Halloween Indoor Decoration Inspiration

Since my front yard is taken over every year as an over-the-top fun filled fake cemetery,

I keep my indoor decor pretty minimal.  Last year, we added the googly eye framed skeleton.  This year I have two more items to show you.  Both were pretty quick and made with supplies I had on hand making them free projects!!  If these inspire you to create your own decor and you do not have supplies on hand, they can be made for under $15 for both.  While these are not tutorials per se, I hope they will give you some ideas to make your home hauntingly happy.

The Nevermore art.

I found a plaque many months ago for seventy-five cents at my local Goodwill similar to this one from Casey's Wood.  I painted over the faded floral image with orange acrylic craft paint and let it dry overnight.  Then, I found a photo online of a raven silhouette and freehand painted this on as best as I could.  I added the "Nevermore" based on a font I found it Word, but it just looked too clean, so I mussed it and the sides up a bit.  Done and done!

The Spiderweb frame.

While waiting for the orange paint to dry in the Nevermore art, I spotted an open wooden frame I bought a long long loooong time ago for some project.  I slapped a coat of black acrylic paint on that and glittered it up.  Next, I found a free pattern for a spiderweb on the Crochet N More website and modified it to fit my frame.  Ravelry notes here.  Then, I soaked the finished web and stretched it to the edges of the frame, stapling it to the back of the frame while the web was still wet.  For a finishing touch, I placed a rubber spider that I glittered last year on the web and called it a success.

What fun projects have you done for Halloween this season?  If you link to your photos or blog, I promise to pop by for a peek.

Have a great weekend!

Tutorial: How to make Nightmare Before Christmas Pumpkins

Having long been a fan of the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas", we have made pumpkins in tribute to many characters over the Halloween years.  (See here    and a few here )  But, each year, our pretty pumpkins decay and are composted.  So this year we decided to add a few details to our annual front yard cemetery using pumpkins that will last a lot longer!

Supplies Needed:
A Funkin, or any other carveable fake pumpkin from your local hobby shoppe
X-acto knife
Template for carving (easy Google image search)
Black acrylic paint and small paintbrush
A push pin

Directions:
1-  Tape your template of choice to the Funkin and dot the outline using the push pin.
2-  Using your X-acto knife, carve around the outline.  As this was my first experience with fake pumpkins, I will tell you, they are inconsistently thick and thin, so watch where your fingers are so that you do not cut yourself.  Remove all carved pieces.
3-  Make a 1 inch diameter hole in the bottom of the pumpkin.  If you plan to light your pumpkin with a battery operated light, this hole will need to be bigger.  I am not lighting them, but placing on our fake fences, so I only made the hole wide enough for the paint in Step 4 and to fit on my fence as you see in the top photo.
4-  The messy step!  I recommend doing this over your sink with paper towels nearby.  Using the acrylic paint, squeeze generous amount into bottom of pumpkin, first coating the uncut back by rolling the pumpkin around slowly.  I tried watering down the paint but it just rolled around in the pumpkin and made a big mess.  Keeping the paint thick helped it to coat the Funkin nicely.  Use the brush to accent the creamy part of the cut pumpkin as you see in the below photo.  Try not to get too much black paint on the outside, but it will wipe away with a damp sponge if needed.

5-  The bonus of making a mess on the outside of the pumpkin is that you can accent it as you see fit.
6-  Once the inside is thoroughly coated, set upright on a container (like a clean yogurt cup) to drain and dry for a day or so.

When you're done, you will have a Jack Skellington (or other image you chose) pumpkin to last through years of trick or treating.

Happy Halloween!

Googly Eye Skull Tutorial

If any of you follow my Pinterest boards, you may have seen my pin of the very very cool Googly Eye Skeleton.  Well, it was just too cool to leave as a pin on my Halloween board, I had to make one!

First, I found the photo that I think inspired the original googly eye creation and printed that out.  At my local hobby store, I grabbed several packets of adhesive googly eyes in various sizes and large black construction paper.

Using a sharp pencil (or pen), I traced around the skull printout, pressing hard to make an imprint onto the construction paper below.  From there, I laid out small, medium, large and xlarge googly eyes, shaping the outline and details like the sockets, jawline and teeth as I went along using the photo to refer back to.  One note of warning, getting the googly eyes off of the adhesive backing took a toll on my thin nails-- don't do this project with a pretty new manicure.  This video shows how I did it.  No music, but it's fun to watch!

