For my birthday, my wonderful Spousal Unit bought me one of these:

I managed to wait a few days, but soon, I couldn’t help but play. So here is my first piece of handmade paper!

So how to make that spooky…

How about a little dry-brushing with off-white paint, then cut out as many large (4″) hearts as I can manage:

Wait, what? Hearts?! I’m not supposed to be making hearts for months! But there is a method to my madness.  Cut those cute little hearts in half:

Then give them some shape. I usually just go wild with the scissors, but here I’ve drawn in the shape to show you what I’m doing:

In case you’re still wondering, it’s a little ghostie! Next, the ghosties get cute faces:

Then they get two little holes in their heads. They find this quite upsetting:

I had a dozen ghosties, so I cut off about 60″ of 3/8″-wide orange ribbon, and fray-checked the ends. While you can do without, this is much easier with a ribbon needle. String the first ghost starting from the back, then gently move it down the ribbon until it’s about 10″ from the end. Use all this moving to manipulate the ribbon so it stays shiny-side front.

String the other ghosts, moving them gently, and keeping the ribbon shiny-side front, until they’re about 2″ from the ghost in front of them. All this moving is why you need a nice, heavy paper. Now string ’em up!

Linkies:

• Dave Lowe does a haunted house out of game board bits.
• I’m going to be using this soon: My Ghoul Friday makes creepy jar lanterns.
• Webspinstress collects a bunch of adorable bat treats.
• I’ve been looking all over for this! If you’re in the Portland area and in the mood for something kinda sweet and kitschy, head for Wenzel Farms Fantasy Trail. They do Christmas, too! I went a few years ago, and am in the mood to go again this year. I think that and Davis Graveyard will be my haunts for 2011.

Again via Art of Darkness, whose links I steal with utmost affection, comes Tim Burton’s first short film, based upon, and narrated by, his lifelong hero.

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I’ve seen a few paper lanterns about, and they all have one thing in common: they are too complicated for me! When it comes to paper cutting, I must, of necessity, keep it very simple. I had a lot of fun putting together this easy paper lantern. If you like my design, I’ve created a couple templates so you can make your own. You will need:

Two sheets of black card stock.
A sheet of vellum, heavier weight is more cooperative.
Craft blades. I used an X-acto swivel knife and a straight knife.
Ink in orange and red. I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick.
A tape runner like Tombow Mono adhesive. Don’t use a wet glue, like Elmers.
Bone folder or other scoring tool.

1. Download the templates, lantern1.pdf and lantern2.pdf. I only managed to get score lines on lantern1, but it’s pretty easy to figure out. The templates are full size, the lantern being about 7″ tall when complete.
2. Transfer the designs to black card stock and carefully cut out. I used a swivel knife and a straight X-acto. The side of the paper where you’ve traced and cut will be the wrong side.
3. Score along the seam between the design panels on the wrong side of the paper, and along the attachment tabs (those big white lines on the first template).
4. Use a cotton ball to apply streaks of ink (don’t use paint–too wet!) to your sheet of vellum.
5. Cut the vellum into four pieces by cutting once crosswise and once lengthwise.
6. Apply tape runner to the inner corners of the wrong side of the cat panel. Put tape runner on some of the edges of the design, like the tail, and a few of the straight sides of the frame.  Don’t run the tape all the way around, or the vellum may buckle.
7. Lay the vellum down ink-side-in so it covers the frame. Repeat for the other frames.
8. Give all score lines a preliminary fold toward the wrong side of the lantern. Lay the folds flat again for the moment.
9. Apply tape runner along the outside edge of the wrong side of the cat frame. Carefully glue the tab on the ghost frame on top of it, lining the inside of the tab up with the outer edge of the cat frame.
10. Apply tape runner along the outside edge of the wrong side of the pumpkin frame. Fold on all the scores (without gluing down that tab!) and stand the lantern. Glue the bat tab to the inside of the pumpkin frame.
11. Done!

And now, links:

• If you have standard lamp shades, this simple idea from Martha Stewart is a classic must-do.
• What Will We Do Today shares very easy eyeball lights. Great project for munchkins.
• Babble has 15 cute candy-corn projects.
• Macula has free paper monster templates–these look amazing!
• More candy corn! This time its sparkling candy-corn cookies from Land O Lakes.

