Sugar Skulls, CD Shards, and Super Bargains!

This past month I've been busy crafting and learning new things. There's been a lot of experimentation with craft materials and new products. This is going to be kind of a different blog post than usual, because I'm going to be sharing a few things I made and a few things I bought. It's a little like one of those monthly favorites blog posts or videos some people make. Just random fun stuff I made and bought during March.

I finally got around to decorating the little foam skulls I bought during my My After Halloween Target and Michaels Haul in 2012! These two foam skulls were from Michaels. Looking back at that blog post, it would appear these cost 20 or 30 cents.

The little skulls can hang from the ribbon at the top of them. Here's one demonstrating this on a doorknob:

I decided to make them into sugar skulls for Day of the Dead. I painted them, bejeweled them, and then "sugared" them with some heavyweight glitter.

I'm really happy with how these two turned out! They're like little girly sister skulls. I like decorations that look related but not identical.

It will be nice to have some little sugar skulls sitting around. I'll probably keep them out year-round. They're about the size of an actual sugar skull and they won't attract ants, unlike the real deal. Grossly enough, I know of what I speak with that!

I also learned of a cool use for old CDs. I happened to have a few with some documents on them that I didn't feel safe throwing out. Yet I didn't need more old CDs sitting around. So I saw online that if you bust up old CDs with a hammer you end up with some beautiful shards. Some people use scissors too, but that didn't work for me. I don't know what kind of scissors these people have, but mine weren't going to cut a CD! That only worked for trimming the tiniest of edges.

So after having some fun whacking CDs with a hammer, I needed to find something cool to glue them to. As it happened, I ran into a candle holder at Dollar Tree that was just what I wanted. It had a religious quote on the back but if you turn it around you have a nice black surface to work with. So I glued my shards to that with some regular Elmer's glue and let it dry an hour or two. Then I put a candle in it and enjoyed watching the colors move around in the dark.

I was so happy with my results that I'm looking for more things to glue CD shards to! Just a few words of caution if you want to try this.

1. Wear some protective eye wear. The shards like to fly while you're hammering them. One got me in the face, but luckily I wasn't cut.

2. Wrap some paper towel around your CD before hammering. You don't want random little sharp things laying around uncollected. Some people use a kitchen towel, but paper towel worked fine for me.

3. Pick where you want to glue these wisely because they like to slide around. Just put some glue on the back of your shard, place it down, and call it good.

Other than these two crafts, I wanted to share two more random things with you guys. Not that either of these are related to anything. It's just that I wanted to pass along some good finds. They're pretty inexpensive too.

Sticking with the Dollar Tree theme, I'd heard some reviews of this Dermasil lotion on YouTube. I have bored moments where I watch videos of people talking about their Dollar Tree hauls on YouTube. This is where I heard people raving about how great this lotion is, and they're right!

I was looking for a nearly scentless lotion because I wanted to mellow out some way too fragranced lotion I already had. So I picked some of this up. 10 oz for $1.00! I mixed it in with the too strong stuff and it worked to make it tolerable. Turns out I love this stuff on its own too. So I went back and bought more of it. It has a very light rosewater scent, if you're familiar with that. It has a nice consistency too; this lotion is not at all watery. I like this much more than a lot of higher priced lotions. And what isn't higher priced?

My other fun find is this "Sambal Oelek" pepper sauce. Look for the rooster label. It's a simple recipe of fiery red chilis, vinegar, and salt. It's hot and soooo good. You will want to put this on everything. This cost $1.99 at Woodman's.

Let me know if you guys try any of these craft projects or products!

How to keep a part of autumn year-round

I recently learned of a cool way to preserve fall leaves: with Mod Podge! A link on Pinterest led me to this blog with instructions: Preserve Fall Leaves from Crafty Journal.

I've been using Mod Podge for some time and as much as I love it, I never thought to paint it on leaves. For those who aren't familiar with the product, Mod Podge can work as a glue or sealant. Depending on the type of Mod Podge you buy, you can get a glossy or matte finish.

Mod Podge is very popular with crafters, because of its many uses.  I was excited to read that Mod Podge can preserve an autumn leaf's color and flexibility. I had quite a few leaves saved in their pressed form between sheets of wax paper in a dictionary, so I had all the materials I needed for this project.

