Halloween Movie Night 2020

This year has been one of the the strangest and most difficult years. COVID-19 is the biggest change, followed by 2 huge fires in my state. Since we were already required to wear masks it came in handy with all the smoke. Having so much going on that is beyond our control it has made life difficult. Many of us were laid off from jobs that we were counting on, and no new jobs to get. Unemployment you had to expect long waits to see if you could get on it. Next to hit us was the shortages of items at the grocery store. So many people do not plan for things and ran to the stores and started hording products. Hopefully this is not the future we have in store for us. All these changes will be with us for years to come. We are not out of the woods with the pandemic and to top everything off it is also an election year. Emotions are running high. Now with the holidays upon us I feel it is more important than ever for families to pull together and to celebrate the holidays in the best way we can.

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  Smoke from the Cameron Fire

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  Snow in my yard

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  Cleaning snow off the cars is such fun

Thinking outside the box my daughters and I have come up with an idea. Since we cannot be together we are going to do a Halloween Movie night through Zoom. I went ahead and did all my Halloween decorations. I will share them with you and tutorials. We created a list of movies we want to watch. The number one movie is Hocus Pocus. So I went on line to see what I could find. I found a website where I downloaded a pattern for a popcorn box with the drawings to the Sanderson Sisters on it. I also downloaded the pattern for doing a Hocus Pocus Bingo game that you will play while watching the movie. My next search was for food and drinks that were Hocus Pocus in theme and where I could not find it I went just Halloween.

The bingo cards and the popcorn box can be found at this website www.musingsofanaveragemom.com

This hocus pocus popcorn box can be downloaded here.

You can download the Hocus Pocus bingo cards here.

Now on to the refreshments for the evening.

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  Traditional Samhain Cider & Wine

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  Apple Nachos

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  7 layer spider web taco dip

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  Pentagram topped vegan apple pies

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  Pretzel fingers

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  Hocus Pocus Spell book Brownies

As part of getting ready for the Halloween movie night I started to decorate the house with a witches theme in mind. Here is what I have done so far. I continue to make things all the way till Halloween night.

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The skeleton couple is done on the embroidery machine and the patterns can be found on Urban threads.(the male UT11759) (the female UT11764) I ended up having some puckering on these due to the volume of stitches. There is 72,000 stitches so if you choose to do this you will have to make sure you are using the proper amount of stabilizer. The fabric I chose was also a bit stretchy and I could not correct it enough with the density of the stitches. Either way I love how they turned out and will show them until I decide to make them again.

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The next thing I did was the display of dead fairies. I got the idea from Pinterest. I bought the skeletons from the Dollar Store. The board to mount them I bought at Joann’s. The moss for the hair I had on hand but bought it from Hobby Lobby. The wings I hand drew one set and then made copies on my printer. The sign I hand drew as close to the fonts that I saw on the sample on Pinterest. I glued the fairies to the board but went back and used heavy duty straight pins to look like I had pinned the bodies and wings much like you would do with butterflies.

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The skulls were fun to do I bought them at the dollar store. I did not like the color. They looked plastic and fake. I antiqued them with a wash of acrylic paint in the color of Expresso. I really like how they came out. Then I put glow in the dark glue in the eyes and they are very spooky at night. I did not seal the skulls but you could do that if you wish.

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  coiling the rope

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  embroidered rope

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  finished trivet

I get most of my candle sticks at Goodwill, Dollar Store and Arc. This trivet is made of rope sewn together. The stitch used is a zig zag stitch. On this trivet I first zigzaged around the rope before I stitched it together. I used a variegated black thread which gives it a umbra kind of look. The process of coiling the rope is actually pretty easy. To start the coil you do this in your hand until it is about 4″ in diameter and stick pins from the outside to the center. This will hold it in place so you can start stitching in the center and work your way out. What you are actually doing is zigzag stitching in between the rope in order to connect each round. It took me much longer to find a design I liked to embroider on the trivet. The pattern is from Embroidery Library. The pattern is called Bats in the Belfry Wreath. M8406. The patterns are for machine and hand embroidery.

The candle is a real candle that I had on hand. Real meaning it is not battery operated. To get the dripping effect what I did was use my glue gun and started at the bottom of the drip and go up. I wanted it to have a bigger bubble effect at the bottom. As you are using the glue gun the longer you hold the handle down for the glue to come out the thinner it gets. I did not paint the drips but if you wanted it to look scarier you could paint the drips red. The flowers I used I got at the Dollar Store. I chose not to clue them in place so I can use the candle holder at other times of the year.

