CREATIVE CRAFTING

Posts Tagged ‘Halloween Crafts’

You probably have seen these before, either online or hanging in windows, I know I have. I always thought they would be hard to make. Not true! These little window hangers are fun and easy to make and look great in your windows! Give them a try!

I made mine with my favorite medium which is Polymer Clay. I used cookie cutters to cut out the shape of the pumpkin. I then sandwiched a twisted wire into the center of two cutouts. It was fun, easy to do and would make a great project for the kids.

What you’ll need:

* Orange craft foam
* Green craft foam
* Brown chenille stick
* Brown or black marker
* Suction cup hanger
* Orange glitter glue
* Paintbrush
* Scissors
* Hot glue gun
* White craft glue
* Pattern

How to make it:

1. Trace the pattern onto orange craft foam and cut out.
2. Cut out leaves from the green craft foam and use white glue to adhere the leaves to the top of the pumpkins.
3. Use a marker to draw lines onto your pumpkins.
4. Let the glue dry.
5. Cut a four inch piece off the chenille stick and save the remainder for another project. Fold the four inch piece in half, creating a loop at one end.
6. Hot glue the open end of the chenille stick to the back of the pumpkin for the stem, leaving about one inch showing with the loop at the top.
7. Paint pumpkins with orange glitter glue and let them dry.
8. Attach suction cup to a window and hang pumpkin by the stem.

Since seasonal jewelry often has a whimsical sense of fun, try experimenting a little by mixing and matching. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about with these candy corn and pumpkin lampwork beads , which were used for making earrings for Halloween. Wear a matching pair or mix them up and wear one of each.

A friend found these earring and used 24 gauge round gold-filled wire that she curled on the end to form a wire coil head pin, then added the beads, and finished the top of the earrings by using the wire wrapped loop technique. Once the dangle part of the earrings were assembled, she just added a gold-filled ear hook.

I will admit though that I am not one to wear jewelry, but I did make several pairs of these and sold them at my yard sale this past summer.   The only difference was I made the candy corn, pumpkins, bats, even witches out of polymer clay.   I sold most of them so fast I didn’t have time to take pictures of them to show you…so stay tuned I will make more and post.

So have some fun and mix it up this Halloween season!

With his toothy grin and a pumpkin bucket, this cool cat is ready for a night of trick-or-treating! Reminiscent of vintage figures, ours is fashioned from plastic foam, dowels, and painted papier-mache

What You Need

* Green floral foam block
* 3/16-inch dowel
* Drill and drill bits
* 3-x-5-inch oval wood base
* Wood glue
* Celluclay instant papier-mache
* Resealable plastic bag
* Plastic modeling tools
* Toothpick
* Water-bottle lid
* Acrylic paints: gray, black, white, orange, neon green, lavender, and yellow
* Unused pencil eraser
* Matte-finish spray
* 26-gauge black wire

How to Make It

Create the Cat “Skeleton”

1. For the body, use a knife to whittle a teardrop shape from the floral foam that’s 4 inches tall, 1 1/2 inches thick, and 3 inches wide at the bottom, and that tapers to a point at the center top.
2. Also shape an oval head from foam that’s 2 inches tall, 3 inches wide, and 1 1/4 inches thick. From the dowel, cut two 5-inch lengths for the legs and one 2-inch length for the neck.
3. Drill two holes into but not through the base about 2 inches apart. Glue the leg dowels into the holes.
4. Push the wide end of the body onto the legs, leaving 3 1/2 inches between the base and the foam. Make sure that the body is straight.
5. Glue the body to the legs; allow the glue to dry.
6. Push the neck dowel into the top of the body; push the head onto the dowel.

Bats can add some spooky fun to your Halloween jewelry collection.  A couple of years ago a friend gave me these to use as a decoration for Halloween. With a little wire and some ear hooks, I quickly turned them into a pair of spooky Halloween earrings.  Which after I made them, remembered I didn’t have pierced ears!  So I gave them to my daughter in law, who turned them into a necklace.  (she doesn’t have pierced ears either).

So this summer during a boring, rainy afternoon, I got out my polymer clay and make a dozen or so bats!  I made them into earrings, necklaces and pins and sold them all at a garage sale.

I have a small bat cookie cutter that I used to cut out the bat shape and the rest was just filling in the texture and putting in a pair of orange eyes.   They were very fun to make, and a hit at my garage sale!