Author Archives: gothastewart

DIY Spell Book

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Items:

Hardback sketchbook (Michaels)

2 small journals (Dollar Tree)

Craft Paint: 1 metallic copper (Michaels)

1 grape (Michaels)

1 metallic glorious gold (Michaels)

Plastic spiders (Dollar tree)

Mod podge (Michaels)

Wood burning tool

Scrap tissue paper. I used the kind you put in gift bags.

Scrapbook paper (assorted designs) (Michaels)

Paint brushes

Assorted jewelry charms/pendants (Michaels and Hobby Lobby)

Spray bottle of water.

Eye of Newt (optional)

Dead man’s toe (again optional)

How-to or Make Magic!

Using water bottle spray corners of paper. Fan/flip through paper till dry. Open book to random pages, lightly spritz entire page. Dont soak the paper. Let dry. Do this to several pages. You will not need to do this to the smaller books.

Ball up the tissue paper to get some wrinkling going. Set aside. Glue a spider on front of each book. Once that sets up put a layer of mod podge down on first book. Unball the paper and apply to book. You should have some tissue over hang. You want wrinkles, lots of them. Cover spider also, push paper down between the legs so you can keep some of the spider shape. Brush a layer of mod podge over the paper. Let dry. Now open front of book, mod podge the inner edges and press down the tissue. Apply another coat of mod podge over that. Take something and prop under the book cover to let the inner part dry. I did second layer of tissue on the bigger book. The smaller books did fine with just one layer.

Now as you do the spine on the bigger book here’s where you will put the chain (I used several inches of an old necklace). Put down a line of glue halfway down spine. Press chain into glue. Now tissue paper/Glue the spine. Let dry. The smaller books I added the chain to the book back. Now paper/glue the back cover of books.

Paint on a solid coat of the metallic copper. Let dry. Next a layer of grape. Go over some parts heavier than others. Let dry. Dry brush lightly with gold. Let dry. Sounds simple, it is but the drying time is what is the most bothersome. I don’t like the wait, but did I use the time to decide on ‘spells’ and print out items to go inside books. Curses and hexes are optional. *if you find you went to heavy on the gold in some areas just put some grape paint on your finger and rub over the gold. It might take more than one layer.*

Heat up your wood burning tool. Burn edges of paper. This will take a long time. Don’t give up it is worth it. If you burn yourself feel free to drop the F bomb. I did, a few times. Glue on a pendant to the book cover.

Now you are ready to fill up your book with spells, recipes, whatever floats your boat. I mean you can have a casserole recipe on one page and the next page a nice demon summoning. That will give you something to do to pass the time while the casserole bakes. If you’re single: make casserole, summon demon. BAM date night with a demon.

I made this book for the daughter. She grew up watching Buffy, Charmed, Supernatural, and Hocus Pocus. So I made up some pages using those shows as inspiration. I left most of book blank so she can add her own spells.

Skull Planter

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I bought a huge Halloweeb skull years ago at Kmart. It was hollow on the inside and lit up. The skull has been hanging out in my yard for years. Yes, I keep skulls and skeletons out in my yard year round. 

The light in the skull quit working year two. I have been wanting to turn it into a container for plants for a few years now. Finally I got around to doing it.

Saturday I asked my husband what I would need to remove the top of the skull. I planned on removing it myself, honestly. Husband said draw what you want removed. I did and he proceeded to do the cutting. I sat back and supervised. Now if you notice in one of the photos below my drawn circle looks jabberwocky. It’s intentional. Okay it wasn’t I have no clue what the hell happened. Turned out okay in the end. 


Once my skull had been opened I put some rocks and yard junk into bottom. When filling any container garden I add a layer of rock to bottom. Then plastic bottles or junk, just to fill space. A container full of only dirt is HEAVY. This helps lighten the load. I added some dirt up to where the eye sockets began. 

I tucked some Vince Periwinkle through holes then added more dirt. I added some colorful annuals to the top. Done.

Once the annuals quit blooming or I find plants I like better it should be easy to switch the plants out.

