Martha Stewart Halloween Issue

So every year I wait in anticipation for the Martha Stewart Living Halloween issue along with many other Halloween themed magazines. However, every year I'm usually let down with re-published pages of past projects and ideas. Granted a lot of those ideas are great, but can't we get some completely new ideas each year?

This year's issue is much better than the last two years and there are some new fun ideas. Of course they do republish a few old ones, but I guess that's for those new people that decided to pick up the issue. Either way it's on newsstands now. Check it out!

I've been working on my corpse skulls this weekend. I'm photographing the process so I can upload step by step instructions for those interested in making their own. Maybe later this week I'll get around to doing that.

Crafts of the Past: Part 2

Halloween; hands down my favorite holiday! So three's no surprise I craft a lot during this time. Continuing the thread from yesterday. Here are some more crafts I've created in the past sometimes with my friend, Eva.

Dia de los Muertos masks

Probably one of my favorite crafts I've done. We took a cheap costume mask and painted it white, then added floral decoration and designs in the style of Dia de los Muertos. These were made for a party a friend of mine was hosting.

Festive!

Hauntingly beautiful.

Ready to party with the dead!

Kid's Halloween Party

Last Halloween I threw a party for all the small children in our group of friends. We made a bunch of decorations that were fun and kid friendly. Everything we made was pretty much paper. including these Halloween Hang-ups. I got the idea from Martha Stewart, but we made them our own and hung them from the ceiling. 

So many fun looking characters!

If I had Candy Corn teeth I'd eat them and be toothless!

Who needs expensive decorations when you can do so much with paper!

Hello kitty.

Who needs expensive decorations when you can do so much with paper!

My wife Maegan and I are having a lot of fun with these

standees made from foam core.

 

Zombies are hungry! This was a game I created for the kids.

I bought pink rubber brains and had the kids toss them into the zombie's mouth. They loved it!

Hope you enjoyed taking a look at some of my crafts of the past. I look forward to sharing future crafting projects big and small.

Crafts of the Past: Part 1

I thought I'd share some of the crafts I've made in the past. My west coast sister Eva, is my partner in crime on a lot of the crafting I do. When we were working together a few years ago, she started a Craft Club which gathered on Thursdays during lunch. Now the two of us continue the tradition on Sundays when we can.

The Playhouse

This was one of the most fun and durable crafts I've ever made. Last year I threw a birthday party for my wife and most all of our friends have kids. Our son wasn't born at that time so we didn't have any toys for the kids to play with. So I decided to make a playhouse using cardboard boxes I bought from Staples, some glue and duck tape and a good coating of poster paint to make it look cute. 

As you can see it turned out great!

And when it's cold outside the kids can warm themselves by the fire.

Who's this outside my window?

Seneca approves of this house!

Even mommies like to come over and visit!

Despite the many children who have played under its roof, over a year later and this house still stands. It could however use a new coat of paint. ;)

Butterflies and Easter Trees

Using a butterfly paper punch from Michael's Crafts, colorful paper and fishing line we made these cute little mobiles. I gave mine to our friend's daughter and it now hangs in her bedroom.

I wanted to create an Easter craft so I came up with the idea to make a tree of eggs. I used plant wire for the base/trunk and then cut out various sized eggs on colorful card stock and taped them to the branches. I think it turned out pretty well, don't you? 

Googly Faces

I got this idea from istock.com. I saw a picture that had people with big bugged eyes. We used Crayola Model Magic and crafted these goofy looking facial features.

"Ooooh I see."

"What big eyes you have!"

I look smashing!

The Royal Crowns

Last up for today is a simple craft project that was great for younger kids. We took colored foam sheets and cut them out into crown shapes. We used string to tie them and then just added a bunch of flair and decorations to make them look fancy.

The Royal Crafters 

My nephew makes great crowns!

Tomorrow I'll post some of our Halloween crafts!

Halloween approaches!

First post!

So usually around this time of year I'm already well into planning my Halloween decor. I'm a nut for Halloween. No, seriously...black and orange? Crack. Skulls? Crack. Pumpkins? Overdose! This year I'm hosting a huge Halloween party so this past weekend I was making some mini corpses. The process is relatively easy, but messy. I bought a 3ft skeleton from Michael's Crafts and using liquid latex, cotton batting, cheese cloth and a little bit of paper towel, turned the skeleton on the left, into the corpse on the right. Pretty gnarly, huh?  My son who is six and a half months old seemed to love him so I guess I did it right.  He still needs a paint job.

Now normally my crafting is less dead like and more colorful. But since I'm starting this blog at a time I'm usually crafting monsters, that's all I have going on craft wise. I'll be making another corpse this coming weekend and will post pics of if in progress with more detail on the "how to." maybe I'll try to post some past crafts this week as well. That's all for now!