Skellington Centerpiece

This is Halloween..  This is Halloween.. Halloween.  Halloween!.. 

Well, actually, it's late summer, BUT it's never to early to get started on holiday crafting!  Especially for one as fun as Halloween!  

What's this?  What's This!?

 Why, it's a centerpiece of the Pumpkin King himself: Jack Skellington!

This classic character is the hero of one of the best animated films of my generation: The Nightmare Before Christmas.  I remember being obsessed about it when I was 6.

This film, which has both Christmas and Halloween flair, makes a great and very popular theme for both holidays when it comes to parties.   

Here, I have an easy and really cool project for such an occasion!

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You will need...

- Glass Bubble Bowl

- Terracotta Pot

 - Hot Glue Gun
- Black Montana Marker  
-Black Spray Paint
- White Spray Paint

- White Acrylic Paint

- Silver Acrylic Paint

- Black Felt Sheet, Foam Sheet or Cardstock

(Note: Black glitter paint is optional.)

Let's get started!

Step 1. Spray paint your bubble bowl white.  Try not to spray a certain area to much for it might drip and dry that way!  You may need two coats depending on the opacity of your paint.  Set aside. 

Step 2.  Turn your terracotta pot upside down!  Hot glue the design of Jack's collar onto the pot.  This will create more texture on your piece.  It may look weird now, but it will all be worth it!  I left the small "spider webs" of glue on there for a more aged look.  
 

Step 3:  Spray paint your Terracotta pot with a jet black and set aside to dry.  (If you want, here is where you would spray the glitter paint on as well for some extra sparkle.)  Here I have both main pieces of the centerpiece all ready for some dressing up!

 Step 4:  Using a dry paintbrush, rub some metallic silver acrylic paint onto your pot.  Make sure the hot-glued areas are given extra attention.  You want this base to look like weathered iron.  

Step 5: Use the white paint to for Jack's shirt and to give a little more highlight to the ribbing on his tux.

Step 6: Use your Montana marker to draw on Jack's face. 

 Step 7.  Cut the pieces of the Jack's bat bow-tie out of the black felt sheet.  Add some detailing with the white paint.  You could draw the pieces on the felt sheet using a white paint pen before cutting.

Step 8.  Time to assemble!  Hot glue Jack's head onto the over-turned terracotta pot and then hot glue his bowtie onto the piece.  

Now he's all set for your special event!  Firefly lights could be put inside his head for a really cool effect.  This would look AMAZING if your venue is going to have dim lights for that eerie feel.  You could also fill his head up with candy if he will be set up in an office or classroom!  

See you next week!
Erika @ PC  

Spooky "Keep Out!" Sign

Spooky "Keep Out!" Sign

What we used...

• 1 SPC Natural Wood Panel Pallet 11.75"x 23.75"
• Ceramcoat Acrylic Paints
• Crimson
• Lime Green
• White
• Black
• Americana Walnut Gel Stain
• 1 Black Cardstock Smooth 12"x 12"
• 1 Black Poster Board
• Hot Glue Gun - High Temp
• Scissors
• Synthetic Paint Brushes
• Pencil

Prep your wood piece by wiping it down first, and paint your SPC Wood Panel with your Brown Gel Stain. While that dries, go ahead and prep your Black Poster Board by trimming down to fit right on the back side of your wood panel. For a little 3D fun, cut out two creepy hands from your black cardstock. I have pretty creepy looking hands so I used my own hand for reference and traced around it. Rework your outline to make it more creepy, if you don't have creepy hands to begin with, before you begin cutting.

Now that your panel is dry, place it onto of your poster board cutout and through the space between the panels draw out where your evil eyes and sinister smile will go. Set your panel aside and use your white for the smile, green Ceramcoat for the eyes. With your black Ceramcoat add the details in, pupils and outline the teeth. Check which way your sign is facing, it's rope should be pointing up. Then paint a lovely notice saying "KEEP OUT!" in red Ceramcoat just like so in the picture above. Don't forget to add some dripping blood to add that creepy factor. For the blood, I mixed a smidge black with the red to get it deeper. Slap a bloody hand print or two too.

