Boo-ya!

Hello, Happy Sunday, and Welcome to the Farm! This is the strangest time of year for me...kind of warm during the day but cold at night. I just never know how to dress; wish I could stay in my jammies all day. There's just nothing better than jammies...and hot chai tea...and a nice comfy blankie...and a good day in the craft room. Ahhhh, my favorite kind of day!

I've had a lot of those jammie days over the last couple of months (minus the crafting part) and, while laying around looking pitiful between naps, have had the time to think about projects I would like to work on. Of course, there haven't been very many done, but I'm trying to rectify that now. :)

Recently, I received a WONDULOUS (wonder and fabulous combined to form a really cool new word here!) Halloween goody box from Margaret, a fellow Two Peas swapper. Oh my gosh, I cannot BEGIN to tell you everything that was in that box, but suffice it to say I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it all! As a small and personal "thank you" to Margaret, I have crafted this "BOO" saying for her. It isn't much compared to all the funderful (fun and wonderful combined to form another really cool new word here!) things I received from her, but I made it specifically with Margaret in mind and it comes from my heart of hearts. I truly hope she likes it! There's just nothing like receiving heart-made (heartfelt and hand-made combined to, you got it, make another really cool word here!) gifts to make your day just a little better!

This particular craft gift was relatively simple to do, but did take time for the paint and Mod Podge to dry. Basically, I took raw wooden letters and painted them; adhered pattern paper with Mod Podge; sanded and inked the edges; applied Mod Podge over the top to protect from dampness; and adhered medallions and buttons.

Fun, colorful, Halloweeny, and I did most of it while in my jammies. Try it!

Wooden letters from Darice; Craft Smart orange acrylic paint and Mod Podge Matte-Mat from Plaid Enterprises; Double sided cardstock from Heidi Grace Designs (Jeepers Creepers/Words Decor); Shimmer glitter paper from Heidi Grace Designs (Tangled Web); Sparkle cardstock (Witches Brew) from Cloud 9 Design; StazOn Jet Black solvent ink by Tsukineko; Buttons on medallions by Doodlebug Design; Spider buttons from Blumenthal Lansing; Miscellaneous buttons.

Coffin Up Some More

Happy Second Day of October and Welcome to the Farm! We're having an awesome Indian Summer here, and I am enjoying it as much as I can. Mr. Scrappin is working around the farm, Toby is doing his dog thing, and I am in my craft room (when I'm not resting). What a nice, relaxing weekend. I hope you are all having a great weekend as well.

October is here and, with it, comes the beginning rush of trying to get some pre-holiday crafting accomplished. Whether it's Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas, we all want to get our ducks in a row and get done what we can. Today, I was working on finishing up another coffin for Halloween. This one is larger than the two previous ones, THANKS KELLEYLO FOR TURNING ME ON TO IT AND SENDING IT TO ME and it was a lot of fun to see if I could come up with something different. Well, I tried...and failed. BUT, it's all good since I still like the outcome of my project. I actually ran across a blog from Linda McClain titled Catered Crop and fell in love with the crackle coffin she had done. I loved it so much I was drooling. Sorry, I know you don't want to hear that, but it was seriously awesome!

Alas, my project did not turn out in the least like hers. I guess I need more practice with the crackle medium. In my defense, I had never used it before and was a little afraid of it, but that's ok, I'll be better next time. I think what went wrong was that my craft room was quite warm and it completely dried the medium before I got back to it. The end result is that I don't have the awesome crackle that attracted me to Linda's coffin (ooh, that sounds kind of morbid, huh), but I still have a project I'm happy with.

After I took the hardware off of my coffin (this is just so much easier than trying to go around it), I painted it with two coats of black acrylic paint. I only used two because I kind of have a light hand and some of the raw wood still wanted to show through. After that was thoroughly dry, I applied a coat of the crackle medium. My intent was to get back to it while it was tacky, but not dried completely, so that the medium would cause my top coat of paint to crackle. Unfortunately, it was too dry and didn't produce the result I was looking for. At any rate, I still applied my top coat of acrylic paint, which was purple. While I didn't get quite the great crackle I was looking for, I did get a slight crackle and weathered look, which I am still happy with. Next time I'll know that I need to get into my warm room a little quicker for the medium to work correctly. :)

While my project was drying and "weathering," I attempted to make a medallion. I have attempted it before, with no success, but this time I DID IT! Yay me! hahahaha I have the dexterity of Frankenstein trying to crack an egg, so this was a major success for me. Woo hoo! If you have never done a medallion before, there is a great instructional video Making Accordion Fold Paper Medallions by spottedcanary that is super easy to follow. Try it, it's really fun!

Once everything was dried and put together, I put the hardware back on my BIG coffin and put my embellies on. And presto, it's done.

For the coffin, I used: Delta Ceramcoat Acrylic Paint in colors Black and Eggplant and Delta Ceramcoat Crackle.

For the medallion, I used: Double sided cardstock (Jeepers Creepers/Words Decor) from Heidi Grace Designs; Shimmer glitter paper (Tangled Web) from Heidi Grace Designs; Sparkle cardstock (Witches Brew) from Cloud 9 Design; Lavender bat button from Doodlebug Designs.

Ribbon and Halloween "Boo" and bat buttons I've had in my stash and cannot remember where they came from.

If you're looking for a fun, quick project for your Halloween holiday, consider having someone over and have them help you Coffin Up Some More. Enjoy!