I've been working on some quilts over the last couple of months.  Here is one I did at Christmas time:

It's a fairly simple quilt with 1/2 red triangles and 1/2 green triangles.  On the green one, I added a little more interest by cutting my fabric into strips, sewing the strips together and then cutting the triangle.  I finished it off with some fabric I've had in my stash for a number of years.  I bought it awhile back on clearance at a quilt store.  I fell in love with it and was just waiting for the quilt to use it in!

I am starting a somewhat similar quilt using the concept of sewing strips together then cutting out the shapes.

This is actually a kit I bought on clearance through the Craftsy website.  I already changed the background from white to an off-white.  The white fabric was very nice and will be save for another project.  I thought the off-white matched the vintage look of the fabric a little better (at least for my project).  The quilt is small, and I wanted it a little larger so instead of 4 rows, I will be putting 5 rows on it and then "outlining" it with another vintage style fabric before finishing it.  The kits come with enough fabric strips to easily make it much bigger.  Prior to cutting, I made a template of the pattern pieces.  I will post more pictures of this quilt, showing some steps on what I did shortly.  Thanks for looking at my blog and happy quilting!!

Halloween Mixed Media Canvas

This is an 8 x 8 canvas that I made for Halloween.  I picked up the canvas at a flea market and it had a bad quote with ugly paint so, I just painted over it using an orange base.  The next layer was a milk chocolate brown which I applied unevenly and even picked some back up with a tissue to give it a blotchy appearance.  The next layer is spray inks using a pewter, slate grey and a black.  For the final background, I put some tissue paper with a sheet music print behind the doll.  I also used a wing stamp on tissue paper and applied that where her back was going to be.

The doll is a Julie Nutting stamp.  I added the hat which is just hand drawn and cut out.  The dog is a stamp by Stampotique and he is attached using a jewelry chain and hot glue.  The lettering is a combination of glitter foam letters and letter tiles from a Scrabble game.  The final touch is a ribbon at the top which you actually cannot see very well in this picture.

Just some more Halloween fun!

The before and after!

Finding treasures at garage sales and flea markets is such a fun hunt.  We recently moved a large distance and sold many of our furniture pieces to avoid shipping costs.  Now that I'm settled into a new home, I am enjoying the hunt for "new" things and have the advantage of learning from some of my past furniture find fails.  Here are a couple of things I completed this month:

The first one is an old dresser but, its very shallow and the drawers would hold a very small amount of clothing so, I elected to turn it into a console piece instead.  I have two or three places I could use this and I have not settled on its final spot.  Right now, it's sitting in one of the rooms we need to update and are using as a temporary spot for painting etc.

I started by removing the top four drawers along with the drawer runners plus, all of the drawer knobs.  In the area where the top four drawers were, I used a piece of 3/8 inch furniture grade plywood.  My husband helped cut it to the size I needed.  The whole dresser was sanded, painted, wood filled in some spots and then distressed with sand paper after drying.  New drawer knobs finished it off.  Total cost:  $20.00 for the dresser at a garage sale, $3.49 for 2 new knobs and 21.00 for a sheet of plywood.  I already had the paint so, I don't count that!!

The next project was a shelf unit that someone else used for knick knacks.  This was also a garage sale find at $5.00.  I didn't do to much to this piece except spray paint it, replace one set of hinges and as soon as I find new little door knobs, I will buy those.  Its a little harder to find due to its small size.  Total cost in addition to the 5.00 for the cabinet was 6.99 for spray paint and 3.99 for mini hinges.

I'm always on the hunt !

Halloween ATC's  (Artist Trading Cards)

I still love to do ATC cards and enjoy trading them across the world.  Since I'm a bit of a Halloween nut, Halloween cards are my favorite to make and receive.  Here are four that I made.  All of them begin with the same base paper

I used a gelli plate to make the paper.  I load up the jelly plate with orange color and threw in some brown and green, added stencils etc.  The great thing about gelli plates is that if you don't like the first layer, or its too plain, just add another until you like it!  Once the paper was completed and dried, I cut it to ATC size and adhered it to cardstock.   Here are close up pictures of the four cards.  They all have in common, the background, lettering using a Dymo label maker and some element of fabric pulled from my stash of Halloween fabrics.  By the way, the Dymo label maker is my new favorite crafting supply.  I have been wanted one for awhile but had trouble finding this old fashion type.  The new ones are all electronic and use a different type of tape.  I finally ran across one at "The Container Store" and it was cheap!  I grabbed it up along with a extra set of label tape for future use.

