Thursday 27 September 2012

almost pumpkin time!


halloween projects have been on my mind. they have been in the stores since...July?! holidays seem to get more commercial every year, don't they? Costco has had Christmas decorations and winter wear on display since the middle of July. we barely have time to forget the coldness of winter!

i digress....

part of my halloween browsing has been on Pinterest. great one stop kind of place. i came across a couple of decorated crows that looked cute. Urban Scrapbook posted one on their blog a few days ago too.

i couldn't pass up purchasing this crow at Dollarama earlier this week. with a $2 price tag it was worth it....even if my attempt to decorate it didn't work.

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however, i am very pleased with how it turned out.

i needed to make a double rosette to fit around the neck. i trimmed each of the rosettes to 1.5 inches, scored them with my Martha Stewart Scoring Board and then i used my EKSuccess bat edge punch. i also cut out a donut shape from paper to hold the rosette into place. {those who know me will be completely shocked when i tell you that i used my hot glue gun! ha!! it was the only way to have success with keeping that rosette in its shape.} i added some silver pleated ribbon i had in my stash to finish off the rosette. at the end i decided to add it under the rosette as well.

the hat was simple. you need a shape that resembles a quarter circle. cone shapes are also very easy to locate on Google. i used a technique i learned form Jan....i trimmed and scored a piece about a half inch wide. (i think it was 12 inches long.) then i "pleated" it. i had to get a little creative to create it into a shape that would curl. it will do that if you don't fold the pleats straight...consistent crooked folds are what you want! for the top tassel, i used my fringe scissors, then rolled the strip. i cut off the top part of the cone, and glued it into that hole. then i {GASP!} used the glue gun again to attach all of the pieces. at this point i had some hot glue and raw edges that needed to be covered up. some silver glass glitter solved my problem and added a great finishing touch too.

i had an old gem from Prima and tied it in place using some narrow ribbon. a few black gems finished the hat.


as most of us know, you truly get what you pay for. especially at the dollar store! this crow was no different. it had some glue marks and a few imperfections. i pulled out my Black Diamond Stickles and spread it over the side that had the glue marks. the beak and feet also were not really a true black....they were more of a true GREY. but after i painted on some Claudine Helmuth black gesso....big improvement. black acrylic paint would also work.

one of the additions that i wanted, but didn't finish was something for the crow to stand on. i want to find some old looking books and perch his feet on top of a small stack.


it was quite a few years ago, and i can't remember where i first heard about it....but now i practice it myself. i find the actual night of halloween is crazy busy and by the time the kids are dressed they are nearly vibrating with the excitement of the candy they are about to score.  good photographs don't happen. but that could just be us. now i take them out before it gets too cold...like now...and get good photos of them in their costumes. these days they still love to pose and have fun with this tradition. if there is colourful fall foliage then it is a great backdrop. no guarantee that it will still be around on October 31st. otherwise an empty field, wooden fence or brick wall does the trick.

in checking with the weatherman, it looks like this will have to take place tomorrow. we've already talked about the location, so now it just has to happen.

lastly, some of my favourite photos are of them running towards or away from the camera. one year it was Optimus Prime holding the hand of a ladybug as they ran across the street to the wooden fence. last year it was a Star Wars Clone Trooper leading a Princess through a grassy field as the wind blew her dress out behind her.

looking back at photos i do have some of the kids where they wore more than one costume each year. ha! if it was a halloween party they sometimes wanted to wear something different. one year Kiara changed her mind from princess to being a dragon. the reason why? she saw that Daddy had a Viking costume and she had recently watched How to Train a Dragon. she wore the dinosaur costume and called herself Daddy's Dragon. later on that night, pink wings were added to her outfit. that's my girl.

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