Halloween is coming

This year I am kind of busy for handmade hallowing ideas hunting but some hallowing stuff is impossible to miss. These pumpkin-shaped earnings are so cute and so "for the season".

The author of these little pumpkins is felliniya. There are a way more nice handmade girlish things in her blog. 

And finally - yes, these earring are for sale:) You can contact felliniya using this e-mail nekrofilija@yandex.ru

Dough Pumpkins

Today I show you how to create nice small gifts or home decoration for Halloween - Dough Pumpkins.

Materials:

1) Solt

2) Flour

3) Oil

4) Vanilla

5) food colouring (orange and green)

6) Water

7) toothpicks

Step by step instruction in pictures:

Step 1. Mix cup of flour, half a cup of salt, vanilla and 1tbs oil

Step 2. Divide the dough by two equal parts and put in in two different bowls

Step 3. Add a little bit food colouring in each bowl.

Step 4. Add water in each bowl. Dough up. 

Step 5. Your salt dough is ready so you can start creating your pumpkins. 

Step 6. Roll up couple orange balls. Diameter - 1-2 inches.

Step 7. Flat them a little bit by pressing them by your finger on top.

Step 8. Using toothpick create strips. 

Step 9. Roll out the green dough

Step 10. Cut out leaves and using toothpick create leaves fibers.

Step 11. Put leaves on the top of pumpkin. 

Step 12. Bake in 350 degree F oven until pumpkins became hard. 

You can eat them but they are really hard and not tasty:-) Using this technique you can create other Halloween and not only Halloween gifts and decoration. 

source http://www.babylessons.ru/

Pumpkins art. How to carve, make the animals etc..

It's raining and cold outside, all stores are full of Halloween home decorations, pumpkin markets are everywhere. It's October and it's Halloween time. What is the first thing that your imagination is drawing when you are thinking about October 31? I believe its pumpkin. Its time to carve them and create an exclusive home decoration stuff using them.

Today's how to' post will be not exactly a tutorial. This will be collection of ideas with some how to steps. I hope these ideas will inspire you and your home will be full of fall colors, happiness and beautiful handmade autumn decorations.
Let's start from the beginning. Halloween is not Halloween without scary carved pumpkin.
See the ideas of simplest carving:

We will need the following materials:
1) Pumpkins
2) Marker
3) Knife
4) Plate
5) Spoon
6) Сutting board
7) Tea lights
8) Alcohol
9) Printed picture. This picture will be used as pattern for carving. Like these:

 

Let's go.
Step 1. Wash pumpkin, using some alcohol liquid wipe it. Remove top part of pumpkin (it will be cover with 'tail')
Step 2.  Remove all pulp and seeds. Put them to the plate. You can dry seeds and then eat them - it is tasty and useful.
Step 3. Cut out your pattern from the paper and attach it to the pumpkin using push pins or needles. Outline it using marker (of course you can draw the picture without any template). Remove pattern. Take a knife and cut all the way through the pumpkin follow your pattern. If any remove rest of marker lines using some napkin and alcohol.
Step 4. Left it for 12 hours. It should dry a little bit. Put the tea light inside. Done.

Some tricks: if you pumpkin start to fade - put in in the water for couple hours. In cover of pumpkin do couple holes or else the light will fry your pumpkin. If you put some cinnamon inside or just scented tea light you will have not just excellent romantic light but also tasty smell.
Next step of pumpkin art - create tiger or bear.
Lets start with tiger.

Take small pumpkin or squash for nose. Cut top of medium pumpkin (it will be tiger face), remove seeds and pulp from both. Cut out opposite from face side of medium pumpkin for putting nose and lights there. 

Use marker to draw the tiger face. Follow your pattern cut about half of inch of width of pumpkin skin. Fix the nose in the head using toothpicks. Clean up the big pumpkin. It will be the body. Attach the head to it. Instead of  paws use small pumpkins and toothpicks for fixing it. Put light in medium pumpkin. Tiger is ready! 

Next one in our pumpkin zoo - little bear.

For bear you need pumpkins that have different size. 

For body and head take the biggest ones. To attach head and body you can screw through both pumpkins and put the stick(s) on hole(s) and plant another one to on stick(s).

You need four long pumpkins or squashes. Cut their tops and remove seeds and pulp. Attach them to body definitely in the same way you attached head. 

Ears: you need small pumpkins. Cut them to the half and attach to the head. 

Eyes and nose:  they can be created from the smallest pumpkin using the same technology as for ears. 

I gave you some ideas and the basic steps for simple pumpkin art. You can create much complex pumpkin stuff. Good luck.  

Sources of the materials used for preparing this tutorial: http://home-sweet.ru/; http://www.podelki.lifemammy.ru; http://akak.ru/; http://www.babylessons.ru/; http://women.itop.net; http://pozdravimka.com/

Time to start decorating your home for a Halloween

Labor Day weekend is almost over so its time to start decorating your home before Halloween. Here is more simple handmade decorating ideas I found on internet and gather together.
1. Spider-web. Materials: spider (it can be toy - you don't need a real one); rung ladder; black yarn, push pins (black).
Take a yarn and knot it on the end. Pin it to the ceiling. Imagine you are spider and decide how, where and how big your web will be. Measure thread to the wall, cut, knot, pin the knot to the wall. Do totally the same with all radiating threads and make up a bundle from them in center.

After putting together all radiating threads attach spiral thread, putting an knob on each intersection.  
Now spider-web is ready and we need spider, it can be one from the store but better to create it  by yourself. You can cut it from cartoon, color it and using glue put on its back side 
pin. Using this pin attach spider to the web.
2. Bats. For your home bats you need black paper or cartoon, scissors and this template. Download template, print it in different sizes and put bats all around the home. 

3. For bathroom. Buy the cheapest curtain you can find and red paints. Cut this curtain and put red paint on it, you can smear, sprinkle, put hand prints - anything you want. The curtain should looks really carelessly. Replace your regular light bulb with red light bulb. Now you have terrifying bathroom. 

This post was created using materials from http://www.cosmo.ru; http://www.gorod.lv and http://sdelaipodarok.ru/

Halloween ideas: lighting

And lets continue with weekly columns. Each Sunday starting from today you will find some holidays decoration idea. The nearest big decorating event is Halloween. No, It is not too early, it's just on time:-). Especially if you decorate your home with handmade stuff.
So lets start with very simple ideas.
1) Scary holders for tea lights.
They looks really scary and really simple to create. Take a cylindrical glasses and black paper.
Measure height and round of glass. Trace the rectangle on the paper. This rectangle should has height as your glass and width = round of glass + half an inch. This extra half of inch you will use to put edges of rectangle together. Cut the rectangle.
Draw on paper anything you want. Some ideas spider network, bat, pumpkin, ghost, which, cat. If you have no drawing talents its not a problem - just find pictures you like on internet, print it out and cut it. Then put in previously prepared rectangle and outline it using pencil.
Take a paper knife and cut out drawing from rectangle. Wrap the glass with paper and using glue put edges together.

2) Bloody candles. 

All we need its couple white candles and red candle. Drop red wax on white candles and you are done. 

Thats all for today - good luck with your scary lighting.
The materials from the following web-pages were used during preparing this post: http://www.cosmo.ru/; http://sdelaipodarok.ru/