DIY Stencil Cap

     Want to add a design of your choosing to a plain baseball cap?  Here's an easy and relatively cheap method for doing so.  I've been making a Pokemon GO trainer costume for Halloween and made this cap as part of it.  If you're working on a Pokemon GO trainer costume of your own, check out this earlier post for ideas about how to get started on the costume with basic pieces from your wardrobe, and tune in next week to see how I piece mine all together.

Materials:
*Baseball cap
*Fabric paint in a color of your choice
*Waxed paper
*X-acto knife
*Painter's tape
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Size the below Pokeball template (or whatever template you are using) to the size you would like it to be on your cap and print out.

*Glue the white space around the outside edge of the Pokeball shape to a sheet of waxed paper.

*Using your X-acto knife, carefully cut out the Pokeball shape, cutting through both the waxed paper and the paper.  Cut off some of the excess paper around the shape as well, making sure not to cut through the glued part.

*Tape the waxed paper with the Pokeball shape cut out of it to the cap using painter's tape.

*Fill in the Pokeball shape with fabric paint.

*Once you are done painting, carefully peel off the waxed paper.  Fill in any uneven areas or areas you missed with some fabric paint.  Let dry, following the directions given on the paint packaging.

Spooky Faced Halloween Prop Candle

Materials:
*Dollar store LED color changing candle
*Dollar store LED tealight candle
*Toilet paper tube
*Pencil
*X-acto knife
*Hot glue
*Black paint
*Paintbrush
*Soldering iron (optional)
*Solder (optional)

Directions:
*Draw a spooky face on your toilet paper tube.

*Carefully cut out the face using an X-acto knife.

*If you don't want to solder on extra length, you'll want to trim about half an inch or so off the toilet paper tube.

*Drip hot glue across your toilet paper tube, making sure not to cover up the face.

*Once the glue has dried completely, paint the inside and outside of the tube black.

*Carefully disassemble your two candles.  You'll need the part with the LEDs from the big candle and the white top part from the tealight candle.

*Paint the white cords connecting one of the LEDs to the base black.

*Solder on some extra length if you'd like.  I can't really explain this step in detail because Brian took care of the soldering.

*Glue the top LED bulb to the top part of the tealight candle.

*Slide the toilet paper tube over the tealight candle until the candle is at the top of the tube.  Hot glue the tealight candle to the toilet paper tube.  Layer on more and more glue until your candle is well secured.  Make sure the rings of hot glue are fairly level.

*Glue the bottom of the toilet paper tube to the base of the candle.

*Once all the glue has dried, paint the top part of the candle black.  Let dry.

Here's a pic of the candle in a dark room.

A video clip of the candle glowing in a dark room.

Barbie Halloween Cemetery Angel Statue

     My favorite Halloween crafts involve sprucing up my Halloween cemetery.  I love searching for new details I can add to it.  I wanted to add a statue to it this year and this doll stone angel was seemed like an easy and relatively inexpensive option.

Materials:
*Barbie or similar doll (I used one of the $1.00 ones from Dollar Tree)
*Long, flowy doll dress (another Dollar Tree purchase)
*Hot glue
*Cereal box
*Felt
*Gray paint
*Paintbrush
*Granite spray paint

Directions:
*Gather your doll and her dress.

*Dress doll in the dress.  If her hair is in a ponytail, remove the elastic and smooth out.  If you're using one of these Dollar Tree dolls, you may be surprised to find that they have bald rings on their heads.  This actually won't end up mattering, as you'll see in a moment.

*Draw a line of hot glue from the doll's roots down to the ends of her hair.  Repeat this until you've covered her hair in hot glue.  This will give her hair a more statuesque look and will cover any bald patches.

*Draw and cut out angel wing shapes from your cereal box or similarly weighted cardboard.

*Cut feathers from felt and glue them to the cardboard, starting from the bottom of the wings and working your way up.

*Glue the wings to the doll.
*Paint the doll and wings using gray paint.  You don't have to cover up the colors completely, but the less colorful your doll is, the less spray paint you'll have to use.

*Spray paint your doll using granite spray paint.  You may need to use multiple coats to mask the colors.  Once you've done enough coatings for your liking and your doll is dry, it'll be ready to add to your Halloween cemetery.

Halloween Foam Tombstone with Plaque

     I got the idea for this stone from Dave Lowe's excellent blog post.  (If you love Halloween props and haven't seen his Halloween posts, you should definitely give them a look.)  Originally I was planning on doing something that more closely approximates his design, but halfway through I decided that I didn't like the way mine was coming out and switched things up.  Unfortunately, this means that I don't have photos for all steps of the process, but I've included pictures when possible.  For other Halloween tombstone ideas from yours truly, check out these posts.

Materials:
*Thin sheet of craft foam
*Pencil
*2' x 2' sheet of insulation foam
*Hand saw or similar implement (I used a bread knife)
*Sandpaper
*Protective goggles
*Ventilation mask
*X-acto knife
*Pen
*Gray paint
*Black paint
*Granite spray paint (optional)
*Bronze colored paint
*Wood glue
*Paintbrush
*Toothpick

Directions:
*Print out or sketch the design you would like your plaque to have.
*Place the design on top of the craft foam and trace to imprint your design onto the foam.  This step was actually trickier than I anticipated.  The craft foam is very soft, so I found that the pencil kept breaking through the paper.

*Trace over the imprint of the design in pencil.

