DIY Zoe Karssen Inspired Bat Sweater

I was inspired to make the above after seeing it on  Cut Out + Keep (picture of inspirations and video tutorial is below) to jazz up an oversized long sleeve T-Shirt that had some bleach stains. I looks much more sparkly in person.

I didn't want an exact copy cat so I made it designer better by adding green glitter paint around the bat to give it an eerie glow and a smaller bat in lower right hand side to cover a bleach stain.




I did mine a little differently though.

Items I used:

• Long Sleeve T-Shirt
• Paper
• Pen, pencil or Sharpie
• Black Acrylic Paint
• Green Glitter Acrylic Paint
• Fabric medium paint additive
• Scissors
• Foam Brush
• Iron
• Large magazine
• Plastic bag
• Straight pins

I put the large magazine inside a plastic grocery bag, tied off the end and put it inside the shirt so the paint wouldn't bleed through.

I folded a piece a standard piece of printer paper in half and freehanded a shape similar to the bat shape.

I pinned it to the shirt, drew around the shape with a Sharpie then painted around the bat with the green glitter acrylic paint mixed with the fabric medium (2 parts paint to 1 part fabric medium.  All paints purchased at Michael's on sale last week 5/$2).

It was looking too much like a toxic Batman so I added more green glitter paint to make it a rectangular shape (using the large magazine underneath as my guide).

I then dabbed around the edges with the black paint with the fabric medium and then painted the rest of the bat shape with black paint.

For the small bat shape I just freehanded a smaller bat and this time I pinned down the outline and used the black paint mixture to dab the bat shape.

I allowed it to dry overnight then ironed it the next day to help seal the paint.

See Diy Zoe Karssen Bat Sweater and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

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Blazing Black Nails

In honor of Halloween, and also because I don't think there are enough different types of black nail polish on he market, I created this look using 2 coast of black nail polish as the base (I used Sinful Colors "Secret Admirer" and 2 coats gold and red glitter nail polish on top (I used Sinful Colors "Pumpkin Spice". 

I know it is hard to tell by the picture, but the color looks different depending on how the light catches it, sort of like a burning fire.

Triple Cocktail Jello Brain

This yummy and jiggly treat was made using the new cocktail flavors that Jello has out on the market layered in a brain mold.

It is also the same colors of the Italian Flag, so you could say it is an Italian Triple Cocktail Brain. (Dissected "Brain" on a plate, pictured left.)
 
This is a non-alcohol version, but you could substitute tequila in the margaritas and rum in the Pina Colada for the cold water used in this recipe instead.


Items used:

• Brain mold ((Kraft Foods has for sale here)
• 1 3oz box Margarita  Jello
• 1 3oz box Pina Colada Jello
• 1 3oz box Strawberry Margarita Jello 
• Measuring Cups & Mixing Spoon
• Water and method to boil it
• Small Mixing bowl
• Large bowl 
• Serving plate
• Butter Knife

Pour Margarita Jello in small mixing bowl.  Boil 3/4 cup of water and stir into the jello until dissolved.  Add 1/2 cup cold water.

Pour into Brain mold and allow to set (I left it in for 2 hours).

Pour Pina Colada Jello in small mixing bowl.  Boil 3/4 cup of water and stir into the jello until dissolved.  Add 1/2 cup cold water.

Pour into Brain mold on top of the Margarita layer and allow to set (I left it in for 2 hours).

Pour Jello in small mixing bowl.  Boil 3/4 cup of water and stir into the jello until dissolved.  Add 1/2 cup cold water.

Pour into Brain mold on top of Margarita and Pina Colada layer and allow to set (I left it in for 2 hours).





Once set, pour warm water in the large bowl, just enough to come up below the rim of the mold and then run butter knife under warm water and run it around the edges to loosen.

Remove from bowl and place serving plate on top of the mold.

Hold the edges of the mold and the plate and flip the mold over to remove the brain.










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and

Burn At The Stake Barbie

This is for Day 2 of 30 Days of Creativity (Day 2, #30DoC )  and the theme of the day is fire, so I decided to make a "Burn At The Stake Barbie".    She used to be a mild mannered doll, but she started idolizing Paris Hilton and started carrying her dog in her purse (until the ASPCA fined her for cruelty to animals), stopped wearing underwear and started tricking the boys in town into making night vision videos of questionable character.   The townfolk decided she was possessed by a witch and only the fires of hell would cleanse her soul.

She just thought it was a new fad spa treatment and was all for it.  As she wanted to look good for the occasion (as it might be her last) she donned a new outfit in peach as it would go well with the orange in the flames.  (She ditched her hair extensions as she was afraid they would melt.).

