31 Days of Halloween - Day 24 - Articulated Skeletons

Day 24!  What?  That's right, and you are hopping onto the Smeared and Smudged Forum's 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop! Yea!  I love all the wonderful projects that I'm seeing on my daily hops!  Take a bow, Wicked Bloggers!

Below are all the fabulous bloggers:

Terra,Tori,Kristy,Kapree,Alison,Christine,Kelli,Windy,Susan,Alex,Monique,Jane,Sugar,Black Dragon,Lisa,Shell,Jean,Julia,Jennifer,Loren,Christy,Vee,Lady Brayton,Lindsay,Little Black Kitten,Celeste,Leigh,Pam,Donna,Valerie,Helen,Sharon,Lisa,Karen,Carolyn,Pam

This is a re-post of one of my favorite projects.  You won't believe how easy it is!  Each bone is a bead, so you can pick and choose how your skeleton goes together!

Click here to watch the video tutorial
Materials:
Polymer clay - white and any color you want to make accessories
26 gauge wire - I used white coated wire
Permanent markers - fine and regular points
Accessory supplies - feathers, gems, etc.

	Here are two completed skeletons with polymer clay pieces next to the bone beads they will make.
	Long bone beads and vertebra beads are cut from a small roll. Holes are made with a needle tool, which is large enough to accommodate two 26 gauge wires at a time.
	To make holes in the long bones, hold the clay without applying any pressure at all.Twist the needle tool back and forth as you gently push it through.
	The skull is made from two clay balls. One is twice the size of the other.Place the smaller ball close to one edge of the larger - that's the jaws. Insert a 12" wire folded in half in behind the jaws.Press tooth patterns on the jaw section and cut the mouth open.
	Press eyes into the skull. If you plan to use gems in the eyes, make sure the hole is large enough.
	The rib cage is a flattened, elongated piece.Squeeze the center for the front of the ribs.Mark any number of ribs you want.
	Bend the ends of the rib cage back and join to a bone shaped bead.Shape it into an oval to open up the top to be wider than the bottom.
	The pelvis is kind of a bicycle seat shape. Make holes in the sides and bend them up slightly.
	The pelvis has two leg wire holes that start near the center and angle out to the sides of what would be the hips. Bake according to polymer clay package directions.
	Use your permanent markers to draw lines and mark the ends of the bones.String 2 or 3 vertebra beads on the doubled wire.Add the rib cage and 3 or 4 more beads. Add beads until it looks right to you.
	Separate the doubled wire and put one wire through each leg hole. Add another 12" length of wire through the leg holes so that each leg has a double wire.
	String a upper leg bone bead, a vertebra bead, a lower leg bead and a foot or shoe bead. Coil the tail of the wire being careful not to tighten the leg wire too much. You should be able to position the leg easily.Flatten the coil to the bottom of the foot or shoe.Or you can wrap the tail of the wire around the ankle bone.
	Cut a 14" length of wire and fold in half. Wrap around the neck just above the rib cage.String on both arm bones and hands. Secure by wrapping the wire around the wrist.
	Glue accessories in place.

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 20 - Halloween Cupcake Stand

It's already the 20th of Smeared and Smudged Forum's 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop! Yea!  It's going by so fast!  I love all the wonderful projects that I'm seeing on my daily hops!  Take a bow, Wicked Bloggers!

Below are all the fabulous bloggers:

Terra,Tori,Kristy,Kapree,Alison,Christine,Kelli,Windy,Susan,Alex,Monique,Jane,Sugar,Black Dragon,Lisa,Shell,Jean,Julia,Jennifer,Loren,Christy,Vee,Lady Brayton,Lindsay,Little Black Kitten,Celeste,Leigh,Pam,Donna,Valerie,Helen,Sharon,Lisa,Karen,Carolyn,Pam

I am in love with my die cutting machine. It's a simple hand crank model, but I can cut tons of stuff with it! I won the Sizzix Cupcake Stand die when they had a big release bash for Eileen Hull's new designs! Sweet! I LOVE it!
Materials:
 Sizzix Cupcake Stand Die
A Halloween themed tissue box
Heavy card stock for the base
Aleene's Original Tacky Glue
Aleene''s Tacky Double Stick Sheets

	The Cupcake Die has 4 pieces, but you only need 2 of the shapes. You will need 1 cut of top and 4 of the base. I used a side panel from a Halloween tissue box. I had a really lovely black satin finish card stock with shiny black polka dots for the base.
	I used Aleene's Tacky Double Stick Sheets to stick the two pairs of base pieces together before sliding them together. Once together, I added glue to the seems for extra strength. Glue the top of the base to the back side of the top.
	I added glitter glue to the edges of the top and base.
	I didn't have a cupcake handy, so I set the tiny table with Tootsie Roll cheeseburgers and fries.