When I was done, I put my googly eyed skull in a frame I had on hand.  Take care not to smoosh the googly eyes against the glass when securing the frame backing.  The whole project cost about $18 -- mostly for googly eyes.  How many times can I type those two words in one tutorial?!

In the rush of the season, I did not get many "done" photos, but here is one of the skull in the background of a photo I took of my zombie husband so you can see the size I made... just to the left of his reaching arm.

Happy Halloween!!

Handmade Halloween in Progress

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We've been busy here prepping for Halloween (see YouTube timelapse video) and I wanted to show you a few pics of what we have been working on.  I plan to have a tutorial up for several of these.

Glittery black spiders for the cemetery

The new gateway to the cemetery.  If you look closely you can see that it is ripped down 2x4s, plastic finnials and plastic plumbers pipes.  Cheap, effective and fun to craft!

Glittery green spiders for the front door.

Tierra Rejada pumpkin picking

Silhouettes of the boys... fun and easy to make!

Detail on the Jack the Ripper tombstone

 

Zombie clothes in progress.

That's it for now!  I hope you are all having a spooky Saturday!!

Setting up the Cemetery

My hubby had fun doing a little time-lapse video of the setup of our front yard cemetery and I thought you might all enjoy it.  Everything you see was made by us over the past fourteen years.  We still have the extras and the fragile items to add (i.e. fog, feathered crows, pumpkins, cobwebs) so it will get a bit more elaborate as Halloween comes closer.

In the speedy season

Where have the weeks gone?!  It literally seems like just yesterday that I was planning for Halloween and we are now less than a week until Thanksgiving, goodness me!

The shorter daylight hours seem to be speeding by with scheduled and unscheduled activities.  Homemade batches of muffins and cookies fill air with their butter and spices... handmade drawings and kiddo-invention schematics fill the refrigerator doors...  piles of books on every subject congregate on every desk, table, chair, bed and floor... music, from bluegrass to classical to trip hop wafts around the house at almost all hours of the day.  It is a calm insanity if such a thing is possible!

Below is a quick photo of the breaking in of our new craft tablecloth-- the old one having finally ripped under the pressure of the weight of pounds of pumpkin innards.  Cardstock leaves globbed with paint and smooshed together... perfect for the season!  These will mostly be used by Em and Ro to write the names of our Thanksgiving guests on as seating cards.  But, I think I will have to dangle a few in the kitchen window as well. If you remember from last year, we are big into trees so this adds to our autumnal nature theme.

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

A handmade Halloween

I apologize for being MIA, but Halloween has sorta taken over our house!!

Here's a few quick pics of what we've been up to.  I promise a fence tutorial among other things next week.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

How to make custom oval necklaces

I was strolling through the pages of one of my favorite "Buy Handmade" sites a few months ago and came across these beautiful oval cabochon necklaces.  I saw prices ranging from $8.00 up to $30.00.  Thirty dollars!?!  No, I'm not paying that when I am sure I can make them myself for less.  These necklaces are customizeable with pretty much any image you can imagine and I am excited to be able to give you this tutorial complete with where to find all of the supplies to make them at home in an afternoon!  While the tutorial highlights one particular shape and size, you will find that size and shape can also be chosen to suit your own taste.

Gathering your supplies

From Left to Right:  Saran Wrap to protect your surface, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, E6000 adhesive, Sharp scissors, Finished necklaces, Glass Cabochons, Images printed on cardstock, Silver and Copper Metal Trays

Step One:
Cut your image so that it fits inside the metal tray.  Depending on the person you purchase your images from, they could fit perfectly, or use some shaving off a bit.  Take your time to get it right.  Once it fits, carefully take it out and prepare to glue the glass cabochon on to the image.  Make sure the glass is fingerprint free.

Apply a dime to nickle-sized amount of the JudiKins Diamond Glaze directly to the surface of the image.  Don't worry about bubbles, they will move.  Gently press and hold the glass onto the image, centering it exactly.  Hold cabochon in place for about 30 seconds while the glaze sets.  There will be glue on the sides squeezing out... that's okay.  Leave alone for about 2 minutes.

