DIY Half Pumpkin Crafts - Halloween Sparkly Spider Craft Tutorial

My local Michaels store put their half pumpkins on sale for 60% off, and then we were able to apply a 20% off the entire purchase, so we bought quite a few of these fun to create some fun half pumpkin halloween craft projects and use up the Folk Art Home Decor chalk Paint.  This tiny 2 ounce bottle really seems to cover a lot of surfaces.    We have been having fun coming up with ways to use this paint and loved adding it to our family Halloween craft stash.  This particular sparkly spider themed half pumpkin door decoration is one of the projects we came up with and it is pretty easy to make.

Materials Needed:

• Harvest Market – Half Pumpkin (Michaels Stores)
• Fabric Leaves (dollar store)
• Plastic spider rings (dollar store)
• Large Plastic glitter covered spiders (dollar store)
• Jewel Bling Strips (eyelet outlet)
• Small rhinestones

Supplies Needed:

• Folk Art Home Décor Chalk Paint in Rich Black
• 1 “ Plaid Mod Podge Tools Foam Brush
• A6000 glue
• Glue Gun
• Scissors

  

Step 1:

Remove tags from the pumpkin and clean it off. Then, using the foam brush, paint the pumpkin with some broad strokes of the Rich Black Folk Art Home Décor Chalk Paint.  Make sure to leave a lot of white space on the pumpkin.

Step 2:

Use the scissors to snip off the plastic ring part off of the spiders.

Step 3:

Use the A6000 glue to adhere a rhinestone onto the back of each spider.

Step 4:

Using the A6000 or the Glue Gun, adhere the black leaves onto the top of the pumpkin.

Step 5:

Carefully lay out the jewel strips, making sure to vary the lengths. Remove the plastic backing and adhere to half pumpkin. 

Step 6:

Using the hot glue gun, carefully glue the spiders onto the ends of the jewel strips.  Be careful not to get burned or to melt the spiders.

Step 7:

Adhere the Large Spider to the top of the pumpkin. Be careful to place it where it won’t interfere with the how the pumpkin hangs.

Step 8:
Hang the Halloween Spider Themed Pumpkin on your door and enjoy.

Note:  I paid for everything used in this project except the Folk Art Home Décor Chalk Paint in Rich Black.  Thank you to the folks at Plaid who sent me this cool 2 oz bottle of chalk paint, so far we are loving it. For more Halloween Crafting ideas, check out Plaid online or my Halloween Pinterest page.

DIY Halloween Haunted House Shadowbox

I always love seeing the cute little DIY Halloween themed haunted house vignettes or shadow boxes that I see posted on Pinterest so I thought I would try to make one this year.  I started by purchasing a really cool basic Halloween Haunted House Shadow Box Kit from Michaels Craft store.  After using my 40% coupon I ended up paying around $12 for the kit.  The kit is pretty inclusive.  It has almost everything you need to make the fun Halloween Vignette, and yet it allows the maker to still add a few personal touches to it.

Materials Needed:

Recollections Halloween Paper House Box from Michaels Crafts

Asst Halloween Themed Stickers

Asst Halloween pins

Asst Charms

Black ribbon or lace

Supplies Needed:

Martha Stewart Crafts – Fluorescent Acrylic Paint in Orange

Martha Stewart Crafts – Fluorescent Acrylic Paint in Yellow

Folk Art Home Décor Chalk Paint in Rich Black

White Gesso

Glue Dots

Glue Stick

Scissors

Tweezers

Sponge Paint Brush

Step 1:

Since the house is made of brown paper, I realized I would need to pick a base color.  So I painted the interior of each room of the haunted house shadow box in one coat of white gesso (do not paint the outside parts).  This will create a nice base to show off the different colored paints that are used to paint it with.

Step 2:

Using the Martha Stewart Glow-in-the-Dark acrylic craft paints in Orange and Yellow, I painted the interiors of each room in the Recollections Halloween Paper House Box in alternating colors.  Then I set it aside to allow the shadow box to dry.

Step 3:

Then using the Black Chalk Paint, I painted the outer surfaces of the house.  I love this paint because it is really opaque and covered the entire surface in one coat. Once I had finished painting the surface, I set it aside and allowed the shadow box to dry.

