Guest Blogger

I am sure most if not all of you frequent Someday Crafts - I love Michelle and her blog! I feel so lucky that I got to be a guest blogger on her blog today! Check it out HERE. Make sure to check out her other great posts, and tell her how great she is! :) Thanks a ton Michelle for the opportunity! This is the project I did- Paper Bag Pumpkins!

Ghost!

1-2 hour project

I made my first ghosty 8 years ago to go with my graveyard. At my old house, I had HUGE trees surrounding it, so I used to hang it by a cable that went from my roof to the tree. It looks so cool that way- he would really "fly" around in the wind! But when we moved to our new house, we didn't have any way of hanging him, so I had to resort to a 10' piece of re bar (only about $3 at Home Depot) He has withstood the years of elements and is a must for our spooky graveyard. The rest of the year he haunts my garage. :D
Here is what you will need:
*garbage or grocery sacks
*stiff paper roll (I used the one from my plastic wrap - it is super sturdy) or
you can use a regular paper towel roll, just reinforce it with duck tape.
*Duck Tape
*Wire (bailing wire is a nice thick and cheap wire - you can buy it at Lowe's or
Home Depot for under $5 and I have had my roll for 9 years)
*Muslin (3-6 yards depending on how large you want your ghost - buy the cheapest)
*Cheese Cloth (I buy the 6 yard package with a coupon at Joann's for about $4 - that
will be enough for two ghosts)
*safety pins

Okay, first thing is, fill a shopping bag with several balled up grocery sacks, the more you put in the bigger your head will be. Center your paper tube in the center and stuff around it

(I taped a hard plastic lid to the top of my tube to prevent the re bar from puncturing the top of the ghosts head- I learned that lesson the hard way with my first one)


Pull your bag tightly closed

Start wrapping the head with tape (this will make it last for years like mine)


Add one more grocery bag over the taped head to help conceal the dark tape.

Now take a piece of wire and wrap the center around your tube one or two times, cut each arm the length you want(mine are about 2' each)
Put one more garbage bag over taped head to conceal the dark tape
Start wrapping wire back and forth over each arm several times, I did 5 times to really secure it well. The more wire you do, the sturdier your arms will be when it comes to holding up under the weight of the cloth. NOTICE! if you are going to hang him, this is where you will need to make a loop of wire and securely tape it with duck tape on top.



Take your cloth (I used 3 yards of muslin, and several other fabric scraps that I had around my house- I wanted a few different shades of white and cream) and drape it over the head, making sure front and back are pretty even.

Now start taring your strips, cut slits and different intervals (1" - 2" - 1/2")
and tare it up to about 1-2" away from the arms and base of the head.



Add more smaller fabric strips and repeat till your ghost is as thick as you want.


Add the cheese cloth and cut and tare like you did the muslin. Depending on the width of your ghost and your cheese cloth, you may have to use two lengths, just overlap them over the head if you have to do that.

Now to secure the fabric, I add a few safety pins as close to the wire arms as possible to make sure the fabric doesn't slip off in the wind. Another way to do this is to tie a knot in a front piece with a back piece (wire in between) Hope that makes sense - I forgot to take a picture! It should look something like this:

Now either hang him or put a piece of re bar up through the tube. You will just love the way he will float in the wind!


Happy Haunting!!!

Spooky Graveyard

I had planned on doing a tutorial on these, but I ran out of time this year. I promise to do one next August to give you plenty of time to make your own! But, just to get you excited, I will post some pics this year!

I LOVE my headstones!!! My graveyard started 8 years ago when I was still a newly wed. I made the first 5 original ones out of 2" Styrofoam (the usual white kind that is crumbly) I learned a lot- mainly that it was harder to cut and not as durable. Later I made the rest out of insulation Styrofoam boards. (usually blue or purple) You can buy several different thicknesses, but I prefer 2" or thicker. It ranges anywhere from $15- $35 for a 8'x4' sheet. You can make about 10 or more out of a sheet that size. I usually call up my local hardware store and ask if they have any broken pieces they will sell at discount. I have never paid full price for mine.

Read the names- they are pretty funny!





Chief is our family dog- kinda morbid I know! but what is worse is there is one with my husbands name!!!



If you can't wait till next year, there are several good resources online for how to make these - but be warned, it is a full day or longer project. (but totally worth it) I have had my graveyard for 8 years now.


Unfortunately I have had to say goodbye to 5 of my cherished headstones. Little boys have a hard time resisting them sometimes. I still think it is worth putting them out - my kids and all the neighbor kids can't resist playing zombies in the graveyard. (you would seriously think I was erecting a ferris wheel every year when I put it out when you see the amount of kids it attracts!)
Stay tuned - on Wednesday I am going to post how to make the ghosts!

Spray Paint Halloween Pillows

LOVE THIS!!! This project was so much fun and easy (and cheap) that I want to do tons more! I payed under $10 for all four pillows! They turned out so much better than I thought they would! A few months ago I saw a couple blogs that had spray painted pillows on them, so I decided to give it a shot since that is about the only thing I hadn't spray painted yet!
Here is what you will need:
*Duck cloth (or plain outdoor canvas)
*Freezer Paper (must be freezer paper, not wax or parchment)
*Spray paint
*Frog tape - if you do stripes (it works so great! The paint will not bleed! You buy it in the paint department)
I didn't want to make new pillows that I would have to store (I am running out of room), so I decided to just make slip covers for the pillows I already have on my porch. My pillows are 16x16 so I cut the fabric into 17x17" squares.

I then cut out stencils on freezer paper using my cricut. You could also do this by just free handing your design, or printing out images from the Internet and cutting and tracing them onto the freezer paper. The polka dots are 2"
The "BOO" font is Jackolantern from Dafont.com

The scull and webs were from dingbats I found on Dafont.com. Just click on Halloween fonts and there is tons of fun stuff.
I then ironed on the freezer paper cut outs. At first I put a cloth over the paper to iron, but the paper didn't stick, you have to iron straight on the paper for it to stick. (shiny side down!) My iron was as hot as it goes and it worked great.
This is Frog Tape. Make sure to press it down firmly. I didn't measure my dots or stripes, I just eyeballed them and you can't tell they aren't perfect!
Now for the fun part, spray pain!!! I used satin black and cinnamon stick in satin as well.

now for the reveal... I was so dang excited when I first started peeling off the paper - I couldn't believe how great it worked!!!

The black didn't work quite as well, the color isn't as consistent as the orange, and my spider web bled a little because my son got a hold of the stencil and wrinkled it so it wouldn't iron flat. Oh-well, still madly in love!
I then just put right sides together and sewed a half inch seam on three sides.

Turn right-side out.
Stuff in pillow...

Tadaa!!! I love, love, love, love, love, LOVE them!!!! (did I say I how much I love them?) :D




I am going to put some velcro or snaps along the bottom edge to hold them shut, but that will have to wait for now, I couldn't wait to put them out.
Sorry for the picture overload, but I am in love! :)

This project can be seen on...


Thank you! Thank you!!!