Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Pinterest Success--White Ghost Pumpkins & Creepy Jar/ Finishing Touches on the Cauldron

Whilst working on this portion of my overall Halloween Witch's Caldron, I got a little impatient and decided to heat up my oven just a little bit and put foam pumpkins in it with paint on them to dry faster. Totally forgot I put them in there until like half an hour after I did so. Thank heavens the oven was turned off or I would have been up crap creek...

Ghost Pumpkins. 

Supplies:
Foam/Craft Pumpkins---I found mine at Dollar Tree
Creamy White Acrylic Paint
Dark Green or Brown Acrylic Paint 
Foam Brushes
Fake Black Birds--Also from Dollar Tree




All you need to do for this craft is paint the pumpkins white with the paint. I painted one coat and let it dry, then painted another coat and let it dry, and again, and again, and again. Once it finally started to look white and not orange was a good place to stop. I ended up dabbing the stem with a little green paint to cover up where I got white paint on it. 


Once the pumpkins were completely dry, I stuck the little black birds on them and they were done!




For the Creepy jar:

1 random glass jar
Black Spray Paint
Matte Spray Paint
Spray adhesive or Mod Podge
1 Spooky Label http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovemanor/2783512654/in/set-72157602788222231/  

I was searching the house for a glass jar I could repurpose and couldn't find one. I was getting a little bugged because I have been trying not to throw away glass jars, but try and repurpose them. I started on dinner and due to my very busy day, ahem, crafting, I uh, didn't have time to make a proper dinner. Whoops. So, I heated up some red sauce from a jar and cooked some pasta. Lo and behold, the red sauce came in a glass jar!!! Muhahaha! So I washed out the jar and peeled the label off and let it dry. 

I spray painted the lid black and spray painted the jar with the matte coat for esthetics. While they were drying, I picked a label and printed it off and cut it out to size. Once the jar was dry to touch, I took the label and sprayed adhesive to the back of the label and stuck it on the jar. Super easy craft. 



For the finished product, I picked up a the Witches sign, the spanish moss, and the creepy cloth all the the dollar store. I stuffed the inside of the cauldron with a box and grocery sacks and laid the cloth on top, added the moss, and topped off with all the decorations. I love how this turned out and because I had a lot of the stuff to make it, I only spent about $20 bucks to get it all put together. 

Thanks to:

http://let--it--shine.blogspot.com/2010/10/faux-iron-witches-cauldron.html
For the super cute craft idea.

I have a super cute display! Hopefully, I can find some small witches brooms to go with it soon!


Love them!

--Alexsis---


Pinterest Success---Glitter Skull

Let's be honest. Everything is better with glitter. Almost everything anyways. 



Black glitter+cheap halloween decorations= epic amounts of happiness.

For this little craft, I used:

A cheesy looking plastic skull from Dollar Tree
A Foam Paintbrush
Black Paint
Black Glitter
Mod Podge
Spray Adhesive

Step 1: I mixed some Mod Podge and black paint together in a plastic bowl and promptly painted it on the skull with the foam brush. 


Step 2: Working in sections, paint the skull and apply glitter to glued area. It goes without saying, but it would be good to work over a large bowl or plate to collect the glitter that does not stick on the skull. Keep doing this until the entire skull is covered. An alternative is to use spray adhesive instead of the Mod Podge. I personally prefer to use the Mod Podge for the most part because the spray adhesive tends to make the glitter look less sparkly-- you have to reglitter areas because of the way it makes the glitter look. However, the spray adhesive works great in hard to get areas and small missed spots.

Allow Drying time. Remember, it will still shed glitter even after it is dry so be careful where you display it and take extra care not to drop it. 



Pinterest Success --Cauldron

Hi, my name is Alexsis and I am addicted to Pinterest. I would like to say I have been Pinterest free for more than 1 hour, but let's be honest. That's a lie. Like Pinterest is open in another window right now as I am typing. 

Well, now that I got that off my chest, I want to share what I have been working on. 

I saw a super cute craft on Pinterest that I needed for my own Halloween Display. 

It is a cauldron with various spooky things adorning it. 

