DIY Wooden Tarot Cards

 

This year, Joann has paintable wooden tarot card garlands as part of their Halloween offerings. I thought it would be fun to create my own tarot card designs and ended up pulling inspiration from my writing. Each of the cards you see here was inspired by a story or publication of mine.

Today's post isn't really a tutorial, since I designed these tarot cards with specific personal meaning in mind. However, I thought you might still like to see them and perhaps could gain inspiration from them. Instead of using the traditional iconography for the Major Arcana, I made the cards my own. Here's a brief explanation of each card:

The Magician became The Witch, and this card is still in progress. I've done all the major work, but there are still some places I need to touch up. This bookshelf is from a currently unpublished story (although it may be published in the not too distant future 🤫). That's about all I can say about it at the moment.

The Lovers uses imagery from another unpublished story of mine, The Hitchhiker. It's a take on the classic urban legend of the same name, and it involves a romance between the driver and passenger. The rock and necklace are gifts they exchange with one another. And that's all I'll say to avoid too many spoilers.

The Hermit became The Writer. This was the card that inspired this whole project. I thought it would be fun to try and represent myself as a tarot card, and since writing is such a major element of my identity, I themed it around that. Those are the four anthologies I've been published in. I went with the number nine just because it's my favorite number, but it worked out really well because I can be a bit of a hermit. 

Lastly, we have Strength. This one uses a symbol from my short story "Jane," which was published in Grizzly: A Charity Anthology. Butterflies, and monarchs in particular, are often seen as symbols of strength and rebirth.

Amber's Hallo-zine 2024

 

I'm so excited to present to you the latest issue of Amber's Hallo-zine! I had a ton of fun putting together the first issue in 2020, and it was great to finally get back to it. This one has a creepy doll theme. Inside, you'll find a new doll-related craft and recipe, a fun costume quiz, creepy doll costume ideas, a writing game, an excerpt from my short story "The Doll," and more. Click on the Google form below and put in your name and email to get your free copy today. 

You can also opt-in to receive email updates about my writing if you'd like. It's not a required question, and I don't know if I'll actually end up using any emails collected, as ideally, I'll have a newsletter at some point that folks will be able to sign up for. But I figured it doesn't hurt to give people the option to opt-in.

Download Here

Exciting Things to Come

 No new blog post this week because things are pretty busy right now. I'm drafting the last quarter of my third book, editing a short story, and I have a talk coming up next week, which the flyer above details, so I haven't had a ton of time for crafting. But I do have some cool ideas in the works, so I wanted to to take a moment to share my plans with you. 

First up, I have a new Hallo-zine in the works. I decided to go with a themed issue this time. (Any guesses?) In it, you'll find a fun quiz, costume ideas, a new craft, an excerpt from one of my stories, and more. I still have a few pieces left to write, but I'm hoping to get this out in the next couple of weeks. 

After that, I have a number of costume ideas in store for you, so get ready to bust out your felt and removable vinyl. And yes, one of these costumes is Pokémon-related. I also have a couple of one-off crafts, and between those and the costumes, that should take us through Halloween season. 

I can't wait to share these with you all! 

More DIY Potion Bottles

 

Repurpose empty seasoning bottles in this fun Halloween craft. 

Materials: 

*Pre-washed seasoning bottles

*Plastic Halloween figures

*Potion label charms 

*Twine

*Hot glue

*Glitter, shaped sequins, sprinkles, or other "ingredients" to fill the potion bottles 

Directions: 

*Pick a Halloween figure and label that work well together. For example, I paired a bubbling cauldron with my witch's brew charm and a bat with my wool of bat charm. 

*Remove the lid from the seasoning container and hot glue the figure to the center of the lid. Let cool. 

*Tie the charm around the neck of the bottle using twine.

*Fill the container with glitter, sprinkles, sequins, colorful liquid, or something else that represents the potion ingredient. For example, I used witch's brew sprinkles for the witch's brew and shredded black felt for wool of bat.

*Seal the container. Now your potions are ready for display.

Clay Sheet Ghost Earrings

 

Add some spooky whimsy to your outfits with these adorable ghost earrings.

