Halloween Foam Tombstone: Adventures with a Cheap Rotary Cutting Tool

     Each year I try making a new foam tombstone for my Halloween cemetery.  I've had good success using an X-acto knife to carve insulation foam and craft foam and okay success carving Styrofoam, but the problem with these methods is that the carving is so time consuming.
     If you watch video tutorials on carving foam tombstones, you'll notice that many people use a Dremel with a special blade and attachment for their carving.  The cutting process is much faster and the results are amazing.  However, Dremels can be expensive.  What if you want the speed of cutting foam tombstones that a Dremel gives, but you don't have the money?
     Enter the inexpensive rotary cutting tool.  You can find these at discount hardware stores for as little as $5.  My brother gave me one as a gift last fall and I figured I'd see how it worked.  I've never used one for carving before, but instead of doing the sensible thing and practicing on scrap foam before getting started, I just went for it.  I used the thinnest tip it came with for carving the letters and a thicker one for the scratches.  Given that this was my first attempt with a rotary cutting tool and I wasn't very patient, I think it came out pretty well, about comparable to the stones I carved with an X-acto knife.

Materials:
*Insulation foam
*Rotary cutting tool
*Paint in various shades of gray
*Paintbrush
*Hand saw or bread knife
*Pen

Directions:

*Decide what shape and size tombstone you would like.  If you do a quick search, you can find tons of templates and design ideas online.  This one's a reference to Brian's story Fire at Dusk.

*Using your saw or bread knife (a decent substitute if you don't have a saw on hand), cut your foam to size.  If you're going for a narrower stone, you might be able to get two stones out of this one sheet of foam.

*Sketch or trace on the design you would like to use for the top of the headstone and cut it out using the saw.

*Sand down any rough edges with sandpaper.  You may also want to sand down any sharp corners to make the stone look aged, if that's the style you're going for.

*Print out your design and center it on the foam and then trace over it with a pen, pressing down hard enough to indent the foam.

*Trace over your indentation with a pen

*Cut out the lettering using your rotary cutting tool.  You'll want to trace the outline of the letter first with the tool and then go back and cut out the inside.

*Paint the stone using the darker gray color, making sure to fill in all of the crevices to the best of your ability.  I had to do two coats to get all the nooks and crannies.  If you have fine details, you can use the end of a needle to squeeze paint into the crevices.

*Combine the two shades of gray until you get a color that is a shade or two lighter than the dark gray.  Paint the surface of the stone, but skip the inscription.  This will enhance the visibility of the inscription.

Halloween Creepy Rag Doll

     Dolls have a special place in our culture as a beloved plaything, but some can be downright creepy.  With frog-like button eyes and a too wide stitched mouth, this doll is the perfect addition to any Halloween scene.

Materials:
*Cloth for the doll's head, torso, and limbs
*Scrap cloth for the doll's clothing
*Needle
*Black thread
*Yarn for hair
*Buttons for eyes
*Stuffing
*Scissors
*Metallic marker or chalk
*All purpose adhesive
*Pencil
*Paper
*Ribbon to go around the waist of the doll's skirt

Directions:

*Sketch or print a template for your doll.  I didn't think to scan mine before using it, but if you look at the picture from the next step you'll get a sense of how to draw a template of your own.

*Trace the template components onto the respective pieces of fabric and cut out.

*Sew a face onto your doll.  The eye placement may look normal now, but once you sew together the doll and stuff it, they're going to be closer to the sides of its face, giving it an amphibious look.

*Place two of the leg pieces one atop the other, right sides facing in, and stitch together, leaving an opening at the top for the stuffing.

*Turn the legs right side in (you might want to use something like a pencil or a chopstick to aid you if the legs are really thin) and stuff.  Sew closed.

*Repeat with the other leg.

*Cut out scraps of fabric to make the doll's top and sew or glue to the torso.

*Sew together the two pieces of the doll's body, decorated sides facing in, leaving an opening at the bottom for stuffing.

*Turn the doll's body right side in and stuff.

