Real Parties - Halloween!

I thought these photos were gone forever with the ancient computer we had that crashed, but no, I resurrected them from Walgreens.com today and I couldn't wait to share with you!

This is from Halloween 2008. My little munchkin, was well, little! He's such a big boy now! Where did 4 years old come from?!?!?! Anyways, it was frigid that night, which, in Columbus, GA it could go either way. We had a costume party on trick or treat night, and I'm just sorry I didn't get more pictures, but here are a few, and I plan on redoing many of the other stuff I didn't get pics of this year!

Bean Bag Toss - Felt covering a piece of plywood

Bathroom Decor

Fabric Pumpkins - The tutorial is here

Spooky Glass Jar candleholders - again, tutorial here

Pinata - so much fun, design found on BHG.com

Cat Poop Dessert - yes it's edible! It's no bake cookies in oatmeal and graham cracker crumbs. Looks GROSS!

Bunting and Balls and Pedestals, OH MY!

I am super excited about how this little gem turned out, I can hardly contain myself!

I HAD to make the DIY cloche from Thrifty Decor Chick. It looked too easy for too little dollars and produced too fabulous of a piece for me NOT to try it! And, in her words, I LURVE it!!!

So, I started with this candlestick and this cheeseplate:

The candlestick was a goodwill find for $1.51 and the cheeseplate was $4.95, you can see where I found this little beauty here in my Fabulous Thrift Shop finds post.

I had to use wire cutters to take off those metal thingys sticking up out of the candleholder, and I used a pair of pliers to pry off the feet of the cheeseplate.

I then sprayed a few coats of paint

And ended up with this:

Oh, the beauty!

So, next I needed something to go under the glass dome... so of course, I decided to make it instead of buy it cause we're doin the Dave thing too. So once again to browse Thrifty Decor Chick for a DIY and lookie what I found... Jute Balls!

Here's the how to...

Materials

Styrofoam Balls - any size

Scissors

Jute rope or twine

scissors

Elmer's Glue

(and yes, those are black eyed peas... more on that later)

Step One:
Poke a small hole into the ball where you are going to start your twine. This is so that the end goes down in somewhere and as you're rolling it around with your sticky glue fingers, you don't keep catching the end and pulling it up!

Continue to wrap around the ball from center to end. This is much, much easier than trying to start and roll out from the center/top.

Then, once you get one side done, start again at the middle and work your way back to the top on the other side, and TA DA!

So now for the Halloween Bunting!

This was fun, and added a little sophistication to my Halloween decor!

I figured out how to do the bunting from the paper flower tutorial, and you can see that full post here.

Materials:

Scrapbook Paper - I used a solid orange and a striped one with black, gray and white

Circle cutter

Hot glue gun

Small hole punch

Scissors or Xacto knife

Directions

Cut out circles with circle cutter - or just trace something small and cut them out.

Cut circles in half and punch holes at either side of the straight side of your half circle. (These will be used to string the banner together)

Cut a small strip of paper (approx. 1/4" to 3/8" wide and about 6" long) and fold back and forth in an accordian.

Bend the ends of the accordian strip together and glue into the shape of a half circle.

Glue accordian half circle to flat half circle and then string ribbon through the holes.

I alternated going behind and in front of the circles with the ribbon.



Harvest Tag Banner

I was cruisin' around Hobby Lobby Saturday afternoon and came across a cute little wooden tag garland that spelled out Harvest. Well, I wanted something like that! Only I'm not so handy with power tools cutting small pieces of wood. Give me a big project, I'll tackle it. Little teeny tiny wooden tags, not so much.  I figured I had everything at home I needed to make this for free, so home I went!

Materials:

Colored Cardstock

Letter Template

Twine or String

Small hole punch

Scissors or X-acto knife

Scrap paper for template (I used craft paper)



Step One:

Trace letter onto piece of large scrap paper. Fold paper in half - directly through the center of the traced letter. Cut vertically next to the side of the letter, leaving only as much room as you want showing on either side of the letter. (Think the paper hearts you make at Valentines - you want it to be symmetrical) See below for the fold mark down the center of my half traced H. Cut the tag while still folded to the shape you want. Punch a hole in the top with your mini hole punch ($1 at Michaels) so that all the holes are at the same spot.

Step Two:

Trace all the letters in your word onto different colored pieces of cardstock and then trace the tag template on alternating colors. Make sure to plan ahead a little bit so your colors aren't next to each other for the letters.  A good rule of thumb is to use dark and light colors together (Yellow and Brown) to make the letters pop!



