Halloweenin'

Hello! First, the Indianapolis city guide is up and you can see it here. They included a lot of my photos. See if you can find me (I'm in a reflection, oops).

 Now, on to Halloween.

Eyeball plant stakes

I'm/we're doing a sci fi theme this year with monster plants. I have a small container garden's worth of faux potted plants and an assortment of plant stakes to enhance the live plants already present. This idea came along because I saw a great DIY from the prop master of Home and Family and I am a plant hoarder year round so it goes well with what's already on hand.

The image above is some of the stakes stuck in a rosemary plant. The stakes are easy and minimal. I used sticks from the yard, spray paint, 1.5" styrofoam balls, spackle, acrylic paint, and gloss coating. Find some sticks and paint them green. water down some spackle and coat the foam balls, allow to dry overnight. Spray them with white paint. Then I painted they eye with acrylic paints. I made a circle and watered down the paint in the center to create a darker outer ring. Once that dried a bit, I used the end of a paintbrush dipped in black to make the pupil. Then I let that dry and sprayed them with a few coats of gloss. After the gloss dried, I used a glue gun to attach the eye to sticks. On the first ones I added leaves and green fringe, but I decided I liked the minimal look best. Drying is slow, but assembly is quick so this project offered some instant gratification and that was nice after making larger carnivorous plants.

Here are the foam balls drying. I have a fancy system of discarded packaging and toothpicks.

This photo shows some of the process and that my cat is very helpful. I put the balls on toothpicks before coating them and stuck them in some packaging to stay upright while drying. I also kept them this way to while painting. I removed the toothpicks when it was time to assemble everything.

I'll have some more prop photos and DIY's after proper pictures are taken. If you would like some inspiration, try these sites:

Pumpkinrot

102 Wicked Things To Do 

Dave Lowe Designs 

There is still so much to do... make plant slime, sew a costume, paint more eyeballs, set up lights, etc.

xoxo,

b

Catching Up

Mr. Husband left town over the weekend and we had an all lady house (except for one kitty cat man).  We started our weekend by watching Maleficent and then we got crafty and loungey.  The Lady Bean listened to a lot of music and worked on homework (wow).  I decided it was time to pull out old projects and new ones... always new ones.

Let's start with the new!

Pumpkin form

I made progress on the pumpkin mask, but for some reason I don't like using a black bag for the form.  I don't even know why, but it's covered with paper now.

Linoleum block

I finished my first product review for Cut Out + Keep.  A project with a tutorial and final photos will be posted there.  I am not sure when, but I will put a link here when it happens.

I call this "The Louise Pattern".

Miss Bean decided to be Louise Belcher for next Halloween.  I know this seems insanely early, but I enjoy working on the costumes when I'm stuck inside during the winter.  I also realized after years of last minute costumes, it's much more fun to be done with a costume when October hits than it is to be starting one.  The other benefits are better costumes because I'm not rushing and if it's already made, it's harder for her to change her mind 5 times.

Now for the old...

From white to grey.

I pulled out a bag of supplies that I had for a project(s) started two years ago.  I used to feel awful about doing things like this (you know, setting something aside and then just sort of walking away from it), but then I realized that I often end up going back (eventually) and it works better that way.  Sometimes I need to develop a few skills or step away in order to figure something out.  The problem with this method though, is that sometimes you decide you want more of a certain fabric you were using, but you can't find it anymore.  So the photo above is me "making it work" and dying some similar fabric that I already have.  Not what I would liked to have done, but I learned to buy a little extra in the future.

Fancy Bat is back.

That brings us to this, Fancy Bat.  Fancy Bat wears a fancy hat.  Fancy Bat also wears a vest and maybe some sort of a pocket watch, sips drinks with a pinky out, etc. because Fancy Bat is fancy.  FB is inspired by Mary Engelbreit characters, personified animals in children's books, and a bit of the Victorian era.  I drew the original sketches and sewed the hood and cape in 2012.  I was using this piece to challenge myself to sew a complete outfit based on a created character.  At the time, I was planning to purchase a shirt and tights to layer the pieces over, but now I've decided to sew those as well.  If I'm using this as a personal "sew a complete look" challenge, I really should go all the way.  Anyway, the next piece is cut and ready to sew and I've made a few tweaks to the design. I am loving it.  

