Radiation Hazard Printable Sign

     If you've looked at my party pics from my recent Halloween parties (see Halloween 2017 and Halloween 2018), you may have noticed my radiation hazard sign on my fridge.  I actually made mine using my Silhouette CAMEO, but since Blogger doesn't make it easy to add SVG files to posts and since I imagine most of my readers don't have die cutting machines at home, I've turned it into a printable sign.  I made it in Paint, so it is a little pixelated if you print it at a large size.  However, if you have a better photo editing program which allows you to smooth the edges, that will probably fix the issue.  This sign could be a great addition to a Halloween zombie or science lab setup.

Materials:

*White cardstock
*Color printer
*Laminator (optional)

Directions:

*Print the sign out onto a sheet of white cardstock.
*Laminate if you wish.

Biohazard Belt

     Add some whimsy to your zombie Valentine's getup with a biohazard belt.

Materials:

*Biohazard tape
*Self-adhesive Velcro
*Yellow felt (optional)
*All purpose adhesive (optional)
*Scissors
*Tape measure (optional)

Directions:

*Cut off a length of biohazard tape a couple of inches longer than your waistline.

*If the tape seems like it will be too transparent, add some yellow felt to the back of the tape to reduce transparency.  My go-to all purpose adhesive did not work as well for this as I would have liked, so if you find an adhesive that works well for this, let me know.

*Adhere the barbed Velcro piece to one end of the tape on the right side of the tape.

*Wrap the tape around your waist, see where the end with Velcro intersects the other end of the tape, and add the other half of the Velcro strip to the wrong side of the tape in that spot.

*Trim any excess tape.

Zombie Felt Chocolates

     Why stop at a zombie candy box?  Give your loved ones a gift with a little bite.

Materials:

*Dark brown felt
*Light brown felt
*Brown thread or embroidery floss
*White thread or embroidery floss
*Red thread or embroidery floss
*Black thread or embroidery floss
*Stuffing
*Ruler
*Metallic marker
*Pencil
*Printer paper

Directions:

*Measure the dimensions of the chocolate cups in your candy box to determine the ideal dimensions for your chocolates.

*Either by hand or using digital software, draw out two dimensional chocolate shapes matching the shape and dimensions of each chocolate compartment.

*Trace and cut out two copies of each shape onto either dark or light brown felt.  If you have multiple candy cups of the same shape, you will want to trace twice the number of shapes as there are compartments with that shape.  For example, my candy box had two identical spots for rectangular candies, so I cut out four rectangular shapes.

*Using your thread or embroidery floss, embroider faces and designs on half of the chocolate shapes.  For some of the chocolates, I wanted to apply a chocolate or white chocolate drizzle effect, so I used a backstitch to sew on diagonal lines first.  Then I created the faces using black thread, which didn't work out super well for the darker chocolates.  After I finished the mouth and eyes, I added some red thread at the corners of the mouths to look like dripping blood.

*Once the faces are done, cut off a strip of felt 1/2" thick and a little longer than the perimeter of one of your chocolates.

*Wrap the felt around the perimeter of the chocolate, overlapping the ends until the felt runs along the edge of your chocolate.  Sew ends together.

*Next you're going to want to sew the chocolate to the felt ring.  If I could do this project over again, I would use blanket stitch, as I think that would have given the chocolates a nicer shape.  So, you can either place the chocolate right side up and place the ring beneath it and use blanket stitch, or you could place the chocolate right side down and place the ring beneath it, and then use backstitch or another stitch of your choice.

*Next you'll want to take one of the blank chocolate shapes and start sewing that to the other side of the ring.  If you're using a blanket stitch, you'll need to leave an opening large enough to add stuffing.  If you're using another stitch, you'll need to leave enough space to turn right side in and then stuff.  Sew closed.

Zombie Valentine's Day Chocolate Box

     Let your valentine know that you love them for their brains with a zombie chocolate box.

Zombified box vs. original box.

Materials:

*Valentine's chocolate box (ideally one with ribbon or trim sewn along the box)
*Zombie fabric (such as Alexander Henry's Beauty with Brains fabric)
*All purpose adhesive
*Needle and thread
*Scissors
*Sequins
*Metallic marker

Directions:

*Carefully remove any decorations from your chocolate box.

*If your box doesn't already have holes from where trim was sewn around the edge of the box, carefully poke holes into the box about 1/2" from the edge and spaced about 1/2" apart.

*Trace the top of the box onto the part of the zombie fabric that you would like featured on your box.