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 19 - Kitschy Pumpkin

Oh my heck! It's day 19 of Smeared and Smudged Forum's 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop! Yea!

Below are all the fabulous bloggers:

Terra,Tori,Kristy,Kapree,Alison,Christine,Kelli,Windy,Susan,Alex,Monique,Jane,Sugar,Black Dragon,Lisa,Shell,Jean,Julia,Jennifer,Loren,Christy,Vee,Lady Brayton,Lindsay,Little Black Kitten,Celeste,Leigh,Pam,Donna,Valerie,Helen,Sharon,Lisa,Karen,Carolyn,Pam

It's time to pitch some kitsch! I LOVE kitsch! I make kitschy art every chance I get! Grab your buttons, charms, broken jewelry, beads, flowers..Well, just grab everything and lets get to gluing!

Materials:
Wood pumpkin cut out (Thank you Hubby)
Acrylic paint - I used brown
Paper towels
Hot glue gun and plenty of glue sticks
Embellishments: buttons, beads, gems, shrink plastic pieces, odds and ends leftover from crafting, small chip board pieces, tiny toys, and anything else you can think of! I used handmade clay buttons and skulls and polymer clay beads, small things that I've deemed to personal too throw away or use on art for sale.

	This is my first kitschy piece. I am in love with this style! On of the coolest things on her is the big eye that moves when you turn it.I love it!
	Paint your pumpkin with brown acrylic and wipe off with paper towels before it dries.Gather the things you might want to use. Make sure there are tons of choices.I limited my choices to Halloween colors, but mostly orange.
	Before beginning to glue, try things in different positions to get an idea of what will look just right for you.
	I started by gluing my biggest piece - the flower. Make sure your most important pieces will fit.The base layer will likely not be seen in the final version, so hold back the best stuff.
	The second layer will be the larger pieces.Stop and look around the room now, did you miss anything cool that would work well on this piece?
	The final layer will be smaller pieces and fill-ins.Don't stop until it's just right!My favorite things: The Buddha eraser, the zombie coffee coffee cup, the shrink plastic chocolate postcard from the Field museum's Chocolate exhibit - it was serendipitous that we were in Chicago when the exhibit was there, the key charm I received in a Halloween charm swap, and all the tiny clay skullies that I made years ago.

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 16 - Wicked Wire Wrapping

Eeek! It's day 16 of Smeared and Smudged Forum's 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop!   This has been so much fun, hopping and commenting AND I thank everyone for the awesome comments you've give me! 
 So you made Halloween Doughnut Beads, now what? Now we make them into earrings! This is basic wire wrapping! Yea! Go grab some wire, some head pins and pliers and let's get to making!

Material: Beads - any beads will do, but this will cover a double holed bead like these doughnuts
20 gauge wire
Head pins
Assorted beads
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Wire cutters

	You don't want to see a wire in the center of the doughnut beads, so you'll want to begin with 2 head pins and thread them from the center out. The wire tails need to be rounded to thread this way.
	This is how it should look with both head pins in place.
	Grab on wire tail and wrap it around the round nose pliers to form a loop.
	Wrap the rest of the tail around itself below the loop 2 or 3 times. Use the chain nose pliers to grab the wire end while the round nose pliers are still in the loop.Trim off excess.
	Try different combinations of beads until you get the look you want.
	Repeat the loop on the other side of the doughnut, but don't close it.Make a loop on the top of the beaded head pin and close it by wrapping the tail around under the loop as above.
	Slide the closed loop of the dangle on the open loop at the bottom of the doughnut.
	Close the last loop as above.
	We'll do the ear wires in another post.

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 15 - Steampunk Bat Neclace

Eeek! It's day 15 of Smeared and Smudged Forum's 31 Days of Halloween! I am having so much fun! This is my project for this week's show. It's the Halloween show, of course! Be sure to check out all the projects for the show - they're so inspiring! Cool2Craft.com Featured on Cool2Craft TV.  Blog Hop!  This has been so much fun, hopping and commenting AND I thank everyone for the awesome comments you've give me! 