Does anyone write?  Fancy Bat needs a story.  Maybe someday I'll write one, but that's not really my thing.

xoxo,

b

Cake Flags

I finished my cake flags and I decided to use glitter tape for extra sparkle.

 xoxo,

b

Halloween Costume Preview

Rain

A little sparkle.

A lot of shine.

 

 

A little squish.

"Brooke, what are you going to be?"  I doubt if you're thinking that.  Anyway, what this preview tells me is that I need to start taking real photos again.  The instant gratification of Instagram has gotten to me, but look at that last photo; so crisp, so clear, so nice.

xo,

 Miss B

Faux Collar and Other Stuff

I jumped on the faux collar wagon...

..and it felt good.

I'm not sure why I finally took the leap, but I think it had something to do with seeing some super pointy, super silly, kitty cat greatness popping out of a sweater.  Ooooooohhhh, they're wearing cats.  I should wear cats.  So I'm on it.  I haven't sewn a collar yet.  Right now I'm doing the type that come in pieces.  My favorite pattern so far is the one above from Honestly WTF.  I'm working on some patterns of my own and hoping to do some sewing collars this weekend.

Dino collar- I'm wearing this one today.

Finished collar in brown leather.

I took out all of my scraps and went a little crazy.  I even made one out of stiff felt (not pictured).  I have a leather painting experiment in the works at home and this was a great excuse to finally buy a leather punch.  The original directions call for a button and ribbons.  I used a bead on the brown one and a metal chain.  I also didn't sew my buttons, but instead held them in place with a twisted jewelry wire.  This method seemed to work best for me.

This was a very craft-tastic weekend.  I finished my Halloween costume , took in a custom Etsy order, and I made a 'farmer's market style' pizza (best pizza ever).  I love fall/ Halloween.

xoxo, 

B

Almost...

The wedding is 3 weeks from today and recently, I introduced myself to Bridezillas via Netflix.  That behavior can't be normal and why would you take on new projects 5 days before a big event?  Anyway, that isn't the point.  The thing that I have noticed is that the brides in the episodes I've seen find it very important for everyone to see them and want people focused on how they look.  That really isn't my goal.  I want to look nice and have nice pictures.  I want to be appealing to Future Husband, but what I want people to see is the decorations.  I want to create an environment and mood through a visually driven experience; add in the music and food and we can bring along the other senses.  I think of the wedding as an opportunity to create a large scale art installation.  I'm not sure if that's good, bad, or normal; it just is what it is.  It isn't my day to be a princess.  It's a day to celebrate everyone we know and mark Team Merry-Miller as going official.  There is no perfection and that is fine.  The amount of decorations will have no bearing on the wedding happening or not happening, but if there's an opportunity to make fun things, I'm going to take it.

Above are pictures of my dining room table.  It hardly ever sees food, but it does get a lot of traffic from cutting mats and glue guns.  There are 160 tassels now and I am closing in on my goal of 200.  Pre-fluffed and trimmed tassels on the table and finished pieces on dowel rods.  The fifth pinata is silver, white and grey and most importantly, close to completion.  I am working to control my "just one more" impulse when it comes to DIY's.  If I would quit doing that, this would be it for projects (except that i decided to make three chalkboards and cut some fabric).  I'll work it out.

I will have so many tutorial posts starting at the end of the summer.  I hope you enjoy the photos until then.

XOXO,

b

Glitterati

Life is getting busy and messy.  I spent many hours last weekend completing the final step of my "balloon add-ons / bits n baubles".  They are now complete.  212 pieces have been punched, primed, coated, and sealed; ready for stringing.  The last time I did a mass glittering was December so I was indoors.  That got icky, stinky, and messy so this glitter fest was located on the front porch.

xoxo,

B

Instagramification

A few pictures from tassel craft night.

Last weekend was very busy.  I volunteered at the Indiana Handiecraft Exchange, went to 2 farmer's markets, had over night guests, and had a wedding craft night.  This week, school ended and ballet started.  I restocked my supplies yesterday and fringed up some more pinata paper.  The paper party continues on tonight!

xoxo,

B

Beads

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