*Insert the doll's legs into the bottom of the doll's torso and sew closed.

*Sew together and stuff the arms.

*Sew the arms onto the doll's torso.

*Cut out two triangular-ish shapes for the doll's sleeves.

*Glue on the sleeves with an all purpose or fabric adhesive.

*Cut out scraps of fabric to use for the doll's skirt.

*Glue on the skirt.  Glue some ribbon around the waist of the skirt.

*The final part of the process is to sew on the doll's hair.  I don't think I could explain how to do this in words, so here's the video I watched to learn how to do it.

Glittery Rainbow Picture Frame

     Bring some color and sparkle to any room with a glittery rainbow frame.

Materials:

*Picture frame
*White paint
*Red paint
*Orange paint
*Yellow paint
*Green paint
*Blue paint
*Purple paint
*Black paint
*Glitter paint
*Sponge paintbrush

Directions:

*If the picture frame is not already white, paint it white.  Let dry.  I only used one coat of white paint, which did not fully cover the black of the frame, which meant I had to apply more paint later in certain places to cover the dark spots.  You may want to do multiple coats to avoid having to do this.

*Once the frame is painted white and completely dry, paint your first color in one of the corners of the frame.  I started with a pink, which I made by mixing red and white paints

*For your next color, start by marking off the places where you want this layer of color to end and then fill in, working your way back toward the first color.

*Once you reach the first color, mix together the two colors a little where they meet.

*Repeat the process for the second color with the third, then fourth, then fifth, etc. colors.  The more intermediate colors you use (e.g. going from yellow to yellow-green to green-yellow to green instead of from yellow straight to green), the more the colors will blend and transition into one another.

*Once you've finished painting the various colors, let dry.

*Once the frame is dry, paint on a layer of glitter paint.  Let dry.

Pet Sematary Inspired Halloween Potion Bottles

     I was planning on waiting until the end of the month to start posting Halloween crafts, but everything I've wanted to make recently has been Halloween related, so here we are.  Now that Brian has his dark sorcerer costume, it's probable that he and I will be dressing up as a dark sorcerer and witch for my Halloween party for the foreseeable future.  I thought it was about time to start making my house look more like a witch's abode, which would require some potions.
     Graveyard dirt/dust is a pretty standard Halloween potion, one that I've made a potion bottle for in the past.  I originally planned on filling a vial with dirt to make a standard "graveyard dust" bottle.  The dirt from my front yard doesn't look much like the richer soil one would find digging several feet underground, so it seemed inadequate for a bottle of graveyard dirt, but it works fine for dirt from a pet cemetery.  Or from Pet Sematary.  One of the taglines for the book and movie is, "sometimes dead is better," so the slogan at the bottom of the vial is a play on that.

     In the book/movie, Jud Crandall says to Louis Creed, "The soil of a man's heart is stonier, Louis."  "Soil of a man's heart" sounded like something you might find in a witch's cabinet, so I decided to make it into one of my potions.

Pet Sematary Graveyard Dirt

Materials:

*Glass jar

*Cat figurine

*Hot glue

*Black paint

*Red paint

*Paintbrush

*Toothpick

*Dirt

*Coffee stained paper

*Colored pencils (optional)

Directions:

*Fill the jar with dirt.

*Glue the cat figurine to the lid of the jar.

*Paint the cat figurine and lid black, except for the cat's eyes.  Paint the cat's eyes red (I used a toothpick for this).

*Using some coffee stained paper (for staining directions, see this post) that is relatively flat, size and print the label below:

*Color in the label if you wish.

Soil of a Man's Heart

Materials:

*Glass jar

*Rocks

*Dirt

*Coffee stained paper

*All purpose adhesive

*Colored pencils (optional)

Directions:

*Fill the jar with some ratio of rocks to dirt that seems appropriate.

*If you find a neat looking rock, you can glue it to the lid for some added decoration.

*Using some coffee stained paper (for staining directions, see this post) that is relatively flat, size and print the label below:

*Color in the label if you wish.