*Carefully cut out your design using your X-acto knife.  As you're cutting, aim your X-acto knife at about a 45 degree angle toward the inside of the letter.  This will ideally make it so that when you cut the opposite side of the letter at a 45 degree angle, the two cuts will meet in a triangular shape and the excess foam will pop right out.  In practice, however, you may have to scrape at the foam a little to get it to come out completely.

*Carefully paint the insides of the lettering and designs black.  I used a toothpick for most of this to make sure I got the paint into the crevices of the foam.  Set aside to dry.
*Paint the raised portion of the plaque with bronze colored paint (I mixed gold, black, and brown paint to achieve the bronze color of my plaque).  Set aside to dry.  If you get some of the bronze colored paint inside the letters, then cover it up with some black once the bronze paint has finished drying.
*Using a pencil or pen, sketch out your desired tombstone shape onto the insulation foam, making sure that your stone design is wide enough to fit your plaque.
*Cut out your tombstone to size using a saw or a similar implement.  I found that a bread knife worked better than the hand saw I'd been planning on using.
*Sand down any rough edges of the stone.
*Paint the stone with gray paint.  Additionally, you can add some granite spray paint to give it a more stonelike appearance.  Set aside to dry.
*Once both the stone and the plaque are dry, glue the plaque to the stone.  I used wood glue for this because that was what I had on hand that would provide a strong bond, but I'm sure there are more appropriate glues out there you could use.  Do not use a glue with acetone in it, as the acetone will eat the foam.
*Once the glue has dried, your headstone is ready!

Halloween Plushie Garland

    Looking for an adorable addition to your Halloween decor?  Why not make a plushie banner?  What if you like one of the plushies, but don't want to make a banner?  No worries, this tutorial is arranged in multiple stages, with one section for each of the plushies and a final one for the garland.  Just skip to the plushie that you're interested in and work from there.

Happy Candy Corn Plushie

Materials:

*1 sheet white felt

*1 sheet yellow felt

*1 sheet orange felt

*Black felt

*Metallic marker or chalk

*Needle and thread

*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Print out a copy of the below template, sized to your desired size:

*Cut out the template pieces and trace onto the sheets of felt using a metallic marker or chalk.  Trace two copies of the candy corn shape onto white felt, the middle candy corn piece onto orange felt, and the top piece onto yellow felt.

*Cut out the various pieces, as shown:

*Glue or sew the yellow and orange bands onto one of the white candy corn shapes.

*Stitch together the two candy corn shapes, leaving an opening for stuffing.  I used a blanket stitch for this.

*Stuff and sew closed.

*Cut out a face from black felt and glue onto your candy corn plushie.

Black Cat Plushie

Materials:

*2 sheets black felt

*Yellow felt

*Metallic marker or chalk

*Needle and thread

*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Print out a copy of the template below, sized to your desired size:

*Cut out the template and trace onto the sheets of felt using a metallic marker or chalk.  Trace two copies of the template onto black felt.

*Cut out the two pieces, as shown:

*Sew the two halves together, adding stuffing as you go.  When I was working on the tail, since it's so thin I was pausing every few stitches to add more stuffing.  I used the end of a pen cap to squeeze it inside.

*Finish stuffing and sew shut.

*Cut out two eyes from the yellow felt and two pupils from the black felt.  Glue the pupils to the yellow felt to form eyes and then glue the eyes to the cat.

Jack O'Lantern Plushie

Materials:

*1 sheet orange felt

*Yellow felt

*Green felt

*Metallic marker or chalk

*Needle and thread

*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Print out a copy of the template below, sized to your desired size:

*Cut out the template pieces with your choice of eyes and mouth and trace onto the sheets of felt using a metallic marker or chalk.  Trace two copies of the pumpkin shape onto orange felt, a copy of the stem onto green felt, and two eyes and a mouth onto yellow felt.

*Cut out the pieces, as shown:

*Sew or glue the stem to one of the pumpkin shapes.

*Sew the two pumpkin shapes together, leaving an opening for stuffing.

*Stuff and sew closed.

*Glue on the jack o'lantern's face.

Bat Plushie

Materials:

*1 sheet black felt

*1 sheet purple felt

*White felt

*Crimson felt

*Lilac felt

*Metallic marker or chalk

*Needle and thread

*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Print out a few copies of the template below, sized to your desired size:

*Cut out the template and trace onto the sheets of felt using a metallic marker or chalk.  Trace two copies of the body onto black, two copies of the outer ear piece onto black, two pupils onto black, four copies of the wing onto purple, two copies of the inner ear on lilac, two eyes onto white, two fangs onto white, and a mouth onto crimson.

*Cut out, as shown below:

*Place two wings back to back and sew together.  I used a running stitch for this step.  Repeat with the other two wings.

*Sew together the two body pieces, sandwiching in the wings and ears as needed.  I used a combination of blanket stitch (when sewing just the two body pieces) and running stitch (when there was a wing or ear sandwiched between the body pieces).  Leave an opening for stuffing.

*Stuff and sew closed.

*Glue the pupils onto the eyes and glue two little white fangs onto the mouth and then glue on the bat's face.

Making the Garland

Materials:

*Plushies

*Scrap felt

*Ribbon

Directions:

*Cut strips from scrap felt.

*Glue together the ends to form loops.

*Glue one loop to the back of each plushie and then set aside to dry.

*Once dry, string the plushies onto the ribbon, gluing into place if desired.