Recycled Cardboard Halloween Bat Wreath with Mark Montano - DIY WCK Video

In this episode of the When Creativity Knocks All-Star Designers Holiday Series, Mark Montano shares his fun way of creating a faux distressed metal wreath for Halloween - out of cardboard and DecoArt® Americana Decor™ Chalky Finish paints!  

Trick or Treat Goody Card - DIY Video featuring Judi Watanabe

This week's WCK All-Star Designers Holiday Series episode features Judi Watanabe from Judikins!  Judi shares this adorable trick or treat Halloween card with a pocket for a treat!  

Faux Ceramic Halloween Skull Planter - DIY Video Featuring Mark Montano

In this Halloween episode the WCK All-Star Designers Holiday Series Mark Montano shares his technique for turning a plastic Dollar Store skull into a faux-ceramic skull planter using DecoArt products.   

Haunted Mausoleum Birdhouse

This week for my Cindi's Simple Solutions project on When Creativity Knocks - I'm sharing this creepy fun project.....

Just in time for Halloween, add a little spooky glow to your mantle this season with this Haunted Mausoleum Birdhouse!  

Materials:

Plaid® - Wooden birdhouse 

            - FolkArt® Home Decor Chalk Paint - Maui Sand, Rich Black

            - FolkArt® Home Decor Antique Wax

Makin’s Clay® - Black

                - Cutting Mat 

                - Ultimate Clay Machine™

                - Professional® Clay tools 

                - Texture Sheet Set D - Woodgrain Sheet 

                        - Easter Clay Cutter - Cross Cutter

Beacon Adhesives® Tacky Glue 

Spellbinders® Grand Calibur™ Machine - Graveyard Scene & Shapes Die 

X-Acto craft knife 

Skull mold (special thanks to my Fairy Craftmother for mine!) 

Skull bead 

Paintbrush 

Paper towels 

Spanish Moss

Charcoal grey paper/card stock 

Battery operated votive 

Spiderwebbing 

Plastic wrap 

Instructions: 

1. Paint entire birdhouse with Plaid® FolkArt® Home Decor Maui Sand Chalk Paint.  Let dry. 

2. Roll black Makin’s Clay® with Ultimate Clay Machine™ to setting #7 (or hand roll very thin - about 1/16”).   Use Woodgrain texture sheet to gently impress texture onto rolled clay.  Using cutting mat as a guide, use cutter to cut 2 x 2cm squares.  Apply Beacon® Tacky Glue to surface of roof, then begin applying squares, overlapping some, to create look of shingles.  Let dry. 

3. Dry brush shingles with Maui Sand chalk paint.  

4. Use black clay in skull push mold to create skull. 

5. Flatten piece of black clay (I used my fingers, as I wanted an uneven appearance) to about 1/4”.  Place plastic wrap over clay, and cut cross using clay cutter. (Tip - Plastic wrap makes it easy to remove the clay from the clay cutter!) 

6.  Dry brush skull and cross with Maui Sand chalk paint.

7.  Use Tacky Glue to mount skull to front top of birdhouse, over opening, and cross to roof peak.

8. Flatten piece of black clay (I used my fingers, as I wanted an uneven appearance) to about 1/4”.  Use clay tool to write/etch desired word into clay.  Trim around word.  Dry brush with Maui Sand chalk paint.  Use Tacky Glue to mount to birdhouse beneath skull. 

9. Mix small amount of Rich Black and small amount of Maui Sand chalk paint to create darker grey.  Paint door onto front of birdhouse over hole on bottom.  Outline door in black, and paint center line to divide door.    

10. Use paper towel to apply small amount of Antique Wax to all surfaces except roof.  Wipe to remove excess.   

11.  Use Spellbinders® Grand Calibur™ and Graveyard Scene & Shapes die to cut 4 graveyards from charcoal paper.

12.  Apply Tacky Glue to top of bottom piece of birdhouse, mount Spanish moss.  

13.  Apply Tacky Glue to outside edge of bottom piece of birdhouse, mount graveyard scenes over edge around base, leaving a space for the “front step” of the mausoleum. 

14.  Add skull bead accent to front step. 

15.  Add spiderwebs as desired. 

16.  Optional:  To make your Haunted Mausoleum glow - use a sturdy craft knife to cut an opening in the bottom of the birdhouse.  The birdhouses are made from lightweight wood so this is possible if do with caution. (or else your mausoleum will come complete with blood stains!) 

Spoooooky Pumpkin Full of Fun and More! DCC Blog Hop time!

