Month: October 2020

halloween watercolors.

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Happy Halloween! I am fully immersing myself in all the crafting I can get my hands onto before Bebe arrives. This week I participated in two Halloween watercolor events, one with Michaels and one with Jenny Lemons! Up first: Watercolor and Ink ‘Boo’ Art with maker Jess Park and Michaels. Jess specializes in watercolor, illustration, and modern calligraphy, and she’s based in Napa, CA. For this project she demoed the most kawaii Halloween characters and showed us how to arrange them so the images would spell ‘BOO.’ First, we sketched out our block letters. Then drew in all of the characters with pencil, then waterproof pen. I’m sure as you practice this more you can go straight to pen and skip the erasing part. After cleaning up the eraser marks, we painted! Daaaa, so cute! And next: Ghostly Celestial Watercolor with artist Vica Lew and Jenny Lemons! For the third month in a row I participated in the Jenny Lemons craft night – I’m on a roll! 🙂 Vica showed us how to block out …

preggo halloween – part 2.

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Preggo Halloween continues with a costume that IMHO never gets old. Here we go! With a simple fitted maternity dress you can accentuate that bump, Ali Wong Hard Knock Wife style. For this outfit you will need: Fitted maternity dress in leopard print Red frame glasses (yes, these are my actual glasses) Chunky watch (didn’t have one to complete the look, but totally optional) Gold flats (I purchased ballet slippers so I could also dance in them after Halloween) Hair ties and clips for a top knot Red lipstick (I used a shade from Bare Minerals) Nunchucks (DIY below. You’ll need thick black felt, acrylic chain, hot glue, a rotary cutter, ruler, and cutting mat) Yessss. I tried to be serious like Ali Wong’s comedy special cover, but it hard. Let’s make a nunchuck! For this craft you will need: 12” x 18” piece of thick felt in black 12” acrylic chain Hot glue Rotary cutter Ruler or straight edge Cutting mat Scissors (optional) Cut felt in half widthwise with a rotary cutter. You’ll end …

candy.

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I might too old for Trick or Treating, but I’m never too old for candy. Chef Tova Sterling in partnership with Yelp Central Jersey hosted a candy tasting event: Candy Around the World! We had the option to purchase a candy sampler pack and have it shipped in time for the hang out. I thought it would just be a candy tasting but it was much more! Chef Tova had a fun candy history presentation prepared for us, and hosted candy trivia. I learned so much! Taste test time! Aldama Cajeta from Mexico — Sugar was introduced to the Philippines from Indonesia; then Spain learned about it from the Philippines and brought it over to Mexico. Cajeta was born! White Rabbit Milk Candy from China — This candy has a cult following. It’s wrapped in rice paper; I used to eat it as a kid and would tell my classmates that I was eating paper. They thought I was strange. Roshen Milky Splash from Ukraine — So creamy. So glad Chef Tova gave us two …

bats and beads.

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I’ve always been a little bit obsessed with felt pom poms, but lately, I’ve been using lots of them in garland projects. And with Halloween coming up, I had to create a pom pom garland for the occasion. Let’s make a felt pom pom, bead, and bat garland! Materials: Felt pom poms in any Halloween colorway (I personally love Halloween colorways with pink or another shade of orange. Neon/tennis green is also a great choice. Currently, I have two sources for my felt pom poms – Benzie Design and the Rainbow Barn.) Wooden beads (Get these at any craft store.) Nylon thread or upholstery thread Sewing needle Sturdy felt in black Fabric scissors Optional: clear fishing line Cut out bat shapes. I looked for a bat shape online to use as a guide. You can also cut out other Halloween shapes like ghosts or pumpkins. I folded my felt in half so the bat would be symmetrical when I cut it out. Cut a piece a cord (or clear fishing line) and sew through the …

preggo halloween – part 1.

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Don’t worry, this won’t turn into a preggo blog, but disclaimer, this is definitely a preggo post! When Hubby and I discussed having kids, one of my top priorities/dreams/goals was to be pregnant during Halloween. Is that strange? Probably. But I wanted to dress up the bump! So here we go! I’m talking preggo Halloween costume idea inspired by Hubby saying “you look like a snowman.” D’oh! But brilliant! All you need to be a snowperson: Fitted maternity dress in white (Accentuate that bump!) Frank Sinatra hat (Fun fact: I have a pretty great Goorin Bros hat collection that I refuse to give up) Classic red plaid scarf (These are easy find online or create your own.) Carrot snack bc vitamin A, B6, K1, potassium, and biotin Yarn pompoms in black (DIY below.) Tapestry needle, sewing needle, and thread to attach pom poms to your dress Let’s make pom poms! For this craft you will need: Pom Pom tool of choice Yarn in black Non stretchy cotton cord Scissors Scrap tray Wind yarn onto pom …

ghostin’.

