Hanging Ghost decoration...

 

I just wanted to quickly  share with you all how I made this hanging ghost decoration...

This may be the simplest DIY I've ever done!!

All you need is:

An Old white pillowcase (or similar)

A stick or a baton of wood

Some marbles

Some white thread

a black pen

 I used a piece of driftwood to suspend my ghosts from, but use what you have!! If you don't have any marbles, a piece of scrunched up foil would do fine..

I used white embroidery thread, but again.....use what you have!

Simply cut up your white pillowcase  (or similar) into round discs...place a marble in the centre, and use your thread to wrap the material around...leave the thread long so you can use it to attach your little ghost to your stick...

To ensure your little ghosts doesn't hang their heads, use a small piece of tape to attach the thread to their heads, like in the picture above...When your ghosts are hanging in their designated space, use a marker pen to draw on their eyes... 

 

There you have it...

 

Some cute little ghoooosts ....

Have a go...maybe the kids could do this one??

I am hoping to squeeze in one more post before Halloween, but that is it for this seasons spooky makes...however having well and truly embraced my dark side this year, I have a newfound edge to my forthcoming projects, so stay tuned!!

I hope I have inspired you to take your seasonal décor one step beyond shop bought plastic decorations.....it really does make a difference!!

(Although my good'ol Mr Bones is coming out of retirement tomorrow, plastic or not, he stays with us from Halloween till the new year...he's even got a special place on the Christmas tree...

I will introduce you properly in my next post!!)

xxx

June

Boo...DIY marquee sign

We are nearly there!!

The shops are emptying of pumpkins and sweets, and if you are planning a Halloween party, like we are, you best start digging out all your skeletons (in your closets, lofts and cellars...)

There is still time for some last minute DIY decorations, and making this Spooky marquee sign will only take a couple of hours...

I will show you how...

 You will need:

Cardboard letters (mine spells out a scary BOO...)

ruler

pencil

drill & drill bit

small battery operated fairy lights

sandpaper

scalpel

Paint (I used black spray paint and gold rub'n'buff)

double sided tape

Small wooden board (cut to fit your letters on)

 

 First thing to do is measure our on your cardboard letters where you want the lights to come through...

A small set of battery operated fairy lights usually come with 20 lights on a string...so bear that number in mind when working out how many holes to put in each letter...

When you are happy with the planned positioning of the lights, use a sharp drill bit, SLIGHTLY SMALLER that the circumference of the tip of your fairy lights, to drill out the holes...

Next thing to do is to turn your letters over, and using a scalpel, cut out the back of the letters, leaving a 5ml lip all around the sides, like in the pictures above...

 

 At this stage, I would suggest that you try pushing the fairy lights in from the back through the holes...You may find, like I did, that some of the holes need widening a tad...do this by wriggling the back end of your drill bit in the hole...

When you are satisfied that its all going to fit, use some sandpaper to sand back any fluffy bits of cardboard around the holes at the front...

...Now you are ready to decorate your letters:

 

You can of course decorate your marquee sign however you desire, but I thought I'd just show you how I made mine look old and metallic...it's so simple:

I spray-painted my cardboard letters black then used my "antique gold" rub'n'buff and goldfingered them lightly...that's it!!

See my post on "goldfingering" here!!

Now, lets get those lights fitted in!!

 

When positioning the lights bear in mind that it is probably best to have the battery box at the bottom of the letters...

 If you are satisfied that the lights will stay in place by just pushing them in, then proceed...however if you would like to secure the lights into the cardboard holes...wrap a tiny strip of double sided tape around each individual light before pushing it through the hole, like I did, or you can use a few drops of superglue to secure the lights (I figured this could get a bit messy, as this part can be a bit fiddly...It is no fun gluing your fingers together with superglue...believe me, I've been there!!).

Tuck the wire under the little lip around your letters as best as you can...ideally the letters should sit flat on a surface...cut a little channel in the cardboard where the wire needs to come out for the battery box.

