It's Been Fun

Now help me count down til Halloween with this fun block calendar.

Project 13!

A little vinyl, some paint, a few cuts of paper and some wood blocks.

This is just one of those cut & sand the wood blocks projects. Then paint them. Cut scrapbook paper and mod podge it on. Cut vinyl numbers and month. Apply it to the blocks and mod podge over the entire project. 

This was actually a get-together-with-my-sisters-and-one-of-our-cousins projects. The funnest part of these little craft days is that each person's completed craft turns out different. 

It's been fun to share some of my Halloween stuff with you. I could create things for this holiday all year 'round. But then my children would think I was crazy! And I would need an additional house or two to decorate when the holiday rolled around.

 (More project views- just so you can see a small portion of my Halloween paper addiction.)

Winding Down...

Today's Feature: Monsters! 
Project 12 of 13

What's Halloween without a monster or two? But they have to be cute monsters! Colorful, googly-eyed monsters! And if you love glitter as much as I do, monsters must have glitter, too!

 I'm giving these monsters to my nieces and nephews for Halloween!

I used my Cricut and the PaperDoll Dress Up cartridge for the monster cut out. I cut 2 each from felt and sewed them together, leaving an opening at the top to make a pocket. Each monster got an outline of glitter glue, some googly eyes and a fuzzy puff ball nose. It was super easy. The hardest part was thinking of what I was going to stuff them with... Skittles it was, because when I look at these colorful monsters- they remind me of Skittles. It's perfect!

My favorite one is the purple cyclops monster. Which one is your favorite?

I'm linking up at Simply Crafts in their contest. (Although I don't know if I was supposed to make a card or just a project?)

Project 11

Simple yet awesome! A paper craft-ish candy corn!

A styrofoam cone from the dollar store (refer to last post to as to $$ spent there lately.)

A glue gun- NO JUDGING. I've owned this glue gun and plate

for years. It's older than my oldest child!

A few buttons and some scrapbook paper strips.

Starting from the bottom, loop the orange papers and glue them even with the bottom.

Do a few layers like this.

Repeat process with yellow papers and white, layering up.

Stack & glue the buttons on the top.

You can whip one or ten of these up in no time flat! Ready? GO!

Halloween Tree

What do you do with the branches off a tree you've just trimmed?
If you're me, which you aren't, but you could imagine (and play along) than you spray paint them black and call them a Halloween Tree. Or call them Project 10 of 13. Whatever.
It's called recycle or re-use or something.

We'll call this the after-before. It's after I cut the branches and after I painted them, but it's before I hung anything on them. Maybe it's the after-after-before?

I bought the vase at the one and only dollar store. Love that place, except I've probably spent $100 dollars there lately. Adds up quick!

And then, what to hang on this tree? Alot of ideas came through my head... and then went out of my head. That's how I roll. And one day while at this giant "candy" store called Hobby Lobby, I spotted this glittered felt. Oh how I love felt. Oh how I love bling and glitter. Together- it's a marriage made in heaven! And the black glittered felt said to me "BUY ME!" And I did cuz I'm like that. And I knew that my tree must have bats flying in it! That's how it happened, believe me.

I have the cutest son. He's clever like his momma. But he's more clever because he said to me "Mom, you should use dad's fishing line and hang the bats so they look like they're flying." He is a genius, I wouldn't have thought of that. Those glittery bats would have been hanging with ribbon if he wasn't around. Thanks, son- I love you!

So, just for him- here's a close up of my bats hung with fishing line:

Of course, every scary Halloween tree must have some of that fake spider web stuff in it.
It turned out purty cute if I must say so myself!
Now go cut some branches off your tree (or your neighbors tree- just don't tell them I said so if you get caught) and make ya a Halloween Tree. I think I might use this one for something fall-ish, even though it's black. Still thinking...

I've linked up this project at Sweet Peas & Bumblebees. Hurry, go check out that site- but make sure you have a few hours- there's a ton of stuff to see. I love it!

Project 9

Pretend it's Friday, October 7th.
For Project 9, we have some giant witch legs:

I love fun witch-y stuff. I like those "crashed" witch decorations.

I dreamed this little number up in my head. I drew the pattern for the boots. Cut out the fabric. 

And then I got to sewing. My favorite thing. :)

I love green and purple together for Halloween, but just for Halloween!

Does it look like the worlds largest witch is hanging in my window?

I think she needs a dress or cape. Something. Whatcha think?

Beware!

Just warnin' ya, it's another banner. Kind of...

It's a banner with a twist. And some crows.
Project 8 of 13

 

I copied some dictionary pages onto vanilla colored cardstock and then took a 

crow pattern and cut out 4 birds. 

I cut out 2 from black cardstock- just givin' it a little dimension. I'm all about dimension.

