October 17, 2012

A little bit of Halloween

Last night I finally finished my Halloween craft for the church auction (and one for me too)
I found the instructions for this at Keeping It Simple.  The author of the blog, Kaysi, does 
a great job of giving simple instructions for this craft. 

Here is my rendition

I purchased a 10 foot 2*4 and that is long enough to make two of these crafts.  
The super nice guy in Lowes looked at me a little funny when I carried him 1 piece of wood and asked him to cut it into 10 pieces.  But he complied.  
I sanded the ends good to decrease the chance of splinters and then I got to work spray painting.  

 I didn't have any craft paints on hand so I bought outdoor spray paint when I purchased the 2*4.
The spray paint was easy going.  I painted one wide side plus both skinny sides of each block one night (2 coats) and then flipped them to finish the other sides the next night.  
Kaysi used vinyl for the hair on Frankenstein's monster.  I taped off my hair line and spray painted the hair.  
My way - was the wrong way - I should have either a.) used vinyl like the instructions said or b.) used paint marker for the hair.  Lesson learned! I did however use spray paint for the black behind the mummy's eyes instead of vinyl and that worked fine.  

I painted the face on Frankenstein's monster with a medium tip black paint marker.  I replicated from the blog because I have no imagination when it comes to drawing.  The paint marker was very easy to work with. 

As per instructions (didn't I say I love easy peasy instructions) I ordered vinyl from Expressions Vinyl to use for the facial features of the ghost, pumpkin and mummy.  I was scared.  I cut out with punches or scissors all the facial features.  I have never used vinyl with my Cricut but I knew that I had to in order for my wording to look like anything.  I had heard of Cricut Craftroom where you can design your image or wording on an online "cutting mat" and then send it to your Cricut to cut.  I decided if I was going to do it I was going to do it all in.  No need not to jump in with both feet.  I downloaded the Cricut Craftroom software to my laptop - it did take a while - and upgraded the firmware to my Cricut and I was on the go.  Doing the vinyl transfer was super easy.  I can't wait to order more vinyl and do more vinyl crafts as well as using the craft room to make scrapbooking tags and background easier.  

YAY for Halloween crafts and all the good new things I tried and loved.  
Thanks again to Kaysi at Keeping It Simple for doing just that. 

 


2 comments:

  1. This is just too cute! I love it! I don't have a cricut but I bet I could paint something similar! LOVE THIS!!! Way to go!

    I pinned it! ;)

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    Replies
    1. You have great paint/hand writing abilities. I was afraid to do it by hand. I am glad that I tried with my Cricut though because it has opened up a whole new world of craft greatness :)

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