystery closet and pulled out these:

Bundle O Wood Plaques from Michaels $4.99 Before Coupon

Unfinished Wood Candlesticks Goodwill $1

and picked out some shapes from the Bundle O Plaques. Painted everything black:

I've been collecting Halloween images from The Graphics Fairy and chose a very cool skull image. Might be too creepy for some, but I'm twisted that way and don't have little ones who might get scared. The big ones can just deal.  Printed two skulls and some text on clear Avery label paper.

On the round and oval plaques, did the "white glue crackle" technique from Stashbusting project #1 and then over that with cream paint. Dried it with my hair dryer because I'm impatient and one of you wonderful people confirmed it enhances the crackling. Trimmed the skulls ( I feel like Temperance Brennan from "Bones"), put them on the oval plaques, hot glued silver pipe cleaners around, glued them to the candlesticks. Then glued the round plaques to the top of the candlesticks ( it will make sense when you see if until then, don't judge), and plopped on some clear self adhesive rhinestones around the edges:

I like the effect of the vellumy label paper over the crackle paint. It's kind of ghosty.  Dug out a couple of glass votive-bowl thingies which I'll put black pebbles and candles in later) and trimmed and adhered the text I printed out on the label paper.

Here's a closeup of the skull plaque. You were warned....eeek....scary:

Thank You Meg!

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Stashbusting September Project #3: Getting Scrappy With It

I have a slight problem with paper. Not quite ready for the Hoarders people to come visit ( Mr. Chocolate might disagree) but what can I say, I love paper! I also hate throwing the scraps away. So I've done everything from keeping zip-loc bags of scraps by color to my current solution...one bin for anything smaller than 12" in length and one for 12" long scraps. It made sense at the time.

Bin O Scraps

I needed to make some cards and since I'm doing the Stashbusting September challenge, decided I shouldn't cut up brand new paper (except for the card itself). To the scrap bin Batman! Picked out some complementary colors for each card:

Went to one of my ( hangs head in shame) sticker binders ( plural) and pulled out some "Magenta Peel Offs" ( ghosts of stamp shows past) and put them on scrap pieces to become the focal of the cards:

Trimmed, mounted with coordinating scraps, and then used other scraps to make the background for the card. Dug around in my embellishment bin and found some vellum tags, self adhesive rhinestones, and here are the two cards:

Eleventy-bajillion scraps left to go.

Day Tripping and Chocolate!

Welcome to those stopping in from:

Sunday was a beautiful Northwest day and we decided to take a day trip around our lovely Puget Sound. Like Dorothy learned the hard way in "The Wizard of Oz", sometimes what you're looking for is right in your own backyard. So we headed over to Whidbey Island , about 30 miles north of Seattle. We crossed Deception Pass with its breathtaking view:

and then headed south to the town of Coupeville for lunch at a really lovely place called The Front Street Grill. Coupeville is the second oldest town in Washington. The waterfront is home to wonderful shops featuring talented local artisans. After lunch and ice cream at Kapaws Iscreme ( Coffee Almond Fudge yum!) we headed south to Langley, another very artsy town.

I resisted temptation to break my "Stashbusting September" commitment when we stopped at Greenbank Farms and Winery, a sustainable marketplace featuring local artisans, one of whom was there dropping off her newly dyed yarns while we watched another spinning raw wool into yarn.

 Throughout the property are art pieces by local artisans like these:

Finally, we made our way to Langley, another seaside town filled with incredible art galleries and shops and this should come as a surprise to exactly no one that my favorite shop of the day was this one:

The Chocolate Flower Farm itself is a nursery  just outside of Langley where they specialize  in "chocolate" (dark colored) plants and rare perennials. They've been featured on HGTV and have a store in the town of Langley called The Garden Shed. You don't have to live here to visit the store because they have a virtual tour here.

 They sell all kinds of wonderful goodies but their special specialty is there line of CHOCOLATE CANDLES and Chocolate infused bath and body products. The store of course smells divine. And I don't think I broke my Stashbusting September commitment by buying these:

Chocolate Candle and Chocolate Mint Tea

It was a perfect way to spend the day. Happy Labor Day everyone.