And here’s a darling little stop-motion animation to get you in a festive mood:

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My fabulous in-laws sent me Home, Paper, Scissors, by Patricia Zapata, for my birthday. Of course the first thing I thought when I was looking through the book is: ‘how can I make this spooky?’ (Doesn’t every0ne think that?) The first project in the book (the one on the cover) is Bird’s Nest Bowls. She used plastic wrap, which I didn’t have. I use Glad Press N Seal, and it didn’t release quite as nicely, but that’s okay.  I also left more spaces in my ghost than she leaves on her bowls, because I wanted plenty of light to shine through.  There is a zen quality to Zapata’s work, and, at least on this project, carries through to the process. I felt like a very calm Saul Bass.

Linkies:

• Feeling Lazy? Peanut-Butter Fingers has two-ingredient pumpkin spice cookiesfor you. Mmm.
• Cute Food for Kids has their 41 cutest Halloween food ideas, and they are, indeed, seriously cute.
• Tablespoon shows you how to make frightfully easy ghost cookies, basically coated nutter-butters.
• My facebook friend Dahlia Jane posted these mostly-wonderful Halloween cakes.

Finally, another makeup tutorial, though all you’ll really learn from it is that it’s fun to watch this artist work:

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My current craft project is taking longer than expected, so tonight you get…a filler post! Here is my collection of Halloween candles. Most of them came from Michael’s and Target this year, both of which had lovely stuff. Those teeny kitties in the front came from a witchcraft shop in Ashland, Oregon. They were meant to harness the power of my cat familiar, or something. Crass me, I use them for decorative purposes.

Linkies:

• The Spousal Unit found this for me: Atlas Obscura is posting real-life spooky stuff every day this month. Very cool.
• I love pumpkin cookies. I love snickerdoodles. I’ve got to try this tasty-sounding recipe.
• The first Halloween flash game I’ve found this season: Create A Monster.
• Make spooky playdough containersfor the little monsters.
• Two candy-corn goodies: candy-corn crispies, and candy-corn cupcakes.
• Naughty Secretary Club does some delightful creepy creature canisters.

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Sometimes, you do the project; sometimes, the project does you. I think I’d become over-confident, with a few projects going exactly how I wanted them to. Oh, not this time, boy-o!  First the clay, Cernit Translucent–which is normally well-behaved–was the consistency of sticky cream cheese. I think there’s more Armor-All in there than clay. Then my first stringing solution didn’t work, and the lights fell right out. I knew I’d have to knot. My brain, while it is often in knots, does not understand knots. Despite everything, it got done, and it’s cute, though unwieldy.  I will probably separate the ghosts and lights and just make a regular garland later.

Oh, and the background there is our antique cabinet with Halloween stuff strewn all over, waiting to be arranged.

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I have a hobby called letterboxing. It’s a treasure hunt where you hand-carve rubber stamps and leave them in interesting places for others to find. Then you go find theirs. An adjunct to this hobby is the Letterbox Trading Card.  It’s like an Artist Trading Card, but it must include a hand-carved stamp. This year, I planted a series of boxes just for the month of October, and I used the stamps to make a set of cards. I used neon embossing powders from Zing on these, hoping they would fluoresce. For the most part, they do:

If you’d like to hunt my series, you have until the first part of November before I pull the boxes. Follow the link above to find out more about the hobby before you venture out, then use my clues to find the treasure.

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Later in the month, I will be heading to a potluck. It is far-away, and in a park, so I needed something that would be very portable, and good cold.  I also wanted something savory and vegetarian, because there’s always tons of meat and sweets at these things. Though I may experiment with a few more ideas, so far, testing is positive for these little ghosties.  I used a 4″ ghost cookie-cutter, so these are a perfect snack size. They are also tasty.

Indredients:

2 cans Pilsbury Crescent seamless dough (because making dough is a pain in my ghoulish butt)
1 small green bell pepper finely chopped
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 potato, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp oregano
Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 c cream cheese
1 egg
1 tblsp water
1/2 c cheddar cheese, grated

Toss veggies with salt, pepper, oregano, and a light drizzle of olive oil. Spread on  greased cookie sheet and roast at 350° for about 20 minutes, until veggies are tender and a little brown on the edges. Dump them in a bowl and mix them with the cream cheese while still warm, so the cream cheese mixes more easily. Set aside.

Roll out your dough, rolling each can separately, to about 1/8″ thickness.  I just tried to get it thin–the dough is very springy. On one sheet, use your ghost cookie-cutter to lightly score shapes so you know where to put the filling. Put a forkful of filling on each ghost shape, avoiding the edges:

Place second dough sheet over the first, and press around the filling, so you can see where it is when you cut out your shapes:

Cut out your little ghosties. Mix egg and water in a small bowl, and brush the tops of each ghost lightly but thoroughly.  Put a pinch of grated cheddar on top of each ghost.

Place ghosts on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375° for 12 minutes. Makes about 10 ghosties.