Materials:
Aleene's Super Thick Tacky Glue
Craft foam - I used black, but any color would work
Pen or pencil to trace pattern
Metallic paste - copper
Washers - No larger than 1/3" wide Nuts - no larger than 1/4"
Scissors
Bead for one eye - should fit into the center of the washer Tiny bead cap for the other eye - it needs to fit next to the washer on the bat's face
Craft knife
 Hole punch - 1/8"
String or ribbon Wire - I used 20 gauge, but most any size will work
 Bat Necklace Template

1.Cut out the bat necklace template, trace on the foam and cut out.

2. Cut the gray areas out of the paper bat, keeping the head and body as one piece. Trace all the pieces on the foam and cut out.

 3. Cut out the head on the paper bat, trace on the foam and cut out.

 4. Rub copper paste on the foam pieces. Do a tiny bit at a time. You can add more if you desire.

 5. Cut a tiny "x" on one side of the individual bat head. Cut just large enough for the eye bead.

6. Place a tiny drop of glue on the cut "x" and push the bead in.

7. Glue all the foam pieces in place. **You may want to cut the ears off the whole bat piece and the body with head piece, if they don't line up with the individual head piece**

8. Punch holes just to the outsides of outer foam triangles.

9. Glue the metal pieces according to the photo above, making sure to glue the outer metal pieces over the holes. Allow to dry

10. Thread string through the holes. Tie knots and wrap the wire around the string tails and trim off excess.

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 13 - Return of the Birthday Zombie

It's day 14 of Smeared and Smudged Forum's 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop!  Yea!  This is an  ancient post, but I just had to bring it back for the Smudgy Antics weekly challenge.  The theme this week is Movie Madness.


Below are all the fabulous bloggers:

Terra,Tori,Kristy,Kapree,Alison,Christine,Kelli,Windy,Susan,Alex,Monique,Jane,Sugar,Black Dragon,Lisa,Shell,Jean,Julia,Jennifer,Loren,Christy,Vee,Lady Brayton,Lindsay,Little Black Kitten,Celeste,Leigh,Pam,Donna,Valerie,Helen,Sharon,Lisa,Karen,Carolyn,Pam

This is a polymer clay zombie that I made for my dear friend, Beth. She and her family love zombie movies, so I came up with an idea to make the gift as cheesy as a great zombie flick. [Originally published in October of 2009 - spiritclay.blogspot.com]  I made the zombie using polymer clay.
I made him one half of an Origami box to stand in, but you could use any box. \
I used some Photoshop techniques on a photo I'd taken of a graveyard for the background.
I tore the edges and browned them up with a sienna stamp pad and glued the pieces to the back and sides of the box. 
Next I composed the following letter to go with it. If you're a zombie aficionado you'll see where this is going. If you're not, I'll say this: George Romero made the first zombie classic Night of the Living Dead - It takes place in a small town in western Pennsylvania - If you're bitten by a zombie, you become one (some consider this the Zombie Virus) - Where ever zombies go there is mayhem - The most famous line from the movie is "They're coming to get you, Barbara". Here's the letter:

Dearest Beth,

I was looking on line and found this killer cake decorator, Barbara, who makes these fabulous cakes. She works at a place called Romero’s, in a small town in western Pennsylvania. I called her up and told her about you and the kind of things you like. I was so excited! She said she’d make something spectacular for you. So, yesterday I got this strange email from the owner of the bakery:

Dear Candace,  
You should know there’s been a terrible virus going around our town. None of my staff showed up at all today. Barbara started your cake, but couldn't make it in either. There are several fires in town and things are a mess. I called my delivery guys, who said they could go pick her up. I called her and said “They’re coming to get you, Barbara”, and she screamed and hung up. She never showed and I can’t get hold of the delivery guys, either. I’ve finished the cake myself and will deliver it personally. I hope it will meet your approval. 
Sincerely,  
George 

So, in the process of moving to Utah and, yes, that's my excuse - I missed Beth's birthday. As I was putting together ideas for Alexa Westerfield's Terrorific Tuesdays, I printed photos of the birthday zombie and made them into earrings. See the SugarSkull Bracelet & Bats in the Belfry Necklace, and Candy Corn Riot Earrings blog entries, if you want to use this idea. They have all the directions you might need for shrink plastic and earring making. With one exception - to make your earrings from a photo, you'll need the inkjet printable shrink plastic. I figured I'd send along a note set up like a movie poster and title it:

RETURN OF THE BIRTHDAY ZOMBIE.

