Atom Model Pins

     In anticipation of UMaine Marches for Science, our local sister march to the national March for Science, I decided to make some pins for our organizing crew.  These are relatively quick to make if you have access to a die cutting machine such as the Silhouette CAMEO, but if not you may want to try drawing or printing an atom model and gluing rhinestones to it to save time.

Materials:
*Black cardstock
*Silver glitter cardstock
*Rhinestones
*All purpose adhesive
*Pins

Directions:
*Cut out four equally sized oval shaped rings for electron orbits from the silver glitter cardstock.
*Cut out a circle slightly larger than the length of the rings from the black cardstock.
*Arrange the rings in the shape of the atom model and glue down.
*Glue a big rhinestone in the center to represent the nucleus and little rhinestones along the rings to represent electrons.  Let dry.
*Once dry, glue a pin to the back.  Set aside to dry.

Mini Clothespin Zombie Heart

Materials:
*Red cardstock
*Black marker
*Scissors
*Mini clothespin
*All purpose adhesive
*Pencil

Directions:

*Draw a small heart sized to fit along your clothespin on the red cardstock and cut out.

*Draw a zombie face on the heart.

*Cut the heart in two pieces, following the mouth line.

*Glue the two halves to the top and bottom parts of the clothespin such that when the clothespin is closed, the two halves of the heart align.  Let dry.

*Once dry, your zombie is free to begin chewing away.

Zombie Fortune Valentine's Card

     Got a friend who is always wondering when they'll find love?  Help them figure it out with this handy wheel of fortune card.  Who knows, the zombie apocalypse may come sooner than we think!

Materials:
*Pink cardstock
*Red cardstock
*White cardstock
*Brad
*Hole punch
*Pen
*Mounting tape or other adhesive

Directions:
*Come up with a list of twelve zombie apocalypse love forecasts.  I've included mine at the end of this post if you need some inspiration.

*Either type up and print or hand-write the fortunes on the inside of the card.  Include your Valentine's Day message on the opposite page.

*On the front of the card, write at the top: What will your love live be like during the zombie apocalypse?

*On the bottom of the front of the card, write: Spin the wheel and then find the corresponding number inside.

*Make sure to leave enough space between the text at the top and bottom to fit your wheel.

*To construct the wheel, print out a copy of the wheel template below on white cardstock.

*Cut out the wheel and fold it in half along one of the black lines.

*Very carefully punch out a half circle shape from the center of the wheel and then unfold and smooth out the spinner.

*Draw a spinner on red cardstock, decorating as you wish, and then cut out.  Punch a hole toward the bottom of the spinner.

*Slide the brad through the holes in the spinner and wheel and flatten out the prongs at the end, taking care not to flatten too close to the end of the brad.  You want the spinner to be able to move freely.

*Adhere the spinner to the front of your card.  Give the spinner a few test spins before you glue it down to make sure it's functioning as intended.

Not sure what to write for your fortunes?  Here are the ideas I came up with:

1. You'll meet a partner who'll love you for your brains!

2. Someone will steal your heart - literally!

3. You'll have a fighting chance at love.

4. You'll have little trouble chasing someone down.

5. You'll be single, but it's for the best.  The pickings are slim.

6. You won’t be able to hold down a partner for long.

7. You'll bunker down with the last person you texted.

8. You'll be the most sought after person in town.  Too bad everyone sees you as a piece of meat.

9. There’ll be plenty of eye candy, but nothing lasting.

10. You’ll have lots of chances for a dinner date.

11. You’ll find someone who travels at your own pace, which is now very, very slow.

12. Your flings will be short lived.

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.

"Turkey Safe Zone" Thanksgiving Sign

     No turkey on your Thanksgiving menu?  Add this cute sign to your decor!

Materials:
*Red, yellow, orange, and brown cardstock
*Googly eyes
*All purpose adhesive
*Pen (or black cardstock)
*Laminating sheets (optional)

Directions:
*Note: I designed the below templates to work with my Silhouette CAMEO.  If you have a CAMEO of your own, you can cut out all of the pieces using that (for more instructions on using my templates with the CAMEO, see this post).  Otherwise, I'd recommend skipping the lettering part of the template and hand lettering using a black pen, although you could still use an X-acto knife to cut out the letters if you felt inclined to do so.

