betty cricket

  Cheap, cheerful and so simple to make, I call these my pie pumpkins, because they are small and round.  Admittedly, this isn't the most original project, but I am posting as a document more as an example of what you can do, and what mistakes I've made on this year's Jack-o-lantern. I've highlighted my mistakes using bold text if you just want to skip the main body of text. Supplies scrap paper (newspaper, receipts) balloon 1/2 -1 cup flour 1/2 -1 cup water pencil yellow acrylic paint orange acrylic paint (or mix red and yellow paint) black acrylic paint flameless tealights Tools old jar small container for flour and water mix x-acto knife paintbrush scissors 1a) Blow up your balloon. Mine was about 15 cm in diameter. If you want a more classic pumpkin shape, you can tie string around the balloon. I was never able to get them tight enough to make deep ridges, but it does flatten the bottom of the pumpkin, giving a more natural shape. This year I skipped the string ...

Scared of what the morning brings... I had a friend over to my place and she commented that this little guy looked like a zombie (hence the posting near Halloween).  That said, if you ever wondered what Robert Smith looks like as a muppet, look no further.  I made him as a personal project for myself because I was upset and needed to make something that would make me feel better (I used to make these as a teenager using strips of panty hose for the hair). Alas I will post the incomplete "pattern" I made in my journal.   I wanted him to be floppy but still be able to sit on his own, so I used pipe cleaners for the the armature, the pants were just black "tubes" I made of felt (it's not in the pattern because I just made them a length I thought worked). Once the jacket was attached, at the base of the jacket I cut out a black circle (also not in the pattern) and sewed to the bottom/ base of the jacket. The legs stick out from between the jacket and the bottom felt...

  As a "thank you" to my friend Autumn, I decided to make her a tunnel book based on  the story book illustrations of "The dreadful tale of Pauline and the Matches" from the Struwwelpeter.  This was my first attempt at a tunnel book, so some mistakes were made, but overall I like the results. I first sketched the planes on to dollar store watercolour paper. Then I traced over the pencil lines with a fine point sharpie (permanent marker) pen. After removing all leftover visible pencil lines with an erasure, I coloured the planes with acrylic thinned out with water. the result was about 7cmx 9cm and is about 5cm deep.  The final step was placing it in a shadow box I found in a thrift store.

  It's Brandy's birthday this month, so I wanted to make her some gifts that reflected the fall season. First I sewed her a witch's hat using a tutorial from Spoonflower . Then I scoured the internet for historical paintings of - but didn't find anything that worked. Then I found an image of a 15th century woman Hester Tradescant. To start with, she's wearing a tall pilgrim type hat - both Thanksgiving and Halloween are celebrated in October. In addition, a quick search revealed that the Tradescants were collectors in England who opened one of the first museums (collections of oddities from around the world) - kinda spooky. By trade the Tradescants were also botanists (the Tradecsantia house plant is named after the family), perfect for a friend who's house is filled with plants. The canvas is pretty small: 8cmx8cm, so I knew I would have to severely "crop" the image to fit. Plus this is the smallest I could paint the face with the brushes I own.  I re...