Step Two:
Carefully flip the cabochon upside down and move to a clean part of the Saran Wrap.  You can gently wipe the excess glue from the sides with a paper towel.  Don't worry about any glue on the back.  At this point, if you try to move your image, it will get ruined.  Leave alone for another 2 minutes.

Step Three:
Place E6000 adhesive directly in metal tray, taking care not to get close to the edges of the tray.  Once you press your cabochon/image in, the excess glue will seep out.  You can use a warm damp (NOT WET) paper towel to get the excess glue off now.  Or, you can wait an hour or so and it will be a bit hardened and peel-able   Personally, I prefer to remove the glue while still wet but you need to be very careful not to let excess water from the damp paper towel seep underneath and ruin your image.
Press and hold the cabochon in place for at least 30 seconds and then let dry for one hour.

Step Four:

Wear with pride!!  You could also make matching earrings with smaller ovals/images.  The possibilities are limited only to your imagination.

Here is a list of everything I purchased including links to them all.

JudiKins Diamond Glaze, you can but it on Etsy and many other online craft sites.  I purchased mine from the same seller as the cabochons, necklaces and metal trays to save on shipping.
E6000 Adhesive can be bought at Michael's, online, Lowe's and Home Depot.
The oval 30x40mm sized glass cabochons, metal necklace trays and ribbons were all purchased from CandyTiles2 on Etsy.  Candy always seems to have the best prices and ships quickly.  She will also do custom listings for you if you do not see what you want.  (This is my personal opinion and I'm not paid to say it, FYI.)
The images I used were purchased from:
Vintage Halloween Images:  Passion Fruits Images on Etsy
Cute Birdies & Flowers:  Piddix on Etsy
Trees and Artwork Images:  Kool Jewelry on Etsy
Japanese Patterns:  Groovy Graphics on Etsy
French Patterns:  Kitbiju on Etsy

After purchasing, I printed them at Kinko's on cardstock.

If you want to see how these look as magnets, please check out my other tutorial as well.

Happy Crafting!
Hettie
The glue:  

Spideriffic Welcome Banner

While wandering around Michael's a few weeks ago, I came across some cute, thin wood spiders.  I thought they would be perfect for making a little welcome sign to put on the front door.  And, at $ .20 a spider, it's economical too!  So, here's how I did it in an afternoon.

I took the wood spiders and painted both sides with a flat black acrylic paint I had on hand and let them dry for about 30 minutes.  The thin wood soaked the paint up quickly.

Using a green paint I also had in the house, I started to paint the letters on, but it looked a little boring.  Glitter to the rescue!  While the paint was still wet, I applied the glitter directly on top and let the spiders dry.

Once all the letters were done, I lined them up on a piece of plastic wrap and glued each spider to a long strip of ribbon.  Since the spiders are so light, I put a little rock on top of each spider to weight it down while the glue dried.  Once dry, I looped the top section of ribbon so I could hang it on a nail.  An hour later, it was on my front door!  A fun and fast decoration for the cost of just the seven spiders:  $1.40!!  Everything else I had on hand.  We also bought a bunch of wooden pumpkins, ghosties and witches hats, but that's a craft for another day.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
Hettie

Halloween Fences in Progess

Happy Saturday!!

Did you know that Halloween is only 50 days away?!  I know... don't laugh too hard!

We've been working on our Halloween craft to-do list for the past week or so and plan to have a new tutorial up soon on our latest cemetery addition.  Fences!

Here's a photo sneak peek of what the fences look like in progress.  A full tutorial will be up sometime this coming week.

Lightweight and cheap with great effect... what more could we ask for?!

Crafting the weekend away

We are one of those families who go bonkers for holiday decorating...

We do it

A little bit more

Each year

... this year, our Halloween craft to-do list is a bit large.  New cemetery fences, 

new interior banners and decorations.  

So, this lovely, long, Labor day weekend is being devoted to Halloween and all the fun it brings to us... we love to share the day!  (Plus... um, did you see the name of the blog--CelticMommy.  Our families are descended from one of the originating celebrators of the holiday.)

We hope you are enjoying your Labor Day Weekend doing what you love as well!