*Size the above templates to the desired size and cut out all of the pieces, with perhaps the exception of the lettering on the sign (if you do cut out the letters, you'll have to trace another copy of the sign shape onto black cardstock and put that in behind the constructed sign).
*Trace the sign shape onto yellow cardstock, the turkey body onto brown cardstock, four feathers onto red cardstock, three feathers onto orange cardstock, and the little triangular beak shape onto orange cardstock (the circular shapes are for making eyes, but if you're using googly eyes, you won't need them).  Cut out all of the pieces.
*Arrange the feathers out on the yellow sign and glue down.
*Add the turkey body and the beak, gluing those down as well.
*Write out "this house is a turkey safe zone" across the sign.  Try lettering it in pencil and then going over it with a black pen.
*For added durability, laminate the sign.
*Glue on some googly eyes and you're done!

Halloween Photo Booth Props

     The time has come for me to post my final Halloween post of the year.  Right now things feel bittersweet.  Halloween's not over yet, but I feel it rapidly drawing to a close.  The stores have slimmed down their Halloween picks to a couple of clearance aisles plus some candy.  The "Halloween Shop" at Target is illuminated by Christmas lights and all of my favorite props have long since vanished, not only from the shelves, but from the online inventory as well.  I've done a little bit of Halloween crafting this week, playing with pendant ideas for my witch costume, but I know that my time for Halloween crafting this season is limited and I won't be able to do much more than touch up existing props that are starting to age.
     But it's not over, not yet.  Yesterday was like a mini Christmas when my new spiderweb leggings, witchy top, and bat pajamas arrived in the mail, along with Brian's surprise for me: a fog machine.  I can't wait to set it up in my little Halloween cemetery on  Monday.  I'm also pumped to have an actual witch costume, instead of just throwing my hat and cape over regular clothes like I usually do.  This weekend I'll set aside time to watch a horror movie or two and prepare some Halloween treats.  I've started a list of the crafts/decorations I want to add to my Halloween setup next year.  There's still time to squeeze in a little more Halloween fun.
     Planning a Halloween celebration of your own this weekend?  Add some whimsy to your Halloween soiree with these fun photo booth props.  Here are some pics of the props in action from my party.  As you can see, for the photo booth itself I draped some black and purple streamers over the entryway between the living room area and the "foyer" and then added my Halloween plushie garland at the top.

Katie and Jacob with photo booth props.

Brian and me with props.

You may recognize this pic from my Halloween Party 2016 post.  I couldn't resist the chance to share it again.  Plus, it was the only picture I had of someone using the knife prop.

Materials:
*Cardstock in orange, black, white, and crimson
*Glitter cardstock in silver and red
*Thin dowels
*Paint in color(s) of your choice
*Paintbrush
*Duct tape
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive
*X-acto knife

Directions:
*Size the below template to your desired size and print out.

*Cut out the various pieces of the template, using an X-acto knife for the jack o'lantern faces, the inside of the lips, and perhaps the lens area of the bat glasses.
*To make the pumpkin glasses, trace the pumpkin glasses template onto orange cardstock and cut out.
*To make the bat glasses, trace the bat glasses onto black cardstock and cut out.
*To make the vampire lips, trace the filled in lips shape onto black cardstock, the parted lips onto the red glitter paper, and the teeth onto white cardstock.  Cut out each of these pieces.  Glue the teeth behind the red lips, but such that the pointed part pokes down over the bottom lip and then glue the teeth-lips to the black cardstock cutout.
*To make the knife, trace the knife piece with the partial blade onto the glittery silver paper, the handle onto black cardstock, and the blood drip onto crimson cardstock.  Cut out each of these pieces.  Glue the handle over the handle part of the silver cutout and attach the blood drip to the end of the blade part.
*Cut dowels to size if they are not already the appropriate size.  Mine I cut to about a foot in length.
*Paint dowels in the color of your choice.  Set aside to dry.
*Once dry, tape dowels to the back of the props using duct tape.

