DIY Conspiracy Board Photo Display

     Brian and I are coming up on our 10th Halloween together.  I thought it might be fun to put up a photo display of Halloween seasons past in honor of this milestone.  To make it more fitting for Halloween, I decided I would do it in the style of a conspiracy board.  I glued photos over a map of the area and used some variegated embroidery floss and push pins to write out the number 10.  Also, you may notice that there's an empty spot in one corner.  That's where this year's Halloween photo will go.

Materials:

*Foam board (optional)
*Map
*Photos
*Push pins
*Embroidery floss
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*If you're using foam board (it gives the project a little more stability), glue the map to the foam board.

*Lay the photos atop the map.  Once you're satisfied with their arrangement, glue or tape them to the map.

*Use the embroidery floss and push pins to create some sort of design.  You can connect random points to give it the standard conspiracy theory board look, you could connect points that are meaningful to you, or you could create a number, word, or symbol.

Homemade Holiday Photo Cards

     Holiday card printing services can be expensive, particularly if you have a long list of people to send cards to.  Printing cards from home can be a cheaper alternative.  Here's how to create nice looking holiday cards from home.

Materials:

*Computer with photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop
*Digital photos for your card
*Holiday-themed scrapbooking paper (optional)
*Color printer
*Matte photo paper in the dimensions that you would like your cards to be
*Glitter or metallic gel pens (optional)
*Glitter cardstock (optional)

Directions:

*Design your card in your photo editing program.  Brian constructed our card, so I can't adequately explain the process, but this tutorial shows you how to create photo cards in Photoshop.

*Insert matte photo paper into the printer and print your card.  You can use cardstock if you're in a pinch, but the pictures won't be as crisp and the colors may be a bit muted.  Here is a comparison:

*Glitter and shiny embossing are two features that can really make holiday cards stand out.  Add some shimmer to your cards by tracing the text with glitter gel pens.

*Create a frame for your photos from glitter cardstock to give your cards some extra sparkle.

Mini Photo Album Pendant

     What's better than a locket?  A mini photo album that you can wear.  Fit eight of your favorite photos inside this teeny album.

Materials:
*Mini album pendant with hollow inner cavity, e.g. this Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Locket Box
*8 photos fitted to the size of the album
*Printer paper
*Mounting squares or all purpose adhesive
*Scissors

Directions:
*Align the eight photos along the edge of a sheet of printer paper leaving a slight gap between the photos, as shown below.

*Cut out the photo strip.

*Fold the photo strip accordion style.  The photos on either end should be folded inward.

*Adhere the bottom of the strip of paper to the inside of the album.

*Decorate the outward facing page of the album if you wish.

*Close and latch.  When you open it, pull on the top "page" of the album to show off the photos,

DIY Pokemon GO AR Trading Cards

     One of my favorite features of Pokemon GO is the AR (augmented reality), wherein the program superimposes an animated image of the Pokemon you've clicked on over the image of your surroundings displayed by your phone's camera.  It enables you to take all sorts of cutesy or humorous photos with your favorite Pokemon.  But what can you do with these photos once you have them?  Why not fashion your own trading cards using your AR images?

Materials:
*Printed AR Pokemon photos
*Letter and number stickers (I used my Silhouette CAMEO to cut out the letters and numbers.  It was cheaper than buying packs of stickers, but gluing down every letter took quite a while)
*Blue cardstock
*Red cardstock
*White cardstock
*Black cardstock
*Mounting tape and/or all purpose adhesive
*Scissors
*Pencil

Directions:
*Attach printed photos to blue cardstock and then trim off the excess cardstock around the photo.

*Using stickers (or letter cut outs), write the Pokemon's number in the Pokedex and its name across the top (or bottom) of the photo (see e.g below).

*Print out the Pokeball template given below and cut out the pieces.

*On black cardstock, trace the large circle shape.

*On red cardstock, trace the shape corresponding to the upper half of the Pokeball.

*On white cardstock, trace the shape corresponding to the lower half of the Pokeball and the smaller circle.

*Cut out the various cardstock shapes and assemble the red and white cardstock pieces over the black circle to create the Pokeball shape.  Glue down the pieces.

*Glue the Pokeball to the center of the back side of the card.

*Using stickers (or letter cut outs), write Pokemon along the top of the Pokeball, curving with the shape, and GO at the bottom of the Pokeball.  Now you have your very own Pokemon GO trading cards!