I LOVE Halloween!  I love Halloween decorations, costumes, the creepy and silly fun of it all.  No gifts required, no stress, no big meals to prepare and clean up.  Just family fun, not taking life too seriously.    I have created a lot of Halloween projects over the years, most of which you can find here on my blog.  My last 3 blog posts highlight some of them including fabric pumpkins, a witch's apothecary, and a bottle of "boo-s".   This month the Designer Craft Connection Blog Hop theme is Halloween Decorations. I've been out of town taping the latest series of When Creativity Knocks and didn't get my newest project finished in time but I knew exactly what I wanted to share with you all today!  This AMAZING pumpkin panorama is full of fun pieces created with Makin's Clay®!  It was designed by artist Patricia Krauchune.  Patricia is a fabulous polymer clay artist who specializes in Steampunk designs, at least I used to think so, but now that I've seen this, I think she specializes in SPOOKY FUN projects!  :0)     You can find a link to Patricia's original post with this project here on her blog. I encourage you to follow her blog as she is always sharing new projects to inspire you!

Be sure to follow the Designer Craft Connection link in the column to the right to see what other spooky fun decorations our participating designers are sharing with you today!  For an even quicker way to access our participating designers - check out the Designer Craft Connection blog here! 

 Happy Halloween!!!!!

The awesome coffin full of bones below is actually 3-D and has depth - which you can see better in this "in progress" photo - Pat hand made the pieces using a number of techniques including liquifying the clay! 

Vampire Blood/Faux Blood Necklace

My favorite season is here and I can't help myself - I just have to re-share some of my favorite spooky fun projects!  In this episode of my series Behind These Eyes™ on When Creativity Knocks, I share my recipe for creating faux blood using ICE Resin & Rit Dye! 

And to further add to the creep factor - here's my recipe for the GHOULISH version of faux blood!  

The Truly GHOULISH Option of Faux Blood

In the Vampire Blood Necklace episode of Behind These Eyes with Cindi Bisson, I share my recipe for faux blood that will last for years. As part of the instructions, I suggest you use a tiny bit of Rit Liquid Dye at a time to color the resin - because if too much dye is used, you get a different result. We didn’t share that result in the episode - but I wanted to show our viewers just what kind of ghoulish results you get with extra dye! It’s a creepy effect too which would work great for some applications - just not for the pendant I was sharing with you. So without further ado…add a teaspoon or more of Rit Liquid Dye (the amount depends on just how crusty you want the finished result to be) to your small amount of mixed ICE Resin and you get what I think looks like clotty, crusty, totally disgusting blood puddles! Which my two boys think are totally cool…Happy Halloween!  

Follow the original instructions and you get smooth, dense puddles of faux blood.

Alter the recipe as above and you get GHOULISH blood!

Sullivans USA Gothic Goes Girly Macrame Bracelet

What does a Halloween obsessed designer think of first when she receives with a package of two lovely shades of pink Hebe Cord from Sullivans USA?  Why, SKULLS of course!  The result is this Gothic Goes Girly Skull bracelet.   Thinking back over my crafty past, I don't ever remember attempting to macrame - but after searching the web for easy to follow instructions I found great site that was able to walk me through creating this piece.  I went back to school at www.MacrameSchool.com!    Here's the link to the video tutorial that will walk you through the easy to follow instructions for what they call a "cool wave" or "snake" style bracelet. This project is part of a special Designer Craft Connection blog hop - Be sure to click the Designer Craft Connection button in the right column to see what the other participating Designer Craft Connection designers have done with their Sullivans USA Hebe Cord!

http://www.macrameschool.com/resources/bracelets/222-easy-wave-snake

Materials: 

Sullivans USA Hebe Cord - Two shades of pink
The Beadery pink skull beads - 10
Westcott Craft Titanium Bonded Non-Stick Scissors & Ruler
Needle
Duck Brand Tape (optional - but sure made it easier!)

I'm including a few photos to give you a close up of the steps in the video.  It took me a couple of tries, but once I got rolling, it was quite simple to do!

Beaded Spider - DCC October Blog Hop

It's time for the Halloween edition of the Designer Craft Connection blog hop!  Be sure to follow the link to the right to see what the other participating designers are sharing to add some BOO to your world! 

This beaded spider was a snap to create - I followed the directions in the most recent episode of When Creativity Knocks - We visited Crafted at the Port of LA and Mary Austin from Twisted Sisters showed us how easy it was to create these little bejeweled crawlers.  I couldn't resist whipping one up for myself!    Add a pin back, or make  a necklace for him to hang from as a pendant - or perch him on a pumpkin like I did for a little creepy fun.   

Materials: 

22/24 Gauge wire

Jewelry pliers

Black seed beads, black bugle beads, round glass bead for head

Connie Crystal blue bicone beads, large blue glass bead for body

Bead caps 

Follow the instructions in the episode below to create your own spider you don't want to squish!