Creepy Portrait Wall

This year I decided to go all out on the interior of my house for Halloween. I saw an idea on Pinterest for a creepy type of photo wall and wanted to try it out. It was really easy to recreate and you can put a lot of your own touches on it.

All you need are picture frames, even ones you already own, and the time and energy to search out Pinterest or the internet for photos that fit your theme. In my case, half the frames I owned and the other half I got at thrift stores. I probably spent $5.00 total for frames. I used push pins to hang all the frames as they were lightweight. 

As you can see above, and throughout the other pictures, I'm really into witches this year. I liked this picture above and the fact that it printed with a black boarder. I decided to use a dark red scrapbook paper for the background and put it in a larger black frame. It helped give the overall look of the wall a "darker" feel.

Above are some of the frames I used and a closeup of some of the pictures. Check out those twins! They get me every single time I see them! Just loving sisters right? Or something out of The Shining!?

The above picture is my absolute favorite! As many of you may recall, my love of Halloween comes mostly from my Gran Mac. Unfortunately she passed away this spring and so the witches are a tribute to her. She absolutely loved the Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Witch of the West was her favorite character. The photo itself just seemed like something she would really love.

The cool thing about this frame is that I bought it as-is with no glass so it was really lightweight. I just loved all the different layers and colors of the frame. It was perfect for putting a green background to compliment the black and white photo.

Above is the finished project. I will note that the painting of the girl in white to the left was a $10 picker find that seemed so fitting I just had to have it! You will also see that I put a few "scenic" pictures in there for effect, including the outside of the WDW Haunted Mansion on opening day. And if you look really close you might see a few Grim Grinning Ghosts! It's a little hard to take a quality picture of the overall look, but trust me when I say it's amazing in person.

Next up I will get more into the detailed touches of what makes this a WDW Haunted Mansion theme. All I'll say is be prepared for a whole lot of Leota! Stay tuned to see what's in store....

Valentine's Day Cards

I warn you in advance that this is going to be an entry where I gush about how proud I am of Crafty Kid. Everything you see in this entry she made herself, from start to finish, with no help from any adults. 

I was out all day yesterday and came back to find these beautiful cards and a wonderfully laid out crafting work area. Talk about being impressed! She even had my 13-year-old stepson helping her because she showed him how to use the Cuttlebug embosser and he loved it. If that isn't enough, today I showed her how to use Photo Grid and she made the collage image you see above for the blog :)

As you can see she had her crafting area laid out nicely. The biggest problems any crafter faces is the issue of time and space. Nobody wants to waste a lot of time setting things out or cleaning them up. Or waste even more time digging through things to find what they need. And most people have to use their kitchen table (like we do) and so you have a limited work space. I taught her to create work stations for the cards so that she knows where everything is and can easily go from one step to the next. 

She set up the following stations: Paper, Cutting, Embossing, Gluing, Embellishments, and Stamping. Everything was laid out on the kitchen table lining the perimeter, like a horseshoe, and she worked off of the clear space in the center.

Obviously taking time to set up was not her favorite thing in the beginning. She just wanted to get right down to crafting, and this always left a big mess. Scissors lost under paper, embellishments on the floor, no table space when you needed to emboss. Of course that lead to frustration, and let's face it, at 11 you kind of just give up on it at that point. I was then stuck cleaning up everything to make sure it got back in it's place, which could take up to 30 minutes. (Again, goes back to knowing where things are so you don't waste time digging through everything.)

So this breakthrough she had is a big win for everyone! She's productive and happy making the cards, and it took me all of 5 minutes to get everything back where it belonged the next day.

As far as card design, it was her idea to buy the doilies a few months back. Look at how creative she was with using them! I was also super impressed that she mixed and matched so many techniques. (Layering paper & doilies, stamping, embellishments, embossing, shape punching)

Making these cards takes time and patience. I'm proud of her for following through with her creativity and learning at the age of 11 how important it is to be organized.

Holiday Magnet Name Cards

This was a craft I made to enhance favors for our Holiday Party at work. The only thing I had to purchase was the magnets for the back. I figured if I was going to spend 4 hours making 30 place card name tags I could at least make them a reusable item :)

You will need:

• Scrapbooking Paper
• Decorative Scissors
• Crafting Glue or Double Sided Tape
• Regular Scissors or Paper Slicer
• Snowflake Punch Out
• Snowflake Brads (if you want)

All of the name cards I made had slight differences. I am just going to show you an example of two different ones. For all of them I used my paper slicer to cut the base paper out, and used the backs of scrap paper for the center piece, which I wrote the names on. The one above I punched out 4 snowflakes and used the scraps as well. I glued all the pieces together using crafting glue that dries clear. 

For this one I used 3 pieces of paper that I layered on top of each other. Again I used the crafting glue. I also used the decorative scissors to create a fun edge. For an added touch I put 2 snowflake brads on the corners.

The final touch was to add an adhesive magnet to the back. I bought a 25ft roll and have plenty left over for other projects. Although this is a simple craft I do have a few tips:

• I found it easiest to stick with the 3 layered look. I just switched up which papers I was putting together. It was fun to play around with different patterns.
• I liked the common theme of them all having paper snowflakes. I only used the brads on my example.
• The decorative scissors really gave them a nice finish. You can even cut it to make decorative edges. (Which you can see in the right corner of the picture above)
• BIGGEST TIP:  I found it was much easier to use double sided scrapbooking adhesive. I use the permanent kind and it sticks together really well. Plus it saves you from waiting for the glue to dry.

Season's Greetings and Christmas Cards

Crafty Kid got an offer to have her cards in a local store. She's SUPER excited. I'll show you the cards we worked on the other day below and talk more in depth at the end about our new adventure.

