Sunday, October 30, 2016

Like, I Totally, Like, Ripped My Face Off

In my house, I have developed a bit of a reputation to be able to produce what my kids request for Halloween each year. So as time goes on, the requests have continued to become more complicated and specific.. and I continue to try to fill said requests.

This year, when asked what she wanted to be, my thirteen year old said the following, "I, like, totally want to be this, like, masquerade girl that totally is in black colors. But then I didn't get a mask, so I, like, totally ripped off my face to make my own mask." 

SO, I took a look around Pinterest, image searches, and more and settled on a plan for Terra's costume this year. 

After sewing the costume, the big trick was the mask/face.

I started with a plastic mask I had found at Walmart. This one was just a few bucks and had a bit of lace attached to it along with an elastic band for it to go around the head. 

I  removed the lace and the elastic from it and using Mod Podge and toilet paper I covered the mask with three layers of paper. 

When dry, I trimmed up the edges of the mask and put two layers of foundation on it the closely matched my daughter's skin tone, and then set the liquid with loose powder. 






Once the foundation had set, I started to add the gore. I purchased a bottle of "bloody scab" makeup from the costume shop, and then added additional additional shading and bruising with eye shadows, corn starch, and food coloring. 

Terra's makeup was created with a series of layers of toilet paper, latex, and the same process of corn starch, eye shadow, and "bloody scab" 






And there you have it! My daughter now totally looks like she ripped her face off.  Please enjoy the final product pictured below. :)



Have you read? I have a new website and can create things for your next Halloween, Renfest, Party, or event. I also have some great home made gifts, and classes! You can check it out it www.oakgrovecalicocrafts.webs.com 

As always, follow, subscribe and join me on my next crafting adventure. 

Sunday, October 9, 2016

You Need Art There.

A few weeks ago, I hosted a craft night with some of my girlfriends. I planned for a few painted wine glasses and then we each made a wreath while we waited for the glasses to cure the paint in the oven.

It was a lot of fun and I really hope that everyone else had fun too.

As a part of the evening, a few people who hadn't been to my home before asked to take a tour. As I was showing them around, one friend pointed out that there was a wall in my house that didn't have anything on it. She was right. I  needed art on it! At first I just kind of laughed at it. Sure, maybe some day I would work on it and get some art there...

AND THEN IT BEGAN TO HAUNT ME.

I found I would walk by that space looking up wondering what I would put there, what I could create.

AND THEN I BEGAN TO OBSESS.

She was right, I really needed art there.

So began my project for a long, tall, fall button tree.



The wall I wanted to cover was very long and tall, so I went with a very vertical canvas. My plan is to make four of these, one in each season. But that's quite a project, so I just started out with the fall one to see how it went. 
This turned out to also be a great project to have my youngest join me on. she enjoyed painting the canvas blue with me. 




 Once the canvas was all covered in blue and the paint was dry, I began making the tree shape. 



 Part of the trick with a tree, I think is that in cases like this one, I can always add to the width and thickness of the tree as the process goes on. The more branches in the fall/winter trees, also the better, I think. I started from the bottom establishing the root and base and went up from there adding thickness to the trunk as I went on.  After that really basic shape was established, I built off of it with a few bumps and imperfections in the tree's shape to help give it personality.



When my mother passed away, she left behind quite an epic collection of crafting supplies. Included in the piles of things I trucked home in a MOVING TRAILER, it included a vast supply of buttons. I pulled the yellow, orange, red, deep greens and ivory and browns out of the supplies.




Using hot glue, I positioned the "leaves" on the tree one color at a time. Doing it this way helped me balance the color scheme and be sure that I didn't go too heavy on one color or the other. when I was closer to done, I did take a step back to see if there was a color I would like to add more of, and did end up placing a few more reds in the grouping.


Clustering many of the buttons together also added fullness to the design of the tree. I also made sure to stray away from the ends of branches and place some of the button leaves in areas where they were light in the design. I also trailed the buttons down one side of the canvas to look like they are coming off the tree for fall.



AND TA-DA! 

There you have it: my fall tree to go down my stairway wall. Now I have art there. :) 




















If you try this one at home, please send me a photo to see it! I would love to share! 

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See you soon!


Tuesday, October 4, 2016

A Day off Project ... OR ... Sometimes Kids Ruin Everything

This weekend, I found I had a little time off and could lend a few hours on Saturday to creating a few things.

Some time went to playing with my new icing tips and fondant/gum paste making flowered cupcakes and cakes. Some of it went to completing a few painted items. Some to finishing some decorating. and some to overall home improvement projects that I had been waiting on for quite some time.

I took a lot of pictures, So don't worry! I have lots of posts coming on quite a few of them!

I almost titled this blog as Kids Ruing Everything... but I thought maybe that was a little rough. Appropriate... but rough...

See, my kids feel very comfortable in their house. VERY comfortable. So they don't mind hanging on to a few towel bars in the bathrooms, or writing on a wall, or climbing a shelf or two. Unfortunately, their comfortable feeling with my walls and etc means that I am left with a few projects to patch holes, create sturdier solutions so their comfort doesn't mean that kids ruin everything. :)

So today, I took on repairing the towel bars in the bathroom that found their way off my walls. First was a long search through pinterest, DIY websites, and lots of images from all over the internet to get ideas on what I needed for the walls. It needed to be sturdy and say on the wall, and be not nearly as easy for kids to hang on. AND fun to make.

So here you have it, the towel racks created to fix the things that my kids ruin. :)



So here is the DIY fancy schmancy shelf and towel hook/shelf. 



The supplies used for this were:

choice of crown moulding
four or five metal hooks
white paint
paint brushes/sponges
quarter round
wood nails
1'X8' wood cut to your length of choice
1'X6' wood cut to the length of choice for the shelf 




First, the base of the rack was cut using the 1X8 wood to the length desired for each of the two shelves I wanted. Then the crown moulding was cut to surround the 1X8 board.




Then the shelf was added to the top, cut to the length of the base plus the crown moulding added to it.

 A piece of quarter round cut to the length of the shelf was them nailed into place at the top front.  


PAINT IT UP! 




Add the hooks to the base boards measuring carefully to be sure they are evenly spaced. 





















Hang, decorate, and enjoy! These two also need some paint/putty at the screws where they were affixed to the walls, but I am pretty happy with how they turned out! 




Now you try! send me a picture of your attempt to create this towel rack/shelf and I will share!

Follow, subscribe, and see you next time!