Halloween Decorations Part 1

Make a Halloween Glittered Vase

Every year consumers spend more and more on Halloween. It’s over 5 billion annually now! Obviously its the merchandising that drives that purchasing frenzy. I’ve never seen so many different kinds of product for Halloween than I have this year.

I love Halloween, I love the fall weather, the memories of fall colors as a kid in Colorado, the trick-or-treating. While I love looking at all the goodies out there to buy, I miss the days when the merchandising wasn’t so big. I miss being able to find something unique and different, like a Halloween tree ornament – now they are everywhere.

So this year I decided not to add to that 5 billion dollars and make some of my own Halloween crafts and decorations. And I gave myself a guideline – spend no money! Use what I have in the house. I know you crafters out there have piles of supplies that need to be used! It’s a good assignment to give yourself anytime – “Use what you have.”

I noticed that colored glitter is big this Halloween. Being a facepainter, I always have lots of glitter. I decided to glitter up a plain glass vase I wasn’t using for anything.

    

Here is how to make the Glittered Halloween Vase: Cover your work area with a big piece of paper or newspaper. With a black marker draw a Halloween scene around the vase. (Old tree, ghosts, moon, stars, grave stones, witch and cauldron, bats etc.)  Squirt a little mound of water soluble glue on the paper – (look for glue that dries clear and can be used on glass) and dipping a paint brush in water carefully paint glue on what you want glittered. Then pour glitter all over the glued area.

Tip on glitter: Don’t buy flakes too big they fall off and don’t get glitter too small it doesn’t sparkle. Have a piece of paper under the object being glittered. When you knock off the excess glitter, you can use the paper as a slight funnel to dump the glitter back into your bottle.

Little by little, paint a small area and glitter it up. Knock of excess each time and replace it in the glittler bottle. Don’t worry about being too perfect and detailed – we are going to outline it with paint. Finally, let it dry about 10 minutes and use a soft fluffy brush – over a trash can – to lightly dust off the vase. The glitter adhears to the glass with static – the brush will clean this up nicely. Let it dry another 10 minutes or more.

Above is a close up of it before it’s outlined with paint. And a photo of the Tulip brand dimensional paint I used. Regular acrylics would have been too transparent on the glass. This has a skinny applicator, so you basically use it like a pen to outline everything. It’s made for fabric, but works well for this application. Instructions on the bottle say let it dry for 4 hours. But it is dry to the touch in about 20 minutes. Outline everything and let it dry a few hours before you handle it too much or get it wet.

See the finished product below. I love this glue – I think I will try decorating clear glass votive holders next!

Halloween Decorations Part 2

Make a Halloween Sign

   

I love all the creative Halloween signs that are at the stores right now. Even the dollar stores have spooky Halloween signs. “Beware – Turn Back!” “Booooo” “Happy Halloween!”

I wanted some signs and thought I’d make my own. So “using what I have” I looked around for something to paint on, an old tray, scrap boards, I even considered the top of an old cigar box – too small for what I needed (but that would be good for a tabletop sign).

I had some old thin wood signs from facepainting that I never really used. So I painted them black to cover up the old stuff. While they dried I looked for some interesting fonts for “Happy Halloween.” I printed out a page with some fonts. As well as some clip art of some images to inspire me. I’m using water based paints – acrylics -easy clean up, dries fast.

I used chalk on the dried painted boards – easy to rub off if I mess up. There are a few ways to transfer your text on to the board:

1. Rub chalk on the back of the paper. Trace the letters on your sign to transfer the chalk, or…
2. Use one of those transfer projectors…or
3. Hand draw it.

I don’t have a transfer projector. And I didn’t have a planned out design yet. So I just started drawing. But using the chalk on the back transfer method would work well if you have a collage constructed of your images. 

I picked a font. I drew a straight line on the board to keep the text lined up and started drawing – just “blocking it in.” I’ll get more detailed as I paint. I drew some other designs and started painting.

I started outlining the letters in another color and decided that it made it too hard to read, so I outlined it in black. Probably using a black marker would work, or that Tulip Paint with the skinny applicator used on the Halloween Vase.  Here are some close ups where you can see how I added extra color and details – and it’s not perfect edges – the imperfections adds to the style. Take your time, have fun, experiment – paint both sides! If you will be using the sign outdoors – a coat or two of satin finish sealant will help it be weatherproof.

I made another sign the same way. Using a light color chalk works great to transfer image like carbon paper. But if you have a light color background – use carbon paper. I wrote a poem to put on this sign and instead of trying to hand write all the letters and hope they fit – I picked a “handwriting” type font and typed the poem on the computer and printed it out. Then put a piece of carbon paper under it and carefully, firmly traced over all the letters.

The first photo below shows the carbon paper result and the center photo shows the letters painted black. Tip: I used water based Createx Airbrush paint with a skinny brush. I used this because it flows evenly. If I used regular black acrylic I would have to water it down too much to make it flow and then it wouldn’t be opaque. Createx can be found at any craft store – look in the airbrush supply section, not the usual paint section.

  

Here is the finished sign. Even though the text is obviously hand painted and a bit messy, choosing to use a font instead of just regular handwriting gives it a finished, designed look.

You can see some of the carbon paper lines on my painted text – I waited for it to dry completely and used an eraser to remove them.

Also using the Createx paint, I painted black lines all going the same direction on a few spots. This give is that “block print” look.