Spirit Clay

Saturday, October 27, 2012

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Blinged Out Witch's Hat

And here we are on day 28! Yea! 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

What does every witch need to shine at a Witch's Tea? A fabulous hat! I started with a cool hat I found on line after last year's Witch's Tea, for a huge discount! That was my very first Witches tea and I wore a hooded cloak, which I love, but...there was a best hat contest! Who knew! So, as I said, I started with one that was already cool and had a ball blinging it up!
Materials:
A pointed hat
Hot glue
Feathers
Wire
Beads
Bangles
Knick knacks, doo dads and glitter glue

	Here's my cool hat.I love all the black gauze and and bent over point!

	You may recognize many of the bling I'm adding as Halloween projects from earlier in the October.This is the first bling - a small bat pendant with a skull bead dangle. I sewed it on to make it easy to switch out for next year's tea.

	I cut 6 3" to 4" strips of tulle 36" wide and tied them in a bow.

	I hot glued the bow on the back and added this bauble.It's Smeared Ink's It's About Time Pocket Watch stamp glued on the back of a glass blob. I added glitter glue to the tulle.

	I glued feathers all the way around and sewed on a pendant piece and added wires that I curled up and attached dangles to.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Edible Zombie Morsels

Ahh! It's day 27! 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:

Now will come the making of the zombie candy! Muhuhuahahahhhh! No baking required, but you do need clean hands, warm pockets and fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls!
Materials:
Tootsie Roll Fruit Flavors - make sure the mix includes vanilla

	Tootsie Rolls take a little time and moderate strength to condition, so the first rule of Tootsie Roll Sculpting is: Put the wrapped candies in your pockets for at least half and hour before conditioning it. Rule 2: The Tootsie Roll will pretend it doesn't want to stick to itself at first. After a moment, you won't be able to separate it! Condition them as you would polymer clay - smooshing and rolling them in your hands until they are soft enough to shape.

	For a toe, you will need 2 green, a tiny piece of white, purple and pink.

	Combine the 2 green and shape into a cylinder. Flatten and widen one end. Roll the purple and fatten it into a circle, place it on the toe and tear the end away to make a gross toenail.

	Make a button shape with the white and push it in the back of the toe. Roll a tiny piece of the pink and lay it around the white. You can put some pink under the toenail if you like.

	For an eyeball, you will need 2 white, 1 pink and a tiny bit of blue. Combine the 2 white pieces and roll into a ball.

	Twist all but a little of the pink to make the root and then roll small strings to to make veins. Mix a tiny bit of white and blue together to make a hazy looking iris.

	For the teeth I used 1 white mixed with 1/2 a yellow for the piece of bone, yellow for the teeth and a bit of pink for the little bit of gums. The brain bit is a blue and white combined. Make a random lump and roll the rest into a long string to wind back and forth all over the lump.

	And there you have it! Zombie Morsels! Oh, and the slogan is: Zombie Morsels When you care enough to send the very beast

Thursday, October 25, 2012

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Zombie Candy Box

Well, here we are on day 26! 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:

Don't tell me you've never wondered what zombies taste like! Okay, they're gross, but what if they weren't? What if they tasted fruity? Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Today's project is a zombie candy box that makes a pristine space for the universe to fill with tasty...dead things. Wait! Wait! Wait! Don't run away! It will be fun! I promise!
Materials:
A small box - I used a 4 piece candy box
An image for the box top - I made a digital piece with a hand drawn cemetery background, a photo of my Gravestone ATC border from
Altered Art Supplies and die cut text frame
White card stock - to print your image on
Decorative Paper
Aleene's Tacky Glue Pen Border - I used some gold German borders Black Glitter

	For the top of the box, I created an image in Photoshop with the elements you see here. So here's where you begin - size the image to match the box size including a 2" border to fold to the inside of the box. After gluing the image to the box, fill in the tombstones with the glue pen and sprinkle with glitter. Allow to dry.

	If you will be using the box for display only, you can add any embellishments at all, but if you want to use it for an actual box, put as little paper as you can on the inside sides of the top or the outside side of the bottom so the box will open and close easily. Measure the paper for the bottom the same as the top.

	Glue the bottom to the back side of the decorative paper. Make cuts in the paper to miter the corners.

	Add glue to the flaps and fold them to the inside of the box.

