They Call Me the Voodoo Woman…

Oh, yeah! I have the Koko Taylor song “Voodoo Woman” playing in my head right now! Today I have a Halloween/Day of the Dead/Voodoo Juju project going on.  But wait! First I want to let you know that everything at Lindsay’s Stamp stuff is 40% off today and tomorrow! No Tricks, only a treat for you…hey, even the voodoo woman’s gotta pay the bills LOL! OK, enough of that foolishness, this week I have been playing with one of the humblest of art supplies: Plaster of Paris. Lookie what I made:

I made a bunch of the skulls bones and fingers by pouring plaster of paris in Halloween ice-cube molds I got at the dollar tree. This would be great for Christmas ornaments too when the Christmas themed molds are out. Also you can use candy molds. I am helping the librarian with the Day of the Dead craft this week (She had made 50 real sugar skulls for the kids to decorate!) and I came up with this as an additional craft for the kids to make. Instead of sugar I used glitter from Papermart. The fingers and bones are for my Halloween home decor project. Here is how I did it:

What I think is fun is that you can give someone the finger this Halloween! Hardy-har-har…I can’t resist a good pun.

Other things to do with Plaster…

• DIY Sidewalk Chalk: Mix tempera paint or food coloring to the water before adding plaster and pour into molds or toilet paper tubes wrapped in plastic wrap for custom colorful sticks of chalk!
• DIY Chalk Paint: Mix one part plaster of paris to 2 parts latex paint for a beautiful opaque matt paint. Seal with a rub on wax for a satin finish.
• Faux Paper Mache: dip strips of gauze or newspaper in plaster of paris for a quick drying sculpture material!

I hope I gave you some fun ideas on using plaster of Paris. Let me know if you have any questions and til next time happy crafting!

Speaking of random….the winner is……

Where is my son with a drumroll when I need it! The winner of the About Art Accents fairy stamp, thanks to Random.org, is #15 Toni Leli! FYI I removed 2 duplicate entries and that made Toni the winner! I will email you for you mailing address so you can get your prize!

 

Speaking of random here is a Witch Hat Ring Toss game I made for this years school Halloween party, It took only a few minutes to make. First I took an old Witch’s hat and stuffed it with crumpled newspaper then hot glued it to a circle I cut from cardboard. Then I made rings with pipe-cleaners (I believe they are called “chenille stems” for you fancy folk) to toss on the hat. Easy peasy!

 

This would be fun for a birthday party too! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Let’s Make a Tulle Tu-Tu! {Video Tutorial!}

Happy Monday folks! I had a fun weekend, I went to a Halloween party Saturday night and I got to wear the Tulle Tu-Tu I made the other day:

I used Orange and Black Polka Dot Tulle from Paper Mart. This is an inexpensive project that only took minutes to make. I think if you made smaller tutus in pinks and purples they would be a great craft fair sellers as well. Watch the video to see how I did it:

The skirt was really fun to wear too because it was so flouncey and bouncy. I felt like a Halloween princess LOL! Every girl should have some tulle in her life 😀 Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

New ideas for old die cuts!

Are you kind of bored with the same old dies sitting on your shelf? Maybe you have some punches or shape cutting templates (Coluzzle anyone?) that need some love. Well, after today I hope you will look at them in a whole new way! On this layout (Yup, those are THIS years Halloween photos, I’m patting myself on the back) I used a tag die I’ve had for 5 years as a banner:

Supply Credits: Paper: DCWV, Echo Park, Cosmo Cricut, Stamps: Happy Halloween, hats: Pink Persimmon, Numbers and Events: Inkiadinkado, Spiders and web: Martha Stewart, Small date stamp: Inque Boutique, Dies: Tag: Ellison, Button: Sizzix, Spider: Cuddlebug

 

The candy corn are made from an inexpensive button die. It’s easy and if you don’t have the die don’t worry, you can hand cut them. Watch this short video:

I don’t have too many physical dies since I have an electronic die cutter and SCAL software to cut whatever I want but I like the thick steel-rule dies because I can cut through materials my Cricut can’t handle like felt, matte board, metal and thin wood. The types of dies I use the most are tags, hearts, flowers, clock hands and book-plates. I also picked up a few thick alphabet sets and I like cutting them from chipboard or adhesive backed fun foam. they look like “thickers” but I never run out of “e”s and “l”s. I have a few thin dies too and I have 6 button dies! I love them, I got a 4 pack at custom crops on clearance for .50, a Ellison one for $3 at my sister’s craft shop and my fave, the ellison embosslits from my stampin’ up lady for $11, it was a splurge but well worth it! Dies are an investment so you wan to be sure you can use them over and over again. Here are close-ups of the pages if you want to see:

Tip: If you have a lot going on during a particular holiday or event why not journal it in timeline fashion like I did here. We had so many parties going on around Halloween that by the time the big night arrived we were a pretty shabby bunch with costumes being held together with twist ties and hot glue but look at all the fun we had! I plan on doing a timeline page in december for all of the holiday activities that we do. Plus it is fast and easy and that is a plus when the holidays roll around!

 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope I inspired you to look beyond what your dies are intended to do and come up with even more ways to use them. Til next time happy crafting!

Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat! Mother Nature played a trick on us yesterday and left 6″ of snow on your doorstep the day before Halloween! Luckily we snapped this picture of me and the kids before we left for the school Halloween party. I decided to dress up this year. My daughter asked me what I was going to be, I said a gypsy. She gave me a confused look and said “like that thing in your craftroom?” “No” I said “the other kind of gypsy.”  That would be an orginal costume tho!  🙂

I wish someone told me I look a little pregnant in this get-up but I assure you that is NOT the case, besides the camera adds 10, er…20 lbs, right?