I already had a plastic cauldron that I could use, but it desperately needed some distressing. I saw a couple tutorials on different blogs, but they all took more than like a week to make due to drying time. That is way too long for me, I am an instant gratification kind of crafter, anything more than a day and I struggle to stay motivated to finish it. Back to the cauldron.

Supplies Used:
1 Large Plastic Cauldron from Target
1 Bottle of Spray Texture from Home Depot
1 handful of sand from my backyard (hard to come by wear I live. Not.)
Black Spraypaint
Gray Craft/Acrylic Paint
Brown/Rust Craft Acrylic Paint


Step 1: Dig out of your basement or go buy a cheap cauldron. If you are indeed an actually witch, skip this step and the rest as you already have an excellent cauldron waiting for you.

Step 2: Lightly cover cauldron with Spray texture. I would do this somewhere where you can make a mess--like unfinished basement, out in your garage. Places like that. 

Step 3: Once you get texture to desired consistency, lightly toss sand on the texture-- it will adhere to the spray. Allow the cauldron to dry somewhere warmish overnight. 


Step 4: Spray paint the cauldron with black spray paint. The sand is merely there for texture, if it's bumped very hard, it will come off... Try and be gentle with your very pretty cauldron. 

Step 5: After spray paint has dried, lightly dab on gray paint with a sponge or a scrunched up grocery sack. Add until you feel content with how it looks. After the gray, I made a brownish rust color and VERY LIGHTLY dabbed it on the cauldron to give it a more antique look.

Allow paint to dry before filling it with complete Halloween awesomeness.


Monday, September 15, 2014

Fall Wheat Grass Decoration

I have a wonderful friend who loves Wheat Grass Decorations. After having been unexpectedly gone from home for almost two weeks, she picked up a lot of slack for me while I was away.

I wanted to make her a little something for helping me out so I made this Decoration, I loved how it turned out!

First, I went out to a field (not private land) and cut gathered some good looking grasses to work with. 


 I purchased some floral foam from Dollar Tree. Holla! 

 With the grass and the foam on hand, I started taking small bunches of the grass and cutting them so they were all about the same length. 


After getting a bunch of the grass stems cut to length, I started pushing them into the green foam. 
 I kept doing this until the whole top of the foam was filled with the grass! After the top was filled in, I took Jute Cord and tied it at the top and started winding it down the bottom to cover the foam. Once I got to the bottom, I used my glue gun and glued the Jute together. For the base, I glued the Jute with a glue gun in a spiral-- The glue won't stick to the foam very well, so you have to make sure to glue the Jute together. 
This is what the decoration looked like after I wrapped it with Jute Cord once around. I decided to wrap it again to help cover the green foam. 
Here is the final product! I love this for fall!!


Supply List:
Local Grass or Wheat Grass Stems from a Craft Store
Green Foam from the Dollar Store
Craft Jute Cord
Hot Glue Gun & Glue
Scissors


Total Craft Time Took a couple hours from start to finish. Turn on a good show and make a few!

-Alexsis-


Saturday, September 13, 2014

Gearing Up For Halloween

As much as I love Fall, I am obsessed with Halloween. I'll be honest, we have never been Booed before--My whole life amounts to nothing because of it-- I am just kidding, I am not worried about it.  But I love the idea of doing something nice for others without them knowing who it is giving to them. So this morning, I woke up and while my Hubby was still snoozing, I decided to make a Booed sign and instructions to take to neighbors and friends. Feel free to copy and use for personal use! Happy Hauntings!
--Alexsis--



Friday, September 12, 2014

Fall Bucket List

I freaking love Fall. However, living in Wyoming--- Fall sometimes gets started with a big winter snow storm. Yesterday, we got hit with a bunch of snow. So today, I took the time to make a little subway art with a few Fall Bucket List Items so I don't forget about fall even though the weather has.  Feel free to copy and use it for personal use only :) Enjoy!
-Alexsis



I printed my copy off on photo paper and trimmed it down to fit in a frame. The frame I had was a dollar store cheap-o from another project.  I didn't end up using the glass. I spray painted the frame orange and walla! Love it!