The next thing that I made was the bottle of poison. I glued a skull head found at the Dollar Store on top of the bottle. I downloaded off the internet a poison bottle label. There are so many online to choose from. I used Mod Podge to attach the label to the front of the bottle. For the poison inside I used the green goop you can find at any store. It is the stuff kids like to play with. I wrapped jute around the neck of the bottle. Once I put this stuff inside the jar I sealed it with glue. I then antiqued the entire bottle to make it look really old. I did not seal the bottle when I was done. I plan to add more bottles as I find interesting bottles all year long.

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For this one all I did was fill a jar I had on hand with small skulls. I got these skulls at Joanns.

This project was a little time consuming but fun. I was using the magic book of spells from the movie Hocus Pocus to copy. I found a Paper Mache book at Michaels. I covered the book with ripped paper towels and Mod Podged them on. When I liked the look I painted the entire book black. To make the snakes and the eye I used air dry clay I got at Hobby Lobby. It worked but air dry clay has a tendency to crack once it dries. I let the snakes and eye part dry overnight and then painted them after I glued them to the book.

To accent the fact that I wanted it to look like the fabric was stitched together I drew a line with my glue gun. The stitches are made out of small broken sticks that I glued on. The little hand prints around the eye are made with the hand of small skeletons. I painted the sides that look like pages in a book. Once I was done I antiqued the whole book with a brown paint. I have jewelry inside that I have made.

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For this piece I found a skeleton in one of the craft stores. I had another idea in mind when I bought it. This idea started out with the bird cage I found at a flea market. I debated about painting it black. I decided not to. I did not like how plastic the skeleton looked so I antiqued it with brown acrylic paint. I did not seal it. For the floor of the bird cage I laid down moss from the crafts stores that I had on hand. The skeleton looks a bit crowded in the tiny cage and that was on purpose. I may add small bats in there eventually. When I find something that inspires me. Most of my projects I add to them year after year.

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For this project it is all machine embroidered. You embroider sections of it and in the end you stitch it all together. This is called free standing lace. The reason is that it is stitched on water soluble stabilizer. When you complete each section you wash away the stabilizer and all you have left is the threads. When you have all 8 pieces done you zig zag stitch them together to complete the circle. The pattern can be found on Embroidery Library it is pattern M8406 called Bats in the Belfry.

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I hope you enjoy some of the ideas I came up with. I would love to see yours if you create it! Happy crafting. Next article I will focus on all the recipes that I used for the movie night.

Roxanne

Mask making

WHY I WEAR A MASK

I never thought about all the things I touched, including my face each day. The average person touches their face 16-23 times per hour. Wearing masks as part of my wardrobe is an unusual thing to get used to. I did not see myself making masks either. Our government is now requiring us to wear masks at all times in public.

Seamstresses all across the world have come together and started sewing masks. I am one of those seamstresses who rose to the occasion. If you would like to try your hand at making a mask here are some instructions that will help you.

DISCLAIMER – DIY MASKS 

A fabric DIY mask will not protect you from the COVID-19 virus.

The CDC has all the current information on masks on their website.

Face Mask Patterns

Tools

• Sewing Machine
• Rotary Cutter
• Rotary Cutting Mat
• Scissors
• Iron
• ironing board or mat
• Pins
• Face Mask Cutting Guide

Materials

• 100% cotton, quilters cotton. You can use fat quarters to make masks
• coordinating thread
• pipe cleaners

As part of my sustainability and upcycling I am using the tons of cottons that I have on hand rather than purchase fabrics. Which has been difficult during this pandemic. Much of my supplies I had already on hand but as the pandemic lengthened I have had to order all my supplies online. No offence to China or other countries I have ordered form only the USA businesses due to how long it takes to get here.

Elastic versus Tie Face Mask

It does not matter which you choose to do it is a matter of comfort. The next thing I ran into was the availability of materials. Everyone was running to the store to make masks and a lot of the people where making them and giving the masks away. I have made a great deal of masks and have a few recommendations. I personally am not fond of the 1/4″ elastic. It is bulky and will not stay behind my ears properly. I prefer the 1/8″ elastic or the round elastic. The smaller elastic stretches further and is more comfortable.

If you do not like elastic you can use double fold bias tape for ties or even create your own bias tape from fabric to match or coordinate.

