Category Archives: Crafts

I Put a Spell on You

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OK, This is a little late.  First Halloween was postponed till the Saturday after Halloween due to weather.  Then I just didn’t get around to writing about it as I put away all the Halloween decorations and winterized the yard.

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Here’s my Winifred Sanderson Costume.  Let’s beak it down:

  1. The Wig – highly recommend
  2. Buck teeth
  3. Purple Dress
  4. Green stripped stockings
  5. Awesome witch shoes (and comfortable too)
  6. Green velvet robe
  7. Snake Robe Clasp
  8. Witch symbol Stamps
  9. Snake Stamp
  10. Green 25 Yard skirt
  11. Crochet Corset
  12. The necklace

OK, that’s a lot to wear.  I started with the purple dress and wore the Green 25 yard skirt over top of it.  I pinned up both skirts because I wanted to show off my stockings and shoes and I also didn’t want to trip.

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Next I added the corset that I made.  The pattern was from Etsy.  Pretty easy to follow, I didn’t have any issues with this pattern.

The robe I tried to embellish using stamps and gold then yellow ink, but it came out very faded.  You can see them if you look at it close, but they are not noticeable otherwise.

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I love these witch shoes.  Love, love, love them!

The snake clasp came all the way from Australia.

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Additional accessories induced the buck teeth, long annoying press on nails, and a black mesh sleeve.

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I made the necklace out of gold wire and beads.

Finally, putting it all together now.

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If I were to do it again, I’d try to modify the robe more, make it more fitting and perhaps fix the stamps.  I also tripped on that thing all night, so maybe it should be hemmed a little.

Hocus Pocus Halloween

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This year’s Halloween theme is Hocus Pocus.  Since they closed our office and we are all working from home, I decided to decorate my house instead.  I already shared the Billy Butcherson that I made and Booook.

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I divided the front yard into three areas, the Devil’s house, the graveyard, and Sanderson Cottage.

Starting with the devil’s house I took my skeleton and dressed him up like a devil.  Then I added the pitchforks, little white picket fence and flames.  I gave him a candy bucket with Clark Cups (they don’t make Clark Bars anymore).

Next comes the graveyard.  I bought a bunch of headstones and used cobwebs all around.  I have my garden skeleton that comes out of the ground.  I have my Billy Butcherson and his tombstone that I bought on Spirit Halloween online.  There are some dollar store graveyard fences.  I also made a skull pyramid with Styrofoam skulls.

 

The front porch was decorated like the Sanderson cottage.  Some of the stuff I just had as witchy decorations, other things I bought specific for Hocus Pocus (the doormat, the museum sign, etc.).  I painted some signs with slats of wood from our wood pile.  I made a skeleton in a cage using an idea I got from this pin.  More Hocus Pocus pins and ideas are available on my Hocus Pocus board.

I found the giant cauldron at Party City.  I filled it with tulle and some LED green mini lights.   This makes the cauldron glow green in the dark, without the risk of fire.  I have a fog machine I’ll use on Halloween night, but I looked at various ways to make the cauldron smoke and thought, hmm, I don’t want my house to burn down.

Next post will be my costume as Winifred Sanderson.  That will probably come next weekend, after Halloween.

Billy Butcherson

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My next prop for Halloween is Billy Butcherson.

After Halloween last year I picked up some styrofoam body parts on clearance, a skull and a torso.

I started off the project by covering the styrofoam in a sealer. I picked one up at one of the craft stores, but don’t remember which one. They are usually in the same location as the styrofoam.

After sealing the styrofoam, I started to use my model clay to make a nose and lips for the skull. I’m not an artist, but I’m pretty happy with that nose.

Now comes lots of painting. The torso wasn’t so bad, the face had many, many layers of paint. Plus adding eye balls and eyelids (clay).

I finally smoothed our the face with some watered down paint and Hodge Podge. Oh and seeing the lips closed too! I purposefully had his lips protrude out some so I could see through them.

The final step after all the painting was to spray paint the torso and head with polyurethane to help water proof his paint.

I inserted some wooden skewers in the torso and attached the head. The wig is actually an Edward Scissorhands wig. I used a black drape for his coat. A spooky cloth for his ascot thing. And some zombie hand stakes for his hands. I also inserted a sturdy garden stake into the ground and pushed his torso on over top it to stake him into the ground.

I think I’m pretty proud of him.

Booook

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Halloween is right around the corner!  So it’s time to start with props.  I started with a prop of Book from Hocus Pocus.  I used the following blog post from 102 Wicked Things to Do as a launching point to create my book.  I found it on Pinterest.

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Crochet Stitch Savers

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I keep seeing these crochet stitch markers everywhere with alphabet blocks, so you know what hook you used on the project.  What an ingenuous idea!  I don’t always put projects down for long, but if you are the type that has multiple WIPS, these could be a life saver for you.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest vs. Beetlejuice

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This year’s Halloween theme was One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.  I already posted about my PA System prop and my Nurse Ratched Wig.  So for our office Halloween party, I prepared my One Flew Over the Cuckoos Next scene.

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Halloween Ghosts

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I was at Walmart this morning, and I saw these cute little ghosts.  I said to my husband, “Wouldn’t they be cute hanging from our tree?”  And he said, “You could make that.”  The original ghost was $3.98 each.  I went back to the craft section and picked up some plain white cotton fabric, some Styrofoam balls, and some pipe cleaners.  Total cost = $7.00 and enough materials to make 6 ghosts, but I could have bought one less pack of cloth ($6.00 total).

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It’s Medication Time

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My Halloween theme this year is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  So I started to make my props already.  One of the props I started with is the PA system.  I made this prop from this photo.  It’s not a complete view of the  PA system, so I had to make some stuff up.

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Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival

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I have not been to the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival yet, but I am definitely going to go next year.  Next year’s event will take place April 6, 7, and 8, 2018 at the David L Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

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Handmade Arcade

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For me, the Handmade Arcade is like Christmas.  I get giddy with excitement and this was only my second one!  I had already purchased my Early Birdie tickets and my husband came with me again to keep my company (and drive me). There are 170+ vendors!  We arrived way too early, 9:30 and hung out until Early Birdie shopping started.

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