HaLLoWeEn in NeUtRaLs

Halloween is one of my most favorite times of the year!  This year, I've decided to decorate in an Edgar Allen Poe-esque feel with lots of black and neutrals.  My craft group is meeting next week to make an Edgar Allen Poe wreath.  Can't wait to post pics.  Here is the wreath that I made inspired by my sweet friend, Pam's wreaths that she makes.  It's just layers of vintage paper rolled up and I added my own special unique touch to it by cutting a skull in half....well, my hubby did that for me and dipping coffee filters in black Rit Dye to fill in.  I am in LOVE with how this turned out!

The wreath now has a spot on my mantle hanging in front of an original window that was in my grandparents house.  Surrounded by vintage silver platters, vintage silver trophies, a retro camera, cloche full of skulls and moss, silhouettes of rats, and other textures, it has a spooky yet understated glam feel to it.  

Peace, love, and Halloween!!

xoxo,

tia

Huge Halloween Wands

My friend, Pam and I had so much fun making these when she and her family came over the other night.  We got the idea from the very sweet and talented Rhonna Farrer.  We used a variety of papers and embellishments to create this whimsical display.  

Pam brought over some vintage newspaper from 1935 and since she has a scrapbook paper addiction (wink wink) she had a ton of papers to choose from for the embellishments.  We also used dollar store finds and coffee filters which you know are my FAV!  Here are some easy steps to create the wands:

1.  Fold paper in an accordion style fold.  Once you get to the end, just fold it then in half and hot glue it together.  You will have a half circle sort of "fan".  

2.  Repeat step 1 with the same size paper.  (We used wrapping paper cut in the same size for the polka dot ones)

3.  Once you have 2 "fans" of paper, then all you do is hot glue the 2 halves together and voila, you have a full circle.

4.  You can add as many layers as you want to create many different looks.  Hot glue is your friend.  I also used a spider web that I found at the dollar store and coffee filters for some of my centers.  

5.  The sticks are just large dowel rods that I spray painted black.  Since they are so large, I secured them with hot glue AND duct tape.  Yes, duct tape.  It's powerful stuff and no one is seeing the backs of these bad boys.  I used sand in the bucket so it wouldn't tip over.  

Peace, love, and craft!!!

tia

Burlap football

Tia and I both went to college at Marshall University in Huntington, WV and we love our Thundering Herd Football!!!! I normally decorate my porch with pumpkins and mums but this year I added wanted to add something football related since it cant be fall without football. Right? :)

I made this football hanging for my front door. I used things that I already had in my craft room. Yay!!!!! for reusing some of my craft supplies. :)

These are the supplies that I used:

Burlap

Sharpie marker

scissors

brown and white acrylic craft paint

foam paint brush

rounded paint brush

glue gun and glue sticks

tissue paper

assortment of ribbons

ric-rac trim

I didn't take pictures of the process this time. :( I do promise that it only took me about 30 minutes to make and it was very easy.

I used some scrap burlap fabric to make the football. I used the regular burlap tan color. I'm pretty sure that Hobby lobby has brown burlap that you can get but I just wanted to use up what I already had. First thing that I did was drew freehand a football shape using a sharpie marker. Mine isn't perfect but I think that it looks fine. I cut out the football shape and retraced it on another piece of burlap. I cut out the second football so that I would have two identical pieces of burlap shaped like footballs. I painted the burlap with the brown paint and to make this process even faster I just squirted the paint directly to the burlap and spread it with the foam paint brush. I thought about sewing the burlap together but that would mean getting out my sewing machine and that would be to much work. I used my glue gun and glued the two pieces of burlap together leaving the top open.

While the painted burlap was drying, I made the ribbon bow hanger for the top.
I took strips of ribbon and ric-rac that went together to make the "bow" at the top. I left the long black and white polka dot ribbon a bit longer to connect it to the football. I wrapped the ribbons with the black and white polka dot ribbon. I glued the ribbon inplace with hot glue.

Once the brown paint was dry, painted the football stiches usisng white paint. I glued some black ric-rac to the football to add a little detail.

I stuffed the burlap with crumpled up tissue paper before I glue the ribbons to the football before I glue it the rest of the way closed.

GO HERD!!!!!!!

Andrea & Tia

Subway Art Canvas

I loved doing the Subway art project with Andrea a couple of years ago where we added all the places we've lived and places that were special to me and my husband. I knew I wanted to do another subway art project and found an inspiration piece on Pinterest. Gotta love Pinterest, right?

So the girls in my craft group and I made this variation of subway art. You can buy canvases at your local craft store, but I just used a canvas that I had on hand. It just wasn't my style anymore so I decided to up cycle it.

1. First, you Mod Podge vintage paper to your canvas and let it dry. We used several coats.
2. Then you can use either scrapbook alphabet stickers or vinyl stickers and place them on the canvas. I used large 4" vinyl stickers.

3. Then you just paint over the entire canvas (I used those little acrylic paint bottles and a foam brush). I used a robins egg blue and then a dry brush of gray to give more of a rustic feel.

4. Once the paint is dry, carefully pull off the letters. If some paint has seeped through, you can use a damp Q-tip to clean up the edges of your letters.

5. I went back a few days later and added a couple of tissue paper flowers and it's now perfect in my studio.

xoxo,

tia

Ladies Home Journal

We are so excited to announce that our Snowball Wreath is going to be published in the December/January holiday issue of Ladies' Home Journal magazine!! We had so much fun making these. The magazine hits newsstands on November 27th. Can't wait to check it out!!!

Xoxo,
Tia and Andrea