Enjoy!

Now, I know you love my blog, right? Well, the Countdown to Halloween list is up, and I’m betting that, if you like my spooky digs, you will like some of these as well!

And now, some delicious links:

• Ghoul Friday makes a skull, book, and candle decoration with a dollar store skull and pvc pipe.
• Tatertots and Jello makes cute treat ‘bags’ out of tin cans.
• Hoosier Homemade does a yummy Halloween breakfast.
• How cute are these monster cupcakes by Created by Diane?
• Easy and pretty jack-o-lantern votives. Bet you could find lots of dollar-store glass to use for these.
• Adorable mini bat candy covers by Skip to My Lou.
• Silhouette pumpkin by HGTV

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Pop art by day, luminary by night!

I love this thing. I had a couple of false starts, but the project was a lot of fun. Easy, too, if you have the right tools.  Seriously, I wouldn’t have attempted this without a Dremel and a flex-shaft attachment.

1. Cut a large hole in the bottom of the pumpkin, so you can place it over lights.  I use electric tea lights, because the smell of burning foam gives me an awful headache.
2. Mark out your grid. I used a measuring tape to get the lines where I wanted them.
3. Punch out holes with your Dremel.  Wear gear! Foam dust goes everywhere, no lie. My dust mask was AWOL, so I had to use a bandana.  Call me Dremel Bandito.
4. Give it a few coats of white paint until you’re happy with the finish.  I used Ceramcoat Oyster White.
5. Next, a coat of pearl. I used a pearl glaze by Making Memories.
6. Once everything is dry, play connect-the-dots with a sharpie.  I originally started with black paint, but I just couldn’t get enough control on the uneven surface.  That part of the project will be forever known as The Back of The Pumpkin.
7. Paint the stem black. Always paint the stem last, so you can use it to hold the pumpkin.
8. All pretty!

I have one more craft pumpkin, a tall black one. I want to use the Dremel again, but this time I want to actually move it around and carve something, instead of just punching holes like a weenie.

Here is the video that got me started:

Have fun!

And now, a few linkies from today’s mining:

Three cute project ideas from Creative Blog
Pumpkin Topiary from Simpsonized Crafts
Ten truly lovely projects from Tatertots and Jello I want to do that specimen art.
Four Halloween Advent calendars from Tip Junkie
Surprisingly simple and elegant Frankenstein’s Monster (yeah, they just say Frankenstein, but I’m too nitpicky!) glass block

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I don’t know why it took me so long to pick up card making. I think it didn’t catch my interest until my friend Marj got me started. Suddenly, I had something to do with all that paper I couldn’t stop collecting. In fact, I have a deep, abiding love for most paper-crafting supplies, and making cards is a fun way to use a bit of everything, and the recipient loves it. Or if they don’t, they certainly don’t tell you to your face. This little card is getting filled with LTCs and sent off to a friend who is definitely too cute to spook.

In other news, for the next month, you will see a little link on the right that says I’m a cryptkeeper.  That’s because Halloween Blogs does an awesome Countdown to Halloween, and participating ‘cryptkeepers’ post every day during October. Since I was already doing that, naturally I jumped on board.  I can’t wait to get a look at the other blogs on the list!

And now, linkies:

I’m not much for cheesecake, but this candy-corn recipe looks great
Rag wreath from Sassy Sanctuary
Babble gathers a bunch of kid-friendly ghost projects

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I brought home two craft pumpkins, one black and one orange. I’d never worked with these, and wanted to do something other than just carving a face in the front. I asked myself, what do I have a ton of? Two things: big rhinestones and purple iridescent pony beads. Don’t know if I’ll use the beads yet, but here are the rhinestones, shimmering against a pretty black background. The best deal and the nicest colors came from Target, oddly enough, so that’s where I bought my pumpkins. Sadly, they were out of white. I kinda want white, so I may just paint the other one.

Things I learned: super glue doesn’t work that well. It doesn’t fill gaps, and it damages the pumpkin. I used a glue gun, but man, I need to find out if there’s such a thing as low-string glue for it. The glue strings were insane. I’d say I learned that I can’t measure, but I knew that already. My method: measure twice, cut once, get it wrong anyway, try again, hang head, learn to accept the beauty of asymmetry.

Some links and things:

I think I have to try this paper-mache pumpkin from Stolloween

Lovely yarn-wrapped gourds from Two Shades of Pink

Shrunken Heads from Our Best Bites

Ribbon Wreath from She’s Kinda Crafty

Pretty black & white pumpkin treatments from Oopsey Daisy

Finally, here’s a video on how to look like a Gothic Lolita doll. Creepy and cool.

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