Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Witch Candy Stand - Trick Or Treat Dish

I started this project last week. I initially saw a Trick or Treat stand at a local craft fair, two years in a row. Both times I mentioned to my hubby that I could make one myself. I finally got around to it.

This is a GREAT Dollar Store project. Believe it or not it only cost me approximately $5.00 to make this Trick or Treat goody bowl stand. The majority of the parts I already had in my craft stash.
The only items I purchased for this project, all from the Dollar Store, were: the candy bowl, the "Come In... " sign, the cat, the broom and the green craft paint. The green tutu was from my daughters dress up bin, but was originally purchased from the dollar store. She has a nicer green one from last years dance recital so gave me permission to re-purpose this one for my project.

The stand was built with 2x4's and spare wood. I had orange canvas type fabric on hand that I painted for the the boots and legs, which I then sewed together, painted with Acrylic craft paint and stuffed. *I wouldn't recommend making little swirly toes on the boots as I did - it was almost impossible to right side out the fabric once it was sewn.

The stand or base was painted black and then using the direction found here from Dollar Store Crafts.com, I used school glue to crackle effect with green craft paint.

I think I applied too much glue and green paint for the crackle effect, it started ooze down the base before drying. The oozing looks great for a Halloween, I would use less next time for a Home Decor project.


I hot glued the bowl, boot/legs, broom and cat detail onto the crackled base and voila a cute witch stand for your Halloween Treats.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

There She Goes Again!

I can't stop coming up with ideas for these blocks. What a perfect baby gift for a neighbor who just had a little boy. I paper stained SU "Manchester" DP for the background and used paint for the lettering. Acrylic lettering would make this go a lot faster.


Using an old toothbrush, I speckle painted the blocks using brown and white paint before sanding the edges. I really like the effect.


The "HOME" blocks are a donation for my Local PTA Bingo Night.

I just love the bow detail.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Boo To You

Tired of putting out all the same old Halloween decorations, I decided to make new ones. Check out my inspiration found here at You Craft Me Up!

This was a super easy project. My husband cut the blocks for me from 2 x 4's. I painted them black, then used a Dremel tool to sand and rough up the edges. On white card stock I stamped the background with a Stampendous block stamp in black ink, then traced and filled in the letters from a dollar store chipboard alphabet set.

Using AMM Chocolate Paper Stain, I aged and antiqued the whole square making sure to darken the corners and edges.

Using home made Decoupage glue (3 parts white glue, to 1 part water), I fixed the finished card stock squares onto the blocks.

I also made a Halloween vignette in my ultra tiny front foyer, which isn't even large enough for a small side table. I am smushed up against the front door in order to take this photo.

I have often seen mini shelf wedges while out shopping and have thought of picking some up, but never got around to it. When I was inspired by You Craft Me Up!'s - "Wall Reveal", I of course was not able to find any shelf wedges any where - even Walmart because they are re-doing their home decor department. Finally at the last store I found a $ 5.00 wedge shelf in the Clearance bin, just the price I was looking for, especially since the non-clearance wedge shelves were going for $39.99 a piece.

The skulls in the martini glass are from the Dollar Store as well as the glass candle (pumpkin) holder, the spider webbing, ceramic pot, Spanish moss and the florist foam inside the pot. The branch is from my back yard. I haven't decided what to hang from it yet.

The grave stone was on Clearance at the same store I purchase the wedge shelf. The crow which I cut in half was purchased at Liquidation World for $ 3.00. Crow Frame tutorial found here at Dollar Store Crafts. I used the 'vintage newspaper' printed paper bag from my local Shabby Chic decor store as the background for my Creepy Crow Frame. I crinkled the paper then went over it with AMM paper stain. My crow unfortunately was hollow inside so I had a rough time gluing him in place. Believe it or not, white glue did the trick, I couldn't find my glue gun.

The Canicula Embalming Fluid bottle is real. My father in law gave us this bottle he found at an antique bottle show many years ago. I never thought of displaying it as Halloween Art until now.

Now I am itching to get my hands on a scroll saw to make some cut out lettering, but the blocks will do for now. As well as a Cricut, which has been on my MUST HAVE LIST for ages, I specifically stopped and showed one to my hubby when we were in Walmart recently, hoping he gets the HUGE *hint*!!!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Christmas Wreath - Clean & Simple

I have offered to donate a set of Holiday Cards for my local PTA's Bingo night. Because I've been making a conscious effort to watch my card-making pennies, I wanted a card that had very few layers.

I picked up this set by Studio G iClear a few weeks ago and have mulling around with a few ideas.


Details:
Stamps: Studio G i Clear - wreath, Hot Fudge Studio - sentiment
Ink: Memento - Cottage Ivy
Paper: Whisper White, Riding Hood Red, stock green