My sigh is gone!! It is replaced with a smile.

A few post ago I was disappointed with my craftiness not measuring up to what some else did.  After much coveting and comparing I finally stop.  Dang, sometimes I am pathetic.  So someone called and asked if I had some kind of container to which the yellow popped into my mind.
They said it would be great but then I felt bad because I knew it was not my best.  So I went to work making it a little more girlie.  Now I actually like it and feel sad to see it go.  :(  yep pathetic again

So here it is new and improved.

Yep the pink flower and the beads totally rock.

$1 Chandy Shades

Well I did it again.  Forgot to take the before picture.  I get an idea, and I'm on it before I remember "hey you should blog about this".  By then it's too late, it's either torn apart or transformed.  When will I learn?  Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

I redid a chandelier a couple of months ago and put it up on Etsy, but no buyers.  I then hung it above my desk, and decided I don't care if anyone buys it.  It works great and brings in the light and the funk.  I also realized it's pretty bright for a small area.  Sooooooo this is my solution.  Shades, "futures' so bright, gotta wear shades".  The chandy needed some shades. 

So wandering around the Dollar Store (again) and I find these small shades.  The fabric on them is great, if I was doing the sweet cottagey thing with a side of grandma.  But that's not how I roll.  I figured for a dollar what truly have I got to loose?   I bought five and brought them home and then torn them apart.  I really don't know how they make these things.  But I do know how to fake something pretty good.

I ended up with a piece of plastic and two metal thingy loops.

 Pretty simple, I used the plastic thingy to trace onto craft paper I thought would go great with the black and white chandelier.

After gluing it on I used a small piece of painters tape to attach the rings.  Not knowing how to make the really sticky ribbon they had used and knowing that it will be covered with the fringe anyway.  I decided to use black duct tape.   I love duct tape and use it any chance I
Re-attaching the fringe and popping them on the chandelier this is how it came out.

 One is off and the last is on.  I think they came out pretty good.
If I get tired of them, I can always tear them apart again and add a different style, color, medium, theme.  For a dollar it was well worth it.  Not sure I'd want to tear up something that cost me a lot of money.

all I can do is SIGH :/

So I saw this fabulous idea using an old light globe and paint.  It was amazing and I would so put up a link to the original but I can't find it again.  I have looked,.....most of the day actually.

I decided I would risk it and fake my way through it.  Should of known better.  I had the paint all picked out, had this great pink and silver spray paint.  Spent my time taping and began to paint.  Except the paint was really old.  How old?  I'm not sure, I guess I could cut it in half and count the rings.  If you ever buy second hand spray paint ask to test it.  Oh well no financial loss but now I have to put paint on this thing because all that's on it, is the goo that holds the paint to the object.  I ran to the garage and grabbed a yellow can of paint.   Yeah not a real great choice to go with the silver I had already painted.

But I am impatient and don't want to run to Walmart to find me some pink so this is what came out.

Makes me want to call a taxi.  I tried to hide this horrible tragedy by pretending I meant to do that with the silver art object in the back.  Only made it worse.

I am now thinking on adding black checks and just go all the way with the taxi thing.......SIGH!

any suggestions?

Cheapie to Creeeeepy

So I was at the Dollar Tree because that's what I do.  I wonder around looking for deals.  They had just started putting out the Halloween decorations.  Not full blown, but a little area.  Now I had been keeping an eye out for hands to put on my cemetery benches (which I still have not completed yet).  I had looked at some sites that sell these things but they were either to expensive or just tooo dang creepy.  I'm not making a movie it doesn't have to be THAT real.  Can I just say ewwwww, especially the zombie babies chewing on an all too realistic hand.
Like I've said before we are aiming more toward campy than true terror.

Then, behold, I found plastic hands.  But they looked like plastic hands and only the right one.  There are a lot of left handed plastic dudes running around.

Yet, I was not satisfied with it, so I totally went all Phineas and Ferb on it.  I pulled out my sharpies and picked up a set of fake nails while still at the dollar store.

All I did was take my black sharpie and go along the lines that were already there.  I shaded it a little with black, then brown, and then finally red.  Added a few more black lines (by following the lines already there).  

I then colored the finger nails with the sharpies too. I also cut notches out of them like they had been broken trying to get out.  A little super glue and tada!!!   totally creepy without wanting to hurl.