Further tips and ideas: if you have friends or family members who are also fans of the game, you can exchange cards with one another to get your favorite Pokemon/complete your Pokedex, or you can give them out as gifts.  Wondering where to store your new trading cards?  Find a plain photo album that will fit your cards (mine I printed on 6 x 4 photo paper and then bought 12 x 12 sheets separated into 6 x 4 segments) and decorate it to look like a trading card book.

Geometric Leaf Thanksgiving Scrapbooking Layout

Materials:
*Cardstock or scrapbooking paper for leaf
*Photos
*Scrapbooking paper in the color/pattern of your choice for the background
*Embellishments of your choice
*Scissors
*Acid free pen/marker
*All purpose adhesive
*X-acto knife or Silhouette CAMEO

Directions:
*If using the Silhouette CAMEO, download the below template and import it into your library.  You can use the tips outlined in this post if you're not sure how to cut it out with your machine.

*If doing by hand, print out the template and cut it out using scissors and, when necessary, an X-acto knife.  Trace the template onto the cardstock you've chosen for your leaf and then cut out the leaf shape.
*Once you've cut out your leaf shape (by either method), carefully trace the inside pieces of the leaves onto the backs of the photos.  Add a border around each trace line about 1/8" thick.  This way, when you cut out your photos, the leaf shape will overlap the edges of the photos.
*Crop your photos following the border you drew and glue to the leaf.
*Arrange the leaf on the scrapbooking paper you've chosen and then glue down.
*Add embellishments of your choice.
*If you're looking for an inexpensive way to display your page, you could place it inside a page protector and then prop it against some object, such as a weighted down box, which is what I did.

Popsicle Stick and Washi Tape Photo Frame

Materials:
*Popsicle sticks
*Washi tape
*Black and white photo
*All purpose adhesive
*Plain paper or paperboard (optional)

Directions:
*Lay out popsicle sticks long edge to long edge until you have enough to make a frame for your photo.
*Cover your popsicle sticks with washi tape.  For the sticks that I knew were going to be covered up by the photo, I just covered the ends to save on tape.

*Once you've finished adding tape, glue sticks together long edge to long edge.

*Glue down photo.
*For reinforcement, you can add some plain paper or some paperboard to the back of the frame.

Photo Ornament Holiday Card

     I love the idea of ornament cards.  Ordinary cards are nice, but it can be hard to figure out what to do with them once the holiday season is over (if you're looking for some ideas, see these three posts).  With ornament cards, you can place them on your tree and they're small enough that they take up little storage space.  However, they tend to be expensive if you buy them from a photo printing store.  Luckily for me, I figured out a way to make them inexpensively at home.

Shameless Promotion of Brian's Work Interlude

     Before I get into the heart of today's blog post, I want to take a minute to shamelessly promote my partner in crime, Brian's new coloring book because it is awesome.  It's called Maineiac Coloring (if you're unfamiliar with the term, Maineiac is another nickname for someone from the state of Maine) and it features 30 pages of his hand drawn, whimsical illustrations for you to color.  You can find a preview of it here, and if you like his work, please consider buying a copy.  If you have a colorer on your holiday shopping list, it would make for a fantastic gift and you can feel good knowing your money is going to help a couple of grad students pay for their school/living expenses.
     Now, without further ado, we return to your regularly scheduled crafting.

Photo Ornament Card

Materials:
*Patterned cardstock
*Digital photo and photo editing program
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive
*Acid free pen
*Hole punch
*Ribbon

Directions:
*In a photo editing program (I used Jasc Paint Shop Pro), open a copy (not the original) of the photo you would like to use for your card.
*Using a white circle, frame the photo.
*Draw a white line across the bottom of the encircled part of the photo about 3/4 of the way down.
*Erase everything below the white line.
*Draw a black circle encompassing the white circle.
*Erase everything outside the black circle.  It may help to draw a second white circle and place that around the black circle and then erase so that you don't have to come close to the black circle with your erasing.
*Once it's all finished, you should end up with something like this:

*Print out your photo at the desired size.  Mine was about 2.75" at its widest point.
*Write your holiday message at the bottom of the photo (alternatively, you could add text using your photo editing program).
*Print out the below snowflake at your desired size (mine measured about 3.5" across) and trace onto patterned paper.

*Punch a hole through the top of one of the arms of the snowflake and thread the ribbon through, knotting the two ends of the ribbon together to form a loop.
*Glue your photo onto the center of the snowflake.