For this project we used the following:

• Cards
• Scrapbooking Paper (Holiday Themed)
• Decorative Scissors
• Crafting Glue or Hot Glue (we used a glue gun)
• Snowflake Punch Out
• Scissors or Paper Slicer

For the two cards above it was really simple. We used the paper slicer to cut the scrapbook paper. Then Crafty Kid used the decorative scissors for a more interesting edge. We had some scrapbook paper that had holiday phrases on it so we cut those out as well. Then we hot glued the cut outs onto the card. (Use the glue of your choice to adhere it.)

We used silver star brads for the card above. Taking the tip of a sharp scissor we made a small puncture in the card. We put the star through and bent the flaps through on the other side. Then we glued the cut out holiday phrase scrapbook paper onto the card. 

This one above I had so much fun with. We had scraps of paper left over from other cards and cut them into different stacking block shapes to make a tree. For a finishing touch we put a punched out snowflake as the star. The Merry Christmas card on a polka dot green background seemed like a nice modern twist for a holiday card.

*****************************************************************

Ok. So back to the entrepreneur adventure.... There have been a lot of talks in our house as to what to make, how much to sell it for, and how much work goes into it. I'm proud of her, and I think this opportunity will help her understand things from a business perspective. I want her to be aware of the time, energy, and money being put into the creation of the cards, but at the end of the day I just want it to be fun. I think it will make her appreciate what it takes to be a hard worker.

She's already mentioned to me that sometimes she just doesn't "feel like" crafting. She also said that sometimes she doesn't feel like she does enough. (For example I hot glue all the pieces because our new glue gun heats up to 380F. Very effective. Not so good for kids.) I remind her that she is the creativity behind the crafts, and to be excited she has naturally intuitive vision when it comes to things of an artistic nature. (She draws and paints in addition to what we work on.) I've explained to her that the construction of the craft can be improved through repetition, and that her creativity will only expand as she uses it. Bottom line is to have fun and spend time together. I think she gets it. She's a smart kid after all.

We'll be sure to keep you updated!

Halloween Card & Treat Bags

Crafty Kid and I made two different Halloween projects a few weekends ago. The first was a card. 

We took a blank white card and stamped it with some dancing skeletons. The bottom of one stamp had a spider and the top of one had a cat, so we inked only that part to get the desired look. Then we took scrapbooking paper and cut out parts so you could see the stamps poking out. After we glued down the paper we placed the spooky stamp on top. (See below)

The second craft was making treat bags. You can pick up plain bags at any local craft store and there are many great ways to decorate them. Below are just a few examples of what we did.

The bag above we decided to make the skeletons "dance" up steps.

This second bag we put a ghost on one side and a cat stamp on the other.

To get the desired look we put black ink on a Q-tip and smeared it around.

You can start off with light strokes and press harder to make it darker.

The third bag we used the Spooky stamp.

We cut out a border with the scrapbook paper and glued it on.

Below are the finished products.

As you can see, it only takes a few crafting tools to make lots of different designs.

If you try this project at home let us know how it turns out!

Card Crafting

Today I spent the afternoon with Crafty Kid making homemade cards. We used a variety of supplies, some of which are in the picture posted below. The thing I like about this project is that anyone truly into crafting will have most, if not all, of the supplies necessary to do this project in their craft box. It's all the things you acquire and reuse time and time again, especially if you are into scrapbooking.

To follow along with our project I suggest you have the following tools:

• Cards that are blank on the inside
• Color or pattern on the outside is up to your personal preference
• A sharp pair of scissors
• Decorative Scissors are great for fun edging
• A paper slicer can help make clean lines
• Stamps and ink pads
• Decorative hole punches
• Double sided scrapbook tape
• Hot glue gun
• Card stock or scrapbooking paper

I am going to take you through building one of the cards step-by-step and then show you pictures of some of the completed projects. I think once you have all your supplies out and get started you'll see how easy it is to make a variety of cards for all kinds of occasions.

STEP 1 & 2

Pick your card. Then pick an accent color with the card stock that you think will be complimentary.  I chose a mint green card, so I thought a powder grey would pair nicely. If you have a paper slicer use it to cut a strip of paper about an inch and a half wide and for now keep it the length of the scrapbook paper. (With a steady hand you can use a pair of regular scissors. Make sure they are sharp to avoid frayed edges.)

STEP 3

Select a whole punch that you would like to have cut out in the strip of paper. I chose a heart. Use the cut out as many times on the strip as you would like. I decided to space out the hearts as evenly as possible down the row. I also wanted the heart to be centered so after I finished my cut outs I trimmed the top of the strip to make it the same amount of space on the top and the bottom.

STEP 4 & 5

Cut the strip to match the length of the card and use double sided tape to adhere the strip. In this case I decided to put it at the top of the card so I could do a different embellishment on the bottom. This is how you get a layered look for your card and as you can see the cut out hearts reveal the color of the card beneath it.

STEP 6 & 7

Use the cut out pieces of hearts on the bottom of the card. I used a hot glue gun for securing these. Quick and easy. I suggest arranging the hearts on the card to get the look you want and then pick them up one by one and glue them down. This also helps you figure out where the best place is for your stamp, if you are using one. I couldn't resist using this cute stamp since it fit with this design so perfectly.

Step 8
Finished card. Blank inside for you to use for any occasion.

Parting Thoughts

If you try this at home I hope you find it as fun and easy to do as we did! To make the 5 cards below it took 2 hours. (Including set-up and clean-up)

I am so proud to say Crafty Kid loved this project and was very good at it. She made 3 out of the 5 cards featured below with little input from me other than to ask if I liked certain stamps and/or color combinations.

TIP: There are so many ways to decorate these cards. Check your local craft store often for cheap or on sale embellishments. You never know when they will come in handy for your next project :)