With the lights now pushed in, cover the back of your letters with some double sided tape, turn over and use your scalpel to cut away any excess...

 Peel away the backing of the double sided tape and position your letters on a piece of wood...I painted mine black for the occasion!!

And there you have it: DIY spooky marquee sign...just in time for Halloween!!

My little skull was a cheap plastic one that I gave a quick make over with a can of black spray paint and some "goldfinger"....

...and I've changed out my guerrilla embroidery for some spooky ghosts and a blood curdling "eeeeek"...

If you like my little hanging ghosts, I will show you how in my next post...it will only take you 10 minutes....

Now, I best start digging out our party decorations and hit the shops for to stock up on sweets...I secured 3 big pumpkins from the depleted stock at Sainsbury's yesterday...so I am ready to start carving!!

Mr is on music duty, choosing a spooky soundtrack for the occasion, and when I've finished rummaging around for last years party decs, I will be spending the rest of the day thinking up wicked party games for the little ones...

Little miss Moo is getting soo excited.....and so am I!!

xxx

June

Creepy HALLOWEEN cushions....

 

 I am having some issues with my photo's for this post, please bare with me whilst I work on resolving this issue!!

Everybody knows a quick way to update your home décor is to add soft furnishings like cushions.

But cool cushions can cost a fortune, so today I want to show you how YOU can make these 3 creepy Halloween cushions for just a little more than £10...

So, when I was making my Paper Mache Halloween pumpkins the other week, I had a lot of time on my hands whilst waiting for the paper Mache layers to dry, So I filled my time with other spooky décor makes, like these creepy cushions, made to match my Pumpkins...

I got some cheap cushion covers from IKEA(£3 each), found some spooky images on the internet, then made up some easy stencils, then got to work with some fabric paint...

Here's how I did it:

First I made my stencils:

I found this skull and crossbones image from Freestockphotos.com, printed it out in the size I wanted...(notice my printer running out of ink...it doesn't matter as the printed bit is what you want to cut out and throw away, so this is a great project to do when you want to use up the last remnants of ink in your printer)

Then I got another bit of paper, and covered it with double sided tape...I then adhered the skull image on: This will not only make the paper in the stencil thicker, but also provide a level of waterproofing, so that your stencil will last longer...

Using a scalpel, carefully cut out the black parts of the image, leaving the white...

 NOTE: If your image has, like the eyes and nose in mine, parts that are NOT connected to the white of the paper, please remember NOTt to cut them out fully, before cutting a little strip of paper to connect these areas with the rest of the stencil.... like in the image above.

 

 Put your cushion cover flat on the table, place the stencil on top and apply the fabric paint with a sponge...The darts of paper holding the eyes and nose in place, will leave lines in your stencilled image....simply fill these in after removing the stencil.

TIP:Before stencilling your cushion covers, place a bit of baking paper inside to prevent the fabric paint to seep through to the back of the cushion.

For my next cushion I used this fabulous skull stencil

 image by Tui-rector from Deviant art...the same one that I used for my scary skull pumpkin.

I repeated the process described above to make it into a stencil...

Having laid the cushion cover flat, with a bit of baking paper inside to prevent bleeding, I used some masking tape to stick my stencil in the position I wanted...

The sponge applicator I am using makes it easier to control the application of the fabric paints...You can find these sort of sponge applicators in kids paintbrush kits...

I used Dylan fabric paints (ca £1.50 per pot) in gold and white for this cushion.

First I stencilled the white skulls on to the cushion cover, then I let this set until dry (10-20 minutes) before applying the gold skulls...

REMEMBER to have some paper towels to hand and blot any excess pint of your stencil every now and then...

When all your fabric paint is completely dry (1-2 hours) take out the baking paper inside the cushion cover, then iron on low heat to set the paint into the fabric...place a bit of muslin or a kitchen towel on top of your design before ironing...

For my last cushion , I chose this creepy crawly spider stencil image from tag body art....

....repeating the processes above.

This really was such an easy and cheap DIY, and I love the result!