*Cut out the heart shape from the fabric and place it over the top of the box.  Use a little adhesive to secure it in place.  Make sure not to glue over the holes in the box.  Let dry.

*Once the glue has dried, sew the cloth to the top of the box using the holes that were left or that you created.

*Glue sequins around the edge of the box.

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.

DIY Zombie Nails and Zombie Photo Shoot

     This year I decided to go for a zombie look for Dare to Wear's annual Halloween costume contest.  I saw these awesome nails on Pinterest and decided to use them for inspiration.  I'm not nearly as talented as the person who painted those, but I think my nails give that "just crawled out of the grave" vibe nonetheless.  Plus, you can make these using just nail polish.
     I intended to take pictures of the stages, but it ended up taking some trial and error, removing polish and adding it back, before I got the "bruising" to a point where I was okay with it.  Thus, my instructions don't fully capture the process I went through.  Hopefully you can replicate these without those issues, but if it takes a few tries, you're in good company.

Materials:

*Clear base coat
*White nail polish
*Dark purple nail polish
*Lavender nail polish
*Magenta nail polish
*Crimson nail polish
*Nail art brush
*Makeup sponge or sponge brush

Directions:

*Start by painting your nails as you would for a French manicure.

*Sponge on dark purple around the base of the nails to create bruising.

*Sponge on a light layer of lavender nail polish to tone down the dark purple a little.

*Sponge a little bit of magenta around the edges of the "bruising.". Let dry.

*Use the nail art brush to draw on "cracks" in the nails in crimson.

*Add crimson "bloodstains" to the tips of the nails and sponge on some crimson along the skin beneath the nails.

Undying Love Photo Shoot

     For Dare to Wear's contest, I wanted to do something with the Sweetheart Top in scarlet.  The red roses remind me of Valentine's Day and Valentine's Day reminds me of zombies, so I decided to go with a zombie themed shoot I called "Undying Love." Here are the photos that I thought  captured the story.

Other Zombie Photos

     I also took some photos that didn't really fit into the narrative.  And since I have my zombie romper, I thought it would be funny to do a zombie shoot in a zombie romper, so we did a second photo shoot with the zombie romper.  I'm so glad we did that second shoot too, because I feel like I really got into character with that one and some of the pics are pretty creepy.
     This was probably my favorite photo shoot I've done.  The nice thing about being a zombie is that you don't have to worry about looking pretty.  I didn't have to smile.  I spent the two hours Brian was photographing me growling and gnashing my teeth.  This may sound weird, but I had a ton of fun pretending to be a zombie.
     The pics that follow are just a small sample of the ones Brian shot, and I love each one of them.

DIY Zombie Romper with Pockets

     I still can't believe I made this!  I've only made clothes from a pattern once before and those were pajama pants, which were much simpler.  I even managed to modify the pattern to use hook and eye closures instead of buttons without messing anything up!
     Okay, so maybe I'm overly excited about this, but what's not to love?  Zombie fabric, full size pockets that can comfortably hold my phone and its backup battery - it's like the romper of my dreams.
     Since I did use a pattern for this, in this blog post I'm only going to focus on adding the hook and eye closures, since I deviated from the pattern in adding those.  I know the directions on the pattern can be a bit confusing if you're new to sewing, though, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.  I'm no sewing expert, but I'll try my best to answer any questions.

Materials:

*2.5 to 3 yds Beauty with Brains fabric
*Simplicity Kwik Sew romper pattern
*Sewing machine or needle and thread (I used a needle and thread, but it took me five days to make this, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend if you have access to a sewing machine)
*0.75 yds fusible interface
*0.25 yds non-fusible interface
*Hook and eye closures
*All purpose adhesive
*Iron
*Metallic marker

Directions:

*Follow View A steps 1-14 of the pattern.

*Measure half an inch from the top of the right side (when wearing) bodice piece and place a dot at that location.

*Measure the distance between this spot and the waist.  Divide by 6 and mark out the remaining 5 places.  I used 2" increments for the XS pattern, but if you're making a different size you may need different increments.

*Sew eye closures onto each of these spots.  You'll have two layers of fabric here and you only want to see through the layer that will be sitting against your skin so the stitches won't show.

*I'm not sure if this is the best way to attach the hook closures, but here's what I did.  Initially I had marked the locations for the hooks on the left side in the same way I did for the eyes on the right.  However, I kept worrying that things wouldn't line up, so I looped the hooks through the eyes and marked out where the hook closures rested on the left side.

