Atriums (via Country Living)

These jar atriums are really creepy. Imagine a line of them on a bookshelf during a casual Halloween movie night. So great!

See how to by Dane Holwager over at Country Living.

Modern Halloween Invite

I'm playing around with modern wedding invitation design and came up with something that could just as well be used for Halloween. A hypothetical Halloween party of course. :)

Halloween Fabric Ornaments

Ingredients
Cereal Box Cardboard
Fabric
Ribbon (I used 3/16 in)
Tape
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun

Recipe
1. I used the top of a Jacquard Textile bottle to trace circles. Cut the circles out and place them on a small square of fabric.









2. Tape the ribbon down on either side of the cardboard. Circle the cardboard with a ring of hot glue.

3. Place the second piece of scrap fabric over the top to create a sandwich. Press down lightly with your fingers. (Careful it's hot.)

4. Cut around the hot glue.

5. Hang on your gesso-painted branches.

Painted Pumpkin

This pumpkin is simply a combination of 3 inexpensive craft paints (orange, brown and copper) and a final coat of gloss Mod Podge.

This project was fast and easy and could make very cool decorations for either Halloween or Thanksgiving.

Mummy Fingers

I'm making little mummy fingers for the cast and crew of the show I'm in. Here's a finished bundle. Originally I was going to make them into a necklace or at least give each person 5...but then I ate them. And I know myself better than to go back to the store and buy more...because I'd eat those too. (Ahk!)

Twix Mummy Fingers

Ingredients:
Mini Twix
Plastic Wrap (Saran wrap)
Tape
Brown Floral Tape
Small Sponge
White Gesso
Brown Acrylic Paint
Glue
Red paper
Red Fingernail Polish


Recipe:
1. Cover wrapped Twix with plastic wrap. Just enough to hold down the edges of the Twix wrapper. Tape.

2. Wrap in brown floral tape. I wrap the ends first and then the length.

3. Use a small sponge and dab on brown paint. Dab on white gesso. Let blend a bit on the finger.

4. Cut out fingernail from red paper. Glue on end. Paint with red fingernail polish.

Halloween Card-work in progress

This makes it Halloween.

I need vines but I'm terrible at drawing vines. There is something I can never quite get right. I don't even know what it is but after I finish trying to do vines something just always seems off.

I'm not sure about the placement of the type. Maybe the pumpkin needs to be bigger.

OK, number 2 is bigger. Still unsure. I want to see more of the green damask pattern.

Work in progress.

Halloween Card Tutorial

Ingredients:
Assortment of Inexpensive Craft Paints (I like to use metallic and glitter paints in analogous colors.)
Black Gesso
Mod Podge Gloss
Paint Brushes
Sponges
White Wrapping Paper with Design

Recipe:
Black Paper (for backgrounds)-
Take white wrapping paper (mine was white and silver #3) and paint a thin layer of black gesso (#1). Let it dry and then cover the paper in Mod Podge for sheen.


White Paper-
Take plain office paper and cover it with white paint and pearl metallic paint. After it dries, cover it in Mod Podge.

Orange Paper (#2)-
This paper is a combination of browns, oranges, golds, copper, and orange glitter paint all dabbed about haphazardly on white office paper. There is no wrong way to do this so have fun. When the paint dries, paint on a layer of Mod Podge.

Green Paper-
Use several colors of green paint. Add a little copper and green glitter paint to give it sparkle. After paint dries, paint a coat of Mod Podge.

I cut out my designs (using an XACTO knife for the skull's teeth), glued everything down with the Mod Podge onto precut cards. After the medium dried I used sharpies to draw designs on the skull.

Halloween Dino

Working on newsletter. Should come out tomorrow.

Posting has been a bit sparse in that in my non-work life I'm getting closer and closer to opening night for the play I'm in. Next week starts rehearsals for 3hours a night, 5 nights a week. Which is only slightly different than the past weeks at 4 nights a week. I'm not complaining though every moment of this production has been a blast.

Back to the newsletter!