Thanksgiving Family Photos Tree Centerpiece

Materials:
*2 sheets of brown cardstock
*1 sheet of green cardstock
*1 sheet of red cardstock
*Pen
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive
*Digital photos, computer, and printer
*Markers (optional)

Directions:
*Resize the below template to the desired size and print.  Alternately, if you have a Silhouette CAMEO, you can import this template into Silhouette Studio and have your machine cut out the pieces for you.  For a description of how to use my templates in Silhouette Studio, see this post.

*Trace each of the shapes twice, except for the leaf, which you can trace as many times as you would like.  Trace the tree and the extra set of roots onto brown cardstock, the half oval shape onto green cardstock, and the leaf onto red cardstock.  Cut out your shapes.

*Line up the two tree templates and glue together the top parts, but leave the rooty bottom part unglued, like this (you can see a double image at the bottom, where it's unglued, but not at the top, where it's glued together):

*Slide one of the green half ovals between the two trees and glue the roots to it.  Let dry.

*Glue the extra root pieces to the other green half oval (see above).  Let dry.
*Once everything has dried, cut a slit in the bottom of the glued together tree template, going about halfway up the green half oval.  Cut from the top of the other half oval about halfway down.  Your two pieces should look something like this:

*Fit the two pieces together to make a stand.  Due to the thickness of all of the cardstock pieces, it will be a snug fit.  If the two pieces don't fit together in such a way that the bottoms of the two half oval pieces touch the table, cut the slits a little deeper until they do.  Once you've made sure that they fit appropriately, you can disassemble the stand.

*Crop the photos into squares, paste them into a word document, shrink them down, and print them.  This is what mine looked like when printed onto a 4" x 6" sheet of photo paper:

*Cut out the photos, leaving white space around the edges to give a Polaroid-style look.
*If you want to go for a color-dipped photo look like I did, swipe a marker across the bottom of each one.
*Arrange the photos and leaves on the tree in a desired pattern and then glue down.  Set aside to dry.
*Once it's dry, slide the two half ovals together as before to make the tree stand.

Halloween Countdown Photo Calendar

     Looking for a fun way to count down the days until Halloween?  Try making a photo calendar using old Halloween pictures.  Don't have 31 Halloween pictures you want to use?  Leave some of the tags blank and let the calendar grow over time.  I used 11 pictures from the past 5 years for mine and am excited to see how the calendar will change in the years to come.

Materials:
*Tags numbered 1-31 (see below for ideas)
*Mini clothespins
*Small photos
*Glue
*Scissors
*Halloween ribbon
*Halloween themed bottle cap magnets
*Magnetic tape
*Black and white cardstock

Directions:
*Create number tags.  I cut out this pattern with my Silhouette CAMEO, using white cardstock to cut out the outside part of the tag and purple, black, green, and orange cardstock for the inserts.  However, there are tons of ways you could hand make tags, such as by using Halloween themed cardstock and gluing numbers to the tag, similar to what I did with this Christmas advent calendar.
*Select the photos that you would like to use for your calendar.  Crop them to squares and resize them so that they are small enough to fit on either the insert tags if you're using the same pattern I did, or on the back of the tags if you're making them by hand.  Glue them to the tags accordingly.
*Once the tags are dry, clip them to lengths of ribbon with mini clothespins such that the photo side of the tags are hidden from view.  Next week I'll be explaining how I decorated my clothespins, but if you're looking to make some in the interim, you can use paint, cardstock, stickers, Halloween shaped confetti, etc. for decorating.
*Use bottle cap magnets to hold the ribbon to the refrigerator.  Make sure to use strong magnets.  Mine weren't strong enough and so I ended up having to tape the ribbon to the refrigerator.
*Create a month label.  I used black cardstock and some ribbon from Dollar Tree for the background and overlaid white text in Times New Roman Font (with the exception of the "O," which I got from this Halloween monogram set), but decorate yours as you wish.
*Add magnetic tape to the back of the month label and place it on the fridge.
*To use the calendar, as each day of October passes, turn over the tags (or inserts) to reveal the photo, like I did with the "1" tag in the picture below:

Haunted Mirror

     If you plan to make one craft this Halloween season, make it this mirror.  It requires only minimal effort and skill, but the finished product is great.  It's definitely up there in my list of favorite Halloween decorations I've made.  I based the idea off of this tutorial, but made some modifications.

