Halloween Rag Doll Nail Art

Halloween is almost here.  Need a Halloween manicure idea?  These rag doll nails are the perfect addition to a creepy doll look.

Materials:

*Nail polish in a variety of colors of your choosing

*Nail art dotting tool

*Ultra fine nail art brush

*Black acrylic paint

*Painter's tape

*Scissors

*Nail polish base coat

*Clear nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Paint nails with a base coat.  Use a regular base coat, not a peel off base coat (or the painter's tape will peel up your polish).  Let dry.

*Choose three colors for each nail and plan out your color scheme for each one.

*Paint nails in a variety of colors.  You probably want to start by painting each one using the lightest color you'll be applying to each nail.  This will end up being the middle color in your pattern, though, so choosing the lightest may not always make the most sense.

*Let dry for several hours.  I usually recommend painting the base color in the evening and letting the nails dry overnight.  You're going to be applying painter's tape on top of this coat, and you don't want to risk peeling up some of the polish.

*Cut wedges of painter's tape and place over the middle portion of each nail.

*Paint the tops and bottoms of the nails different colors.  Make sure these colors are also different from the base color on that nail.

*Carefully peel off the painter's tape.

*Using an ultra fine nail art brush and black acrylic paint or a black nail art pen, paint on lines separating the different colors.

*Paint x's over the lines to look like stitching.

Simple Chucky Makeup Tutorial

Makeup can be a great tool to help a store-bought costume stand out.  The great thing about this Chucky makeup is that it doesn't require any specialized makeup, just two shades of eyeshadow and an eyeliner pencil.  You can also use this technique for other characters with scars, such as Frankenstein's monster.

Materials:

*Red eyeshadow

*Deep purple eyeshadow (like the color of a dark bruise)

*Black eyeliner pencil

*Eyeshadow brushes

Directions:

*If you normally wear makeup, apply light, natural makeup as you usually would.

*Pull up an image of Chucky's scarring.  Using the red eyeshadow, map out the scar pattern on your face.

*Next, follow the lines you drew in red with the deep purple eyeshadow.  You may want to use a slightly thinner brush for the purple so that you don't cover up the red completely.  You should end up with something like this:

 *To finish this look off, go over the lines with a black eyeliner pencil.  Use the pencil to draw straight lines across some of the cuts to look like stitching.  You should end up with something like this:

And that's it!  If you want the look to hold up for longer, you can set it with some setting spray.  I didn't find it to be necessary because I wasn't going anywhere, but if you're going to be out and about for a while, it may be a good idea.

Harley Quinn Birds of Prey Jacket

 

 

So this is one of those crafts that I don't want to post a tutorial of my own for because I went about this one in the wrong way.  You see, I bought a mesh jacket for this project, which meant I couldn't adhere the streamers to the sleeves with hot glue.  So I used packing tape.  Which worked for a few pictures, but left a lot to be desired.  So instead, I'm linking you to the tutorial that inspired this project.  If you want to attempt a Harley jacket of your own, definitely check out that tutorial.

I do want to try this jacket again sometime, though.  This iteration was thrown together over the course of a couple of hours the night before I needed it.  Which meant I didn't have the time to fill out the sleeves like I wanted to.  But hey, for a last minute project, it came out okay.  I would just not recommend following my example here.

Any Halloween costume plans yet?  This year I'm trying to put together Halloween costumes, cosplays, bounds, and looks for each day of October.  You can see what I've come up with so far over on Insta @all_of_my_outfits.

Zombie Candy Corn Earrings

Looking for a spooky accessory that's almost good enough to eat?  Why not try these zombie candy corn earrings?

Here's a comparison of the clay earrings with a variation I made using actual candy corn.  The candy corn was a bit harder to work with, but I was ultimately pretty pleased with how both versions came out.

Materials

*White oven bake clay

*Sculpting tools, e.g., toothpick, nail art dotting tool

*Orange acrylic paint

*Yellow acrylic paint

*Red acrylic paint

*White acrylic paint

*Black acrylic paint

*Brown acrylic paint

*Ultra fine nail art brush

*Ear wires

*Jump rings (I used head pins and bent them into a loop, but jump rings would probably be easier) 

*Pliers

Directions:

*Shape white clay into two candy corn shapes.

*Insert a jump ring into the top of each candy corn.  Use a toothpick or a similar implement to smooth clay over the top of it, so that the jump ring is buried about halfway in the  clay.

*Use a nail art dotting tool to create eye sockets in the candy corn pieces.

*Use a toothpick or similar implement to carve mouths into the candy corn shapes.

