Monthly Archives: October 2017

Pirate Gypsy Skirt 

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Pirate/Gypsy Skirt

As mother of the pirate bride I of course needed to dress like a pirate for the wedding. Easy, I thought. Black skirt, black top and a head bandana.
Wrong. I looked like I was going to a funeral. My outfit needed something to break up the black. So I threw on a white shaw. Wrong again. I looked like a little old lady going to mass
I had to rethink the whole pirate outfit. After some thought I decided on dressing as a gypsy pirate. That opened up a whole new world of options.
I went with a different black shirt. Made and bought a ton of tacky jewelry. Got a wig, made some pirate beads for wig. Ta-da!
Still wasn’t right. Gypsies are colorful and bright. I was going to ditch the white shaw. As I went to hang it in closet things clicked. I had so many beads left from the hair and beard beads projects. The shaw had all those long tassels hanging.
I added beads. It looked beautiful. I tried it on and everything tangled. Tangled badly. So I trimmed and redid all the bead work. I didn’t want to loose the flowing tassels. So I left the ones on ends long. To add more color I used some cross stitch thread and added onto tassels.

I tried on my outfit. It still needed more color. I bought a multi color pack of juggling scarves from amazon.

I attached those to a strand of lace trim that I could tie around waist.
I bought a belt from the rennasaince festival and added a variety of items to it. Gemstones, pouches, a fan, copper mug and a small anchor.

Bubbly Magic Potion 

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Bubbly Magic Potion
Want to impress your friends or create an apocalyptic zombie virus? Well I can help you with the impress your friends part.
Sometimes I see a pin on pinterest and I am not happy until I try that pin. The reason I did the bubbly magic potion is because IT’S A BUBBLY MAGIC POTION. My inner mad scientist wanted to play.

Items needed:
Clear glass bottles
Water
Oil
Food coloring
Alka seltzer
Excessive use of the words, “Bibbity bobbity boo” and “Abra kadraba” Along with some occasional mad cackling.

 Instructions
Fill bottle 1/3 up with oil. Rest of way with food colored water. I gave it a little stir. Once everything settles. Break 1 Alka seltzer in 4 pieces. Drop 1 of the pieces into bottle. Shout Bibbity Bobbity Boo.
Watch the magic happen. Cackle maddeningly


The bubbly magic potion is a great thing to add to your halloween party. I think if you add it to food table decorations you can set the bubble part going when you are ready to serve food. Just let your guest know it’s not edible.

Want to see original pin?
http://adventures-in-making.com/diy-magic-potion-bottles/

When You Play With Fire

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When You Play with Fire…

You’re going to get burnt. Unless you’re careful and don’t touch the flame. Crazy talk, right?
I’m still preparing for the pirate wedding. Its three days away now. Every pirate worth his salt knows if you have a table of treasure you need some light to see the treasure.
The main table at the reception will have a good bit of candles in bottles. Don’t worry, we are not going to have them lit. Except for pictures. We may be pirates but we are cautious pirates.
I wanted the bottles and candles to look used with lots of wax dripping.
Cue thinking music that gets louder as I approach an idea, then ending on a high dramatic note as the idea takes root and I exclaim, “Aha. I’ve got it!”
I need three things for this project: bottles, candles and fire.
When dripping candles you want a candle that’s going to drip with ease and drip fast. The cheaper the candle the better the drip.
To the dollar store I go. I get bottles and candles. Also some twine, I’ve been wanting to try my hand with projects using twine. Seems like a good time to start.
One bottle I left as is the other I wrapped twine at the top. I thought I had some craft glue but didn’t so I used crazy glue for the twine placement. So after I was able to get my fingers and hands unglued from one another I was ready for some wax dripping.
Looking back I should have poured sand in the bottles before waxing. No worries I have 20 more bottles to get that part right.
So learn from my mistakes. Pour the sand or whatever you are using to weigh down the bottles in first. You don’t need to fill them full just a few inches so they are not easy to tip over.
Hold candle and light it. Tilt the candle, so the flame touches the wax. Once it starts to drip hold candle on edge of bottle lip. Let your wax build up a good drip line before moving around bottle. If the bottle hole is too big for candle to sit in let wax drip on inside of lip to build up and make the hole smaller. Keep waxing until the candle fits snugly.
Place candle in hole. The candle is still lit. Light another candle in matching color. Now use that candle to make wax drippings on candle in jar. You can drip a little or a lot. Having both candles lit gives you two flames burning that second candle so you get more and faster wax dripping. (The photo shows only one lit, that is so you could see the drip better.) 


