DIY Zombie Valentine's Day Embroidered Throw Pillow

Front of the pillow.

     February is around the corner, which means it's time for some more zombie crafts.  If zombies aren't the ideal way to show your affection, then I don't know what is.

Back of the pillow.

Materials:

*Zombie fabric (such as Alexander Henry's Beauty with Brains fabric)
*Red fabric
*Heart patterned fabric
*Thread or embroidery floss in red, pink, green, and black
*All purpose adhesive (optional)
*Pins or safety pins
*Metallic marker
*Ruler or 12"x12" sheet of paper you don't mind marking on
*Pencil
*Stuffing

Directions:

*Cut out 12"x12" squares of the red fabric and the heart fabric.

*Cut out a zombie of your choice.  You'll want to leave about 1/4" to 1/2" of background fabric around your zombie.

*Glue or pin the zombie in place on the red fabric.  If you use an adhesive, don't glue all the way to the edge of the zombie fabric piece.  It will be harder to sew the zombie piece on if you do.

*Sew the zombie to the red fabric using a backstitch.

*Lightly write the words in pencil over the red fabric.  I winged it, but there are ways you can transfer letters to your fabric if you want them more centered or neater looking.

*Use an embroidery stitch of your choice (I opted for backstitch again) to stitch the words.  I use a pale pink thread for everything except "zombie," which I stitched in green.

*For the back of the pillow, pick some hearts that you want to turn into zombies and some that you want to have non-zombie faces.  Use black thread or floss to sew faces onto the hearts.  Use red thread or floss to add blood to the corners of some of the zombies' mouths.

*Pin the front and back sides of the the pillow together, right sides in, and sew along the edges, leaving an opening to add stuffing.

*Turn right side in and stuff.

Horror Pocket Pals Michael Myers Plushie

     I'm really excited to present my latest craft series, a set of horror themed plushies which I call Horror Pocket Pals.  The idea for this series came to me when my sister Katie told me Jacob, her boyfriend, would love something handmade and horror related for Christmas.  Jacob's favorite horror movie is Halloween, so I thought it might be fun to make him a Michael Myers plushie.  The plushie turned out pretty well, so I figured I'd try making some of my favorite horror characters too.  That's how the Horror Pocket Pals came to be.
     I plan to post one Horror Pocket Pals post a month.  Currently I have about four posts worth of material, but I have some other ideas in the works, so we'll see how it goes.

Materials:

*Brown felt
*Gray-blue felt
*White felt
*Peach felt
*Black felt
*Gray felt
*Black thread (or another color or colors of your choice)
*Scissors
*Black buttons
*Stuffing
*All purpose adhesive (optional)

Directions:

*Print out the template below.  You will probably want an t least two copies of the template to make cutting out the the felt pieces easier.


*Cut out two body pieces from peach felt, one mask from the white felt, two suits from the gray-blue felt,  two of each shoe (for four shoes total) from black felt, two knife handles from brown felt, and one knife from gray felt.  For the hair, you'll want to cut out one in the hair shape indicated and another (for the back of the head) with the back part filled in (see picture below).  (I forgot to take a picture of the pieces before I sewed a face onto the mask and did the embroidery on the suit.  Don't worry about those until later steps.)

*Sew a face onto the white mask.

*Using a backstitch or running stitch, embroider on the collar and closure Michael's outfit (see above).

*Arrange felt pieces as shown below and then sew down.  You may want to put down a few drops of glue first to hold the pieces in place while you're sewing.

*Place the two felt pieces wrong sides together and sew using the blanket stitch.  Leave an opening in the head to add stuffing.

*Stuff and sew closed.

*Sew the knife handle pieces to the knife using a blanket stitch.

*Sew the knife to Michael's hand.

Easy Shimmery Star Confetti Earrings

     I made these earrings on the spur of the moment when I realized I didn't have any sufficiently sparkly earrings for my New Year's Eve outfit.  They took me probably about ten minutes to make, and that was with me exercising some caution because my nails were still wet.  If you do some jewelry making, you probably already have most of the supplies on hand, but if not, try finding some friends who would enjoy making these earrings and go in on the craft together to reduce the cost to individuals.

