Use a 2-liter bottle to make a super cute Halloween cupcake dome with Pattiewack!

Glory shows you how to make Creepy Spider Biscuits with spider Halloween stencils and edible color spray!

Make a funky and functional Plaid Skull&Crossbones Skirt with Excell Crafts!

Vanessa and Erin team up to make Awesome Halloween Cookies in a Jar Crafts complete with free easy to download sticker and label printables!

Cheryl Ball shares her beautiful Embroidery Floss Acorns – the perfect fall accent.

Korinne whips up a spectacular Vintage Style Halloween Wreath on her Crafterella blog.

Make Glow in the Dark Jewelry Using Polymer Clay and Rubber Stamps with Kate at the Rubberstamping About.com page!

Learn how to make festive Pom Pom Pumpkins on the Marvelously Messy blog!

Paint a super easy Pumpkin Pin with Ann Butler to accent your fall wardrobe!

Be a hit at the costume contest with this Corpse Bride Costume by the Crafty Chica!

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner shows you how to make a Snooki Painted Pumpkin inspired by the popular Jersey Shore Guidette!

Eileen Hull shares a Cute Halloween Bookmark project that will melt your Halloween heart!

Sebastian is faster than a speeding bullet in his Superman Costume featured on the Sew DoggyStyle blog!

Phyllis Dobbs wows us with this festive Spider Apron perfect for Halloween baking!

Silvia shows you how to make a No-Sew Fuzzy Monster Cuff – the perfect craft project for all ages!

That’s it for this week! If you are interested in playing in my fun Terrorific Tuesday roundup, e-mail Alexa at swelldesigner (at) gmail (dot) com and she’ll send you the details!

Silvia Chenault turns a toy bat into an instant neckpiece (but will it bite your neck?)

Phyllis Dobbs shows us how to recycle a t-shirt into a really cool Halloween trick-or-treat bag!

Kate Pullen brews up adorable Paper Cone Witches!

Messy Missy makes a super spooky wreath with Duct tape!

Avalon Potter goes glam with her Halloween Masquerade Ball mask!

Patty Cappelluti goes bat crazy making this spooky bat door decoration!

Crafterella is a ghoul gone wild in her Ghoul Scout Costume. Download the custom patches she made for her costume!

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner upcycles a Starbucks bottle into a swell Halloween vase!

Cheryl Ball delights us with yummy candy corn cupcakes!

Pattiewack upcycles an apple tray into a festive cupcake carrier. So inexpensive and easy!

Ann Butler crafts up a boo-tiful holder for your ATCs complete with a black cat!

Glory whips up a super fun and healthy pumpkin-inspired muffin meal for her kids. Love it!

Crafty Chica makes the perfect mask to celebrate Dia de los Muertos.

Maya in the Moment has some face painting fun with her little cousin and of course, hilarity ensues!

Eileen Hull has a ghostly good time creating this cute diecut necklace!

That’s it for this week! If you are interested in playing in the fun Terrorific Tuesday roundup, e-mail Alexa at swelldesigner (at) gmail (dot) com and she’ll send you the details!

Repurpose one of your old tee shirts into a fun Halloween Trick-or-Treat bag for the kids (or for yourself to carry around for Halloween).  

To make this easy tote bag for Halloween, all you need is the following supplies -

Black long sleeve tee shirt

Green fabric paint (great if you use glow-in-the-dark paint)

2 pieces of green ribbon

Green rattail cording

Small orange buttons

2 large orange buttons

1 large orange decorative button brad

2 small yellow buttons

1 large yellow button

1/3″ wide orange ribbon

Needle and thread or glue

Piece of cardboard

Scissors

Instructions:

Lay tee shirt flat and cut the top of the tee shirt off above the top edge of the sleeves.  The cutting line is marked on the tee shirt below.

Fold the top of the tee shirt down over the front so that the bottom of the arm hole for the sleeve is at the top and the folded piece forms a flap.