The skirt and top were made out of stretch terry cloth scraps from a free printable pattern with instructions at Emby Quinn.

The "rope" that tied her to the stake is a leftover Christmas ribbon.











The center for the fire is based on a  CD Campfire I had made previously

Source: craftsandcreationswithkathy.blogspot.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

To help steady her feet, I rolled up two balls of FIMO clay then pressed her feet into them, then baked at 275 degrees for 15 minutes as indicated on the package.  When cool, I used a glue gun to glue her feet to the "rocks".

To the campfire, I added three bamboo skewers, gluing on in the center toward the back, then criss-crossed two other skewers over it and glued them down at the bottom and at the center to form sort of teepee shape.

I tied the Barbie to the sticks and placed it in the center of a round piece of cardboard (off of a frozen pizza) painted red, then with torn pieces of yellow (some with orange accents colored on them) and red tissue pieces glued on it.

To make the fire look more realistic, I put a 3 in 1 light that I purchased at the dollar store.  One of the modes flashes blue and red.

This is what the Barbie looks like form the back.  The light was placed behind the sticks.


(No actual Barbie was harmed in the making of this craft)


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DIY Shaun of The Dead Sweatpants

One of my fav zombie movies is "Shaun Of The Dead" and I printed off a free online stencil at Stencilpunks.org on an old pair of sweatpants to create an Halloween worthy garment.


To make your own, grab an old garment and either fabric paint and roller sponge or other brush or a bleach pen (I used a bleach pen on these), freezer paper, an iron and an X-acto knife to create your own spooky slacks or terrorific tee.


The stencil can be found over at  http://www.stencilpunks.org/ under "Movies" the scroll down to find the Shaun of the Dead Stencils.



For further details on using creating a freezer pencil stencil, see the following.

http://www.stencilpunks.org/print_stencil.html

Thanks to Annie for hosting the May Monster blog hop.  In October I will be participating in Countdown to Halloween blog hop over at Unique Unusual or Interesting.

Be sure to check out the other participants.

Happy May Monster Madness:)

Show your monster spirit

1.	Annie Walls	15.	Horror Author Vanessa Morgan	29.	blackdragon
2.	Little Gothic Horrors	16.	Cayce @ Fighting Dreamer	30.	Jurassic Goth
3.	Pensive Pumpkin	17.	It Came From The Man Cave	31.	Monsterfink's Midnight Monster Spookshow
4.	Queens of the Wild Frontier	18.	It's On Random	32.	Residentgamer
5.	Lady Bethezda	19.	Not This Time, Nayland Smith	33.	nitebyrd
6.	Le Professeur Gothique	20.	Artwork By Living Dead Girl Nicole	34.	Everything You Want
7.	wicKED	21.	Metamorphosis	35.	Kweeny Todd
8.	Shingle Creek Manor	22.	Crafts and Creations with KMOM14	36.	Ghost Stories and Haunted Places
9.	Daph's Dark Little Corner	23.	skarlett	37.	Jess @ Wickedly Bookish
10.	Jenny Krueger	24.	Dani Harper, Paranormal Author	38.	GingerRead
11.	Holly's Horrorland	25.	Manvshorror	39.	Lynoire
12.	blackwood	26.	Horror Shock Lolipop	40.	HorrorSmorgasbord
13.	Punk You	27.	Bob @ Beauty in Ruins	41.	The Purple Broom
14.	Kharisma Rhayne	28.	Precious Monsters

(Collection closed)

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(Note:  As my son was with a real life monster flu bug over the weekend, this is re-post from 10/20/09.

MUMMY VASE OR CANDLE HOLDER

You can turn a glass wine or juice bottle, an old white t-shirt into a mummy vase or candle holder for almost free from items you may already have on hand.

As I have always been creeped out, but at the same time fascinated by mummies I wanted to craft something mummyish as a tribute and came up with this.  It could be used to hold flowers or you could stick a candle in at the top and allow the drippings to collect on the mummy to give it a creepier look.  

Items used:
-   Old white t-shirt
-   Glass bottle
-   Scissors
-   2 large googly eyes (Dollar Tree sells bags with mixed sizes for $1)
-   Glue

 I used a slightly oil stained t-shirt so it was already a bit weathered looking, but if you wanted to give it an aged look you could heat up a few teabags in a large pot an then put the t-shirt in, steep in for a half hour or so then dry it. 