I painted the Mod Podge on both sides of the leaves, careful not to snap off those brittle ends. I still snapped a few, but it was impossible not to! Some of these leaves felt ready to crumble. Here's how the Modge Podge looks as it dries clear.

Once the Mod Podge dried for about 10-15 minutes, I'd paint the other side. The end result was a stronger more flexible leaf with its color revived. You can see how crisp and shiny the leaves turned:

I was pretty happy with how this experiment turned out. Here are more of the finished leaves:

Mod Podge is amazing! I found out about the product somewhat accidentally while spending a gift certificate. It just looked cool so I added it to my cart without knowing its many uses. That was over a decade ago, and that same container is still going strong! If you also like to craft with Mod Podge or would like to learn more about it, there's a blog you'll want to check out: Mod Podge Rocks!

You can search for any topic in the little search bar at the top of that page. Of course I've searched for "Halloween" Mod Podge projects already. I found some cool stuff like a DIY severed head and decoupaged skull plate. I'm starting to think that the sky's the limit as far as Mod Podge craft projects!

Surprising time capsule for my next project

For months now, I've been wanting to make my own altered Halloween book or spell book cover like the ones I've seen on the Seeing Things blog. Here are a few examples of what I'd like to try:

Halloween Altered Book

Apothecary Encyclopedia

I knew I would need a hardcover book, so I'd planned to visit Dollar Tree and pick one up there. As it turned out, I got to save a few bucks by taking some home from the dump. Someone had left entire sets of World Book encyclopedias from the 1960s-70s there! They were all clean and brand new. These books looked like they had never been used! It was tempting to take them all, because I'm into history. Also, I liked paging through encyclopedias in my pre-internet school days. Are encyclopedias even made anymore? I was probably part of the last generation to turn to an encyclopedia for information.

I decided to take the two smallest ones, which ended up being from 1961. I also grabbed a 1970 encyclopedia yearbook. At first when I saw the word "yearbook" I thought it was someone's high school yearbook. I would have definitely grabbed a vintage high school yearbook. I had no idea that there were even encyclopedia yearbooks! It detailed everything that happened in 1969, from politics to entertainment. You can learn so much about history just by paging through old encyclopedias.

The encyclopedia yearbook was like a time capsule. There was a psychedelic illustration to go with each chapter:

The education illustration sadly has more emphasis on guns and gas masks than kids studying. That and a mysterious groovy man lounging in the foreground. Interestingly enough, my brain connected the guns in the education illustration with the recent school shootings. Times have changed in so many ways. School violence seems much more random and purposeless than political now.

There were psychedelic illustrations in the beginning of each "focus" chapter, which included the sciences, space program, politics, and the economy.

Familiar characters showed up:

...and of course there was a lot of this guy:

I could also tell how important the space program was by the amount of room it took up in the book.

If encyclopedias are being printed today, I doubt there is much about the U.S. space program in them. I know there wouldn't be as much about Communism in today's encyclopedias as what I saw in this 1970 yearbook!

The G and J-K encyclopedias were from 1961. Those were as specific to their years as the 1970 yearbook was. They were full of how-to tips, which surprised me. These encyclopedias seemed geared toward kids and teens. Maybe they were from a school collection? I couldn't see any school name printed on them.

This encyclopedia even gave instructions on how to make a kite:

I knew I'd struck comedy gold when I saw this page:

Be sure to click on this one to enlarge it for a few laughs.

I couldn't believe I was seeing grooming tips in an encyclopedia. They went on and on from how to care for fingernails to cleaning feet! There was even a chart on the hairstyles women should choose for their facial shape. As if there was only one hairstyle allowed for each face shape!

There you go girls! I hope you like the one hairstyle alloted to your face. It was funny to see beauty tips I'd associate with a Seventeen magazine in an encyclopedia. 

There was even a "Daily Grooming Checklist" with questions a person should ask themselves before leaving the house each day:

1. Did I take a bath or shower?

2. Have I brushed my teeth?

3. Is my hair trimmed, neatly combed, and clean and shining?

4. Are my hands and fingernails clean, smooth, and attractive?

5. Are my shoes polished and in good repair?

6. Is my outfit attractive and suitable for what I am going to do today?

Not that the ideas on this checklist aren't good, I was just surprised to see them listed. I wonder at what point encyclopedias stopped offering personal maintenance advice?