*Sew on the hook closures.

*Glue together the two layers of fabric using all purpose adhesive or fabric glue.

*Continue to step 16.

Some observations:

*I'm not sure how this works with the other sizes, but with the XS at least, the hip measurement is the most restrictive.  My natural waist is about half an inch larger than the largest size of the XS, while my hips are pretty much exactly the largest size that should fit into the XS.  The waist measurement turned out not to be an issue because the romper doesn't come all the way in to my waist (this may not be true for larger sizes), but because your hips have to fit through the place where the bodice meets the shorts, I can barely get my hips through.  I have to very carefully wiggle into the romper (although it's super comfy once it's on).  If you're between sizes in the hip measurement, you may want to consider going for the larger size.  If you're making the XS and your waist is a tad larger than the size range, it probably won't make a difference.

*The pockets are enormous.  For everyone who has been begging the fashion industry to give us clothes with real pockets, this is the romper for you.

*The pattern calls for less fabric than the 2.5-3 yds I recommend, but that's because they are assuming you're not using patterned fabric.  If you want to have specific zombies on the different parts of the romper, I would recommend getting more fabric.

DIY Zombie Pin Up Girl Throw Pillows

     We interrupt your regularly scheduled Goosebumps crafting to bring you the following post:
     You may be wondering, "Why zombie pin up girl throw pillows?"  Here's how this craft came to be.  Brian was at Joann the other day picking up some crafting supplies for me.  I had asked him to keep an eye out for spooky fabric.  He called me and told me that there was this fabric with zombie women on it.  I'm all about zombies, so I asked him to get me some.
     I wasn't sure what the fabric would look like, but I certainly wasn't expecting zombie pin up girls.  The fabric looked cool nonetheless, but I didn't really know what to do with it. I'm not sure how the idea came to me, but somehow I thought of making throw pillows.  This tutorial will work for any kind of throw pillows, so if zombie pin up girls aren't your thing, grab the fabric of your choice and get sewing!

Here are the other sides of the two pillows:

Materials:

*Beauty with Brains fabric by Alexander Henry (or fabric of your choice)
*Needle and thread or sewing machine
*Metallic marker
*Sheet of paper cut to the size you would like your pillow to be
*Scissors
*Stuffing

Directions:

*Select which part of the fabric you would like to have appear on the front of your pillow and place the sheet of paper over it.

*Trace around the sheet of paper and cut out.

*Choose which part of the fabric you would like to use for the back of your pillow and repeat the first two steps.

*Place fabrics together printed side in, with the zombies oriented in the same direction.

*Sew fabric pieces together, leaving about an inch along one side unsewn.

*Turn fabric right side in by pulling through the inch long hole.

*Stuff until the pillow reaches the desired fullness.

*Sew closed using the ladder stitch.  If you're not familiar with the ladder stitch (I just learned about it), here's the YouTube tutorial I used to learn it:

If you've been waiting for more Goosebumps crafts, fear not, for they will be back here next week.  I wanted to post this craft before the Beauty with Brains fabric sold out of crafting stores, but I have two awesome Goosebumps crafts slated for next week and the week after.

DIY Blood Splattered Nails

     Celebrate Friday the 13th with these blood splattered nails.  To be honest, I had completely forgotten about Friday the 13th until Brian mentioned it.  I saw splatter paint nails online and realized I could use the same technique for blood splattered nails because of course that's where my mind went.  It was only after I had painted my nails that Brian mentioned Friday the 13th, so I would have had blood splattered nails in the middle of April anyway, but if you need an excuse to join me, now you have one.

Materials:

*Base coat
*Top coat
*White nail polish
*Crimson nail polish
*Thin straw or coffee stirrer
*Nail polish remover or clean up pen

Directions:

*Paint nails with the base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails with white (or other light colored) nail polish.  Let dry.

*Dip the end of the straw into the crimson nail polish.  Over a well covered work space, blow the nail polish onto your nails one at a time.  Repeat until each nail is sufficiently bloody looking.  Let dry.

*Seal with a top coat.  Let dry.

*You will probably have a ton of excess nail polish on your hands at this point in time.  Clean up with nail polish remover and/or a nail polish clean up pen.

How to Survive a Zombie Attack Poster

     Okay, so this one isn't so much of a craft as it is a printable PSA.  During these difficult times, it's essential that we all know how to protect ourselves.  There are a lot of nicer looking posters out there (I have zero artistic skills, so I skipped the graphics), but the info on this should be pretty solid.

