Haunted Halloween House

Happy Halloween!

I'm so happy you could come by to my blog today, as it's a very special day...it's Halloween (my favorite Holiday) and today is the much anticipated blog hop with AMAZING blog candy from The Robins Nest!

If you are already involved in this hop, chances are that you have just hopped from Kristen Keller's blog, so the next one after me is Irit Shalom's blog.

If you are just starting out on my blog,

I recommend you go next to the starting point

which is The Robin's Nest blog.

They are the generous givers of the blog candy

 you'll see at the end of this post.

I traced my house right onto my selected paper with a pen including the windows and doors and cut out freehand.

I used a precut chip board house for this project.

I covered it with the following Robins Nest product:

Glitter Ghost Cameo

Halloween Swirl

Fleur plum

Halloween Dots and Stripes

Fleur Olive

Halloween Glitter Ghost

Green Dew Drops

Misc. Halloween decorations.

I adheared the inside ghost with two layers of foam tape before putting together the house.

The Robins Nest has granted each designer, (there are 11 of us) to give away one $15 voucher to be spent on their online shop! How cool is that?!

On top of that, one lucky reader will recieve a Grand prize of $50! 

Lastly I added the foam stickers and other fun decorations!

To be entered in both drawings, you must leave a comment

on each of the participating blogs and be a Follower of all of them.  

YOUR comment must also include a valid way of reaching you in case you win.

.

All winners of the $15 voucher and the one Grand prize-a  $50 voucher,

will be posted November 6th on The Robins Nest blog.

Thanks for coming by, I hope you like my Haunted House.

 Good Luck!

~ Michelle Frae Cummings

SteamPunk Pirates and Mermaids!

I'm really happy to a part of this Steam Punk blog hop! I had attended a Steam Punk/Pirate expo a few months back, hosted by Pyrate Daze. Below you will see some photos I took of that day, including a special mermaid appearance!

Festive Christmas Card Blog Hop!

Tip* Always dilute your ink with water before painting. You can  go "darker", but never "lighter"

For this Christmas card, I used some background paper from The Robins Nest since it matched my water colored image so well. I cut some white paper, then tore at the edges with my fingers. Next I stamped a favorite flower stamp with fired brick distress ink. I used a paint brush to pick up the same ink from the pad to a craft mat with a bit of water and colored in the petals. For the center flower I played around with various green distress inks and then finished the flowers with green glitter glue.

I hope you liked my card for this week!
Enjoy your hop with the rest of group, I have another card on "The Robins Nest"!

A Wizard of OZ Family affair.

I love it when the whole family dresses up for Halloween especially good ole' Dad!

(Disneyland CA, October 11, 2011)


~ Michelle Cummings

A little bit of Creepy to start your Monday...

Found at Rogers Gardens last week.

Please join me at the 2nd annual Sea Side Soiree!

Please join me at another wonderful weekend at

Sea Side Soiree, in beautiful oceanside CA!

Since the theme is always Mermaids,

 I will be teaching everyone how to make this underwater hair comb and magical Mermaid wand.

This event is all inclusive and the fee includes:

•3 days and 2 nights accommodation in a 2 bedroom 2 bath suite with a full kitchen, living room and 3 amazing slumber party mates! (or one bedroom King Suite)

•5 projects and classes from leading artists and designers sponsored by wonderful manufacturers!
•6 amazing meals drinks, and snacks!
•Special handmade goodies to greet you
•Amazing stocked tool kit filled with the special things you will need for creating the weekend away!
•Fairy Fly Bys
•Games & Prizes
•Silent Auction
•Raffles
•And so many special touches you wont want to miss!

Space is limited, so reserve you spot today!

Go here for class and registration info.

See you soon!

~ Michelle Frae Cummings

Turn a ordinary photo into a spooky masterpiece!

I love playing with photos and photo shop. Here I converted these vintage photos into something really creepy by "inverting" them and adding a bit of scratches and vintage flair. What do you think? You are welcome to use these in your art, but please link back to me if you re-post the images.
Thanks!
















~ Michelle Frae Cummings

Getting in the mood for our Halloween party

We are having a family friendly Halloween party here at our home this year, on the 29th and I've been rehashing some old ideas - favorites for foods and party decor. There will be about 40 guest to participate in pumpkin carving, do Crafts, dress up for the costume contest, play games and venture in a small but very dark haunted house (tent). The following photos are from last years Trick or Treat Party.



Jello worms


Spider web cupcakes


Moldy cheese





Here is a jello brain from Halloween 2008


This should rekindle some ideas...I'll be posting some more ideas soon!


~ Michelle Cummings

How to make a "Ash Ketchum" - Pokemon Costume!

 When Dyllan asked me to make his "Ash" costume for this years Halloween, it took some thinking and researching as there is  really is not a good quality "Ash" costume to buy anywhere.
Then I found a basic enough tutorial here on Instructables.
I followed their example of finding the clothes at the thrift store and in making the hat. The rest of the costume was designed using various images of Ash, that Dyllan had on hand.