Place the piece of cardboard between the 2 layers of the tee shirt and under where you will paint. Paint a pumpkin on the front of the tee shirt below the folded over edge and 2 to 3 inches above the bottom edge.

Sew the bottom front and back of the tee shirt together, sewing the seam 1 1/4″ above the bottom edge. Twist the sleeves and over lap the cuff edges by 1″ and sew together. Cut the bottom edge below the seam to form fringe.

Sew the end of the orange ribbon to the base of one sleeve “strap” and wrap around the strap until you reach the other end, cut the ribbon and sew the ribbon end to the strap. Fold 2 different lengths of ribbon together and stitch the fold to the tee shirt centered above the pumpkin.  Arrange the green rattail cording and sew loosely to the shirt as shown.  Glue or sew the orange brad on top of the ribbon at the fold.

Sew or glue buttons – 2 small yellow buttons in the eyes, 2 large orange buttons in the bottom corners, the yellow button centered on the folded over teeshirt area, and a row of small orange buttons to the edge of the fold over.

I hope you enjoy this project!  Be creative and paint a skull or any other Halloween design or use a different color shirt – let your imagination fly or enlist the help of the kids.  Your trick or treaters will love carrying this bag.

Phyllis

Make an easy Halloween Basket to hold candy for trick-or-treaters.  All is takes is a basket to decorate (I found this one at Goodwill for $1) and a few supplies.

The pumpkin was created with a paper napkin torn into pieces then decoupaged with Mod Podge.

Supplies –

Basket

Mod Podge

Assorted orange and black buttons

Green Paint (Plaid Folk Art)

Paper Napkin or other orange pattern paper

Paint brushes

I found these gorgeous paper napkins at Tuesday Morning.  They are the perfect colors for Halloween and the fall season.

After drawing pumpkin shape on the basket, I tore the napkins into assorted sizes and shapes, with curved edges on some to loosely fit the curved edge of the pumpkin. Then I applied Mod Podge with a brush to the basket inside the pumpkin area, a section at a time.  I added the pieces of torn napkin on to the area with the Mod Podge, overlapping pieces and fitting the curved edges along the outside edge of the pumpkin.

After filing the pumpkin and I keep adding the paper pieces so that there were 2 layers of paper for the pumpkin.

When all the napkin pieces were in place, I applied a final coat of Mod Podge on the top of the pumpkin to seal the paper.

After the pumpkin dried, I painted the stem and vine as well as around the rim of the basket.  I glued buttons for eyes with smaller round black buttons on larger orange buttons.  A black button was used for the nose and a row of small orange buttons for the mouth.  A large orange button was glued in the top corners.

I wish you a boo-dashious Halloween.  Please check back – I’m working on several more crafty and sewing items for Halloween!

Phyllis

Wow, just imagine – no color!  Think of fall without the oranges, golds, and yellows of falling leaves, spring without the pinks, purples, oranges and yellows of flowers, and summer without the green grass and leaves. What would the sky be without blue or the seas without the turquoises and greens?

I am a color junkie with all of my art and fabrics created with vibrant colors.  I love color and will buy something I really don’t need, just because I love the color. I paint rooms too frequently because its exciting to change colors (some of my rooms have enough layers of paint for it to qualify as insulation).

My close friend Brenda Pinnick has a passion for color and has founded Brenda Pinnick Color U in which she teaches workshops on color as well as offering color consulting. 

Its available for everyone from an individual who wants to know more about color and palettes (such as a quilter, sewer, crafter or decorator) or manufacturers who wants to give their product lines a “wow” with color. Also, retail business can have Brenda’s workshops conducted in their stores as well as learn how to use color in their businesses to increase sales.

Since its almost autumn, I want to show you one of Brenda’s palettes that she created for autumn  Isn’t it absolutely the most fantastic combination of colors!