OK, enough of that silliness, I also want to let you know that everything at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff is 40% off today so if you wan to grab some treats better head on over because at midnight the deals, just like Cinderella’s coach will turn into a pumpkin!  Here are a few products you might enjoy:

The weather man says it is going to be 30 degrees tonight for trick-o-treating so I think I’ll hang up my gypsy costume and dress up as an Olympic skier instead 😉 Happy Haunting and til next time happy crafting!

Boo! You’ve Been Ghosted!

I felt like a ninja tonight driving the getaway car as my kids dropped these cute goodies off at two houses in the neighborhood. We got ghosted last night (and I have a pretty good idea who did it) so I couldn’t resist designing a little set so I could do some “Ghosting” of my own. You too can spread Halloween cheer in your neighborhood with my new Ghosted SVG & Printable template set:

It only took a few minutes to die cut these boxes with the SVG templates in the kit but there are printable templates too you can print directly on your cardstock. After assembling the doorhanger boxes with hot glue I printed the sheet with the sign and ghosted poem on them and cut them out. You can roll up the cards and put them in the box or, since it was raining, put them all in a plastic shopping bag and hang that on your neighbor’s door. Then all you have to do is ring the bell and RUN! I dropped these off to two houses with children so I made a treat box for each kid. I also think this would be cute if you cut them out in miniature and hung it on a wine bottle for Christmas gift giving. So many possibilities!  My phone was ringing when I got home so I don’t think it is too much of a secret who the “ghosts” are but it sure was fun while the mystery lasted! As a special treat for you I have put this Ghosted set on sale for $2.50 for a limited time,  Happy Haunting!

I am entering this project in the following challenges: Stamp Insanity, Crafting for all Seasons, Divas by Design, Freshly Brewed, I Brake For Challenges, Inky Impressions, Stampavie and More, Whimsical Wednesdays, Paper Take Weekly, and Creative Stamp Friends.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

35% off and new DT projects!

Have I told you lately how much I love my design team? I have been swamped with custom work and planning my twins 7th birthday party this week. I’ve hardly had time to breathe but luckily my DT was hard at work creating some goodies for you to feast your eyes on! Best off all if you fall in love with the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff products they used you can snag them for 35% off now through Sunday!

Now, on with the show! First we have Tracey with a funky card using the Steampunk SVG set:

Tracey also made this swell tag using stamps from Sew Much Fun and the Sewing Bits SVG set:

Great minds think alike because Cindi used the same tape measure from Sew Much Fun and paired it with the School Rules set to make this great back to school card:

If you like border punches you will love Micki’s cheerful scarecrow card using the new stamp set Halloween doodles:

Karin also used Halloween doodles on her non scary ghost card:

Diane made this beautiful saphire blue creation using  Flourished Peacock Stamp and the Mod Summer Papers (she changed the color before she printed it!).

Cassandra shows us her arts side this week with this beautiful altered canvas using School Papers and Fancy Flower digistamps:

So now that you are good and inspired take a look at the products they used and remember they are all 35% off through Sunday at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

 

25% off last day and cute new papers!

Happy Halloween! Today is the last day of the Halloween weekend sale at Lindsay’s stamp Stuff:

Here is a new Bold Black & White paper pack I put in the shop yesterday, It is black and white so you can print  it on colored cardstock and save ink! Also black and white paper are easy to recolor, simply go under “adjust” in your photo software and “hue, lightness, saturation” and play with the sliders until you get the color you want, it is soooo easy! I can’t wait to play with these papers myself!

If you need a last minute Halloween costume look no further than my Masquerade mask set, you can cut the masks with your Cricut machine and SCAL software or use the printables to hand cut, fun!

 

 

Have a fun safe Halloween night, looks like we might have snow when we go trick-o-treating (poor Tinkerbell will have to wear a snowsuit under her costume) but with a bag full of candy as incentive I’m sure they will brave the weather just fine 🙂

Remember the 25% off Halloween sale is over at Midnight so don’t miss out on the treats (no tricks!) at Lindsay’s! Happy Halloween and Happy Crafting too!

 

Boo!

Wowee! We are almost into October, I just love this time of year, the weather is still kinda warm, the trees are blazing with color and Halloween is right around the corner! I have some nifty news for you today, I won the Delightful Sketches top spot last week and was asked to be a Guest Designer this week, here is what I came up with:

Stamp: Digital Delights (guest DT sponsor), Paper: DCWV, Seam Binding" HugSnug hand dyed by me 🙂

This is a “window” card. Diane Bove sent me some transparency sheets this week (thanks sweetie!) and I made a 5.5″ square card and cut a large circle in the center of the front panel, then I trimmed a sheet of glitter PP to 5.25″ and cut a slightly smaller circle in the center of that. I sandwiched a sheet of transparency between to two to make the window panel then glued my colored image over that. You can see it better in this photo. Don’t forget to make a envelope to fit your square card!

I am participating in a GC Creative Connection.  I heard about this month’s GCCC – Haunted – From Terry (Terry’s blog: Work in Progress)  Why not play along?  Post a creation to your blog mentioning my post and the Creative Connection post on Gingersnap Creations.  Let’s all craft it forward and see how far we can get this connection to go!  If you have not been by Terry’s blog, go treat yourself and I promise that is not a trick!

Also I am entering this in the following challenges: CCchallenges (Animal Antics), Chrasima Cards and Incy Wincy (anything goes), Color Me Copic (Coloring technique-I used #1 blending), Ginger Loft (Halloween), Oh, Alice challenges (window card), Paper Cutz (A critter), Totally Papercrafts (magic), and the sketch at KennyKrafyGirlz.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!