Materials:
*Picture frame
*Krylon Looking Glass Spray Paint
*Matte sealer
*Spray adhesive
*Print of an old looking photo
*Flat backed glass marbles
*Scissors

Directions:
*Find an old photo.  I went with a daguerreotype image because it already had a "ghost in the mirror" sort of look to it.  You can see it's really dusty, but in the end that doesn't matter because you're cutting around the subject(s), so as long as they aren't obscured too much by grime, you're good.  If you're photographing a daguerreotype of your own, I've found that the image shows up best when it's reflecting a dark background (in this instance my camera case).

This pic is of my great great grandfather William Cornelius "Neil" Bowen (the littler boy wearing the hat) and his brother James.  I've included some info at the end of the post if you're interested in learning more about the brothers.

*Print the photo onto plain printer paper.  If the picture you choose is not black and white (or if the lighting adds unnatural color to it, which is what happened with my photo), decrease the saturation before printing.
*Cut out the photo and then cover it with a matte sealer so that the colors won't bleed.
*Remove the glass from the picture frame and clean it, if desired.  If you don't clean it well or if you don't dry it all the way, you'll end up with splotches on your mirror.  This can add to the old mirror aesthetic, but if you want a crisp image make sure to wash it and either let it air dry or dry it with a clean T-shirt or other cloth that will not leave behind lint.
*Once the glass is dry, set it down on some newspaper in a well-ventilated area.  Slide the photo across the glass until you find a placement you like.  Place the photo face down on the glass and secure it in place by laying flat backed glass marbles on top of it.
*Spray the glass following the instructions on the back of the Looking Glass Paint bottle.  You'll end up doing five thin coats of paint to get the mirror look.
*An hour after applying the final coat of paint, remove the picture from the glass.  Apply one or two very thin coats of paint to the place where the photo was.  I ended up applying two, but I kind of wish I had done only one, as it would have allowed the image to show up better.
*Glue the photo in place using spray adhesive and set aside to dry.
*Once dry, place the glass back inside the frame.  Now you have your very own "haunted" mirror!

It's tricky getting the "ghosts" to show up well for the camera (isn't that how it always goes ;) ).  They are easiest to see when the mirror is facing a dark backdrop.  I managed to get the below picture by draping a navy blue blanket over a bench and across the floor in front of the mirror and then angling the camera so that I was cut out of the shot.  The same goes for seeing the "ghosts."  Depending on the lighting and background, you may see nothing more than a shaded region, but you also might see a sharper image, like the one pictured below.

A Haunting Good Time

     Here's a fun little trick to play on your friends.  Invite them over to your house.  If they don't immediately notice the strange reflection in the mirror, take a photo of them with the mirror and then show them the image and see what they say.  Alternately, you could upload a pic of yourself with the mirror to Facebook and see if anyone notices that you're not alone.

About the Bowen Brothers:

     John James "James" Bowen was born December 13th, 1847 and his brother William Cornelius "Neil" Bowen was born November 9th, 1849.  Their parents were Harriet Emily (Britton) of Philadelphia and Stephen Riley Bowen, born in Worcester County, Maryland.  The brothers were baptized at St. Mary's Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia on November 30th, 1849.  In 1850 the boys lived in West Philadelphia with their parents, their maternal grandmother Julia Ann Allen (Blodget) Britton, and several aunts and uncles.  Their mother died in February of 1852.  I have yet to determine what happened to their father; he may have died as well, but by 1860 the brothers had been separated.  James stayed with his grandmother, while William Cornelius was sent to Northampton County, North Carolina to live with his aunt Ellen Matilda (Britton) and her husband Dr. Cornelius Godwin Cotten Moore.
     In 1870 the brothers were again living together in Philadelphia, this time at the home of their uncle John Blodgett Briton.  James was working as a medical doctor.  This is the last record I can find of him before his death certificate.  He was listed as single at the time of his death.  He worked as a physician and inventor until his retirement.  Toward the end of his life, he was living at the Old Man's Home in Philadelphia.  He died on January 4th, 1918.
     "Willie," as he was  referred to in the census record, was working as a clerk, perhaps as a summer job, since he was a student at the University of Virginia during this time period.  He was an instrumental member in the establishment of the fraternity Kappa Sigma.  After finishing his schooling he returned to Northampton County to practice law.
     On June 5th, 1877 he married Frances Josephine "Josi" Southall, daughter of Sarah Clifton (Wheeler) and James Hunter Southall.  Josi had been born in Mississippi, but was sent to North Carolina to live with her aunt Julia Monroe (Wheeler) and uncle Godwin Cotten Moore at their plantation Mulberry Grove, which was where she and Neil married.  The young couple settled into a former plantation house nicknamed "Southerly" near Jackson, North Carolina.  They had five daughters together, Harriet Emily Bowen, Julia Southall (Bowen) Peebles (my great grandmother), Ellen Britton Bowen, Josephine (Bowen) Hughes, and Bland Clifton Bowen.
     Around 1890 Neil moved to Denver, Colorado for health reasons.  Josi and the girls stayed in North Carolina.  Josi passed away on January 25th, 1893 and her sister, Julia Monroe Southall took over caring for the girls.  By 1910 Neil had returned to Jackson and three of his daughters were living with him.  He died on September 23, 1911 and was buried at the Church of the Saviour Cemetery in Jackson.