Legendary Pokemon Articuno Paper Earrings

     This past weekend Pokemon GO released the first of the legendary Pokemon, including Team Mystic mascot Articuno.  Articuno is my favorite legendary bird, so I knew I had to make some craft to mark this event.  These earrings are made from cardstock, so they're not the most durable, but they're great for a costume or party favor.

Materials:
*Light blue cardstock
*Dark blue cardstock
*Ear wires
*All purpose adhesive
*Pencil
*Coin (I used a half dollar, but my earrings are pretty large, so you may want to use a smaller coin)
*Scissors
*Needle

Directions:

*Using the template below, cut out two Articuno shapes from the lighter blue cardstock.  This will work a lot better if you have a Silhouette CAMEO or other die cutting machine, but you could cut and trace.

*Trace your coin onto the darker blue cardstock to create two circle shapes.

*Cut out the circle shapes and glue the Articuno silhouettes to the circles.

*Use a needle to poke a hole in the top of each of the circles.

*Slide the ear wires through the holes.

Pokemon Vaporeon Hair Bow

 
   Whether you're planning on celebrating Pokemon GO Fest from Chicago or in your own neighborhood, make one of these adorable bows to keep your hair off your face as you play.

Materials:
*Medium blue/teal felt
*Darker blue felt
*Off white felt
*Metal hair clip
*Scissors
*Paper
*Pencil
*Metallic marker or chalk
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Cut a strip of the medium blue/teal colored felt as thick as you'd like your bow to be.

*Glue together the ends of the felt.

*Sketch out Vaporeon's ears.  Alternately, you can use the template I give below, although I didn't scan it before I cut it up, so it's a bit messier than usual.  I originally tried drawing both ears on the template, but I couldn't get them symmetric enough for my liking, so I just used the half of the template that's complete.  That rectangular spot in the middle is where the bow will be tied.  Make sure when you're cutting out your ears that you include that, or else you might bot be able to tie off your bow properly.

*Cut out the entire ear shape from the off white felt and cut out only the uppermost segment from the darker blue felt.

*Glue the darker blue felt to the cream colored felt.

*Cut a strip of the medium blue/teal felt as thick as you want your bow's tie to be.

*Pinch the thick strip of medium blue/teal felt that you're using to make your bow in the middle such that it becomes a bow shape.  Center the Vaporeon ears at the center of the bow.

*Take the thin strip of medium blue/teal felt and glue one end to the back of the bow at the location of the pinch.  Carefully wind it around the pinched part of the bow and ears.  Glue down the other end at along the back of the bow.  You may also want to slip the metal hair clip piece under this strip of felt as well to better secure it in place, but I didn't think to do that.  Once you're done gluing down the thin strip of felt, your bow should look something like this:

*Cut a piece of scrap felt into the shape of Vaporeon's fin.  Make sure to round the bottom a little.

*Glue the fin onto the top of the bow.

*If you haven't done so already, glue the hair clip to the back of the bow.

A Different Kind of Scrapbook

     When I was a kid, my mom used to clip the comics from the Bangor Daily News and paste them into notebooks.  She created many volumes in this fashion.  My siblings and I got a kick out of reading them and they provided a source of comfort when we were home from school sick.  These collections of comics were a form of scrapbook.
     While many of us today associate with scrapbooking the art of preserving pictures, historically scrapbooks have been collections of "scraps" and memorabilia.  Articles, images, anything the scrapbooker thought was worth preserving could be pasted inside a book for safekeeping.  While some are themed, others, like mine, are a hodgepodge of collected tidbits.
     To get started, all you need is a notebook, a glue stick, and some "scraps" to paste into your book.  My book is still a work in progress and so far it includes comics, newspaper clippings, tear off calendar pages, cat memes, and infographics, among other things.

Materials:
*Notebook
*Glue stick or mounting squares
*"Scraps" such as comics, articles, images, etc.
*Markers or other decorating tools (optional)

Directions:
*Glue "scraps into your notebook.  Decorate as you wish with markers or other embellishments.