Thanksgiving and being thankful

These past weeks have all been centered around what we are thankful for...

Foam leaves and trunk cut out by the boys and I and then glued to a simply painted poster.

Thinking of things to be thankful for brings up more things and still more.  It is a wonderful cycle!  :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Crafting for the holidays

Please don't shoot me or send mental hate darts my way when reading the title... I've actually been holiday crafting for the past month or so whenever I have a spare moment.  I usually don't post completed items so that my family members are surprised, but I'm quite chuffed with this project.

Pattern and Yarn Info:  This is a free pattern called the Elise Shawl by Evan Plevinski.  The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the Lichen colorway.  Can you say yummy?  I LOVE this yarn!



Since I have set the ambitious goal of (current known queued items) 2 sweaters, 2 afghans, 2 shawls, wee sewn project bags, 2 hat/cowl sets and some handmade stamps and necklaces, I have to keep up the pace!  Handmade holidays are a labor of love and completely worth it for me personally.

Is anyone else crafting yet?

It's a Lego Party!!

Many of you may know that my kids' birthdays are just days apart... and fortunately, they are close enough in age to not mind having a joint birthday party. This year, the chosen theme was Legos! Oh yay, Legos!!

Oh no, Legos!!

One of the great things about having a Lego party, is the lack of supplies available. You can't just walk into your local party store and buy Lego plates and Lego napkins and order a Lego cake and Lego balloons. There are a few Lego theme specific items out there, but not much. This proved to be a fun crafting challenge for the boys and me.

First of course, were the invites which I covered in a blog below, but what then? Googling Lego parties brought up LOTS of resources and I looked at as many as I could and began formulating ideas. By the end of very long evening of sitting at this desk, I had a plan! Here is what I did.

#1- I wanted to make Lego crayons. Having made molded crayons in the past, I knew this would be a great activity to do with the boys. Originally, I had planned to make my own Lego molds like SFHandyman on Instructables, but found out that my local Lego store had molds. As much fun as it would be to make my own silicone molds, I knew I might run out of time, so I went with pre-made molds instead. I made sets of four crayons each for each goodie bag and kept on plowing away at my other ideas.


#2- I wanted to make Lego candies. Using the same molds, I made lemon, orange, vanilla and gummi sour raspberry Lego blocks and Lego mini figures. The sour gummi recipe was from The Ultimate Candy Book and were a cinch to make. I wish I had made more! The lemon, orange and vanilla candies were made with Boyajian oils. Since I could only make 28 candies at a time, I was able to make a variety in the week prior to the party. I added homemade marshmallows to the candy tray since they look close enough to bricks as well. (On the marshmallow recipe, I double up on the vanilla!)

#3- We needed some Lego themed entertainment at the party. In addition to a bouncer, I wanted to have our Legos out to play with... this is after all a party for 4 and 6 year olds. But, not everyone is in to Legos, so I also made a coloring page. I found this cute doodle made by Ryan at Doodle Masters and changed it into an outline to color. Another free font for coloring and I was set with coloring pages.

We also had a Lego tower building contest... whichever party-goer made the tallest tower, went home with this Lego frame, made with a wood frame from Michael's that I painted and stamped the same as the invites.
#4- We needed decorations! Rolls of crafting paper have so many fun uses! I made two 2 1/2' by 12' long signs saying "Happy Birthday" and one of my kids' names. We hung these with primary colored streamers in the house. Our outdoor speakers piping Dan Zanes and a bubble machine helped add atmosphere to the back yard.

#5- We needed to make goodie bags! Again, the lack of Lego branded items worked in my budget-minded favor here. I bought these bags on sale at Michael's and then customized them with each party guests name. Actually, I shouldn't say "I" because both Em and Ro helped with this as well. We cut card stock into 1 inch strips, added the foam letters, and then affixed each name with Zots 3D dots. A few more treats and a thank you tag for each bag and we were set to go.

I think that is about it on how-to and steps and resources. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Everything I made was for personal use only and never sold... I just need to make that clear for the Lego legal side of things. :-)

Happy Lego Parties Everyone!

Party Preparations

Legos Legos Everywhere!!