Alice in Wonderland Photo Wall

     In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, when Alice falls down the rabbit hole, she sees photos and maps lining the walls of the tunnel.  The book doesn't specify what these are photos of, so you could use any images you would like, but here are the ideas that I came up with.

Flowers with Faces

     Take photos of flowers and add some googly eyes to make some flowers with faces photos.  You could also add other features, like mouths, but I stuck to photos where the flowers already had a mouth-like structure.

Scrapbooking Paper and Old Maps

     Find sheets of scrapbooking paper that remind you of Wonderland or old maps and cut them to fit the frames.

Quotes

     Choose a quote from the book that you like and type up or hand write it.  Find some corresponding scrapbooking paper or stickers to decorate it.

Keys

     Using the key bookmark template, create a key and select some cardstock for the backing that you think corresponds well.

Silhouettes

     Create silhouettes following the procedure outlined in the Silhouette Cake Topper post and cut out shapes to make a scene with them.  If you have a die cutting machine that allows you to import your own designs, such as the Silhouette Cameo, you can create a scene in a program such as Paint and have the machine cut it out for you.

Wonderland Photo Shoot

     Have some of your friends dress up as Wonderland characters and take pictures.

Scrap flower

     I made this picture using the scraps from the paper teapot vases that my Cameo left behind and the petals from the red roses (since I printed the white rose template on red cardstock and so the leaves did not turn out green).

Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party

     On Sunday I had my Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party, so for the next few weeks (or months) I'll be posting some Alice in Wonderland themed crafts.  Today's post will be an overview of the party so you can get a sense of what it looked like and I'll try to link to each craft as I write the posts.  You may also want to see my earlier post on my Alice in Wonderland charm bracelet.

     First up is the snack table.  This was one of my favorite things about the party.  I really liked the setup and the happy sunflowers are so adorable!

     On the ceiling are some playing card streamers.  I used extra fabric to cover up the printers and then added decorations to the top.  On one of the printers you can see a mouse and a rabbit inside teacups:

     To make the mouse I used the templates and instructions for the "Lavender Dormice" in the book Everything Alice, with some modifications.

     For the White Rabbit, I used the template and instructions for the White Rabbit in the "Wonderland Mobile" in Everything Alice, again with some modifications.  In the book they do some gorgeous embroidery on the rabbit, but I don't know how to embroider things and so I left that off.

     On the other printer you see my key tree and my old stuffed animal cat, David Copperfield, playing the role of Dinah.  I made him a clay name tag with the name "Dinah" on it using the same technique as I did when I made the clay nameplate earrings.

     Here's the crafting table.  We decorated paper "teacups" and made some paper fans.  I found some oversized playing cards at a yard sale a little while back and I taped a few of them to the booth for some added decoration.  It's hard to see from this picture, but I have a clear plastic tablecloth covering the cloth one.  I found that was the perfect way to have a nice tablecloth without having to worry about it getting stained.  On the wall are some Alice in Wonderland themed photos and artwork that I used to replace the regular photos I have hanging on the wall.  You can also see that I kept my whimsical spring floral arrangement and my spring butterfly mobile out for the party.  I thought they went well with the rest of the decor.

     Here are the decorations on the other wall.  Some of them are kind of hard to see, but I'll have better pics in a later post.

     These are the plates, napkins, and straws I used.  They all came from Dollar Tree.  And here are some photos from the party:

     Here are some of the guests being crafty.  Katie is wearing Cheshire Cat ears.

     Here's me as Alice and Brian as the Mad Hatter.

     Trying to give dad bunny ears.

Cake time!