Materials:

*Paper
*Printer (if available.  Otherwise a pen will do)

Directions:

*Print a copy or copies of the above "How to Survive a Zombie Encounter" poster.  If you don't have access to a printer/electricity, grab a pen and jot these tips onto any spare paper you can find.

*Post or distribute wherever you think they're needed.  Give one to your Valentine(s).  Make the world a safer place for us humans.

Zombie Newspaper Luminaries

     It's harder keeping up my posting schedule during the apocalypse than I expected!  Candles provide a cozy vibe for any Valentine's Day celebration (and once we run out of batteries for the flashlights, candles are what we'll have to work with anyway).  As an added touch, if you have any newspaper left on hand, make some luminaries for your tablescape.  If you want to shy away from zombie themed cutouts for obvious reasons, you can always cut hearts or other Valentine's Day related shapes from the newspaper.

Materials:

*Newspaper
*X-acto knife
*Scissors
*Candle
*Pencil
*Tape

Directions:

*Cut off a strip of newspaper that is as wide as you would like your luminary to be.

*Sketch the design you'd like for your luminary.

*Cut out the design.

*Tape the ends of the newspaper strip together to form a cylinder.  Make sure the candle fits inside with some extra room to spare.

*Once everything is ready, light the candle and then place the luminary over it.

Zombie Valentine's Day Paper Doll Chain

     Looking for some way to decorate for Valentine's Day now that the world has been thrown into chaos?  If you haven't burnt the newspaper left over from last week's tablecloth DIY for warmth, why not make some paper doll chains.  I made mine into zombies as an homage to my pre-apocalyptic Valentine's Day crafting tradition, but if you don't have the stomach for zombies anymore (totally understandable), then you may just want to make regular paper dolls.

Materials:

*Newspaper
*Scissors
*Pencil
*Pen
*Black marker
*Crimson paint (optional)
*Paintbrush (optional)

Directions:

*Take a strip of newspaper and fold it accordion style.

*Sketch half the outline of a person along one edge of the paper.  The figure's arm should be outstretched and should reach roughly the center of the paper.  Draw a second half outline which is holding hands with the first.  You may want to sketch the silhouettes in pencil and then go over them with a pen.

*Cut out the silhouettes and then unfold to reveal the paper doll chain.

*Draw on faces with a marker.

*If you're going for the zombie look, add blood splatters and maybe snip off some limbs.

Zombie Valentine's Day Recycled Tablecloth

     Welcome to Amber's Post-Apocalyptic Craft a Week Blog.  I know a lot has changed in a short amount of time, but we can't let the hordes of invading zombies stop us from being our craftiest!  Valentine's Day is a little over a month away now, and what better way to celebrate than with a romantic candlelight dinner with your special someone?  Or a candlelight galentines dinner with friends? Or a relaxing candlelight dinner for one because few of us have consistent access to electricity anymore.
     The main thing you'll need for this craft is newspaper.  Where we live, The Weekly is mailed to everyone for free.  Or it was, until . . . you know.  The postal service hasn't been keeping up since the zombies came.  Anyway, a lot of people toss their copies of The Weekly into recycling immediately.  Brian and I had scavenged some copies so we could burn them for warmth, but then I realized that they also had a lot of crafting potential.  If you don't have any newspapers on hand, check your local supermarket or your neighbors' houses.  In a pinch, magazine or book pages could work as a newspaper alternative.
     You'll also need some candy wrappers, which I imagine you have an ample supply of now.  If not, head to your nearest convenience store immediately (with some well armed friends) and start stocking up on them before they're gone.  Red or pink wrappers are ideal, but really, any will do. If your valentine criticizes you for using non-Valentines colors in your tablecloth, you should probably turn them over to the zombies.
     The other supplies you'll need are tape, scissors, and glue.  If you don't have these on hand, head on down to your nearest craft supply store (with your well armed friends) and grab some.  There's a good chance no one has thought to raid their candy section yet either.

Materials:

*Newspaper
*Candy wrappers
*Scissors
*Tape
*Glue

Directions:

*Tape together as many sheets of paper as you need to cover your table.  Don't be too worried about lining everything up perfectly.  No one's going to see it very well by candlelight anyway.

*Cut out heart shapes from candy wrappers.

*Glue the hearts to the newspaper.

Now you're well on your way to having the post-apocalyptic Valentine's Day of your dreams!  Come back next week and I'll show you how to make a centerpiece or decorate with body parts, depending on how my week goes.