Jack O'Lantern Halloween Game

     Today Amber's Craft a Week Blog turns 5!  It's been difficult at times, churning out a craft (almost) every week as I finished my Bachelor's degree, my Master's, and started in on a PhD, but I'm glad I've kept going.  Thank you to all of you out there who have been a part of this journey, whether you're a constant reader or someone who checks in every now and again.  Here's to hoping for another five years!
     Today's craft is a game that is easy to make and fun for all ages.  I got the idea from this blog post, although I've structured my game differently to make it competitive.  As far as game play goes, each player starts off with a blank pumpkin template.  Players take turns rolling a die with sides labeled eye, mouth, nose, stem, add any, and remove.  If a player rolls eye, nose, mouth, or stem, the player adds that particular body part to their pumpkin shape.  Players need to roll "eye" twice, one for each eye.  If they already have the part that they roll, then they do nothing until their next turn.  "Add any" allows the player to choose which piece to add.  "Remove" requires that players choose a piece to take away.  The first person to complete their jack o'lantern wins.
     So that's how you play, but how do you make it?

Materials:
*Cardstock in orange, yellow, and green
*Pencil
*Scissors
*Wooden block
*Halloween/fall themed patterned paper
*Printer
*All purpose adhesive
*Optional: laminator

Directions:
*Resize the below template to the desired size and print.
*Cut out the template pieces.  I thought it would be fun to have a variety of jack o'lantern faces instead of just one, so I've included extra sets of eyes and mouths that you can mix and match as you please.
*Trace the pumpkin shape onto orange cardstock and cut out.  You'll want one pumpkin shape for each intended player.
*Trace a set of eyes, nose, and mouth onto yellow cardstock and cut out, one set for each jack o'lantern.
*Trace the stem onto green cardstock and cut out, one for each jack o'lantern.
*To make the game pieces more durable, you can laminate them if you'd like.
*To make the die, type out the words for the different faces in a word document, leaving a significant amount of space between each word.
*Print the words onto a Halloween or fall themed piece of patterned paper.  It works best if the paper uses one or only a few colors which are very different from your chosen text color.
*Place the wooden block over one of the words and trace around it.  Repeat with the other words.
*Cut out the resulting squares and glue them to the faces of the wooden block.  Let dry.
*Now you have your jack o'lantern game.  Enjoy!

Mini Mask Cake Toppers

     For my birthday cake, I wanted it to represent both the masquerade and The Shining themes.  I added the notorious phrase "redrum" in red lettering, sprinkles for confetti, and topped it off with some mini masks I made.  Brian did the icing.  It's not perfect, but then again we're mathematicians, not cake decorators and on the whole I'm pleased with the way it came out.  If you're hosting a masquerade of your own, these mini masks make for excellent cake or cupcake toppers.

Materials:
*Cardstock in a variety of colors
*Scissors
*X-acto knife
*Pencil
*Toothpicks
*All purpose adhesive
*Rhinestones, stickers, and other embellishments

Directions:
*Shrink mask template to the desired size and cut out.
*Trace the mask template onto the cardstock and cut out.
*Glue the mini mask to a toothpick and let dry.
*Add embellishments.  I used the eye hole cut outs for feathers, plus some rhinestones, beads, and stickers.  Now they're ready for your next cake decorating endeavor.

Paper Masks

     Planning on hosting your own masquerade?  Have some paper masks available for your partygoers to decorate.  This craft is relatively inexpensive and fun for all ages.

Materials:
*Cardstock in various colors
*Thin dowels
*Duct tape
*Pencil
*Scissors
*X-acto knife
*All purpose adhesive
*Rhinestones, sticker gems, and other embellishments of your choice
*Paint
*Paintbrush