At the bottom of the shirt, start cutting at the bottom around a inch strip, except before you get to the end, angle upward to keep a continuous strip and continue to do so until you have enough to wrap the bottle (I went up to the mid chest on mine)

After cutting the continuous strip, wrap it up into a ball as it will make it easier to work with.

Wrap the end around the bottom then tie a knot.  Start wrapping around the bottom covering the knot and continue upward overlapping a half to a quarter inch to cover the bottle completely.

 When you get to the area that starts curving it will start to pucker, so I start wrapping higher up and go around a few times before you start working your way back down.

Glue the eyes a little below where it starts to curve then continue wrapping, except not as close and leave an area for the eyes to peek out.  I used E-6000 glue as it is sturdy, but any strong glue or a hot glue gun and sticks would work.

When you get to the bottom cut the t-shirt and tuck it in a bit in back then dab with a bit of glue

 Be sure to check out the other participants in this blog hop to see what monster madness and mayhem they have to share:)
 
Show your monster spirit

1.	Annie Walls	15.	Horror Author Vanessa Morgan	29.	blackdragon
2.	Little Gothic Horrors	16.	Cayce @ Fighting Dreamer	30.	Jurassic Goth
3.	Pensive Pumpkin	17.	It Came From The Man Cave	31.	Monsterfink's Midnight Monster Spookshow
4.	Queens of the Wild Frontier	18.	It's On Random	32.	Residentgamer
5.	Lady Bethezda	19.	Not This Time, Nayland Smith	33.	nitebyrd
6.	Le Professeur Gothique	20.	Artwork By Living Dead Girl Nicole	34.	Everything You Want
7.	wicKED	21.	Metamorphosis	35.	Kweeny Todd
8.	Shingle Creek Manor	22.	Crafts and Creations with KMOM14	36.	Ghost Stories and Haunted Places
9.	Daph's Dark Little Corner	23.	skarlett	37.	Jess @ Wickedly Bookish
10.	Jenny Krueger	24.	Dani Harper, Paranormal Author	38.	GingerRead
11.	Holly's Horrorland	25.	Manvshorror	39.	Lynoire
12.	blackwood	26.	Horror Shock Lolipop	40.	HorrorSmorgasbord
13.	Punk You	27.	Bob @ Beauty in Ruins	41.	The Purple Broom
14.	Kharisma Rhayne	28.	Precious Monsters

(Collection closed)

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MAY MONSTER MADNESS - MAY 1ST - 7TH

I was excited to see over at Something Wicked This Way Comes that to celebrate the halfway point to Halloween May Monster Madness is hosting a blog hop May 1st - 7th.

"Anything spooky shall do! Crafts, lists, costumes, decorations, movie/book reviews... it is up to you!

Anyone may enter into the hop, even if you are not a horror blogger.

You do not have to make a post for everyday of the seven days during the hop, but you should do as many as you can.

You may hold giveaways. If you choose to, make sure you let people know if it is international. Also, make sure it is monster related."

 I am going to try to come up with a craft to post every day during that period that is spooky or monster related.   If you would like to participate, the linky to join in on the fun here.

The linky to join is open until April 28th.  

Spider Web Nails

See Spider Web Nails and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

This look was created using Orange nail polish and a black nail art pen and the how-to is posted over at Cut Out + Keep as I am not HTML savvy and have a terrible time getting the formatting to work on Blogger.

It is is based on the video tutorial by JulieG713 where she used red and gave it a more "Spiderman" look.  Above is my first attempt at trying this and I got a little heavy handed with the black lines and I think the middle finger look more like a wagon wheel) but surprisingly, I received a couple of compliments at the grocery store in spite of that.  It is not difficult and would be easy enough for a grade school girl's Halloween sleepover.

Leaves Headband

See Leaves Headband and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

Direct link to project  Leave Headband

I made this to be a fun fall themed headband, but it could be used as part of "Mother Nature" or "Fall Fairy" costume.

I made this using a pack of silk "leaves" from the Dollar Store and a fabric headband that was approximately 1 1/2 inches wide at its widest point, but it would be easy to make your own leaves out of scraps of fabric on hand and have included a pattern and instructions for that also.

See the "How-To" at Cut + Keep

Horror Nails - Bloody Hand Prints

 This entry is an entry for your "Horror Nails" Contest at  Lacquer Files "Horror" Nail Art Contest

Items used:

• Sally Hansen Diamond Shine Base and Topcoat
  
• Sinful Colors in Tokyo Pearl (while nail polish)
  
• Red Sharpie or red nail polish and very thin brush or toothpick.

Prime nails with Sally Hansen base coat

Use 3 coasts of the Tokyo Pearl or other white nail polish.  Allow to dry completely.