With your Hot Glue Gun - High Temp, your going to glue your painted black poster board to the back side of your wood panel. Make sure your evil face is facing the right way, right side up. Check where your rope is. Once you're done gluing, turn it back over and glue your creepy hand cut out(s) onto the panels right between the spaces.

VOILA! Extra Creepy Ready for Halloween.
- Thank you for crafting with the Krazy Goo

Holiday Blockheads

Helllooo, Craftanistas and Craftonitos!

The holidays are right around the corner again! (Seriously, just around there.  Take a gander.)  Of course, with the holidays comes an enormous amount of wood at our stores.  Signs, crates, blocks, frames and trays, you name it!  The selection is HUGE and just looking at that unfinished wall of wood is enough to give you one of those creative headaches.  So many ideas, but where to start?  Well, today, I have a few simple projects that you can create using the same piece:  the wooden block!

 

When it comes to supplies, it really depends on which "blockhead" you want to make that determines that list.  But, saying that, the bare bones of these looks always include acrylic paint and a black acrylic marker.  I prefer Ceramcoat acrylic paint and the Montana acrylic paint marker.  Smooth application for both as well as a matte finish. 

For all three designs, I distressed the edges with some dark brown paint after I let the base colors dry.  You could also use an old dark brown stamp pad to rub the edges of your block for a lightly distressed look.  I then doodled their faces on and hot-glued al ltheir extra touches on.

If you decide to make the pumpkin, you will need a wooden unfinished handle for the stem and green raffia, which we sell in a variety pack of fall-colored raffia.  I also added a leaf that I pulled off a flower that I had on hand.  For the Frankenstein, you will need two wooden "hanger" pieces to paint silver and stick on the sides of his "neck" for bolts.  Last but not least, the snowman.  All he needs is a spiffy Christmas scarf.  For that I used a simple Christmas ribbon and hot-glued it around the base of the block, leaving a few inches to "skirt around" him.

That's pretty much it!  These blocks are very versatile, so it's easy to create a whole cast of holiday characters with them.  The sky's the limit!  Have fun!

 

Erika @ PC



TURTLE KITE

-                                                            Turtle Kite

-          

-         Materials:

-         Square foam pieces     Baby Blue, Brown, Lime green and glitter green

-         10 MM Google eyes

-         7/8” in Satin ribbon   Turquoise-Lt. blue and Lime green

-         Crop-A-dile punch

-         eyelets

-         Accu-cut machine  Die-cuts  92 and X47

-          

-         Start with brown foam sheet and with the ACCU-CUT machine, cut out 5 circles from cut X47(Medium Circle). You will also need a triangle piece for the tail. With the 5 circles, cut them into a more of oval shape for the legs.      As shown in picture

-          

-         Lime green and the Glitter Green foamie. Use Die cut # 92 (Soccer Ball). Cut one in each one.  The Green glitter one you will need to cut out where it has ferreted lines. Then glue the pieces onto the lt. green one. As shown in picture

-         Lay the lt. blue piece of foam flat in front of you. Make sure that the long side of it is laying a cross, not up and down.  As shown in the picture. Arrange the 5 brown pieces of foam in a circle shape. Shape them for the legs and head for your turtle, you should overlap them. When you have them the way you want, glue them to the foam.     As shown in picture

-         Now take the lt. green piece and place it over the legs and head. When you get it to the right place, glue it on.  Then glue on the googly eyes.  Your turtle all done.

-          

-       

Now you need the crop-a-dile, you need to roll the foam with your turtle on it, so you can mark where you want to put the eyelets. On the side of the crop-a-dile is where you insert the foam, and then push down. As shown in picture

-          

-         Then insert the eyelets into the whole. At the top of the crop-a-dile is a pointed end. Put the eyelet into that end. And push down, that will set the eyelet. As shown in the pictures.

-         Take you ribbon and cut 12” inch pieces. 5 white, 4 green, and 5 turquoises.

-         Then cut on at 16 inches to hang the kite with.  Put it into the eyelets hole and then tie a knot at the ends of both sides.

-          

-         Lay you kite’s body flat in front of you with the inside of it face up. Glue the ribbon to the end of the inside of the kite. Arrange the colors as you would like. You can use 2 different ways to glue them on. 1- Use a low temp glue gun, 2- glue dots.