Cool cushions can cost a fortune, but I've made these 3 for £13.50, and I still have lots of fabric paint left over for another project or two...

 I have a few more Halloween décor DIY's to show you over the next week, before I reveal my Spooky home décor in its entirety...

so stay tuned for more easy, maybe not subtle, but definitely not cheesy ,Halloween Décor ideas!!

xxx

June

Paper Mache HALLOWEEN Pumpkins

 So we've got to October already...this year is just flying by!! I guess time flies when you are having fun!

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought I'd jump on the pumpkin bandwagon and post a tutorial on how I've made my paper Mache pumpkins for our annual Halloween party!

 With money being tight I was trying to come up with a way to make the house a bit spooky on a budget...In the end I've opted for paper Mache Pumpkins , as not only are they cheap to make, but it's  also a great way to recycle old newspapers...

All you'll need to make the basic pumpkin shapes are:

Balloons

String and masking tape

Old newspapers

flour and water 

Brush 

MAKING THE PUMPKIN SHAPE:

 Blow up a balloon , the deflate and repeat a couple of times...

This makes the rubber in the balloon more stretchy, and will make the next step easier...

Blow it up again, but not fully, then tie it up as usual...

Get some string , or use strips of masking tape, and tie it around the balloon to make the Pumpkin ridges...

Next:

THE PAPER MACHE PASTE

 Simply mix flour and water to a "batter" consistency.

Tear your Newspaper into strips 1-2" wide.

Wet the paper strips with the paste, then brush it onto the balloon.

Overlap slightly until you've covered it all.

Leave this layer to dry completely, before applying the next...

MAKE A DRYING BOX

I was completely surprised at how long the layers of Paper Mache took to dry, as I'd never done Paper Mache before...

Impatient as I am, I decided to make a simple drying box:

I had a big box, (that our new boiler came in), and I strung a bit of masking tape across the top of the box to hang the pumpkins from (attach a bit of string to your pumpkins...), then I made a hole in the side, and stuck my hair drier through, blowing COLD air onto the pumpkins...

(DO NOT be tempted to speed up the process with HOT air, as this will make the balloons swell and will pop your Paper Mache...)

NOTE!!Even with my drying box, it took me almost 3 days to get 4 dry layers of paper Mache onto the balloons..so PATIENCE is definitely a virtue in this project!!

MAKE UP SOME PAPER CLAY

With my basic pumpkin shapes nice and stiff (and fully dried), I decided to emphasise the shape a bit more using some PAPER CLAY:

I used:

Newspapers (torn up)

Toilet roll tissue

water

PVA glue

Flour

I put the paper and tissue in a saucepan and covered with water...

Then I let this boil for a couple of hours until the paper turned to mush..

LET IT COOL DOWN

Then using a blender I mixed in some water and PVA glue ( a big dollop will do),

before draining off excess liquid in a kitchen strainer...squeezing the liquid out as much as possible..

Then I added flour little by little by kneading it in, until it formed a sculpt-able dough.

I added this dough to the areas of the pumpkins I wanted to emphasize, then covered in another layer of newspaper strips using the flour and water paste...

Leave to dry fully( this took about 1 1/2 days )

 ADDING A STEM TO YOUR PUMPKINS:

 I used some masking tape to wrap around the balloon nozzle, to build up a basic stem shape, then covered in two layers of newspaper.....

I then added a layer of white office paper strips, to cover the news paper print, for easier painting.

When I was satisfied that my Pumpkins where fully dry, it was tome to concentrate on making the surface a bit smoother...

PREPPING THE SURFACE

I know this is not how a seasoned Paper Machier would do this, but I didn't want to suffer the expense of a trip to HOBBYCRAFT, so I just used what I had in hand: Quick drying Poly filler (the kind you get in DIY stores for filling cracks in the wall)....

...and it worked just fine!!(If you want to know how it should be done, visit ultimate paper mache)

I used a sponge and wiped a thin layer of poly filler all over the surface of the pumpkins, left to dry, then sanded the surface until satisfactory smooth...