This face mask that I am going to show you is two layers of 100% cotton with a pocket for adding an additional filtering layer. You can use fat quarters to make your mask. Fat quarters are fabric that is precut that quilters and crafts people use for projects. They are cut at 22″ X 18″. You can use regular coffee filters folded inside. When you make this mask you want to use as tight a weave of fabric as you can find. I use pipe cleaners inside, across the top so you can mold it to your nose.

Mask Instructions

To start I made a cardboard pattern in the size of 8″ X 9″. I like this size because it actually seals better around my face than a 6″ X 9″. This size if for adults. You can adjust the sizes down for teenagers and toddlers.

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 I cut two pieces of fabric rather than one so I can use plain fabric on the back side of the face mask and save the fun fabrics for the front. On the back piece of the face mask I measured down 1 1/2″ down from the top and cut.

Next I sewed the top together where I just cut but only sew roughly 2″ in from the outside edge on both ends.

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I then press the seam open and top stitch the seams down. This forms the pocket so you can add a filter.

Cut the elastic to fit either a man 9″ or a woman 7″ for each ear. Pin them to the sides at the top and the bottom of the fabric, and sew all four sides together.

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Turn right side out and press. Once pressed you will want to put a pipe cleaner in the top so you can fit the mask better to your face. A suggestion is to curl each end so the wire cannot poke you in the face.

Once you get the wire in you will want to sew around the wire to keep it in place. It also helps you remember which is the top of the mask. Once that is done you will want to start your folding to create the pleats in the mask. I choose this pleating method because once in is on your face it seals around your face from under your chin, up your cheeks and around your nose area, once you squeeze the wire to fit your nose.

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You want your final mask to measure 3″ high. Press the mask each time you fold it. The final fold you might want to pin the bold before you begin to sew. This way it will keep its shape while stitching. I stitched 1/4″ in from the sides and the bottom. I did a second row of stitching on the sides at 1/4″ from the first seam. This is over kill on the seams but I like the double stitching.

Your first mask may take you an hour as you figure this out. But once you make one you can make a mask in about 30 minutes. There are tons of patterns and instructions online and videos. I hope to start adding videos soon for you as well. Good Luck and have fun making masks!

Be Well, Be Safe

Roxanne

Day 5 Isolation

You would think I would run out of things to write about when I am posting so often. Not true, I have so many projects going that I want to share all of them with you. I hear that some people are so bored being stuck at home. Why? Let’s get creative and help you not be bored. You can only binge-watch so many Netflix movies.
When was the last time you did a video call with your family and close friends? Set up a time to check in on each other. This way, you can help each other not to panic or get depressed and lonely.
Instead of binge-watching TV, pick a time and a movie to watch together. Limit your sitting time.
Hobbies are another good way to spend time together. Right now, there are all kinds of classes on multiply subjects that you can learn for free online. I am getting ready to post classes on my Youtube channel shortly.
There are all kinds of museums that have virtual trips you can take through the museums. On Youtube, there are videos where you feel like you are on a train, many of them from several different countries.
I am taking some classes for free online right now, on herbs, sewing, woodburning, and wood carving to name a few.
I am setting up a filming studio in my dining room to start my videos. In the process, I have to rearrange the whole room. I chose this room because the lighting is better than in my studio right now. While I am trying to set up a studio for filming, I am also cleaning everything from top to bottom. I think I am more exhausted having to stay home than working outside the home. I would love to hear what kinds of things you are doing to keep from getting bored.
Stay safe, stay healthy!
Till next time
Roxanne

Day 6 Isolation

I do not mind being home at all. I prefer it. There is never a shortage of things for me to do. I decided to do a bit of decorating for Easter. I have had this Easter basket for more years than I can remember. The basket carved out of a gourd, and it is hand-painted. Inside the basket are egg-shaped gourds that were hand-painted by me. You can find the eggs on ETSY from the gourdlady48.

The bunny in the basket, I machine embroidered it stomach. There are many sayings you can put on the bunny. The bunny and other animals can be found at Embroidery Buddies online. I found the eggs at Joann’s Fabric Store. I love them.
In my next post, I hope to show you how to do this same look for yourself. The basket I have had for years, and it used to have a handle on it that has since broken off.

The tablescape that I put together this year is with only one bunny. I bought two new candlesticks at Hobby Lobby, topped with battery operated candles. Everything else I pulled together from things that I had around the house. The beautiful tray that everything is sitting on was given to me by a dear friend.