-         When done roll the kite together. Glue the ends together.

-         Now you have a Beautiful turtle kite.

                                          @HILO BEN FRANKLIN

Beach House Wreath

Beach House Wreath

I'm feeling a bit in denial, I don't want the fall season to come. All in favor, hang a summer wreath just like this one out side your door! If you don't have one, it's simple to make.

What we used...

• Styrofoam Wreath
• 4" Natural Jute Ribbon (preferred w/o the reinforced edges)
• 4" Natural/Teal Chevron Jute Ribbon
• 6" White Deco Mesh
• Greening Pins
• Assorted Sea Shells
• Hot Glue Gun - High Temp

First, you're going to wrap your Styrofoam wreath with your Natural Jute Ribbon. Using only two Greening Pins, one for the beginning and one for the end of your ribbon to secure it. Grab your assortment of sea shells and hot glue gun. Be generous, with the glue and shells! The more shells you add, the fuller your wreath will turn out. To make it really full, all we did was cut 5-6" pieces of White Deco Mesh and Natural Jute Ribbon. We took each piece pinched them in the middle and pinned them all over our wreath. To hang our wreath, we needed more color and used the Chevron Jute Ribbon and made a long loop. And ust like you would attach a keychain, slip loop it around your wreath. Then tie a bow separately and attached it with a greening pin. Voila! Summer forever.

Thank you for crafting with the Krazy Goo

Fairy in a Jar

Happy Monday!

Today's project is a fairy in a jar! So cute for around the house or in your garden.

Supplies:

smooth glass jar
matte mod podge
stiff bristle brush
clear or white chunky glitter
chip board (thicker than card stock, but thinner than cardboard) 
X-acto blade
battery powered tea light/firefly lights
white tissue paper (same as gifting tissue)
E6000 glue
hot glue gun/glue
assorted silk flowers and foliage



First, we need to cut out our fairy. 
You can trace a printed image, trace a sticker, use a die cut machine with a fairy template, or free hand the image. I chose the latter, but if you look up "fairy silhouette" online a lot of really great templates will come up. The important thing to remember is that the fairy wings have holes in them, so that the light can shine through them.

I drew my fairy with pencil on my chip board. 
Chip board is like really dense paper. Like poster board. It maintains its shape pretty well, so I thought it would be better than regular card stock. 
With an X-acto blade, I carefully cut out the pieces. 

(last minute I actually decided to remove the arm sticking out, I thought it looked too distracting) so you can still edit your image somewhat even after you cut it out. Plus keep in mind the smaller the area, the harder it is to cut out.


Then just add a swab of E6000 glue to the top of your fairy. Either to her head or top of her wing will be good.
Then stick her to the inside of the jar. It looks better if her whole body is not touching the glass, so that it actually looks natural. Just one part of your cutout has to be glued to the glass. Since this glue takes a long time to cure, set the jar on its side with something on top of your fairy holding it in place until completely dry.

Then with your bristle brush, coat the entire outer surface of the jar with matte Mod Podge. Take the middle of your sheet of tissue and wrap it around the front, so that the ends meet in the back. The slower you wrap the tissue the better. Since it is so thin, once it gets soaked in Mod Podge it can very easily rip. Small wrinkles are okay.

Then when your whole jar is covered, set aside until dry.
After it's dry, you can add another coat of Mod Podge around the outside as a sealer to protect the tissue from dirt or scratches.

 


When you are applying your second sealer coat of Mod Podge, pour a bit of that chunky glitter on the top curve and bottom curve of your jar. This adds a "fairy dust" or even "frosted" feeling.

Then all you need is to glue some flowers and foliage around the top of your jar as an added accent! You can use twine to wrap, or even some charms. Whatever small accents you feel would fit your fairy garden motif would look lovely around the top!


And for the finishing touches all you need is firefly lights, or a flickering battery operated tea light! 
(Do not use a real candle or anything with a flame inside the jar, as the materials are quite flammable!)

Amaze your guests with your fairy catching skills! 
Have a great week!

Bethany @ Enchanted Lake