​Marshmallow of Delicious Death

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Marshmallow of Delicious Death


I make so many different holiday treat gifts that require time for the chocolate to set up, that results in some downtime. Downtime leaves me alone with my thoughts. Never a good thing. So during those downtimes I play around with goodies I have on hand. During one such playtime I made (deep voice echo) THE MARSHMALLOW OF DELICIOUS DEATH !
You will need: jumbo marshmallows, candy coat, chocolate chips, caramel pieces or bits, and pecan pieces.
I use Kraft caramel bits. If you prefer some other type of caramel, go for it. If you use caramel bits. Don’t forget to add a little water before melting. Unless you want to break a tooth. Milk will probably work in place of water. I forgot the water on my first batch. Even as I was stirring my melted caramel it didn’t even occur to me to be concerned about how thick it was. The marshmallows were beautiful. I took a bite, well I tried. I’ve never bitten a rock but I imagine it must be like my marshmallow. Lesson learned.
Okay let me quit rambling and get down to THE  MARSHMALLOW OF DELICIOUS DEATH! Melt your caramel. On wax paper have the marshmallows sitting there, just hanging out waiting on their shower of caramel. Once the caramel is melted spoon it over the marshmallows. Let the caramel set.

Then melt your chocolate. I use a 3:1 ratio of chocolate candy coat to semi-sweet chocolate chips. If mixture is too thick just thin it out with a tad of coconut oil. Spoon chocolate over the marshmallows. Let set a few moments then sprinkle on the pecan pieces.

Now impatiently wait for the whole thing to set up. Take photos and send to the people on your naughty list so they can see what they will be missing out on. Or skip the photos and just throw down on THE MARSHMALLOWS OF DELICIOUS DEATH!

Hot Chocolate Spoons 

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​Hot Chocolate Spoons 
These guys are great to stir your hot chocolate or coffee. I make these every year for Christmas gifts and every year they are the most requested treat I make.
For the single and child free in the family they get 4 spoons per person. Families with children I give them A LOT. Kiddos love these spoons. I used to give a packet of hot cocoa  per spoon but now that I make 200 plus of these every year only people new to the  spoon of happiness get packets.

What you need:
8 oz light cocoa candy melts
Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. Sprinkles or Ghirardelli white melting wafers. Plastic or wooden spoons. Cheap plastic will melt, get the heavy duty plastic spoons.
Wax paper.

How to:
Take the whole bag of candy melts. Small handful of the chocolate chips. Melt using double boiler method or microwave. If microwave follow directions on candy melts bag. Remember half power or defrost setting.
Once melted just dip spoons in chocolate, set on wax paper. If chocolate is too thick add just a dab of coconut oil. Add more if needed but stir well and test on a spoon before adding more. You can go from too thick to too runny easily.
If adding sprinkles, sprinkle on now before chocolate sets up. If drizzling white chocolate let spoons set up for atleast 30 minutes. I melt small batches of white chocolate for the drizzle. A little goes a long way. If you coat any of the spoons in white chocolate it’s best to double coat. Dip once. Set up. Dip again.

Learn from my mistake people. One year I had two crockpots going making candy, the oven on all day making candied nuts, and my dryer running most of day. All this in kitchen where I was making the spoons. The room was so toasty my chocolate could not set up. Now I do all my chocolate coating on a day by itself.

 Gift giving: I use 4×6 plastic treat bags. Two spoons per bag. I cross them corner to corner. Then twist tie at the cross section. I then tie on some curling ribbon. Now put them in a gift bag or a Christmas theme coffee mug. Throw on a ribbon and name tag. Done.

If it’s a big family getting a good bit I tin them. Use wax paper between layers instead of bagging. Saves time and makes it convenient for the receiver.
At my family gatherings there’s always unexpected guest. Usually a family or person new to area that have no one to celebrate the holidays with. So I make several extra candy gift sets.

  

Oven Roasted Candied Nuts

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​Candied Peanuts 
Want to be a rockstar to your family and friends this Christmas? Give the gift of candied peanuts. This recipe can

Also 

be used on Pecans and Almonds.

Ingredients:
Two 16 oz jars of peanuts. Salted or unsalted.
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2 egg whites

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a cookie sheet. Make sure it’s got raised edges. If you use the flat sheets with no edges you will have regrets. So many regrets…
Line the pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl mix sugar, salt and cinnamon. In a large bowl whisk together egg whites and vanilla extract. Pour in sugar mixture. Stir.
Add one jar of peanuts, mix until they are well coated. Add second jar, stir till coated.
Pour out onto parchment paper. Spread out nuts.

Bake for 1 hour. Stirring every 15 minutes.  This ensures candied mixture cooks completely.

Once cool. Store your nuts in an airtight container. I line gift tins with wax paper and fill them with the peanuts. Stick on a gift tag. Give as gifts. BAM! Rockstar!

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.