I then Painted my pumpkins with a layer of Acrylic gesso Primer to seal and prep for finishing...

NOTE: This did make my pumpkins quite heavy !!

SCULPTING THE STEM:

  

The stem stubs I created earlier needed a bit of sculpting to finish off the shapes of my pumpkins..

I had a bag of DAS air drying clay (costs about £3-4), and simply squeezed a bit around the stubs, before using my fingers and some water to sculpt into a pumpkin stem...I used this link :Pumpkin images for reference. Then I used a pencil to carve in the detail...

Nothing fancy, my finished pumpkins are not going to look "real"...

Then I left the clay to dry over night...

 

The next day, when the clay was dry (it turns white) I painted the Pumpkin stems black.

I used a liquid tempera paint, but normal poster paint would work jus fine...

I later finished the look of all the pumpkin stems by gold-fingering the details, using rub'n'buff  in antique gold.....

 

Now for the fun part!!

DECORATING THE PUMPKINS

Like I said earlier, I didn't want my pumpkins to try to look real, but I wanted them to be suitably creepy for Halloween, without being to clichéd.....

A LITTLE PINK AND GOLDEN "EYEBALL" PUMPKIN...

 

I almost covered the pumpkin in pink tissue paper, using PVA glue with a little water mixed in.

I didn't bother covering the bottom of the pumpkin at this stage...

When the glue had completely dried, I sprayed it with  a layer of clear lacquer, to harden the surface..

Then I painted the bottom half of the pumpkin with some PVA glue...let this dry until just slightly tacky (ca 15-20minutes), then applied some gold leaves that I already had...(You can get gold leaves at hobbycraft, £10,90 for 25 sheets)...I found this article on how to apply gold leaf very useful, but I didn't necessarily follow the rules...don't worry too much: It's really not too tricky...

 

I flattened the gold leaf using the tissue paper from the gold leaf book, then used a soft brush to remove any excess and break up the edges a bit...

Then I sealed the gold leaves with another layer of clear spray lacquer...

For the finishing touch I mixed some black paint with some PVA glue and dribbled it from the top of the pumpkin, letting it run down the sides, creating a creepy "black blood" effect..

Next up I did ....

.... A CREEPY CRAWLEY BUG PUMPKIN

I simply printed out a couple of sheets worth of "black bugs" from the graphics fairy ....this site has copious amounts of beautiful vintage free printable images, and is well worth a visit!!

I will show you some other projects I have done using images from there later this week!!

I simply printed and cut out the little bugs and glued them on the pumpkin with some PVA glue,

then sealed when dry with a coat of clear spray lacquer...

Next up I made

A SCARY SKULL PUMPKIN

again, I used the internet as a resource, and found this scary scull motif at deviant art...It was perfect as it was already made to be a stencil, and all I had to do was print and cut it out with a scalpel....

TIP: Make the paper thicker by gluing (I used double sided tape) another sheet to the back of your image before cutting, to make your stencil last longer...

 

I spray painted the pumpkin black, then used my stencil to apply some antique gold rub'n'buff...

I sealed with a coat of clear spray lacquer...

  

Lastly I made a

SPIDERWEB PUMPKIN

I actually wanted to use some spider web tights to achieve this, which would've been soo easy, but unfortunately I couldn't get hold of any....So, I ended up using this spider web tablecloth from a £shop instead...

 

I cut a hole in the middle of the fabric, just big enough to get the pumpkin stem through, then used the blunt end of  a scalpel to push the fabric under the stem...(Because I'd sculpted the stem on top of the paper Mache, It actually could be lifted up a bit to allow for this).

 As the tablecloth was not elastic, it was a little more fiddly to do than had I used tights: I had to cut darts out of the fabric , so it didn't bunch up too much....and glue it in place using double sided tape...

...The effect is quite striking!!

Although the self critic in me thinks I could've done better with the actual shape of the pumpkins (Ran out of patience ....waiting for paper to dry!!)I am pretty pleased with the finish of my pumpkins: They all compliment each other and are quite original and suitably scary for Halloween....without being too clichéd...