Brenda is definitely qualified as a color expert as an award-winning graduate of the prestigious portfolio school, Creative Circus.  There she studied in-depth color theory as well as continuing to work and study color since. So if you want any advise on color or the psychology of color, then Brenda is the go-to person!

Have a wonderful colorful day! (I’m not trying to brain-wash you, just color-wash you!)

Phyllis

These jungle animals are huge and colorful …. and knitted.  One of the most fun exhibits I’ve seen, this was the booth for Lion Brand Yarns at the winter Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) trade show.  (I know, the show was in January, but I just found them in my camera).  What else can I say – the pictures tell the story.

Everything – flowers, blades of grass and the rugs were all made of yarn. The animals were all so cute! It was definitely an exhibit with the “awe” factor.

Have a “roaring” fun day.

Phyllis

The colors of the fabrics used in this quilt – turquoise, lime green and purple – are my favorite colors. So I was “in heaven” while designing and sewing “Gypsy Wind” for the book ”Patchwork Comforters, Throws and Quilts” published by House of White Birches.  The fabrics are Marie Osmond’s “Gypsy Breeze” collection by Quilting Treasures.  

41 colorful and exciting quilts are shown in this book along with patterns and instructions.  It is a book quilt lovers will cherish.

And if you love these fabrics as much as I do, please check out my earlier post where I met Marie Osmond at the International Quilt Market with another quilt I designed using these fabrics for Quilting Treasures’ booth.

I wish you a day filled with your favorite colors.

Phyllis

Trendy and flirty aprons are so much fun to wear and are so easy to sew.  I designed and sewed this reversible apron that was featured in the June issue of Quilter’s World. This one is unique in that it is reversible so it gives two distinct looks with one apron.  And for an extra detail, the bodice is quilted.

I chose my favorite colors when creating these aprons, purple and green (with a touch of turquoise) for one side and turquoise and purple for the 2nd side.  The fabric is from Quilting Treasures.  The pattern is the same for each apron side, however, I created 2 different looks by changing the bottom edges.  One edge is a straight border design while the other apron has a bottom edge with ziz zag design.

I hope you enjoy the hot weather by staying inside and sewing.  Aprons are easy to sew and a great way to show off your sewing skills!

Phyllis

I’m happy to announce that I have completed an upgrade to my collection of product templates Create Product Mockups – for a total of 105 product templates.

Create Product Mockups is an aid for licensing artists to use to show how their art will look on products in the most popular categories.  The files are in both Photoshop and Illustrator format and are easy to use.

The 105 templates cover a wide range of products in the following categories: Bedding and Bath, Kitchen Textiles, Stationery, Tabletop, Partyware, Apparel, Baby and Kids, Garden, Home Accents as well as Basic Shapes for multitudes of uses.

The upgrade is free and has been sent to those of you who have previously purchased Create Product Mockups. As I create new templates, I will continue to provide free upgrades.

Its always fun to meet someone who you really admire.  At the Atlanta Gift Market last month, I had the good fortune to meet Mary Engelbreit in the showroom of Katherine’s Collections.  Mary was there for a personal appearance.  I have always been a fan of Mary’s as well as appreciate her as a trail-blazer for art licensing.

The past couple of months have been the most hectic of all.  Preparing for two major trade show events in January required hours and hours of work.  Attending the shows, Atlanta Gift Market and CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) were almost like vacations because while they were technically work, I could lay down my paint brush and ignore my computer for a few days.  Plus, its always such fun to meet up with friends.

The day before the CHA show in Anaheim, Brenda Pinnick and I went to Laguna Beach for some much deserved R&R.  We shopped and had a great lunch while watching the Laguna Beach surf (which was very high due to the recent rains).

Although the shows are over, work continues with work from the shows as well as the work that was still in progress before the shows.

And, I am happy to say that I just finished a new fabric collection and am really excited about it.

I hope you are all staying warm in all this cold and snowy weather.

Phyllis