Kathy Murillo a.k.a. Crafty Chica delights us with glittery Skull Bookmarks.
That’s it for this week! If you are interested in playing in Swelldesigner’s Terrorific Tuesday roundup, e-mail her at swelldesigner (at) gmail (dot) com and she’ll send you the details!
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!
Sometimes the unexpected happens – you find something that you didn’t know you were looking for until you see it! Look at this fabulous dress form I found in, of all places, Tuesday Morning. I was shopping with my friend Brenda Pinnick for unique items to craft with when I spotted this dress form. Its perfect for displaying aprons (I have several patterns mentally designed so I could “justify” buying it!)
A few months ago, I scoured the internet looking for the perfect dress form to display aprons and found a wicker one that I liked. Now my wicker gal has a little sister joining her in my studio.
The only downside is that I was at the beach and had to convince my husband that I could pack around it for our trip home – not an easy task with either the convincing or the packing! I know its not the typical beach purchase, but a treasure is a treasure!
Please check back for a Halloween apron that I’m working on as well as for some other special arts and crafts that were created while beaching.
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!)
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.
If you love reading about crafts with plenty of tutorials, free patterns, information, projects that are being created, and much more on various blogs, then Creating the Hive is for you. This is a website started for the craft world which includes sewing, quilting and needlework.
You join (free of course), then set up your profile for the type of crafts that interest you. Also, you can join groups for your favorite crafts, such as Love of Sewing, Fabric Lovers, and Aprons if you love sewing and quilting. There are other groups for the many various crafts, such as scrapbooking, Christmas crafts, color, dolls, general crafts and many, many more.
People post their blogs to these groups so that you can have a condensed place to read great blogs, find out about new products, as well as free patterns, and more. You can post your blogs and if you don’t have a blog, you can write a blog right on this site and have it go to the groups you choose.
Creating the Hive is new, slightly over a month old, but growing rapidly. You will find your favorite blogs there.
Check creating the hive out and if you join, let me know by following me and I will follow and see what’s going on with you.
Have a great week of sewing, quilting or crafting!
I was in Chicago last week to attend the Craft and Hobby Show, the trade show for anything related to crafts (a consumer show followed the trade show). It was exciting to see the show floor filled with people who also seemed excited as well.
While there, my friend Brenda Pinnick and I took some time off to catch the El and go into Chicago to visit the museum at the Art Institute of Chicago. Its a fabulous museum and had expanded with a new modern wing that has been open a year.
The weather was fabulous, much cooler and less humid than here at home so Brenda and I spend some time walking through the city as well. Chicago is so clean and beautiful and there were flowers everywhere along the streets. Large planters divided the street on Michigan Avenue as we walked toward the museum. And there were plenty of sidewalk cafes with vibrant flowers.
Huge planters also lined the street. I just happen to be in front of this one.
I am a huge fan of Art Nouveau and in Chicago, you don’t need to go to a museum to see a lot of this style as its prevalent throughout the City on buildings and other items of interest.
These 2 pictures shows some of the art nouveau designs on buildings.
And here is the famous Chicago Theater landmark on State Street, probably the most photographed building in Chicago.
One final shot – the Chicago River. Didn’t I tell you Chicago was beautiful!
We enjoyed our day and it rejuvenating to have a break. The next day, it was back to the CHA show for meetings and to walk the show as well as visit with friends.
Crafting – its not only a fun, recreational hobby, it can also help with health issues. To me, crafting is a stress-buster. But it also helps with a medical problem that I have with Restless Leg Syndrome. A wonderful blog, Craft for Health, tells how crafting has helped with various illnesses as well as stressful situations. The posts are heart warming, informative, helpful and cover such a variety of situations.
Craft for Health just celebrated their 1st year anniversary and reposted the blog post that I wrote. I love sharing it with you and if you suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome, you may receive relief by picking up a paintbrush, a glue gun or a needle and craft away in the wee hours when you can’t sleep.
Have a great day and stay cool (its a really hot day here)!
Everyone loves counting down to the holidays…add candy to the mix and you’ve got a fun Advent calendar from Sherri Osborn for the whole family to enjoy.
If you’re looking for something a little different to do with your paper beads then take a look at this paper bead star. This project is simple to adapt in a wide variety of ways.