Step 4:

I took some of the fun Halloween themed scrapbook papers I have and cut them down to fit the rooms.  I also used some of the cute papers provided in the kit.  I glued them onto the back wall of each room using a glue stick.  The paper patterns or pictures will create the theme for each room and make it easier to decide which items to place in there.  I could have followed the photo provided in the kit but I decided to do my own thing and loosely follow their example.

Step 5:

I sorted through all of the ephemera provided in the kit.  I added additional charms, tags, pins, etc. from my own collection of Halloween themed items to work with.

Step 6:

Once I decided which items I wanted to use, I started to decorate each room.  I used the glue dots to hold some of the heavier jewelry items in place.

Step 7:

To finish the DIY Halloween Haunted House Shadow Box, I decided to accent the outer frame of the house by adding black lace, ribbon, and few other items.

I love how it turned out.  I even used some light up pins to make it a bit more fun to look at.  Once the paint had dried, the actual part of decorating the shadow box only took  a short time to finish. 

This is my first try at a Halloween themed shadow box, I would love to know what others have used to decorate their boxes.  Leave a comment below and share your experience in making one of these DIY Halloween Shadow Boxes.

Once again, I would like to thank Plaid Enterprises for that cool box of paints they sent me.  I am able to apply them to so many projects.  If you want to see more creative Halloween projects, Plaid does have a bunch on their website, including their 75+ No Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas Post.

A peek at the Glitterfest gift show held in Santa Ana, California

As spring is approaching, one of the fun upcoming events is the "Spring Glitterfest 2012" show.  This is

an opportunity to embrace the creativity of the spring holidays, enjoy unique handmade items, and/or collect vintage collectibles.   The "Glitterfest" shows are created by Sheryl Simpson and

Dianne White.  Here is a peek at what I found at this year's Fall Glitterfest which was held on October 15, 2011, at the Elks Lodge in Santa Ana, California.  My friends and I arrived early to be able to catch all the fun and excitement of the event.

So we followed the excellent signage and joined the line of excited attendees who were kind enough to share their excitement with us.  They told us a little about the various artists that they were going to see.  Below is a peek at some of the wonderful work these artists had on display (and for sale).

IAbove is "In My Blue Room" and below is work by "Dennis Haynes". 

Lori Gutierrez

I also stopped to see the fun characters created by Jenny Hernandez (The Polka Dot Pixie).

Jenny also teaches sculpting classes at different locations throughout the year.  You can also so see more pictures of her whimsical characters on the Polka Dot Pixie flicker site.
The outside area of the show had some amazing booths that included the "Blossom Vintage Chic" booth, where I got to meet Debbie Watts.

I had a fun time talking to her and seeing her great selection of vintage and antique merchandise.  I also
spent some time talking to Linda Fitt and Sandi Woods of Eurotrash.Co.  They had some fun mini kits

for jewelry making and for tabletop decor, as well as a great selection of vintage inspired jewelry.
I was excited to find out that Michele Legler (Mosaic Cottage)  had a table at this show.  I love her

mosaic work and I was excited to see what merchandise she had to sell. She makes these very cool

mosaic cupcake pieces  and mosaic cakes that I just adore.

Another fun booth was "Beyond the Poison Apple" with fun selection of holiday merchandise made by

Rose Polanco.  I especially enjoyed her cute Halloween inspired tree ornaments and potion bottles.

Of course it would not be glitterfest if there was not at least one vendor actually selling an amazing selection of German glitter.  The Myer Imports German Glass Glitter Staff was so very helpful in

explaining the difference between the glass glitters and some of the cool fun things I could do with them.

They have a blog where they post ideas, links, and more on glitter related topics. I purchased some cool silver glitter, that tarnishes over time, to use on my crafty projects.

Additionally, each person who attended could enter their names in a drawing to win one of the many

Fun earrings by Sandy Moreno

Trinket Pin by Susan M. Walls

lovely prizes shown below (this is only a sample of the prizes).

A close up of the cool fairy piece.

The spring show is scheduled for March 10, 2012 and will be held at the Elks Lodge in Santa Ana, California.  The admission is $7.00 at the door and the parking is free.  You can park at the store in Tustin and take the shuttle or park at the Elks Lodge. I recommend the shuttle service because then you can visit the vintage "Whimzy" store and have a lovely lunch in the downtown Tustin area.

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