So once again a Before and After

Have I every told you about Kiki?

He's one of our cats and has issues.  We got him from the shelter and when we brought him home we didn't see him for weeks.  He had been abused and it showed, he so wanted to be petted but was afraid to let it happen.  We would stretch our hands out to him and he would slowly inch closer only to stop ,just before reaching his hearts desire, and pat himself by rubbing his head on the floor.  Months went by and he finally allowed us to lightly pat him and he would lean into it with a big ole cat smile.  When realizing we had tricked him into enjoying this kind of attention he would precede to punch us and run away.  Well, the years have gone by and now you can't get him off your lap. 

 He has inspired many stories and drawings for me as well as songs I have burst into for no apparent reason.  This is Kiki.   Now I write all of that so I can show you this.  I wrote a kids book about him but it's for pre-K kids.  It's a wordless book so they can read the story.  There is only one sentence in the beginning and one in the end so adults can participate.  I keep hoping it will become published buuuuuut I'll just leave that in God's hands.  So here are a few pages just to share :). 

How could you not find a story in these pics?  I used different mediums to give them different texture.  I have made 2 books so far and another still in my head.  This is the case for Kiki and his adventures as told to me by my husband.   I've also done paintings with him and his friends in a jazz band but I'll show that another day.

PS if you read this please comment so I know someone was here.  Sometimes all I hear are crickets.....

Zombie Cupcake Stand for under $5

So the zombie party is lurching forward and we have accomplished another cheap crafty item.  We needed a cupcake stand for 100 cupcakes.  Have you ever seen how much they are?!  So I knew I would be making one but the ones we saw were soooooo  BORING.  They may work great for the cultured, refined and proper parties but we are talking teen zombie here.  So it's gotta be big and over the top and most of all CHEAP!

I came across these items in my garage.  They are the end rolls from the local newspaper.  They love to give these things away and they are so solid and sturdy, I have many ideas on how to use them.  So I found one I already strip the paper off and then using my miter saw I cut slits half way through.  I then painted it black and pillaged my supply of cardboard.  You know the cardboard that comes from the packaging.  I had quite the few all the same size and strong enough to support weight.  I then thought how can I re-enforce these to make sure they don't fold over from the weight.  So I looked to my chopsticks and duct tape.  I covered the top with scrapbook paper and the bottom with chopsticks and duct tape.  I then covered the scrapbook paper with packing tape to be able to wipe it clean when necessary.

Then we headed to the Dollar Store to find embellishments.  The glitter skull, mini skulls and beware tape for a total of 3 dollars plus tax

This is it completed, think I might add glow sticks around the column for the party.  It's almost 3 feet high

Soooo couldn't resist!!

I was wondering around Walmart looking for last minute items for school.  I stumbled upon this.  I love the color and the price tag said 3 dollars, it was in my arms before my brain could protest with "do you really need it?".  Even my son said "Why?" and I said because it's 3 dollars.

 So I like the color but it's kinda boring and not girly enough.  So I found an Ikea lampshade at the ReStore for FREE and crocheted around it with bright pink and white (? hairy, fuzzy?) yarn.  Put it together and what do you got?

It cast such a nice glow :)

Alas my daughter is older and no longer in the pink stage but I do have great nieces who love pink :)

So for 3 dollars I have a very fun and fuzzy pinkalicious lamp.  Soon to be someone else's pinkalicious lamp.

Zombie Dip Heads revisited

So the time is approaching to finish up the needed props and decorations for my son's 18th birthday.  It is "Thriller" slash retro zombie.  So as to combine the 80's with zombies.......yeah.  Thanks to Michael Jackson it can be done.  So I finished the zombie dip heads.  Or are for the zombies?  It was relatively simple, find some mannequin (Styrofoam) and scoop out hole for bowl and paint ghoulishly.  I then found these platters at the Dollar Store that fit perfectly.  Hot glue them on and then I added some embellishments to make them more real.  Like glasses, earrings, hair clips and even skull candies (hahhaahha, I crack myself up).

I stacked them up just to be able to see them all at once.

     Ok on to the centerpieces, Dollar Store vases, covered in cut out scrapbook paper.  When the night comes I will put dead roses in them and a light up coaster or glowstick (depending on the remaining budget) on the bottom.
The next project I have to work on, at least when the rain stops, is the cemetery benches.