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Here’s a super quick and super fun way to add a lil spoopy to your Halloween treat bags. For this project, any paper bag works! Halloween doesn’t need to be all orange and black. I went pink! (Side note: Yes, these are random bags I had in my stash!) For this project you will need: paper treat bags, black and white felt, fabric scissors, and hot glue. Cut out ghost shapes with white felt and ghost features with black felt. Use hot glue to attach eyes and mouth to the body, and also to attach the ghost to the treat bag. Add treats! I love finding limited edition Halloween treats and non-sweet items to put inside my treat bags. For these bags I found pumpkin and bat shaped pretzel packs, pumpkin pie Kit Kat, Reese’s in fall colors, plastic spider rings, bubbles with character caps, and kitten ears. Hm, can we say – Target for the win! So easy, right? Happy haunting! OooOo, and share your favorite Halloween treats below!

candy corn.

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I don’t know anyone who likes candy corn, but I do love how they are an iconic Halloween candy. I also enjoy making them in felt form! Here’s a fun and simple candy corn decor DIY. Materials: Felt in yellow, orange, and white Fabric scissors Hot glue Alligator clip (if making a clip) Cut felt. Start with the yellow felt and cut out a tapered rectangular shape with curved bottom corners and an uneven top. Place the yellow felt on top of the orange felt, and cut the orange felt using the yellow piece as a template. This shape will be taller than the yellow piece; it will continue to be tapered with an uneven top. Place the orange felt on top of two pieces of white felt. Use the orange felt as a template and cut both pieces of white felt at the same time to complete the candy corn shape. Taper the felt and create a curved top. If you are making a clip, fold one white piece of felt in half and …

sriracha.

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Halloween may look a little different this year, but you can totally still dress up! Here’s a Halloween Throwback (just two years…) because I never got to post about our Sriracha costumes. I cut the roosters out of felt and attached them onto a red dress and red tee (inside out so you couldn’t see the design) with double sided tape. I made the green caps out of La Croix boxes and felt. I attached mine to a headband and Hubby’s to a hair clip. I like designing costumes that are comfortable / easy to maneuver in so I try to use what I already have in my outfit repertoire as the base of my costumes. That makes it easier to wear to work if Halloween falls on a workday, and do normal things like go to Starbucks and tell them my name is Sriracha (Yes, they spelled it incorrectly.). I thought the comically tiny and comically large caps would be a nice touch. When we went to Chipotle for our annual boo-rito run, the …

work hard, clay hard.

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The September craft night at Jenny Lemons was all about clay! It was also my Mommy’s birthday so she and my sister joined craft night, too. Our instructor was Faye Kendall, a fiber artist based in the East Bay; she walked us through how to make air dry clay mobiles. Jenny Lemons shipped over clay and an India ink pen. We gathered additional items like a rolling pin, a mat/cover for our workspace, and toothpicks or other utensils for making marks and cutting. First, a lesson in clay. Then, how to create slats with cardboard to get a even thinness across your clay. We then rolled out our clay. I used a dowel. Some used actual rolling pins or glass bottles. Faye demoed carving out shapes and creating holes in our mobile pieces. We had to wait for the clay to dry before we could paint and assemble our mobiles. While we continued to create shapes, Faye used the rest of class to talk about design and where she draws inspiration from, as well as …

makers gonna make.

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I’ve temporarily closed my custom shop for my crafty biz to focus promoting ready made product, and also because Bebe is coming soon and there is much to prepare. Sharing a few last customs for the year. These were so fun to create! Makers Gonna Make My friend Melissa of Poppy and Honey Bee ordered a Makers Gonna Make wall hanging to add to her Feed the Fish co collection! And I made it in her biz colors. I love how she uses it as part of her Zoom background. A Collection! I love it when customers come back for more felt fun! This order went out to a long time fan. She ordered pennants: A matching pennant for her little to match her older brother’s pennant, a Halloween pennant, a giant Unite pennant, and a teacher pennant. The tiny pencil and apple were so fun to make. Plus a duo of wall hangings for a birthday celebration. I am loving the idea for including a slice of pie to the fall-inspired wall hangings. Customs …