I left the trees up from Christmas, compete with the tiny Led lights. It makes for a nice room divider between the office and the dining room.

I need to work on an exercise program at home. I do far more sitting now than I did at work, and I am beginning to feel it. I have started small with sit-ups and some leg lifts. I will build on that. I have a long way to go before any weight starts to fall off.

Be safe, be healthy,

Roxanne

Day 4 Isolation

Now that there are senior hours at the grocery stores, it is a little easier for me to go grocery shopping. The funny thing is, I never considered myself a senior citizen until now. I was aware of being a senior just never paid any attention to it. It has been difficult to admit that I cannot move as fast as the other shoppers.
Today I went to the grocery store. It was a pleasant experience. The shoppers were all keeping their distance and were so polite to each other. The shoppers were not hoarding any goods.
Everywhere you looked you could see the employees shopping for customers. The employees were whipping down door handles, keypads, and the shopping carts.
It has been a shift in my thinking because we are now asked not to bring our bags to the grocery stores. We are asked to use their plastic bags to help cut down possible contamination. Luckily I have been saving plastic bags for a future project.
I regularly plan out our meals and shop accordingly. With this COVID-19 I still plan but, I buy a little extra each time I go to the store to build up supplies, on the outside chance we cannot leave our homes at all.

I cleaned off part of my plant shelves to make room for the extra food and cleaning supplies I have been buying. I hope that all of you stay safe and healthy. I will start adding the healthy meals that I am preparing to help you stay healthy.

Stocking up your pantry is something that most people do not do. I have not canned in a while so I was not stocking up either. If I have enough staples in my pantry I can cook almost anything. I do not like having to run to the store every day or even twice a week. I do buy in bulk when I can also. The only thing I have to go to the store is for fresh things and when I can have my garden again that will be next to nothing.

Canned tomatoes: Crushed, whole, diced, tomato paste
Dried pastas (I use gluten free)
Rice: long grain, brown, and Arborio for risotto
Peanut butter ( I use powdered peanut butter)
Honey:(I only use local honey)
Real Maple syrup
Roasted red peppers:
Canned artichoke hearts:
Baking ingredients: bulk flour (all-purpose, I also have almond, coconut, amaranth and others), sugar (I have regular sugar, but also have stevia), brown sugar (store in a nice airtight container), powdered sugar, baking powder, baking soda, extracts, yeast, etc.
Shortening and vegetable oil
Chocolate chips (I use carob)
Oatmeal (I use organic gluten free)
Evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk
Cornmeal
Mayonnaise: (I am making my own mayonnaise now)

Potatoes, onions, and garlic. I store them in a basket so air can circulate.

Dried beans

Stocks and broths (if you make your own even better)

The other thing I would like to share with you is stocking up in your freezer. Here is my suggestion. Make one day of cooking and cook all your dinners for a week and freeze them. If you are stocking up for winter or for other reasons just increase the amount of meals you are preparing. Store them in the freezer, labeled and dated in Ziploc bags. They take up less room in the freezer. I am sure that there are a lot of ideas on stocking up. Good luck, be safe, be healthy!

Until next time.
Roxanne

Day 3 Isolation

As each day passes, I do not find myself in a panic or bored. The projects that I have lined up for myself to do is a lot. I believe that many people get cabin fever, and it is worse when there is something like a pandemic. I do not have this problem. Staying home and doing projects around the house is enjoyable to me. I have to admit I have been sleeping in every morning. Beyond that, I have a long list of projects I have set up for each day.

Today I decided to re-pot a few of my house plants. I always find playing with my plants therapeutic. I love the smell of the fresh soil and digging in with my hands. I have an aloe vera plant for some reason that was growing lopsided. In its twisted state, it managed to have several offshoots that needed to be separated from the mother plant. I now have four new plants.

I had also started a rubber plant in water. It had rooted, and I found a large pot in my garden supplies to plant it in. I cut several more clippings from the large rubber plant. I want to re-shape the large plant to be fuller.

I like trying out different things in the garden. This year I am starting onions from onions. I have the root base of yellow onions sitting in water. I took tall green onions and also put them in water. The next thing I am trying is leaf lettuce in water. The onions have already sprouted a few roots. I have done this with avocados. I currently have four avocado trees. I discovered that I need to learn more about pinching back the trees so they aren’t so leggy.