Well, now that I've paged through the books, I'll have to decide what to do with them. It's tempting to go back to the dump and drag away all the rest, but I won't do that. I'll keep you guys up-to-date as I design my Halloween book covers, and I'll leave you with my favorite TV dumpster diving moment:



...and no, I'm not tempted to take that much stuff! Although that skeleton was kind of aww-worthy.

My Halloween Crafts from Dollar Tree Finds

Has anyone else been having an incredibly busy autumn this year? I've been doing a lot of Halloween related activities so it's been a fun kind of busy. One of these activities was doing Halloween crafts. I started at Dollar Tree with these raw materials in September and plans to upgrade them a bit.



I tried a few different looks with the pumpkins. I started my first project by making a zig zag pattern with painter's tape. I had planned to do a chevron pumpkin like this after seeing some how-to projects in a magazine. The process ended up involving a lot of tedious taping, so I just did it once, and went black and glittery with the top. Then I added a few triangles and shimmery bits. Now it's kind of a harlequin pumpkin.



I just glittered the next two, although they don't look much like that now. I ended up reworking the stems, so there would be something more substantial there.



Here's one of the reworked stems in process on the purple pumpkin I made for a friend. Basically, you build up a stem out of tin foil and shape it. Then you take a mix of Elmer's glue and water to apply newspaper to the tin foil. I ended up using phone book pages instead of newspaper, because they are made from thinner paper. It was nice to have a use for the phone book that just arrived!



Here's the finished fancy pumpkin! I painted over that phone book stem with some shimmery paint. The pumpkin was painted with pearly purple craft paint and then glittered. I used shimmery nail polish on some dried cedar and glued that to the pumpkin. Then I glued on a bow and a rhinestone and I was done!



This next project was tedious, but I am so happy with the result!

Before:



After:



Here he is with a bandana, since he's a pirate skull.



A close up of his gold and bejeweled teeth:



I ended up freehand painting some eyes inside his hollowed out eye sockets, which was more difficult than expected. He's just as lifelike as I need him to be! I plan to put him in the center of the bowl of candy I hand out to trick-or-treaters. He'll go nicely with my pirate outfit for that day!

The next project was a lot of fun. I started with some silk flowers (also from Dollar Tree) and some fake eyeballs from American Science and Surplus.



I intensified the eye color with some paint and blue nail polish. Then I removed the flower's center and hot glued the eyeball in its place.



Here's one in an arrangement:



I really like the light in that photo. It was a happy accident, but it almost looks like an oil painting to me.

The last project was done with acorns and a little nail polish. If you're like me and have a lot of nail polish sitting around already, this is pretty simple. Shimmery craft paint and glitter works fine too.



Aren't those shimmery little leaves cute? Heidi from http://2ndstreetcemetary.blogspot.com/ was nice enough to include those with the CD she traded me. I'm planning to Mod Podge a few of those leaves onto some plain acorns.

Just one thing I should add - wait a few days after collecting your acorns to paint them. You know those little holes you sometimes see in acorns? Well, that's where insect larvae have crawled out after hatching. I learned this lesson after having one of them crawl out of an acorn I had painted. He went straight out of layers of paint and was crawling around on my paint palette! They take a few days to hatch, so just be patient a bit before painting.

Aside from making Halloween crafts, I've also been busy reading this book:

Alfred Hitchcock Presents A Month of Mystery

I found this collection of stories lying under some other books of mine. Judging by the sticker on the cover, I paid a dollar for it. Or maybe someone else did a long time ago and left the price sticker on. In any event, it's worth that and more because it's a really enjoyable book! The idea behind it is that there are 31 stories, so you could read one every day of a month. The book is split into four sections: a week of crime, a week of suspense, a week of detection, and a week of the macabre.



If you're like me, you'll skip around where you please, starting with the macabre. If you have an orderly brain that likes to go from start to finish, I think this book would be a fun exercise for you! A Month of Mystery was published in 1969, but some of the stories go back to the 1930s. Most of what I've read was noticeably from the 50s and 60s from the slang. The word "fink" was a dead giveaway! So you'll laugh or be confused by the slang, and maybe a little spooked by the stories. Plus it would appear that it's pretty inexpensive online too.