Materials:

*White oven-baked clay

*Jump ring

*Toothpick

*Ear wires

*Jewelry pliers 

Directions: 

*Take a small amount of clay and shape it into a thin circle roughly 1.5"-2" in diameter. 

*Shape into a sheet ghost shape. You may find it helpful to drape over the end of a pen or similar object. 

*Embed a jump ring in the top of the ghost's head. Make sure enough of the ring is sticking out so that you can slide an ear wire through.

*Use a toothpick to press a face into the ghost.

*Bake in the oven in accordance with the directions on the clay packaging. Let cool.

*Using pliers, attach ear wires to the ghosts.

DIY Bear Ears

 

I'm back! Sort of. I still have the tendon injury, which limits how much time I can spend writing. And since I'm a horror writer, I need to spend most my writing time focusing on my fiction. But I've made a number of crafts and DIYs over the past few years, and I miss sharing them with you all. So I hope to pop in from time to time with a new craft.

Since Halloween is on the horizon, I figured today I'd show you how I made these bear ears. I made them for a book release, which I'll tell you more about at the end of the post. But first, the tutorial. 

DIY Bear Ears

Materials:

*Black headband

*Black felt

*Pink felt

*All purpose or fabric adhesive

*Scissors 

*Marker for tracing 

*Bigger cylinder and smaller cylinder for tracing circles (sizes depend on your preferences for the ear size)

Directions: 

*Trace and cut out two larger circles in black felt and two smaller circles in pink felt.

*Center the pink circles on the black circles and glue together.

*Line up the circles along the headband where you would like them positioned and trim off the excess felt that dips below the headband.

*Glue the ears to the headband. Let dry. 

Grizzly: A Charity Anthology

I'm so excited to share that my short story "Jane" was accepted into Grizzly: A Charity Anthology! All proceeds from this anthology benefit Take Back the Night, an organization dedicated to ending sexual assault globally. Inspired by the man vs. bear debate, all of the stories have a bear theme, although in some cases, the bear is central to the story whereas in others, the bear exists in passing mention. The anthology is multi-genre, and my story is horror. I'm including the blurb below, and if you would like to learn more, you can check it out on Amazon or Goodreads. It is only available until September 10th, so if you'd like to have a copy, make sure to pick it up before then. 

The Blurb: 

Boys will be boys.

Bears will be bears…

Brace yourself for twenty mixed-genre tales, all tied together with a neat bear- shaped bow that your mother would be proud of. Guaranteed to make you ‘smile more often’ and rage like it’s ‘that time of the month’.

Written by femme SA survivors for all SA survivors, Grizzly is the charity anthology that aims to give back and bite back.

Sometimes, when you can’t find the strength to roar, a growl will do.

Best Laid Plans

 

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while since I posted anything.  Unfortunately, it's also going to be a while before I post something again.

Back in mid-December, when I was in the midst of making my Holiday Barbie 2021 cosplay, I sustained a wrist injury from a combination of typing on a bad keyboard and hand-sewing through too much fabric.  I really wanted to keep going with both my writing and crafting, and so I pushed through pain that I shouldn't have.

I did eventually cut back and start taking it easy.  I thought I would bounce back quickly.  I didn't.  For some reason, my arms aren't healing properly.  Now, to be clear, I experience little to no pain the majority of the time.  As long as I'm not pushing myself to do more than my body wants, I'll be fine.  But unfortunately, my arms have a hard limit on what they are willing to do in a day.

For example, I can type for three hours exactly.  If I start going for more, I have a not as pleasant day the next day.  I haven't tried crafting much since my injury, but I'm sure there are definitely craft projects that are out of the question for now as well.

Since I only have three hours of writing time in me a day, I have to use that for my work.  Which means even if I were to make a craft, I wouldn't have the time to blog about it.  So I'll be taking a break from posting here until my arms have recovered some more.  I don't have a good sense of when that will be.  I'm hoping by Halloween season, but we'll see.  So farewell for now.  I hope to see you on here again in the not too distant future.

- Amber