Materials:

*Ear wires
*Jump rings
*Jewelry chain
*Star shaped confetti
*Sewing needle
*Jewelry pliers

Directions:

*Pick out the confetti pieces that you would like to use for your earrings.  If the confetti pieces do not already have holes in them, use the needle to poke a hole in each confetti piece so that you'll be able to attach them to the earrings.

*Using pliers, open the loop at the bottom of one of the ear wires and slide on a piece of confetti and a length of chain.  I wasn't sure how long I wanted the earrings to be, so I attached the whole chain and trimmed it down once I was almost done with the earring.

*Use jump rings to attach stars at intervals of your choosing along the wire.

*Once you've figured out where you want your earrings to end, if you haven't done so already, use the pliers to open the chain link below the final link you want included and remove excess chain.

*Add your final confetti piece and then repeat the relevant steps above to complete your second earring.

Easy DIY New Year's Eve Crown

     Ring in the new year with this easy to make sparkly crown.

Materials:

*Metallic confetti
*Floral or craft wire
*All purpose adhesive or hot glue
*Wire cutters

Directions:

*Create a loop of wire the size that you would like your crown to be.

*Cut off excess wire, leaving a little extra to glue or twist ends together to form your crown.

*Place glue along a small section of wire and dip in the confetti.  Repeat gluing and dipping until your crown is finished.

DIY Winter Hat Ornaments: Two Techniques

     These winter hat ornaments are easy to make and if you already have some yarn on hand, they cost next to nothing to make.  They're the perfect craft for holiday parties or family time.

Materials:

*Yarn
*Toilet paper tube (or cardstock)
*Ruler
*Scissors
*Pom pom (needed for one technique, but not the other)
*All purpose adhesive (needed for one technique, but not the other)

Directions:

*Cut a 1/2" tall ring from the toilet paper tube.  If you don't have an empty toilet paper roll handy, cut off a 1/2" thick strip of cardstock and glue or tape the ends together such that the cardstock forms a ring with about the same diameter as a toilet paper tube.

*Cut off a 10" length of yarn and fold it in half.

*Insert the yarn into the ring such that the loop pokes out from the bottom of the ring like this:

*Slide the ends of the yarn through the loop like this:

*Pull tight so you end up with something like this:

*Repeat until the ring is full:

*Cut off another piece of yarn and tie it around the other strands of yarn like this:

*Turn the other way:

*To finish, glue on a pom pom.

Alternate Technique

*Once you have finished tying on all the pieces of yarn, flip the other way.

*Cut off an additional length of ribbon and tie around the hat.

*Trim above the place where you tied the additional piece of yarn to create the pom pom shape.

DIY Harry Potter Inspired Magic Wand Ornaments

     These magic wand ornaments are inexpensive and easy to make and are great gifts for magic lovers of all ages.  In addition to ornaments, these could serve as wands for dolls or stuffed animals (see this post for a different miniature wand tutorial).  If you put up a Halloween tree, these ornaments could be great for that too.

Materials:

*Toothpicks
*Clay
*Paint
*Jump rings
*Thread or thin ribbon
*Paint brush

Directions:

*Take your toothpick and form a handle covering the end of it using clay.

*Insert the jump rings into the end of the handle such that about half of the ring is embedded in the clay.  This will be where you hang your ornament from, so make sure it's in securely.

*Add details to the clay if you would like to.  You don't want to do the detail work before adding the jump rings, or you may squish your design in the process.

*Once you're satisfied with the design, bake clay in the oven following the directions on the packaging.  I baked mine for about 8 minutes at 225° F.

*When the ornaments have cooled sufficiently, paint the wands in whatever colors you would like.  Let dry.

*Loop some ribbon or thread through the jump rings so you can hang your wand from your tree.

Christmas Lights Nail Art

Materials:

*Gold nail polish or other "background" color
*Nail polish in the colors you would like the lights to be
*Black nail art pen
* Clear base/top coat
*Very fine nail art brush

Directions:

*Paint your nails gold or whatever color you chose for your "canvas."

*Using your nail art pen, draw two lines that oscillate up and down on each nail.

*Draw 4-5 lines perpendicular to each wavy line, with the first one pointing up, the second one pointing down, the third one pointing up, etc.  These are where your light bulbs will go.

*Using the nail art brush, paint the bulbs.  It's okay if they're not lopsided or not perfectly bulb shaped.  If you look at my nails up close, you can see many imperfections and asymmetries, especially on my right hand.  People will still get the idea.