"Frightful" - Gelli plate background, boo! stamp, vintage image with an hand cut witch hat on top, fabric skeleton and dots of acrylic paint with a dot of gel pen on top.

"Trick or Treat" Gelli plate background, Dymo label maker lettering, fabric skulls, 3D pumpkin sticker from the craft store, ghost stamp by Darci (colored in with makers - I use a light gray around the edge of the ghost)

"Things that go Bump in the Night" - gelli plate background, orange and black Washi tape embellishment, monster man cut out using a cricut,, fabric skull, Dymo label maker words, moon stamp

"Are you my Mummy" - gelli plate background, dymo label maker for the words (for some reason they do not include a question mark", fabric candy corn, Mummy stamp by Darci, Acrylic paint dots with a yellow base and another orange dot on top, bat cardstock sticker with clear coating on top and embellished with gel pen.

I hope you enjoyed my cards.  These are also the same size you would use for pocket letters so, they would be fun for something like that also.

Boo Mason Jar Votive holder

Here is another fun quick Halloween project.  I happen to already have on hand a bunch of Mason jars so, it was a perfect project for me with most of the materials already in my home.

 

Here is how I did it.

1)  Using purple, orange and white acrylic craft paint, I squirted one color in each of the jars and swirled it around until the jar was completely coated.  On my first one I used a thicker artist quality paint and it didn't work that great because it did not want to move around the jar, even with water added.  I switched to a cheaper quality craft paint and it worked perfect.  After the jar is completely coated, leave the top off until the paint is dry (drain off any excess first).

2)  Spray paint the lids black

3)  For the middle decoration I first used black card stock cut to 3 inches wide and the length was the width of the jar.  I adhered it to the jar with tape.  For the next layer, I used an orange burlap ribbon with wire and wrapped that around with a tie and the front (not a bow, just a simple wrap tie).

4)  The next layer was made using my Cricut cutter and the Ribbons and Rosettes cartridge.  If you don't have that, I think an big Halloween colored flat silk flower would also be very cute.  I hot glued that on top of the ribbon.  The letters are made from wood that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.  They were already black and I used a white gel pen to try to make them pop better.

5)  The last step was skeletons cut from some skeleton garland purchased at the dollar store.  I cut 3 off the garland and hot glued them in place.

That's it!  It's all ready for my shelf or mantle this Halloween.

Potion bottles for Halloween decorations etc

I try to save interesting bottles during the year to alter for other uses.  My daughter gave me these tins because she and her husband enjoy this particular brand of loose tea.  They are tins with a flat top.

Here is how I altered them:

1)  I sanded the tins to create a rougher surface for the paint to adhere to.
2)  I used Adirondack alcohol inks to color the tins.  I used a combination of drops and smears to create an aged "Halloween, spooky" look
3)  I downloaded free images from the Graphic Fairy internet site including the witch girl and the potion labels.  I printed these out for the size of my tins
4)  Using matte medium, I adhered the images to the tin
5)  On the top, I used beads on one and an old ornate earring clip I had on the other.  I also used a little bit of fiber.

That's it!  It's a fairly simple project ready to stuff with candy corn or whatever other Halloween fun thing I can think of.  Altoid tins would also be perfect for this.   I included a couple more pictures which are zoomed in for you.

Halloween quilted wall hanging

This quilt is made from a design by Janet Wecker Frisch.  I bought a kit to do the project which takes away all the issues of matching fabrics etc.  All of that is done for you in a kit.  This one came with the yardage I needed except for the backing and filling.

The front goes together very quickly.  I was able to cut and sew it together in one day.  In another session, I did the pendants and the Halloween swag sign.  For the filling, I bought 100% cotton which is what I usually work with.  I recently bought a package of 80% cotton and 20% poly because that particular store didn't have the 100% cotton.  I really disliked working with it and was very surprised at how much different it worked.  I had issues with it wrinkling which made the quilting process more challenging.  So, I will never buy that again!

The fabrics on this quilt are so cute and you can order the pattern using the link below.  I have completed similar projects using a fabric panel as the center.  They are great to work with and I think they are perfect for holiday quilts.

This wall hanging could be used as a small lap quilt.  I thought I might do that someday and elected to use a little gold safety pin to attach the Halloween sign versus sewing it on.  I also think that will make storage easier because I can remove the sign to make sure it does not get wrinkled in storage.  Another variation I made is with the Halloween letter swag.  It originally suggests sewing on all sides with a small opening and then turning it.  I decided to place the backing and front side back to back, sew around all edges twice and then fray it.

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Link to retailer:
http://www.equilter.com/pattern/625/sew-scary-halloween