Sparkly Bottle Cap Refrigerator Magnets

Materials:

*Bottle caps
*Paint in color of your choice
*Glitter nail polish
*Magnet
*All purpose adhesive
*Paintbrush

Directions:

*Paint bottle caps in a color of your choice.  Let dry.

*Paint over dry paint eitw glittery nail polish.  Let dry.

*Add magnets to the insides of the bottle caps with all purpose adhesive.

Alice in Wonderland Playing Card Nail Art

     Looking for a fun but subtle way to incorporate Alice in Wonderland style into your look?  Or perhaps you need some ideas for an Alice in Wonderland costume?  Try these Alice-inspired playing card nails.

Materials:
*White nail polish
*Red nail polish
*Black nail polish
*Base coat
*Top coat
*Black nail art pen
*Thin nail art brush
*Plastic lid
*Cleanup pen (optional)

Directions:

*Paint nails using the base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails white.  Let dry.

*Paint nail tips alternating black and red.  I used a small amount of polish to paint a line going across the nail to mark out where I wanted to paint and then used more polish to color in the tips.  Let dry.

*Using nail art pens or a nail art brush, paint a playing card symbol onto your fingernails and A's onto your thumbnails.  The white polish I used had a nail art brush, which made it easy for me to clean up the edges of the diamonds.  I highly recommend using a thin brush for touching up mistakes.  Let dry.

*Seal with a top coat.  I've found that by touching up the edges of my nails with the top coat as small chips start to form, I can keep the polish intact for about a week.  With these ones, I also ended up touching up the tips with red as needed.  The picture of me as Alice (below) was taken six days after I painted my nails and you can see they still look mostly fine.

50 Reasons

     This post was inspired by a project that my local UMaine chapter of Active Minds put together.  During the fall semester, members of Active Minds asked students to write down positive things that tomorrow could bring on squares of paper.  They collected 1,100 squares, one for each student in the U.S. who dies by suicide each year, and assembled the squares into a quilt.  According to Sarah, President of the UMaine chapter of Active Minds, the goal of creating the quilt was to, "inspire hope, positivity, and optimism for the endless possibilities of tomorrow.  It's finished project symbolizes at least 1,100 reasons to stick around for another day."  The quilt, which was displayed at Fogler Library, provided a powerful visual reminder of what good the future could bring.  Some of my personal favorite suggestions were Halloween, cats, and playing Pokemon GO, but there were all sorts of ideas from foods to activities to goals that people could look forward to.

The quilt on display at Fogler Library

     Filling out some squares was cathartic for me and I thought it might be nice to adapt a smaller scale version of this project for my craft blog.  All of us have our rough days and it can be nice to have a visual reminder of the things we have to look forward to.  I came up with a list of 50 things I like and goals I have, but you could come up with any number of reasons that works for you.  I originally wanted to arrange the squares in a quilt, but I didn't have enough space on my wall, so I arranged them around existing artwork.  You could arrange them in any pattern you'd like.

Materials:
*Sticky notes
*Marker or pen

Directions:

*Write things that you like or goals that you have on sticky notes.  You can do this yourself or with a group of friends.

*Arrange the sticky notes in whatever pattern you would like to.

Googly Eyes Staple Remover

     When I was younger, I had a staple remover which I named Mr. Meanie Mouth because it looked like it had a fanged mouth.  When Brian brought home a staple remover, I named it Mr. Meanie Mouth II in honor of my old staple remover.  I thought it might be fun to give it some eyes, so here we are.  This craft is fast, easy, inexpensive, and may prove highly amusing.  I'm already considering giving the new stapler a face.

Materials:
*Staple remover
*Googly eyes
*Permanent marker or paint that is the same color as your staple remover
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Draw angry eyelids onto the two googly eyes.

*Glue googly eyes onto your staple remover.

How to Survive a Zombie Attack Poster

     Okay, so this one isn't so much of a craft as it is a printable PSA.  During these difficult times, it's essential that we all know how to protect ourselves.  There are a lot of nicer looking posters out there (I have zero artistic skills, so I skipped the graphics), but the info on this should be pretty solid.

Materials:

*Paper
*Printer (if available.  Otherwise a pen will do)

Directions:

*Print a copy or copies of the above "How to Survive a Zombie Encounter" poster.  If you don't have access to a printer/electricity, grab a pen and jot these tips onto any spare paper you can find.

*Post or distribute wherever you think they're needed.  Give one to your Valentine(s).  Make the world a safer place for us humans.

Zombie Newspaper Luminaries

     It's harder keeping up my posting schedule during the apocalypse than I expected!  Candles provide a cozy vibe for any Valentine's Day celebration (and once we run out of batteries for the flashlights, candles are what we'll have to work with anyway).  As an added touch, if you have any newspaper left on hand, make some luminaries for your tablescape.  If you want to shy away from zombie themed cutouts for obvious reasons, you can always cut hearts or other Valentine's Day related shapes from the newspaper.

Materials:

*Newspaper
*X-acto knife
*Scissors
*Candle
*Pencil
*Tape

Directions:

*Cut off a strip of newspaper that is as wide as you would like your luminary to be.

*Sketch the design you'd like for your luminary.

*Cut out the design.

*Tape the ends of the newspaper strip together to form a cylinder.  Make sure the candle fits inside with some extra room to spare.

*Once everything is ready, light the candle and then place the luminary over it.

Zombie Valentine's Day Paper Doll Chain

     Looking for some way to decorate for Valentine's Day now that the world has been thrown into chaos?  If you haven't burnt the newspaper left over from last week's tablecloth DIY for warmth, why not make some paper doll chains.  I made mine into zombies as an homage to my pre-apocalyptic Valentine's Day crafting tradition, but if you don't have the stomach for zombies anymore (totally understandable), then you may just want to make regular paper dolls.

Materials:

*Newspaper
*Scissors
*Pencil
*Pen
*Black marker
*Crimson paint (optional)
*Paintbrush (optional)

Directions:

*Take a strip of newspaper and fold it accordion style.

*Sketch half the outline of a person along one edge of the paper.  The figure's arm should be outstretched and should reach roughly the center of the paper.  Draw a second half outline which is holding hands with the first.  You may want to sketch the silhouettes in pencil and then go over them with a pen.

*Cut out the silhouettes and then unfold to reveal the paper doll chain.

*Draw on faces with a marker.

*If you're going for the zombie look, add blood splatters and maybe snip off some limbs.