As for the bookmark, I am using something very fitting:



The skeleton was another goodie that arrived with a CD. This and a few other creepy crawlies were from Dex at http://aeiouwhy.blogspot.com/ I cut the skeleton's arms loose, and he hangs over the pages nicely.

One more thing that's kept me busy was preparing for the annual Witches' Gathering. That party was last night, so photos will be coming soon!

*Speaking of parties, just another reminder that my Halloween blog party is on Friday, October 26! So get those pictures to me. :)

Halloween crafts for any budget and location

Recently, I've been collecting a lot of Halloween craft ideas on Pinterest and storing them on this board: Halloween Craft Inspiration

I decided to share some favorite Pinterest craft finds with all of you, but I wanted to focus on projects that nearly everyone could do. I know that outside of The United States, Halloween merchandise is a little more difficult to find. So I looked for the projects that involve materials that can be found everywhere, things like glass jars, natural materials, and paper. These also turned out to be fairly inexpensive projects. Here are 10 favorites of mine.

This first project comes from Martha Stewart. These spooky silhouettes can be cut out of cardstock from the templates Martha was nice enough to provide on her web site. The silhouettes hover above the candles on wires. Here's a link to the project and Martha's templates: Shocking Silhouettes

This skeletal hand project comes from the Formal Fringe blog and full instructions can be found here. This project requires latex gloves, a permanent marker and little LED candles inside a jar or candle holder.

 If anyone knows the source of the next image, please let me know. The link on Pinterest didn't lead to any instructions. Still, I'd say this project is as simple as spray painting any wine bottles you happen to have. I like the mixture of glossy and matte finishes.

This next project is from Country Living and it's something I've been doing for years. You simply cut masks, horns, hats, etc. out of black construction paper and tape them to the photos you already have in your house! It's simple and adds a mysterious look to what you see every day.

Also from Country Living, are the instructions on how to make these decorative candle holders. Basically, what you're doing is printing a spooky image onto vellum and wrapping it around a glass candle holder.

I found this project on the Page Turners Hollow blog. These Halloween Silhouette Lanterns require a glass jar, some bright paint, and a cut paper silhouette. The blogger who made these jars found her silhouettes on The Graphics Fairy blog. I think they'd look cool with many other shapes too, like the silhouette of a bat or a raven.

These spiderwebs are made from black trash bags! I found this idea on the How About Orange blog. Here's the blog post with detailed instructions: Trash Bag Spider Webs

Here's another spiderweb cutout, this time from black construction paper. This is from the Green Baby Guide blog: Template for spider cutout

These rocks were another Pinterest find with a link that led to nowhere, so I can't give you a source. The type looks so perfect that I wouldn't be surprised if there are scrapbooking letters Mod Podged onto the rocks. I collected quite a few rocks this year by the lake, and I plan to paint them for Halloween. I'll probably do more spooky faces than type, but I really like the look of these!

This last project is super simple and I think it could make a cool porch decoration! Or better yet, set them on the ground as if they're emerging from the earth. This idea comes from the Family Chic by Camilla Fabbri blog. Although, the Pinterest link didn't take me to the how-to, I think we can guess how these glowing hands were made. Trace your hand on a brown paper bag and cut out the shape. Then rubber band the hand to a glass votive candle holder. These remind me of zombie hands reaching from a grave!

Sometime this week I should have some photos of the finished projects I've been working on. These upcoming projects had their start with Dollar Tree products. I learned from assembling this list of crafts, how much I rely on Dollar Tree and local craft stores. This little experiment helped to give me the perspective of people who don't have tons of Halloween craft supplies readily available. I hope to try some of the projects in this post, and I'll share the results if I do!

The Justine's Halloween Blog Party is planned for Friday October 26th, and of course you're all invited! So if you have a photo of yourself in costume from any time in your life, please email it to me at this address to be included in the fun: contactartgirl@gmail.com

If you participated last year, I'd prefer a different photo this year. So get digging through those old albums, or create something new! 

Here's a reminder of the festivities from last year's party: Justine's Halloween Blog Party 2011