Halloween Crafts

Last week I took a much needed break after nearly a month of triple the workload, but now it's October and I'm into the home stretch. BJ and I are having a small, family only, Hallowedding party on the 31st. It's not something we can or want to have a huge budget for, so there is a lot of DIY-ing and thrifting happening, including having my sister officiate! I thought I'd share some of the things I've been working on.

 I made a shrunken head using this pattern. I was going to make him last year, but was intimidated by the fact that the person who wrote the pattern said that is was extremely complicated. If you're comfortable with amigurumi then I don't think you'll have trouble with this pattern. It took FOREVER though! The hair was the worst part. I used the method where you tie a knot of thread around each strand of yarn wrapped around something the length that you want the hair (macaroni sized box for me.) Then sewing it onto the head.... But I think it was all worth it! He is seen here modeling a pair of bakelite clip-on earrings I found recently at the thrift store for 1.49! 

I saw this project on Instagram and knew I had to make it! I think I'm going to add a small paper bunting that says welcome or something to use for the party. This was really simple and almost everything came from Michaels. I got the foam board the fabric is glued to at the Dollar Tree to save on costs and the fabric is from my extensive stash, but can still be found at Joann Fabrics. As an added bonus, I had enough foam board left over for another project I've been thinking about. That one is currently in the drying stage and I'll share once it is all finished!

I also finally finished my Halloween countdown! I really like how it turned out. I started this project months ago, but couldn't find the tombstones. They were at Michaels the whole time, I must have just not seen them every time I looked! I saw a Halloween countdown decoration at Michaels and thought it would be fun to make one myself. I didn't start the project thinking of doing a tutorial so apologies for the crappy pictures and lack of in progress shots. If you'd like to make your own, here's what you'll need:

• a pack of chalkboard tombstones from the kid's Halloween craft section at Michaels
• a wooden circle for moon
• 2 small wooden fence shapes
• a broken wood shaped hanging sign (this and 2 above from wood craft section)
• scrapbook letters (I got mine from Target)
• paint (chalkboard, brown, black, white, yellow glow in the dark, plain glow in the dark
• craft moss
• E600 and hot glue

I started by doing a brown wash on the sign. To achieve this, I mixed brown paint with water until I got the look that I wanted. 

While that is drying, I gave a gray wash to the fences so they would look less bright. Mix white with black a drop at a time until you get the shade you want and then mix with water.

I painted the tombstones straight black and painted the edges of both the tombstones and fences with glow in the dark paint to get an edge light effect.

For the moon I mixed the yellow glow in the dark paint with a light gray and gave it a little dimension to look like the moon. Then I put a coat of plain glow in the dark paint on top .

I free hand painted on the bat using chalkboard paint.

Once everything is dry, glue it all on. I used E600 on the tombstones and moon. Then I hot glued moss to the bottom edge and E600 on the fence on top of everything. Place your scrapbook letters where you want them. Mine are stickers, but not very strong so I glued them on as well. And you're done!

There are a bunch of other Halloween projects that I'm going to try to get done, including a black and orange petticoat. Crossing my fingers it turns out! I started a really fun project last week that I am going to try to hold myself to finishing tomorrow so check back soon for more on that and some Halloween goodies we've picked up!

P.S. I guess this is the 100th blog I've posted. Is anyone reading?