Once I am happy with the look I let the candle in jar burn down to whatever length I want it.
Two down 20-ish more to go. No rest for the wicked.
If you need to transport the bottles to a different location I would wait to place candles in bottles and do their candle dripping. Do that part after you have set jars where they need to go and placed candles in the bottles. Plan on one to three minutes for each candle.
This is a project that kids DO NOT need to be involved in. Even though I spent one six week semester of fifth grade doing candle wax dripping art. It was the 80s and safety was not something that was practiced back then. Can you imagine looking into a classroom full of kids and everyone of them playing with fire? Holy arsonist training Batman!

The Pumpkin Tree 

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Pumpkin Tree

I decorate my trees every Halloween with plastic pumpkins. $20 worth of plastic pumpkins and a drill gives you a lot of bang for your buck.

Head out to Walmart and pick up 10 to 20 $1 pumpkins. Drill a hole in the bottom so any rain water drains out. Tie to tree limbs and BAM you have your own Halloween tree. Halloween night I put glow Sticks in them for an eerie effect.

Cheap and simple yet still Pinteresting.

Pirate Hair and Beard Beads 

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Every Pirate needs hair beads and beard beads. Well most female pirates don’t need beard beads.
As you know the daughter is getting married and having a pirate themed wedding. I made hair and beard beads for the whole wedding party. It was a fun and easy project.

For this project you will need: a variety of beads, some small charms, tiny hair rubber bands, wig clips and heavy duty thread. Cross stitch thread works well also.

I use the wig clips because they stay in the hair better than regular hair clips. The beads can get heavy and regular hair clips tend to slide down the hair. The teeth on the wig clips can get a good bite on your hair and not slide out.

The tiny rubber bands are perfect for the beard beads. I got the rubber bands at the dollar store and the wig clips at a beauty supply store. Since I craft A LOT. I have all kinds of beads and charms. I did have to buy a few beads since I tried to match the beads to the bride and groom outfits. I had over a year to make these so I waited until the beads I needed were 50% off at Hobby Lobby or I had a 50% off coupon for Michael’s.

For the beard beads you just take a long piece of the heavy thread, tie to the rubber band and knot it a few times. Add your beads. The length depends of the beard length of the pirate. I use a small charm for the end piece for decoration and to have something to knot the thread to. The whole process takes maybe two minutes. It’s an easy and Pinteresting project.


The hair beads take a little more time to make but are just as easy. Tie the thread off to the wig clip then add your beads. Finish off with a charm at the end. You can make these as simple and as elaborate as you want.


Bone Wind Chimes 

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Bone Wind Chimes

I made two sets of bone wind chimes for last year’s Halloween. I know I took pictures of the entire process but I can’t seem to find but the beginning photo and the last. UGH! I do have a short video of them blowing in the wind.

Bone Wind chimes are easy. You just need a bag of bones and some twine. If you use fake bones or the real deal it’s entirely up to you. Hey, I don’t know your life…

The top/base of the wind chimes is going to be the two femur (leg) bones. Cross them over one another. Take a good size piece of twine and tie them in the middle. You should end up with a bone cross. Now take the roll of twine, don’t cut
yet. Take the twine and keep wrapping the bones until you have the femurs sturdy. Crisscross, over under, tie every which way. Now you can cut the twine from the roll.

 For the middle part of the chime, which will hang longer than the other pieces you can use
the skull or back bone. Tie it to hang from the middle of your bone cross. If you use the skull you may need to drill holes at top then bottom of skull. Now choose your four pieces. Try to match. If you use the hand on one side try to use the other hand opposite side of bone. That way the weight is somewhat distributed evenly.  Once
you have everything tied on its time to make a way to hang the chime. I took four long pieces of twine tied two across the middle then tied the other two in the middle opposite. Gather all your piece and tie together in a knot at the top part of bone. I over
knot. It’s just the way I am. So, keep tying knots until you feel the pieces is sturdy. So know you have 4 pieces of long string to go outside and tie the chime from a tree limb. I really wish I could find the pictures of the whole process.

 

Good luck. Leave questions in the comment section and I will try to reply quickly.