	Add gold trim to fancy it up a bit. Allow the glue to dry

	You'll want to have chocolate cups for the inside, so go get some chocolates and eat them!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

31 Days of Halloween - Day 25 - Wicked Wire Wrapping for a Pendant

Wicked Wire Wrapping by Candace Jedrowicz

Well, here we are on day 25! 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:

Making jewelry findings can be lots of fun and way easier than you think! In this tutorial, I'll show you how to make a bail for a pendant. It can be used on anything that has a front to back hole that you want to string on a chain.

Click here to see how the cardboard pendant was made

Materials:
20 Gauge wire - 6"
Accent bead
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Wire Cutters

1. Measuring 1 1/2" from one end of the wire, bend the wire around something large enough for your pendant piece. I used a jump ring sizer, but you could use anything. Crimp the wrapped wire just below where they meet.
2. You just made the loop to go through the hole on your pendant piece. Slide the pendant piece on the loop.
3. Grasp the loop on the outside of the pendant piece using the round nose pliers. Bend the short wire tail to the side and wrap it around the long wire tail.
4. Slide on and accent bead. In the video, I didn't wrap the short tail before adding the bead. I chose a bead with a hole large enough to fit over both wire tails and wrapped the short tail above the bead. Either way is fine.
5. Starting just above the bead, wrap the long tail around a pencil (or anything you have handy) twice. At the end of the second wrap, cross the wire over to the other side of the first wrap and wrap the tail around between the double loop and the bead.

It won't look manufactured, but I happen to like the wabi-sabi style. Imperfect is charming to me!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

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:

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.

Monday, October 22, 2012

31 Days of Halloween - Day 23 - Skull Bead

It's day 23! 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:

Polymer clay is such a versatile medium! I love making small beads in all kinds of shapes, but funny little skulls just tickle me. That being said, skull beads are easy and anyone can do it!

Materials:
Polymer clay - white
Black slick paint
Craft knife
Needle tool or toothpick
Paper towel
1. Roll the clay into a small ball
2. Pinch the bottom into an upper and lower jaw area
3. Use the blade of the craft knife to cut teeth with vertical lines
4. Use the blade again to cut across the middle of the teeth, opening the mouth
5. Use the end of the needle tool to make eyes
6. Use the craft knife blade turned sideways to make the nose holes
7. Use the needle tool or toothpick to make a hole down the center
8. Bake according to directions
9. Apply the slick paint directly from the tube into the mouth, eyes and nose
10. Wipe off excess paint with a paper towel

Sunday, October 21, 2012

31 Days of Halloween - Day 22 - Pretty Please with an Eyeball on Top!

It's day 22! It's day 22! 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:

Today's Halloween treat is a polymer clay cupcake zipper pull a la Smeared Ink. The cartoony cupcake is from a collection of cool digital stamps called Candy is Dandy. My cupcake is a nod the incredible group of artists I was blessed to hook up with recently through Smeared Ink. The group is the Smeared and Smudged Forum and they are a hoot!
Materials:
Polymer Clay - purple, brown and orange
Colorful micro beads
Glossy sealer
Needle tool 20 Gauge wire
Accent beads
Eyeball bead
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Wire cutters
Lanyard clip

	You can see here the simple shapes required to make a cupcake shape. Make a hole in the cupcake with the needle tool. Bake according to directions.

	When the cupcake bead is cool, paint some glossy sealer on the orange icing. Drizzle some micro beads on the icing while the sealer is still wet. Allow to dry.

	I chose an orange accent bead and stacked a tiny green bead on that to make a little pumpkin dangle. Cut a 4" piece of wire. Fold 1/2" over the round nose pliers to form a loop. Slide the dangle onto the loop.

	Slide the folded wire into the cupcake bead from the bottom up.

	Add the eyeball bead.fold the wire over, just above the eyeball bead and make another loop. Slide the loop on the lanyard clip.

	Wrap the wire tail around just below the loop to secure it. Click here for detailed photos of the wire wrapping techniques described in this tutorial.

Candace Jedrowicz

Welcome to my blog! It's all about art, whimsy and Halloween!

My first memories of Halloween involve my dad making a spooky short film with my older brothers' cub scout troop. We had an unfinished wall in the basement that he drew a cemetery scene on and he directed the boys to walk warily into the "graveyard" where a member of the troop was waiting to pop up wearing a mask to scare them. The old 8mm film had no sound, so the boys had to be very melodramatic. It was a hoot!

I remember a cardboard box robot costume with blinking Christmas light that Dad made for my brother, Mike. Dad always collaborated with Mom for any sewn bits of costumes. Mom was a patient and talented soul, herself. We always had way more fun than a person should have at Halloween!

If you love Halloween as much as I do, you'll want to check out the blogs I follow!