Step Three:
Cut out the letters and tags, punching the holes at the same spot on each one (refer to template). String onto twine, tieing a knot at the top of each one to space them out evenly. Hang and enjoy!

BOO!

Materials:

Chipboard letters from Hobby Lobby

Three sheets of Scrapbook paper

Grosgrain Ribbon 

Hot Glue

Spray Adhesive (or a glue stick, whatev)

Instructions:

1. Trace letters onto back of scrapbook paper.

2. Cut out and glue to chipboard letters.

3. Loop ribbon through letters and glue.

4. Hang

5. Relax - this is easy, cheap, fun decor!

Check out Thrifty Decor Chick for the inspiration!

Halloween Paper Centerpiece

I have had more fun cruisin' through blogland lately than I can even tell you! I know, I sound like the biggest dork, huh? But seriously, there are some super talented people out there who have an amazing array of ideas! Look out Martha!!!

Ok, I know it looks like I'm Miss Crafty Craftersnot herself, but I assure you, I'm not.  Halloween just happens to be the exception to my no-kitsch, no kiddy craft decor rule. I may have just lost a lot of the craft lovers out there, and don't get me wrong, I love to be creative, but my hot glue gun isn't something I couldn't live without because I use it on a daily basis...

If you're still reading, thank you!

I love projects, and this just happens to be the next in my bag o' fun craftiness for Halloween.

I got this idea from Lil' Luna when she was a guest blogger at eighteen25. To see the full post, click HERE.

Now, for my how to:

Materials:

Scrapbook paper or colored cardstock
Bamboo skewers
paint for skewers (I used acrylic - she used spray)
container
optional - embellishements for container

How to:

1. Cut paper into strips. These need to be long. I used 8.5 x 11 scrapbook paper and I cut two 11" long strips and glued them together end to end. The total strip measured 1.5" wide by 22" long.

2. Accordian fold strip.

Tips:
The smaller your folds, the "tighter" your flower will be.
Be careful, the straighter you fold your accordian folds, the easier it is to make it into a flower later.
Oh, and make sure you get a good crease on each fold, the edges will be much crisper.

3. Glue ends together to form a circle.

4. Bring sides in to make a flower. This is easier said than done. Good Luck.

Tip:
The longer your strip of paper, the easier this is to do. Buy more paper and use it!

5. Glue the center so it all stays looking pretty!

6. Cut out some circles, or use buttons like Lil Luna did. I like layering colors, so I cut out paper circles. Glue to center of flower.

7. Poke skewers in floral foam or in the side of an empty box. Paint.

8. Glue flowers onto tops of skewers, and place in container!

Embellishing your Container
I found this rectangular glass vase at Goodwill for about $1.50. I used the orange filler stuff from this post. I had some black grosgrain ribbon that I secured to the vase with a glue dot ( I LOVE these btw) and I unearthed some Halloween die cuts from years past in the Halloween bins in the attic. Die cuts were also secured with glue dots.

Note - I will be getting some floral foam to stick down in here. Usually it's not something I think is totally necessary, but for this one, since the flowers are a little top heavy, I'm going to add it.

Fabulous Finds: Friday Fun!

A great way to link up to others around the net to see what they have been busy creating! Fabulous!

Spooky Halloween Glass Candleholders

These are some fun little guys I put together last Halloween.



I know there are a few different versions of this floating around out there, but I came up with this method and like the way these look as a result!

Materials:

Clean empty glass jars (with lids)

Light colored acrylic paint for inside of jars (I used lime green and yellow)

Spray Paint to cover outside of jars

scissors

painters or masking tape

Directions:

1. Add a quarter size amount of acrylic paint to jar. Add about a teaspoon of water - you don't want it too runny. Screw on lid and shake. The more you shake, the more bubbles you get, so sometimes you have to let it settle for a few minutes and redistribute paint by rolling the jar around carefully.

I like to paint the inside this way because it's so much faster than using a brush, and I don't like the streaky look you get from a brush. Sometimes the crazy effect you get from shaking the paint makes a funky pattern on the inside - perfect for Halloween! Plus, I like to have the entire inside of the jar painted, because you don't just see the front.



 Next step is to cut the eyes, nose, and mouth out of painters tape or masking tape. Feel free to get creative here! There are alot of faces ideas on Matthew Mead's free Halloween Downloads page from 2008.

After taping, take the jar outside, replace the lid and spray a good even coat all over the entire jar. At this point, you can discard the lid. wait for the paint to dry and peel off your eyes, nose, and mouth. Drop in a tealight and you have a great Halloween candleholder!