My next project was to plant some herb seeds. I have chives, basil, and parsley so far. I started these in a planting mixture and they are sitting in my window. I mist them every day.

I have some bulbs to plant as well. As you can see they do not want to wait for me to plant them.

I hope that you are all safe and taking care of yourselves.
Roxanne

Day 2 of Isolation

Current events right now are keeping me on the edge of my seat. If I watched the news all day for updates, I would go into a great panic. The way that I look at this is I can control nothing, so I must focus on the things that I can control.

My mother lives near me, and I check up on her daily. We have cameras in her house so we can make sure she is ok. We have set my mother up on the computer so she can order her groceries from the grocery stores, and they are delivered. My brother and his wife had bought my mother a small puppy just before we got the “stay-at-home” order, and that turned out to be the best idea. We are trying to get her to understand and how to do a video chat. We are hoping she will not feel all alone during the isolation.

Today I spent the day collecting fabrics to sew into masks. I am using a pattern that I can sew on my embroidery machine. I showed my friends the finished face masks, and they all began to ask for one. I will make these until I run out of supplies. This mask is cute and quick to make.

In between making masks, I made several hand-sanitizers from scratch. It took me several trips to several stores to find the ingredients to make the hand-sanitizers. The aloe vera I bought is food grade and all it did was become solid in the alcohol. I ended up using an aloe vera for sunburns and it worked great.

I also bought a large number of vegetable seeds in the hopes that I can grow a decent size garden and then preserve them after harvesting them.

I have been going room to room and downsizing. I have been putting off downsizing my sewing studio due to the amount of time this is going to take. No time like the present, I am starting in small sections. My work table is so full of projects I want to get done. I hope I can get everything done during this isolation.

I hope that if you are also ordered in the “stay-at-home” isolation that you stay calm and plan and find things to do. I will try to continue to share with you and hopefully give you tons of ideas.

Roxanne

After the Christmas Holidays

I am a little slow at getting this article done. As you well know life can get in the way. With family visiting, baking and making gifts etc. It has not slowed down. But, I could not go on with more articles until I got this one done. You see for me, taking down the decorations is a slow process. It is like a slow walk down memory lane. I dust off each item and remember where and when each decoration was bought or made. It takes me longer to pack them away than it did to put them up. And as each year goes by I cherish so much more even the smallest of traditions that I still do. I know the day is coming when I will not have the energy to decorate any longer. It will become to much work and wear me out just thinking of decorating. It is already crossing my mind about downsizing with the decorations, the cooking and baking. I love the holidays very much and to stop doing any of it, is very hard.

I have been changing the boxes I put decorations in, to plastic bins. I feel that this way I can keep them dry and mold free, not to mention keep mice out. I feel if you plan how you take down and store your decorations, next year will go smoothly putting things up.

This is the bins that I am using

I am using plastic bins that are as square, not angled. They fit better in the shelves. The lids have handles that fold into the lid. This make it so the bins can actually be stacked if need be and you will not pop off the handles. A big problem with the last bins that I bought. For Christmas I use only red lids. I still have a few more bins to go before they are all red. For each holiday I use a different color. This makes it easy when looking for decorations for any season.

I created an inventory list for each of the boxes that is taped to the inside of each of the bins lids. I do this to help me keep track of what is inside of each boxes. I have three floors that I currently decorate. To make it easier to take down the decorations I pack up one floor at a time and label which floor that the decorations are in.

I wrap all the decorations with tissue paper and pack them in the bins like I am going to move across country. My thinking on this is, if we had to move to a new home someday, I won’t have to re-pack the holiday decorations. They are packed and ready for a move.

I also group the boxes on the self by holiday. This way as each holiday
comes I work my way down the shelf. I know exactly where each holiday bin is
and which floor each box goes to. I know this seems like a lot of work but,
when the holidays arrive it goes so fast in setting up. It really feels like
from September to February is crazy with decorations, gifts, baking, eating
tons of food and candy to the point of exhaustion. I hope you find something of
use in this article and wish you success and happiness in all that you do.

Roxanne

Storage of Plastic Bags

I don’t know about you but I have a huge amount of plastic bags. I have reusable shopping bags but I always forget to take them in the store with me. I am getting better about it and I am planning on making myself some really nice ones to use. But in the meantime I have a ton of these bags, from all kinds of stores. Now the issue is how to store them and use them. I found that I like folding them better than putting them in a bag holder on the wall. Once I fold them I store them in a drawer and they are so easy to grab and I can have so many in the drawer. I hope you find this helpful to you.

