Halloween Fun!

What screams Halloween more than witches, candy, and creepy castles?  It was hard for me to choose, so I did a little bit of all three!  Wood Creations sells a lot of pieces that come in groups of three, but also sold separately.  I decided to pick the small witch in the set, the medium candy corn, and the spooky castle that came by itself.  They turned out pretty cute, I especially like the witch.  I wasn't sure how she would turn out, after the battle with the burlap failed! (I wanted to work in some burlap ruffles, but it pretty much fell apart in my hands) 

 

The witch came unfinished in three pieces.  The main body, broomstick handle, and the hat overlay.

 

I painted her with black, leaf green, and wild iris purple.

 

I bought the paper, straw, spider, ribbon, and wire at Wood Creations.  I glued the paper and fringe down first.  I bought the fringe a couple years ago, and decided it would be great to use after the burlap idea was a total fail.  I thought it would spice her up a bit.  I finished off her fringe choker with a rectangle clear rhinestone.  The final thing was the straw hair and broom.  For the hair, I used a line of hot glue, and just shoved the straw in it.  Once both sides were glued down, I gave her a hair cut to even it out.  I did the same thing with the broom, a line of glue, wrapped the wire, then trimmed the broom.  I paint the eyes and chalk the cheeks last on every project, and viola! She was complete!!!

 



 

Next came the castle.  This was the easiest one to do.  It came from the shop unfinished in 8 pieces: 4 windows, the castle, a moon, a door, and a bat.

 

 

I painted the castle and door is wild iris purple, the moon is a light yellow, pumpkin orange for the windows, and black for the bat.

I used a yellow/orange glitter chalk to shade the moon, and purple to trim the bat. 

After gluing the paper down, I edged the castle with tuxedo black, and dark brown on top of that. I used a printed paper on each of the windows, and topped them off, as well as the door with a shimmer glue.  I added rhinestones for the bats eyes and the door knob.

The candy corn turned out too cute!  It came from the shop in 2 pieces.

I painted it light yellow, pumpkin orange, and wicker white.

I glued a printed paper on the molding and added some iridescent chuncky glitter on the top, and finished it off with some ribbon...p.s.  Wood Creations has the best ribbons EVER!

And...TA-DA!!!

 

 

 

Sweet Summer Time!!!

Wood Creations posted a few of their new summer items on FaceBook, and I absolutely fell in love with this one!  How fun is this!!!  It incorporates everything that I love about hot summers.  What is not to love about sweets?

The kit sold in the store includes each wooden piece and the chipboard overlay for the watermelon and ice cream cone.  I have all of the basic things as far as paint and glitter, but you can pick up everything you will need to complete a project at their store.  I love the convenience of it! 

I start all of my wood projects by sanding the rough edges off each piece.  If you leave them rough, it is harder to paint and doesn't look as clean when you have finished the project.  Once I have sanded my pieces, I paint them.  It is a personal preference of mine to paint all sides, even if I cover them with paper.  I think it also better protects the wood that goes outside.

After each piece is painted and dried, I apply any scrapbook papers I am using.  Be sure to trace your pieces out before you paint them so you don't leave pencil marks on your paint job:)  I also cut my papers while the paint dries to save time.  Modge Podge works great for papers and glitters.  I use foam brushes to apply my Modge Podge.  Make sure you apply it evenly and smooth down your paper right away so you don't get bubbles under your paper. 

Once the paper has been glued down and is dry, the fun begins.  I never really know how the piece will look until I am finished.  On the sign, I added the cherries in the corner to tie in the red with the pink...there is a fine line when you mix hot pink and red!  I used flat wooden circles, paper to cut out leaves, and a piece of spare brown wire as the stems.  I hot-glued the wire to the wood, then topped the wire with the painted (bright red), glittered cherries.  On the bottom of the piece, I added a strip of paper from the coordinating back of the paper I used.  Once it was all assembled, I chalked the outside of the leaves and the edge of the sign with iridescent green and aqua chalk.  The sign was painted with turquoise paint and the glitter I used was an iridescent tinsel cherry popsicle.  I like the fact that depending on how the sun hits it, the tinsel changes colors.   





The popsicle was fairly simple.  I added medium and small orange rhinestones to the orange poka dots on the paper.  The wood was painted crocus yellow, and I added lemon drop tinsel glitter to the popsicle stick.  The outside edge is shaded with iridescent yellow chalk.

The watermelon base was painted spring green, and the top piece is bright red.  For the base, I used sour apple tinsel, and mint fine glitter.  I added candy apple tinsel in the cracks on the top piece.  The edges are chalked with a red iridescent.  To finish it off, I curled black wire for the seeds.  Way cute idea shown on the store display.  Love it!

My favorite part was the ice cream cone.  Here is where the cherry idea came into play.  The store has half wooden circles, so I picked one up when I bought the set.  I played around with the idea, and to my surprise, it turned out just how I planned it in my head...that never happens!  I added the whipped cream with mini rhinestone sprinkles:)  I hot-glued the wire first, then topped with the glittered cherry.  For the wood, I painted the ice cream turquoise, and the cone royal fuchsia.  The cone is topped off with cotton candy tinsel glitter.



Each piece is assembled with black wire.  I curled the wire and let 2 inches hang in between each piece. (I bought 2 yards just in case, but 1 yard would cover this project) Once they were all together, I added ribbon and toole to finish it off.  Once you finish a project whether it stays inside or goes out, make sure you seal it.  I use a matt finish spray seal.  You can pick this up at Wood Creations as well.  This will allow you to clean your pieces if they get dusty inside and protect them from the elements outside.  Be sure to follow the directions on the can so you don't mess up all that hard work.  I will usually seal mine after all glitter and before I place any rhinestones.  It tends to make them look cloudy.  Always put extra coats on anything that goes outside.

This was such a fun project, and looks even better on my front door!!!  Thanks to Wood Creations for giving us such fun, cute projects to make!  Homemade is better any way you look at it:)

EMB