Projects Projects Projects

I am not going to give you alot of excuses but I will give you lots of pictures. It has been a busy year. Baptisms, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, reunions, holidays, plus my Etsy shop....Lol. You get the idea and most of you are also living it. And so.... 

Look, shiny!






Restyling books to look like vintage editions...

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-to-restyle-books-to-look-like.html

......and in January, another big family wedding!

But you know, it is life and I'll take it!

I'll try to post more in the new year but know that I am still here and boy, do I have projects!

Make a Grungy Primitive Pumpkin for Halloween

 I make almost all the accessories for my Halloween witch dolls and their pumpkins are no exception. I cannot find exactly the right primitive looking Jack o' Lanterns for my projects so I make them. 

Say what?

Yup, this grungy little guy is handmade. All it takes is a styrofoam ball, tissue paper, mod podge or white glue, craft paint and a stick for the stem. Here is how!

Start with a round styro ball. Smoosh it down with slow, even pressure to make slight flat spots on top and bottom. Then use the tip of a skewer or skinny paint brush to score in some seams.

Use the tip of a craft knife, x acto blade or even a steak knife to cut the eyes, nose and mouth holes.

Coat the whole ball with mod podge or white glue. Stick it on a skewer or the handle of a paint brush for the next part.

Tear your tissue paper in small pieces, less than 1" square. While the pumpkin is still wet lay the paper pieces carefully over the whole ball, using a soft skinny paint brush to gently coax it into all the crevices. This smooths out the surface so your pumpkins looks pumpkiny and not styrofoamy. 

;o)

After the tissue layer is dry paint your pumpkin with bright orange craft paint.

 Once the first layer of paint is dry, go over all your crevices and holes with a q tip dipped in brown paint. Get it in there and don't worry about being neat about it because the next thing you are going to do is use a clean q tip to remove the excess brown paint. The brown paint in all the crevices will make your carving details POP.

Poke a hole in the top and hot glue a short stick in for a stem.

Next, use another q tip with black paint and get it deep into your carved face crevices. See how delightfully prim and creepy this makes your pumpkin look? 

I hot glued a tiny silk leaf to the stem and put him in a miniature basket. I LOVE it!

You can make this prim pumpkin out of bigger styrofoam balls, too. Next I will try to make some primitive grungy skulls out of egg shaped styrofoam. That should be fun!

 This would be a fun craft for kids with proper supervision. The  neat thing about primitive pumpkins is that they never have to look perfect. Have fun with it!

3 Quick & Easy Decor Projects

I decided to put these three projects in one post, because I am rarin' to move on to my Christmas blogging. Can you say gifts and decor and great ideas?

Project 1-Here are the spooky Halloween branches from our front deck. By the end of a wild and windy week they were looking shabby and tired. But no problem!

Dollar Store clearance sale, two packs of fake leaves for a dollar. Score!
I took the cobwebs and bat garland off the branches and straightened them up in the urn with florist foam and duct tape. The urn, by the way, was a clearance item at Kmart for $1.66!! I added the leaves with hot glue and.......

...voila! Now it is a colorful vertical accent in the corner of the living room. I like it alot. And when I switch to Christmas decor, a blast of my heat gun will loosen those leaves so I can add snowflakes, etc. A bit of fabric draped at the base hides the foam and duct tape.

Project 2-This project uses a Dollar Store vine wreath and satiny fabric in fall colors. I made oversize rosette flowers, two and a half to three inches across.

I wanted them bigger so I could use less of them. I love the shiny sheen of the fabric against the two cream muslin rosettes.

Hot glue is my friend. Way way back in the sixties I would have wired all this stuff in place.Thrift store leaf bunches are the perfect touch, but not too many so the twiggy wreath can show through.

Project 3-Here's a quick way to dress up and display your pumpkins, real and fake. Taking more of those Dollar Store leaves, hot glue them around the rim of a candlestick, of glass, metal or wood.

Or, glue the fake leaves around the bottom of your pumpkin. This gives it a nice ruff of color.

Perch your pumpkins on the candlesticks for a colorful display. Here they are on my baker's rack, all switched over from my black and white Halloween. I added gold berry picks and propped it on the top shelf, along with a bunch of leaves in a spray painted bottle and my silver button blingy decor ball.

I'll be switching this all over to Christmas decor right after Thanksgiving. I'm wondering if I can pull off a black, white and silver Christmas theme on this rack. I guess we'll all find out!

I'll be linking up to the fun parties in my sidebar. Come check them out and join the fun!

FUN Halloween decorating

I had so much fun putting this display together, I just had to share it with you all. All of my kids and grandkids will be here this weekend, so this is ready for the gathering. It is the Halloween display at the end counter in my kitchen. It is also known as "pile it up central" most days of the week. Do you have such a place in your house? I see this counter every time I come in from the deck and I wanted something there that would make me smile.

So I used a bit of black velvet as a drape over a short shelf and started shopping the house. Here's the ingredient list....


My silver, blingy, button decor ball, my Halloween decor orbs, a Halloween tree of painted branches in a Dollar Store planter, mini pumpkins, one of my fat fabric pumpkins in a milk glass compote, a crepe paper rosette wreath, a Dollar store gargoyle and more....

Halloween tissue paper decoupaged over Christmas balls, black painted foliage in a milk glass vase, Dollar store vine balls, another fat fabric pumpkin, and.....

a galvanized tin lantern set inside a twig wreath, with black painted ivy and more of my Halloween decor balls. Peeking out back is an embellished tequila bottle full of bright red orange glass and trimmed with a black tassel. As for those decor orbs.... just take Mod Podge and colorful Halloween tissue and Dollar Store foam balls and voila! Cheerful Halloween decor on the CHEAP! But there's more....

Quivery spooky bats of crepe paper and the tiniest jewelry wire I had in my stash. Curl the wire up, hot glue the paper bats to the tips and watch them shake and "fly" with every passing breeze. PLUS, my crackle painted Halloween decor balls, gorgeous orange crackle over silvery balls. Love the look!



Here's a shot of two of my Dollar Store gargoyles and an apothecary jar made from a glass candlestick and a lidded jar, stuffed with more of my Halloween decor balls and vine orbs. In the back there's a peek at my black and white damask decoupaged box, I love the way it came out. The black foliage in a tall white vase is so striking that I'll be painting more fake greenery black, that's for sure.

I added my little witch from my Etsy shoppe and then piled a string of my Halloween garlands in a cut glass display stand made from a thrift store candle stick and bowl. You know, I could go on and on....this counter is over four foot long and three foot wide. But I'm going to stop right there.....and if something sells from my Etsy shop I can replace it. Besides, I've got other places I want to have some fun with....like the top of the TV cabinet....the bookshelf by the hearth....the shelves by the corner windows.

And if, by some slim chance I run out of stuff, I can always make/find/shop for more. That's the plan and I'm sticking to it!



What fun have you had with your Halloween house? I'll be sharing mine at the parties in my sidebar, come join the fun!