Now, I was looking around the house for a box to send the earrings in and then it hit me - I had some old DVD cases that I'd been saving for some scathingly brilliant idea, and finally I had one! Here's what I ended up with... The front cover says:

Return of the Birthday Zombie

Send in the Clones

The movie that no one wanted to see made

Has been Made!

See the zombie clones arrive late for Beth's Birthday!

Well, they had a really long way to walk and zombies are slow anyway!

You laugh! you’ll Cry! You’ll hurl!

The back cover says:

This film has not yet been rated

Void where prohibited by law

Do not put on these earrings while driving

No zombies were harmed in the making of these earrings

Do not wear these earrings while squeezing your head through your stair rails as they are large and might sustain damage Here's what you'll need to make your Zombie (or any kind of) Movie Gift Box.

A DVD case A DVD Photos that you can size appropriately

A heavy duty hole punch

Glue

Double sided craft tape

A scrap of card stock, any color

Scissors

 

If you don't have a printer at home, make copies at the library or neighborhood copy store. Make extras for good measure. Speaking of measuring, you'll need the measurements of the DVD case. This can be done easily by taking the paper out of the DVD cover and measuring it. Easy peasy!

I did mine with Photoshop, but I could just as easily done it as a collage. Just make sure that the collage will easily fold to slip into the DVD case, if you choose this option.

For the DVD, place a disc on your extra copy and trace around it. Cut the copy giving a bit of extra margin to trim. Now smear a thin coat of Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue on the disc and put your cut image on it. Trim the edges with a craft knife and cut out the center hole.

Punch two holes to put the earrings through (if you're doing that) and tape the backs, so the earrings won't slide out. Ohh, I just had an idea! Since the center of my DVD that got cut out was a cake, I decided to add it back.

I got another copy of the photo and cut loosely around the cake. Next I used a double sided craft tape to stick the cake to a piece of card stock. Then I cut the cake out and used a sticky craft dot to attach the cake to the image just below the hole. Since the earrings are taped on the back of the disc, I want Beth to be able to take the disc out of the case. She'll press on the cake to release the disc! Now, go! Go make your DVD case gift box! You're welcome to use the zombie letter and figure ideas, if you like! I will post a zombie tutorial tomorrow!

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  Be sure to see the Smudgy Antics DT work for this week

I am sharing this post with Aquariann's Zombie Blog hop 

Halloween Chocolate Box Day 12 of S & S Halloween Blog Hop

It's day 12 of Smeared and Smudged Forum's 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop!  This has been so much fun, hopping and commenting AND I thank everyone for the awesome comments you've give me! 

Below are all the fabulous bloggers:

Terra,Tori,Kristy,Kapree,Alison,Christine,Kelli,Windy,Susan,Alex,Monique,Jane,Sugar,Black Dragon,Lisa,Shell,Jean,Julia,Jennifer,Loren,Christy,Vee,Lady Brayton,Lindsay,Little Black Kitten,Celeste,Leigh,Pam,Donna,Valerie,Helen,Sharon,Lisa,Karen,Carolyn,Pam

It's no secret that I love chocolate. I love looking at it as much as eating it! So I have a series of polymer clay chocolate boxes in many themes. This one might be my favorite! It's Halloween themed, of course!
Here a few of polymer clay chocolate boxes with tutorials:
 The Tempered Empress Chocolate Box 
 The Mike and Candy Show Chocolate Box 
 The Joy Chocolate Box
 The Wedding Chocolate Box
 Materials for the chocolates:
 Polymer clay - dark brown, white and a touch of orange
Aluminum foil
Crochet needle for smoothing the clay
Clay stamps for the pumpkin faces

	Each chocolate begins as a compacted foil lump - ball, square, rectangle - slightly smaller than your finished size will be.Condition a ball of clay that is about half the size as the foil.
	Flatten and form the clay around the foil.Smooth the clay by rolling it gently on a smooth surface. Take a small piece of clay flatten the bottom and pull out several points for the stem. Add it to the top of the pumpkin.
	Use your crochet needle create the sections on the pumpkin.Lay the needle on the clay and roll it from top to bottom.
	This is a close up of the angry eye stamp.
	Here is a wide eye that can be turned to make the pumpkin look in any direction.
	The triangle eyes are super easy to make.The mouth stamp is a wiggly smile. Bake the clay as directed. The stamps must be baked before using. I normally use paper to decorate the box, but I wanted to try one that is all chocolate.

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