I have a few more easy Halloween inspired DIY's to show you in the next few weeks, and will reveal our entire spooky house transformation for our Party just before Halloween...

 I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial....any questions will be answered asap, just leave a comment below!

And if you do try this yourself, I would love to see how yours turn out!!

xxx

June

BUSY BUSY BUSY...

What's been happening??

 



I think I am suffering from creative overflow at the moment:I am waking up in the night with a new idea of some sort, and keep going off on tangents...never actually getting anything done...

Our house (Read cupboards...hidden away from Mr.) is filled to the brim with half done projects and various art supplies...It is all making me a bit dizzy!!

My kitchen is my workshop, with paintbrushes in coffee cups and glued together biscuit crumbs...

I am hoping it is all a symptom of creativity and not mental illness!!

 

 



 

Today I have my half-done paper Mache pumpkins drying in the sun outside....veeeeery slowly!!

Nobody told me that you need like a lorry-load of patience when doing paper Mache...I honestly thought they'd be done by now and I would be posting my tutorial tomorrow....not a chance!! That'll have to be a post for next week!!



I've also made this skull-flake art on canvas in preparation for Halloween...Using the same method as I did when I made my Papel picado cushion , I used the skull flake template, and the tutorial from the slightly skull obsessed and very talented craftyladyabby...I simply stretched the material over a canvas to make it into a picture..
.

 

I have also finally finished my GUERRILLA EMBROIDERY...not one but two!! Here's the one I posted a couple of months ago, finished and coloured in...

In the midst of my crazy projects, I am trying to finish the post about the guerrilla embroidery movement in Norway, but I have not had any success in contacting them with regards to the "copy rights" of the term, so I have been holding back the post....I will send them one more e-mail, and then I will go ahead anyway....what's the worst that can happen??



My"expensive chair"....accidental knock off with some more embroidery work in progress...

 

Some of the little projects that have side-tracked me a bit....

When me and little miss Moo got back from Norway, and I was in the midst of redesigning the blog, I needed a dose of making time one day, So I put my wonky old white painted and battered kitchen chair outside, stripped all the paint off and painted the legs and spindles in a minty blue...My phone(that I use as my camera....as it is actually better than my actual camera...go figure!!) was in for repairs, so I didn't take any pictures of the work in progress, but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the end result....The wood of the chair has that worn in look about it, and I love the way it contrasts with the fresh minty colour...Then I found THIS chair featured in the interior pages of the Sunday Times:

Quite similar hey??

This chair, the Arden,that I also absolutely love of course, is from Sitting firm, and costs a whopping £635.

I know mine isn't designed by Chris Eckersley, nor is it handmade in English Ash, but it has made me love my little wonky experiment of a kitchen chair all the more, just knowing that I've saved myself (as if I would ever go out and spend that kind of money on a chair...) over £600....

Well pleased with myself!!

I actually have some furniture redo commissions coming up in the next couple of weeks, so I will be doing another post about painting and finishing furniture as promised...When (if ever) I get organised...



 

Another thing that I am pleased with myself about , is of course, the opening of my Etsy shop: YESTERYEAR DECOR

I have been busy making an array of versions of my lace print plates.

There are different colour glazes, but also I collected a bunch of vintage lace doilies when we were in Norway...my favourite being the knitted texture of the one above.
Check out all my various plates, by clicking on the links below:

I am also selling off a few of my furniture up cycling projects from the blog, such as:

 

My decoupage tabletop chippy painted farmhouse table

 

 

and my black butterfly side table

 

There will be more items up in due time, but at the moment I am, as said, struggling to concentrate enough to finish anything off....Hopefully it will all fall in to place and there will be a more organized chaos....All I know at the moment is that I am just bursting with ideas....For the shop...AND for the blog...so please pop back again soon, to see what happens next!!

 

Oh! And if you have any advice for me on how to organise my creative chaos....that'll be much appreciated!!

 

xxx

June