*Create two eyes for each candy corn by rolling little spheres of white clay.

*Place one eye into an eye socket on each candy corn piece.

*For the other eye, take a little piece of white clay and roll it into a long, thin line.  Attach one end to the eye socket and the other to the end of the eyeball so that the eye is dangling out of its socket.

*Bake clay in the oven following the directions on the packaging.  When you're finished, the candy corn should look something like the upper candy corn shapes in this photo:

*From here, it's a matter of painting.  Use an ultra fine nail art brush to paint candy corn, following the colors shown in the picture at the top of the page.  Let dry.

*Use pliers to open up the bottoms of the ear wires and loop them through the jump rings.  Now your earrings should be finished.

Comic Style Nail Art

Considering a comic-themed Halloween costume this year?  Why not paint your nails to match?

Here was an attempt of mine at cartoon makeup.  The nails go quite well with the look, in my opinion.

Materials:

*Nail polish base color (in my case red, but could be any color)

*Nail polish base coat

*Black nail art pen or black acrylic paint

*White acrylic paint

*Ultra fine nail art pen

*Nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Apply nail polish base coat.  Let dry.

*Apply nail polish base color.  Let dry.

*Using a black nail art pen or black acrylic paint, paint around the perimeter of your nails.  Let dry.

*Using white acrylic paint, add white highlights to look like light reflecting off of the nails.  Let dry.

*Seal with a clear top coat.  I only have glossy top coats, but a matte top coat might work better here so you don't have actual glinting light on your nails in the photos.

Halloween 2021 Earrings

One of my favorite things to make each Halloween season is a new set of spooky earrings.  I don't always share them with you, because I've already done a tutorial on how to make basic earrings, but I thought you might appreciate seeing the new earrings.  Plus, it's a relatively straightforward craft, so if you're looking for something you can actually make, this is a bit easier than foam tombstones or hand-sewn cosplays.

Since did write a tutorial for making earrings previously (see above link), there isn't a tutorial with this one.  However, I did want to tell you a little more about where I get my Halloween charms.  Joann is my go to, and their Hildie & Jo charms and strung beads feature heavily in my Halloween jewelry.  

Here are the beads, charms, and jewelry I bought from Joann this year.  As you can see, I haven't had a chance to make all of them into jewelry yet.  The tombstone, crow/raven, spiderweb with spider, and skeletal hand charms appear to be new to Hildie & Jo's 2021 Halloween collection.  You can buy them here, and you can see their full Halloween 2021 charm, bead, and jewelry collection here.  There are so many cool pieces this year, and I definitely recommend checking them out if you love Halloween jewelry.  The rounded charms are also from Hildie & Jo.  I bought them last year, but it looks like they have returned this year, and you can find them here.  The charms are already 40% off at Joann, so if you're interested, you'll probably want to grab some asap.

The tarot card charms are from Etsy.  If you do an Etsy search for "tarot charm," you'll turn up all sorts of neat designs, although some are pretty pricey.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you a peek into my Halloween jewelry this year.  Are you planning on making some Halloween jewelry?  I'd love to see what you come up with.

Cheers to Ten Years

Amber's Craft a Week blog turned 10 last week!  I'm in the thick of a major project right now, and didn't have time to write a post on the actual blogversary, but I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your support and interest in this blog for this past decade.  It means a lot to me.

When I started this blog ten years ago, I had no real plan for it.  I just wanted to create some sort of blog, and I was kind of good at crafting, so a craft blog seemed like a natural choice.

Producing enough new crafts to keep this blog going has given me plenty of opportunities to hone my crafting skills.  I have been able to create projects I would not have dreamed of attempting when I first started out.  I am grateful for all that I have gained through maintaining this blog.

Halloween is usually my big season on this blog, especially in recent years.  In fact, about a quarter of all the crafts I've posted I've tagged as Halloween.  I do have big plans for this Halloween season, but I'm not sure if I'll get to all of them, or if I'll be able to post detailed breakdowns of the projects I do create each week between now and November first.  You see, for this past year, I've been working on finishing up a novel I've had in the works for longer than I've had this blog.  I've completely overhauled it and am finally getting close to the home stretch.  Getting that off my plate in a timely fashion is my priority at the moment, which may mean fewer or less detailed blog posts until that is done.  But we'll see what happens.

Thank you to all of you for taking the time to view my blog, whether you're new or you've been here since the start.  I really appreciate it.  Here's to ten more years.

Like the glitter drip wine glass in the photo at the top of the page?  Here's how I made it.  I thought it would be fun to incorporate one of my older crafts into this post, and it fit well with the "cheers to ten years" theme.