First I flatten out the bag pulling on the handles so that they fold in like on paper bags. Then fold the bag lengthwise in thirds.

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  Flatten out the bag

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  Fold in thirds

The bag will have two folds lengthwise. Once you complete that you will start to fold the bag up into a triangle.

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  bag folded in thirds

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  Bag folded into a triangle shape

Continue folding until you reach the end of the bag.

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When you run out of bag to fold you will fold the handles into the fold of the bag and you are done! 🙂

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Now you can store the bags very easily. They are small and they are compact. Have a great Day!

Roxanne

Create a Scary Jack-O-Lantern

I know this is after Halloween but I could not resist one more article on the holiday. I love the holiday season and trying to keep up with all the things that I want to do and never enough time to do them in. I have started working on projects year round so that I can get everything done on my enormous list. At the rate that I am going I may need to rent a storage unit just to store all the holiday stuff I am creating.

*Just so you know almost everything I make is also for sale so check out my website. I will be adding things often. RoxanneStorlieDesigns

Now, if you search high and low for the fake pumpkins you can find a bargain on them. The best deal that I found was at Walmart. But you will have to buy them as soon as you see them because they go really quickly. As you know with crafty people you need to have all your decorations planned because you must buy your supplies as soon as you see them being put out in the stores. If you wait till it is a week before the holiday you will not find anything you want. But if you find something you like, get it, everything is on sale that close to the holiday and the week that follows.

Once you have your pumpkin you will need

pumpkin or pumpkins if you are feeling industrious

box cutter

paper mache material

Plastic container with a lid

white glue, you will need a big bottle of this

paints in the colors of black, brown, orange and mustard yellow

floral wire

aluminum foil

candle, battery operated one is best.

I drew the type of face I wanted on the pumpkin first so I had an idea where I was going to paper mache the face and where I wanted to add depth to the facial expression. You then want to decide how big of a hole to cut into the bottom of the pumpkin. I picked the candle I was going to use and traced it then cut it a little bigger than the line that I drew just to make sure it would fit.

Once you cut the bottom out you will want to put wires through the top of the pumpkin for the extended vine portion. Start by cutting small pieces of foil and start wrapping it around the wires. Add more at the base and as you go out to the length of the wire get thinner and thinner. When you are happy with the thickness of the foil on the wire, shape the vine in the shape that looks interesting.

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To create your paper mache material,here is what I used. I roll of toilet paper, a plastic container to mix my glue in. In the container I mixed half white glue and half water. (2 cups each) You want the mixture to be a bit on the thick side so it will hold the toilet paper better to the pumpkin. Having the lid on the container helps in case you have to leave in the middle of doing this pumpkin. Oh and allow yourself a lot of time on this project. I had planned to do 3 pumpkins and ran out of time due to how long it took to do the one. When I do the next 2 I will do them at the same time. Now I would tear off about 12 inches of toilet paper, easier to handle in small amounts. Dip the toilet paper into the glue mixture and get it pretty wet. (the toilet paper is hard to pull apart once it is wet so get creative on pulling it apart and applying it to the pumpkin.) I added more over the eyes and gave him really large eyebrows and around the cheek area for his smile. The more layers the longer it will take to dry. You can speed up the process a bit if you want by using a blow dryer. I only did the paper mache around the face area and not on the back side of the pumpkin. I put the paper mache all the way up and down the vine piece also. For the vine I used paper towels and kind of twisted them as I put them on the vine. Made it look more realistic once it was painted.

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*As a side note, you can use a heat gun and partially melt the pumpkin to get an even more gross look to the pumpkin.

When your pumpkin is dry it is time to get creative with the paints. I started by painting all the paper mache areas black. Then I went back and dabbed orange paint to make it look like a pumpkin again. On top of the orange I blended the orange, yellow colors to get the effect of rotting pumpkin colors. On the back of the pumpkin I used the orange, yellow and brown colors to make it look like an aging, dirty pumpkin. The stem I painted brown and green with yellow as the highlights. I attempted to pain the inside of the pumpkin black. I say attempted because it would not fully cover the inside but, I ended up really liking the fact that it did not. It added to the creepiness of the pumpkin.

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Once I put this guy outside I loved it and it was really scary at night. Well, at least I thought so. 🙂

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I had a blast making this guy and can’t wait to make more of these for next Halloween!

Till next time,

Roxanne