 To make this costume for any age, you will need the following:

1. 1 short sleeved button up white shirt with collar.
2. 1 button up blue shirt with collar.
3. Yellow duct tape.
4. Red hat, white fabric, sewing thread/needle.
5. Red and white Pokeball ball, found at a Anime shop- comes with toy inside.
6. Black & white sharpie pen, elastic cord, hole punch,
7. Black or green gloves
8. Pikachu, back pack

First start with carefully cutting off the sleeves of the blue shirt. Then add a duck tape to the bottom for the trim, and if desired, to the front in the sort of a v-shape. You will need to cut holes for the buttons. This design was one of 3 "Ash" shirt ideas that I saw in all of Dyllan's Pokemon books. By the way...Pokemon books are  great to have on hand if you need referance.

Since there were two designs to choose from for Ash's hat, I went with the simple design. I free hand drew it on paper, then placed the white fabric over the drawing, traced then filled in the color with a black sharpie. I hand basted the design to the front of the red hat.

If you are making this costume for a adult, garden gloves are your best best. For a little kid like Dyllan, all I could find was basic knit gloves. Buy 2 pairs, because you will mess up in cutting the fingers off. I added a bit of green felt to the cuff (with fabric glue) per request, this is totally optional.

For the ball, I opened it up, like a plastic Easter egg, and used a crop-a-dile to make the hole near the edge of the white ball side. Then I inserted a loop of the elastic big enough for a gloved finger. I knotted it on the outside and then again on the inside of the ball. Instead of snipping the ends of the cord, I secured it with duct tape to the inside of the ball. I used the black sharpie to draw the signature pokeball logo and accented it with the white sharpie in the center. Keep the pens around handy for touch up as the ink tends to scratch off easily from the plastic.

This on the go back pack is the perfect size for the costume. I put Pikachu inside the small zippered pouch and baste stiched him into the pouch so he would not fall out. Then I closed up the unzippered sides with black duct tape. Per request, I decorated a existing key chain with Pokemon stickers and sealed them with packing tape.

Here is Dyllan with his finished costume and a cute Pikachu we met at Disneyland.

Thanks for coming by! I hope to have inspired you to make your own "Ash" costume!
Comments Welcome :)
~Michelle Frae Cummings

Festive Christmas Card Blog Hop

Welcome!
Here is another creation of mine for the twice per month Christmas Card blog Hop I'm a part of here and on The Robins Nest blog.
To make this card, I simply used what I had on hand.
I attached a piece of decorative paper to some scrap card stock and then added a matching color to the bottom. For the bottom piece, I scratched it up a bit with some rough sandpaper and then dabbed it with a bit of white chalk ink for a vintage effect. Next I colored a piece of white scrap paper with a gold leafing pen, set to dry while I used the same pen for the cards edges and a piece of vintage clip art. I mounted the clip art to the paper with foam tape and added some holly and berry punchies I had laying around. I used a starburst punch on the gold painted paper and scattered those pieces about till I was content. Some tiara stickles to add bling, on the starburst, holly/berries and vintage image. lastl;y I added my stamped greeting.
Done! What do you think?
Please leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Then please hop along to Debra Buckland. :)

Festive Friday Blog Hop


1. Terri Sproul

2. Chris Hurley

3. Cheryl Lindsay

4. Amanda Marks

5. Brenda Lee Burfeind

6. Angela Bodas

7. Becky Conley

8. Leslie-Rahye

9. Laura Fisher

10. The Robin’s nest

11. Carol Berns

12. Michelle Cummings

13. Debra Buckland

14. Yolanda Anthony

15. Maria Chuy Soto

16. Laura Davidson

Thankful Card

Heres a quick card I made with a few onhand materials.

I hope you like it!

Birthday Card Inspiration

Every month when I get together with my card making group, we always make a Birthday card for any Birthday girls in the current month. These were the cards that were made for October.

I hope you will find some inspiration from these beauties.

The card above is the one I made.

I'm highly addicted to distress stains and can't stop playing with them!

I rubbed the vintage photo stain on a flower and stamped it onto

 a Manila envelope. Waited till it was completely dry before dabbing some shades of blue stain inks, re-inkers and pads on a craft sheet, spritzed

 them with water and used a wet paintbrush to pick up the color and paint the flower petals. I finished them of with a little bit of glitter glue in the flower centers. When I adhered them to the card, I just barely curled up the petals with my fingers.

Olvera Street, California

This last summer we made a day trip to Olvera Street. We packed up the car with lunch and snacks, and headed down south to Los Angeles.

 Olvera Street is the birthplace of the City of Los Angeles, otherwise known as El Pueblo Historic Monument.  The colorful village features 27 historic buildings with a traditional Mexican style plaza area.

 We weaved in and out of the stalls along the cobble stones, marveling at the street cart wares and vibrant colored items. I especially loved the displays such as these sandals.

Look at this wonderful candy cart!

 Some of the historic buildings were preserved as a museum so you could see how a family might have lived a long time ago. Others were made into souvenir shops and restaurants.

 I love how inviting this shop is with it's lovely tissue paper banners and star lanterns.

 These Wedding dresses are  so beautiful, all hand embroidered! I would love to own the white one in the middle. :)  Then behind them in another room were hundreds of beautifully adorned Mariachi costumes!

We had our lunch in the front of a large gazebo and was happy to be entertained by some Aztec dancers.
It was a nice day trip and I hope we can do it again.

Magazine Holder

Here's a magazine holder I made for my Halloween craft idea books.

I made it using The Robins Nest papers. Come by their blog to see how! :)