All you need is a bit of card stock, a free font, washable paint, a cool Lego stamping tutorial, willing crafters, and a whole lotta patience! Oh, and the Legos of course...

Em and Ro made the Lego paper with card stock I had on hand. Once dried, we cut the paper down to fit the envelopes and added the party details.

I hope the party is as fun as the invites!

Freezer paper stencil t-shirts tutorial

Since I make so many t-shirts and onesies and fabric by painting with freezer paper stencils... and since I've had several questions on how it all actually works, I figured I'd do a more thorough how-to with bigger photos than the old tutorial I wrote last year. Once you read this overly-thorough tutorial, you'll have the process down pat. And it is super easy to customize, embellish... go nuts really. The painting aspect of this project is perfect for kids (about 3 1/2 and up) and adults alike.

Perfect for those stained T's you don't want to discard... or for new shirts, gifts, etc.  Ready?! Here we go!

1- (Not shown) Wash and dry your t-shirt... preferrably all cotton.

2- Find a picture you want to put on a t-shirt. In this example, I did a search for a compass, found one I liked, and printed that out. Since it did not have directional markers, I printed those out in a font I liked. See first photo.

3- Gather all supplies needed and tape drawing to the self-healing mat or a piece of cardboard so that you do not ruin the surface by cutting into it. The darker the drawing the easier it will be to see through the freezer paper.

4- Cover drawing with your freezer paper. Notice, it is shiny side down, smooth paper side up. Tape down freezer paper being careful not to use tape near your drawing... you will need to remove it prior to ironing the stencil onto your shirt.

5- Cut around the outside of your drawing until you end up like the next photo. Notice I did not cut out all the compass points... that's what's fun about creating... you can do what you want!



6- Carefully remove the stencil from the board. Gently remove any remaining tape. You now have a one-use-only stencil. Your project will be one-ok-a-kind! Excited yet?








7- Set your iron on Cotton, without steam. Steam will cause bubbles in the stencil and those will cause paint bleeding underneath... we don't want that.



8- Cut a second piece of freezer paper to put in between the front and back of the t-shirt. You know... where your body will be when wearing your art!










9- Place second piece, shiny side facing up (see photo) so that, when ironed, it will stick to the underside of the front of the shirt. This will prevent any bleeding through of the paint onto the back of the shirt.


10- Position stencil where you want it on the front of the shirt and slowly iron on. If you use a stencil with intricate and small pieces (such as this tree), take care to check that the stencil is pressed down at all the edges.







11- Gather together everything you will need to paint. See photo.

Fabric paint in colors of choice.
Cups or paper plate for paint. A paper plate is much better if you are doing some mixing of colors such as the caterpillar or Ohm shirts in the previous blog.
The shirt
Brushes for stenciling and if you are adding detail.
The drawing for reference

12- For large areas, a stencil brush or even a craft foam brush will work great. Do not glob the paint on and be careful not to push around the edges... think up-and-down like the needle on a sewing machine.

Tip: The darker the shirt, the harder it will be to cover and will possibly need more than one application of paint. The tree shirt in the previous blog was made over several days.

13- When done painting, let the shirt dry for 4-24 hours before removing stencil.

14- Peel stencil away from shirt. At this point, you can embellish the shirt if you choose to with freehand accents such as the Alligator, Zebra, Giraffe, Lion and Elephant onesies in the previous blog.

15- Keep the freezer paper inside the shirt in place. Cut one last piece and set your iron back to the same settings as in step 7. Cotton setting without steam.

16- Place freezer paper, shiny side down onto top of newly stenciled area and iron. This will help to set the paint and edges and will prevent the paint from transferring onto other clothing when washed.

17- Woo Hoo! You're done! You've created a one-of-a-kind t-shirt for yourself, a kid, a gift... whomever you wish.

CARE INSTRUCTIONS: Since making my first shirt in January '08, I've made and taught others to make over 100 of these shirts. I've washed Em and Ro's first freezer paper stenciled shirts (first posting on this) probably 75 times by now... and, as long as you wash them inside out, everything is fine.

If you give one of these as a gift, please add that little instruction and you're good to go.

Okay, that turned out longer than I thought it would. If you make, link, or use this tutorial, please let me know. I love seeing how creative others can be when set loose with paint and an idea.

And of course, have fun!!