Just because you’ve got to bake cookies for the whole family doesn’t mean you can’t look fabulous! Phyllis Dobbs has created this adorable holiday apron, and she’s got the free pattern just for you.
Sometimes those plain ornaments just need a little dressing up. Tammy Powley will show you how to use seed beads to create this unique ornament drapery.
Welcome to my turn in a Holiday Blog hop. I’m delighted to be part of this blog hop put together by talented artists. We are taking turns sharing a fun holiday project or craft and hope that you are inspired to make some using our free patterns and instructions. And leave a comment on each of the artists blog and you may win a random drawing for a prize by each artist.
I love to entertain over the holidays and often need more festive dishes or bowls. I painted this terra cotta flower pot to give an extra bowl to hold holiday treats (or even a plant). Since stripes and dots are very popular design elements and which I also happen to love, I used these to decorate it. It’s easy to do and you can make one and use it that night.
1. Use a terra cotta flowerpot the size of your choice – you can make it as big or small as you like. Wash the flower pot and go over it with alcohol to disinfect it.
2. With a pencil, draw the lines for the stripes around the rim. I made the stripes on mine about an inch wide. Also, draw 1/2 inch circles randomly on the bottom of the pot.
3. Paint the red dots and the red stripes, alternating the stripes. Paint the background of the bottom pot white and the remaining stripes. It will take 2-3 coats of paint. Let it dry between coats. Paint the inside of the pot your choice of white or red.
4. When the paint has dried, add small white dots in a line on the red stripes.
5. After all has dried, use a clear satin acrylic to seal the paint.
6. Fill with your choice of snacks, chips, ornaments or whatever you desire.
Please leave a comment to be entered into a random drawing for a prize. Also please visit the other artist that are participating in this blog hop and leave comments for a chance at more prizes.
As part of this blog hop, we are supposed to answer these questions to give some information about ourselves. Mine are below.
5 things we might not know about you that you’d like to share.
1. I love to listen to music when I work and have music of every genre except rap. The type of music I play depends on what I’m working on.
2. I planted lettuce for the first time this fall and was delighted that it turned out so tasty. The only place I had to plant it was in the flowerbed by the mailbox, but the bright greens looked very pretty and my husband backed down from being horrified by veggies growing front and center of our yard.
3. I’m a color junkie and often buy stupid stuff just because I like the color, however anything with great color is not stupid! Like a purple cooler to carry to the beach when we have several in basic red and white.
4. I enjoy social gatherings with my girlfriends such as bunko, girl’s poker, pokeno and book club. And, I don’t have time to read the books so I go to listen, socialize and drink wine.
5. I feel guilty because I don’t get around to exercising as frequently as I want – almost non-existent at this point as I’m working hard on close deadlines.
5 things going on in my creative world.
1. In October, I signed with a fabulous agent, Jewel Branding & Licensing and am very excited about this partnership.
2. I’m working on several new art collections and am looking forward to seeing new products created with my art at the January markets.
3. I’m putting together a quilt e-book.
4. I’ve been creating Christmas crafts to share with my blog readers.
5 things that really inspire me.
1. Color, lots of it.
2. Humor
3. Nature, especially the greens
4. Flowers, even though this is technically part of nature.
5. People – family, friends, and other artists. I’m also really inspired by the paintings of Matisse – love all his work.
Be sure to leave a comment and be included in a drawing for a prize.
Phyllis
Phyllis Dobbs Art & Design Studio
Thanks for visiting!. My art is licensed for gift, garden and home products. I also design quilt and sewing patterns available in my Etsy store.
I would LOVE to hear from you! Also, I would love for you to sign up for my newsletter for the latest news on fabrics, patterns and much more.
SHOWCASE YOUR ART ON PRODUCTS! 105 Photoshop and Illustrator templates.
ArtBizJam 2020- Art Business Conference Virtual, Sept 23- 26, 2020
UNIQUE ART BUSINESS CONFERENCE - Learn more to expand your art business and network with other artists. The 8th annual ArtBizJam conference will be held virtually 2020 with live sessions with product developers Sept 23-26 and other sessions available for viewing at your own time on a variety of topics. The live sessions will have a lineup of experienced speakers for product development from top gift and home companies. For more details, please visit the ArtBizJam website and join the
ArtBizJam Facebook Group