Direction:
*Draw or print out a mask template that is the right size to fit your party guests.
*Cut out the mask template and trace it onto cardstock, then cut out.  Make enough mask shapes so that each of your guests will be able to make a mask.
*Trim dowels so that they are about a foot in length.  You can either paint them or leave them plain.
*If your mask makers are at an age where attaching the dowels properly might be tricky for them, you can do this step in advance.  Simply cut off a small strip of duct tape and tape the dowel to the back of the mask.
*I made paper feathers for the party using my Silhouette CAMEO.  If you want paper feathers, there are a number of templates available online that you can use, but if you're cutting by hand, this could be a time consuming endeavor.  However, if you have no objections to using real feathers, buying a bag of those would probably require a lot less effort on your part.
*For the paper roses I made, I used a similar technique to the one described in this post.  Instead of wrapping them around a stem, I rolled up one of the petals and glued the others around that.  Once I was finished, I snipped off the very bottom of the rose to give a flat surface that I could apply the glue to, but you have to be careful not to snip off too much or your flower will fall apart.  If you want to use flowers and paper flowers seem like too much work, you can find fabric flowers at your local craft store.  Even the bunches of artificial flowers from your local dollar store might work, for an inexpensive alternative.
*On the day of the party, set out the masks and the various embellishments.  Make sure to have plenty of glue on hand.  Let everyone decorate to their heart's content!  I was impressed by how creative my guests were, especially since they had only a little while to come up with their designs.

Brian and me with the masks I made for us.  Mine is glittery white with blue feathers to represent the snow and cold of the Overlook Hotel.  I used a red rose of mine because Wendy's actions are largely driven by her love for her family.  Brian's is red with fiery feathers because [spoiler alert] in the book and in Stephen King's miniseries, Jack meets a fiery demise.  The black rose is for the death and destruction and the evil of the hotel.  With modified flowers, though, these masks could work well for a fire and ice themed masquerade.

Some of your partygoers may prefer minimalist masks, like this one.  Props to kid brother, though, for taping his mask to his drink.  I never would have thought of doing that.

Dad with his mask.  I think this is the first year I've managed to get him to participate in one of my birthday party crafts.

Jacob with his mask.

Katie designed her mask to match her dress.

Mom with her mask

Of course Brian had to photobomb his mom.

Ayesha with her mask, with Katie photobombing in the background.

Prateek with his mask.

Paper Chandelier

     I love the aesthetic of chandeliers.  Unfortunately, in my apartment we can't really hang anything heavy from the ceiling.  My solution was to create a paper chandelier, based on the chandeliers shown in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie adaptation of The Shining.

Materials:
*Cardstock in black, white, yellow, and orange
*Scissors
*Pencil
*All purpose adhesive
*Twine

Directions:
*Size the below template to your desired size and print it out.

*Cut out the template pieces.  Trace 8 copies of the main chandelier piece onto black cardstock, 5 copies of each candle type onto white cardstock, 40 copies of the bigger part of the flame onto orange cardstock, and 40 copies of the smaller part of the flame onto yellow cardstock.  Cut everything out.
*Glue the two flame pieces to each of the two sides of each candle.
*Glue each candle to one of the appropriate spaces on the chandelier.  Once all the candles on a segment are glued down, glue another copy of the main chandelier piece over the side with the ends of the candles exposed.
*Once all of the segments are finished, glue them together to form the chandelier.
*Cut off two lengths of twine several inches longer than the diameter of the chandelier.  Glue (or tape) one end of the first length to the inside of the chandelier.  Glue the other end to the inside of the chandelier across the diameter from the first end.
*Glue the ends of the second string again across the diameter from one another, perpendicular to the first segment.
*Tie some twine around the intersection of the two strings and use this length of twine to hang up the chandelier.

Tissue Paper Flower Garland

Materials:
*20" x 20" sheets of tissue paper in 3 colors of your choice, four sheets of each color for a total of 20 sheets.
*Twine
*Stapler
*Scissors

Directions:
*Cut each sheet of tissue paper into four 10" x 10" squares.  Each set of four squares will make one flower.
*Fold four sheets together accordion style, using 1.5" folds and then staple the midpoint of the folded paper.

*Shape the ends.  I used three different styles for the ends to get three different floral looks (the rounded edges are used for this tutorial; see the other styles toward the bottom of this post), but feel free to experiment with different cuts.

*Spread out one side like this:

*Carefully peel up the first layer of tissue paper, pulling it toward the staple.

*Then lift the second layer.

*Next lift the third layer.

*Finally push up the bottom layer a bit.

*Repeat the process with the other side.  Fluff and spread the layers/petals until you have an arrangement you're happy with,

*Here are the other two petal styles and their resultant flower shapes:

*Once you've made all of your flowers, staple the backs to the twine.

*Once all of the flowers are attached, string them up.  Now you have a flower garland.