 Use the red Sharpie to draw three vertical dots for each finger and two dots to the side for the thumb. 

Use the red Sharpie to or polish and draw a sort of an upside down half circle from the "thumb" to the "pinkie" then draw a small circle to squarish shape inside that and use short strokes to fill in the area between the outside edge and the small circle.



















Seal with the Sally Hansen or other top coat.

Happy Hauntings!

Horror Nails - Stitched Skin

This was an entry into the "Horror Nails" contest and also my first attempt at any sort of nail art. 
It is an entry into Lacquer File "Horror Nails" contest here http://www.thelacquerfiles.com/2010/08/horror-nail-art-contest-let-voting.html

The inspiration for it was it reminds me of how my ankle looked after I was in an auto accident - pretty darn gross and horrifying.   I also wanted to give it a bit o'glam, like the many diagonal designs that are popular and combined the two concepts to make it sort of  "Zombie Couture".

I used the following polishes:

Base Coat:                                      Sally Hansen Diamond Shine Base and Topcoat

Background Color:                          Sally Hansen Hard As Wraps Polish in "Stone Creme"

Black Lines & Stitches:            Nail Star Two Way Nail Art & Pen Brush in "Black"
Purchased on EBay (http://myworld.ebay.com/b2cpowershop/) for $2.59 (free shipping)

Red Color for "Blood":                     Sinful Colors "Under 18"

I first applied a base coat, then one coat of the background color.  Next I drew on the black diagonal lines free hand - as it was to be sort of mimic an injury I didn't want it to be perfectly straight.  Allow to dry completely.

I dabbed the red polish in between the line to represent blood/wound.  Allow to dry completely.

Next draw horizontal lines lines over the top of the "wound", allow to dry and it is done!

FRANKENBERRY BARS

This is from a food blog that I follow, Baking Bites and it is fun and easy treat to make and great for an after school snack.

 As I am participating in the Countdown to Halloween, I have posted the how-to over at my other blog.

http://uniqueunusualandinterestingart.blogspot.com/2009/10/frankenberry-bars.html

"Folk Magic" Onion Cough Syrup (or would also make a great Halloween prop!)

I ran across this while surfing and as I had read in magazines before of onions having an antibacterial property, thought I would try making some of this: http://iwonderwoman.blogspot.com/2007/11/folk-magic.html All you need is: 1 large onion (garlic or ginger could be used instead) 1 cup of sugar 1 glass jar with a lid 1 knife (to cup up onions) 1 measuring cup - to measure the sugar Peel the onion and chop it into slices: Alternate layering the onion and the sugar in the jar Continue layering until all of the onion and sugar are in the jar. Cover with a lid and leave on the counter for 1 to 2 days then store the syrup in the refrigerator. I wasn't sure if the onions were to be strained out of not and left a message on Myrnie's blog and she was kind enough to leave me a comment on mine. "I hope the onion syrup worked well for you- if you don't like the taste, garlic or ginger also work well (I've heard.)Yes, strain the onions out before you put this in the refrigerator." This is what it looked like at Day 2 before I strained out the onions. It looks like some sort of exotic ingredient an alchemist of a witch would use and it does smell bad when you open it. This would be a great prop for a Halloween party. It does smell bad but it doesn't taste that bad due to the sugar and it did seem to help with (I used 2 TBSP) with congestion. I decided to do a little bit of research and found this interesting article: Courtesy of www.kingtutshop.com http://www.kingtutshop.com/Egyptian-Herb/onion.htm The article indicates that the onions were used in Egyptian culture for eating and medicinal purposes, that it was prescribed by Hippocrates and even indicated in the Bible a food that longed for by the Israelites after leaving Egypt for the Promised Land and even asked Moses to pray for to God for them in the Quran. Here is a direct quote for the medicinal purposes of onions from the article: "Onion is used as a diuretic, expectorant and antiseptic. Onions are highly recommended for people trying to prevent cardiovascular disease, cancer, and infections. They appear to be at least somewhat effective against colds, heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases and contain antiinflammatory, anticholesterol, and anticancer components. Onions contain many active compounds that appear to inhibit the growth of cancerous cells, help combat heart disease, inhibit strokes, lower blood pressure & cholesterol, and stimulate the immune system. Alliums are also antibacterial and anti-fungal, so they can relieve stomach upset & other gastrointestinal disorders. As with Garlic, Onions help prevent thrombosis and reduce hypertension, according to the American Heart Association. The natural constituents of yellow or white Onions can raise HDL cholesterol over time."