making the bed: art of the month

For the march bed I had this idea to make a bunch of frilly newspaper flowers to put up on the wall but couldn't decide on which kind to make. I then spotted this project (via decor8) which I immediately pinned and wondered how it would translate into larger flowers.

I love painting newspaper. Love it! It takes me back to kindergarten and gives me a chance to play with odd color combos. By doing up a new sheet of paper every week or so (or day), I manage to create a small pile for crafting into when the mood takes me there. All you need to do is blob paint onto one side and along the center fold, fold paper in half and smooch away. It's quite cathartic, inexpensive, and it packs a pretty punch. Thank goodness for that stack since I somehow managed to miss-cut my flower base three times! I kept cutting all the way through my folds thus ending up with two pieces instead of one happy flower shape (I was beginning and ending my cutting on the same side, don't do that). Not one to let it all go to waste, I figured out a way to incorporate the mistakes and ended up with a large floofy flower of sorts that adds just the right touch to my march bed.

You might be able to see that I accordion-folded the two miss-cut pieces and then tied them together. I cut two small slits in the large flower and used the yarn-tails to adhere the middle sized petals by lacing the yarn through the slits and tying the ends together in the back. I then cut one of my other miss-cut pieces into a smaller flower following the pinned instructions, with success! A short length of crepe paper streamer was fringed then rolled to create the center of the flower. I used a piece of washi tape to keep it together and a big whopping blob of glue to adhere the smallest flower to the middle and then the flower center to the top. Does that even make sense? Let's see...the largest flower layer is layer one, followed by the tied layer two, then the glue layer three and finally the center. The whole shebang is taped to my wall using packing tape that so far has not attacked us in our sleep. Overall, a fairly quick (save for drying time) and easy project (as long as you cut along the right folds...think diamond shape).

day of the dead mask happy

 Mister made our Halloween masks out of cardboard. He formed two cylinders and then paper machéd the tops. After sketching out a design plan he added eyes by cutting out sockets and layering cups so that they receded into the sockets. The plan was to later add glow sticks for pizazz (which we did). The jaws were added when we were invited to a Halloween party so that we could partake of spirits and such (with the help of a sippy cup straw, no kidding). 

Eyeholes were cut and covered from the inside with a bit of tulle. Mister's eyeholes were in his mustache while mine were in a series of squares that were originally going to be the mouth until the jaw was added. The insides of the masks were filled out with foam and more cardboard for a comfy fit. My mask utilized a ribbon tie to keep it atop my noggin. 

A couple of coats of white paint gave us a clean palette for painting and away we went. To keep the masks from looking too robot-like, mister added a hat to his and I added a pile of flowers made from party streamers and a swath of black tulle. 

 We had a blast making them and enjoyed a couple of evenings wandering about (what a trio we make with the family zombie). Now I need to figure out how to display them a I think they are the bees knees! Happy Halloween! 

new craft project: felty fall headbands

upcyle yer old and/or thrifted sweaters into pretty headbands (and ear warmers) for fall! over at craftzine.

still mulling but there is eye candy for you to enjoy over at craftzine.com

check it out.