I then chose random fonts from my Cricut and cut out the word: Beware. A few stars and circles and some distressing later and I had this awesome string of crows. Yes, string of crows is a better name for this project. I used spiral paper clips to attach them to the ribbon. I bought some decorative garland just to give the crows a little "oomph."
I like easy projects that make a huge statement. This one says "beware." And beware you must if you come to my house right now... I'm behind on all my housework. Shhh, don't tell anyone.

Under the Weather?

I don't know what the weather looks like at your house, but where I'm at- it's awful. According to my standards! We're getting Winter without experiencing Fall. Oh, yeah, Fall came and went... in a week! Seriously not long enough. Bring back Summer.
But if you're not feeling well because the weather is crumby, I've got just the medicine for you.
A tray of potions, syrups and remedies:
Project 7

Need Dracula Extract? 1 tsp. of the red vile might do ya!

Got Eyeball Ooze? Chew up the white balls (and blow bubbles,) you're sure to forget about what ails you.

Frog's got your tongue? Frog Syrup is a swampy addition to any meal.

Need some magic? Witches Brew is just for you. It's a fine blend of cackle and magic.

Bat Juice anyone? How 'bout some Monster Milk?

Need a toothache? Full Moon Morsels might just give you that "run to the dentist, quick" sensation.

These were super fun for my kiddos to make. My daughter, however, was repulsed by the name of Eyeball Ooze. My son loved that we could put water into jars and a few drops of food coloring and make "potion."
The morsels are just candy corns and the eyeballs are gumballs. Some of the bottles are recycled, others I bought for cheap at the dollar store. I printed up the labels and stuck them on. The Witches Brew is a soda in a glass bottle.

Have fun concocting...

Oops, Pictures Won't Upload

Projects 7 & 8 will be posted tomorrow.

It's a love/hate relationship, this computer stuff. I just can't get my photos to load... What's a project post without a photo?

Grrr...

You're A Blockhead, Charlie Brown

That's not really a nice thing to say. Charlie Brown's friends were bullies. Have you ever realized that?
Now that I've started out on a tangent...
I call these little guys "my blockheads." Because that's what they are, they're blocks. From my never ending block supply stash. I swear, those blocks, they must multiply down there in the basement! There's a ton of them!

Aren't they cute? So simple, a child could make them.

 

Supplies for mummy: 4" block, white spray paint, box of gauze (Dollar Store!), and some googly eyes.

How To: sand block, paint white, hot glue on eyes, wrap with gauze. Tie end and tuck under.

Supplies for Frankie: 4" block, green paint, black paint, googly eyes, black felt, batting and some screws.

How To: sand block, paint green, sand edges, cut felt into a square with jagged edges, glue batting on top of head, glue on felt, glue on eyes, paint some scars and a mouth and screw in some screws on sides.

Hope you enjoyed Project 6. By far the easiest one! 

You can check out this project (and a ton of others made by amazingly talented creators) at Sweet Peas & Bumblebees.

Pumpkins In Disguise: Project 5

Hi, my name is Kerry and I've got a "pumpkin addiction."

There, I said it. I've admitted my problem. Isn't that the first step in recovery?

I was looking through Parenting magazine (I have tried to find the exact link but it's impossible!) while at work and saw a white pumpkin with a mask. I think it was made up to be a kitty, but I didn't just love the whiskers and/or ears. Adjust, tweek, make it my own. That's a sickness of mine. 

Off to find a cheap pumpkin. Perfect, Dollar Store! So instead of picking up just one- I bought a handful. A handful is actually putting it nicely! 

I like the "feel" off odd numbers. Which doesn't explain why I have 2 kids... another subject. So I knew I had to disguise 3 pumpkins, all different. So, as I have said before, I lay awake at nights thinking about creative junk. Said pumpkins were part of the keep-me-awake-creative-junk. Along with the sleepless hours, I spend plenty of time on Pinterest, blog stalking and Google, too!

And I eventually came up with these:

 This is the pumpkin that started it all!

I simply spray painted (I know that's weird) the pumpkin white. I cut out a mask from white cardstock and glittered the heck out of it! While I was at it, I glittered the stem, too. Cuz everything's better with BLING! Right, girls? Just agree with me here. Oh, more bling- I put some swirly designs on the top and sides with  black glitter glue. Easy as pie. 'cept I never understood that saying cuz pie isn't easy to make- just sayin'

Mod Podge and I became fast friends with this little pumpkin. Oh, and that Sunday paper that never gets read. Might as well do something with it, right? I cut the paper into 1" strips and just started gluing. I then painted the stem brown because the dollar store pumpkin makers didn't really do a A+ job at it. But hey, for a buck, whatcha expect?

And I do have to 'pologize for not having a photo of the black pumpkin by itself. Stupid picture wouldn't load to my computer. I don't know...

But the black one was spray painted too. Surprise! I then printed out "Oct. 31" on my computer. Ya know that little trick on laying the paper on the object and using a ball point pen to trace and make an indention? I painted in the lines with a small brush and some white acrylic paint. Simple!

The whole project took me a couple of hours. I have so many more pumpkins to diguise...