10/26/13

Leslie Rahye's 3rd Annual Very Spooky Halloween SteamPunk Blog Hop!

 Hi Everyone!
     Welcome to another SteamPunk blog hop hosted by Leslie Rahye!
I love SteamPunk and I love Halloween so this was perfect for me!
I hope you love it too!
To make the above pendant, you will need:
A small rubber skull toy from the party store.
This came in a grab bag of spiders, snakes and other freaky things.


10/24/13

My...What Big Eyes You Have!


I seriously did not even know that extra large googly eyes existed until friend and fellow artist, Ken Oliver posted about them on Face Book! So the last time I was at Michaels craft store to pick up some glue, I bought these too. Cost? Less than $5.
I knew they needed to go on our front door for Halloween.
 You see, our front door it completely metal.
The part that is inside the house is like a second fridge, a place where all the school photos, postcards, special artwork and whacky magnets go.

Now, with the exception of the giant eyes, you probably already have the rest of the materials.
This project took less than 10 minutes to do.
Super-duper easy.
You just need a metal door or painted sheet metal that you can hang on your door, make the sheet metal look like a tombstone...ooh...scary!
Magnet buttons, not the sheets, those don't have enough strength to hold everything up.
E-6000 glue
Thick poster white paper or a sheet of mixed media paper like I used.
Pencil and scissors.
The photos kinda tell it all. Except when you have applied the glue and magnets to the back of the eyes, prop them so they are level to dry, or the unset glue will cause the magnets to move.


Trace you teeth as shown, then cut apart.

Add more magnets

Add eyes and teeth to your door or metal sheet.
On Halloween night, I'll replace our front door light with a black light for some extra spookiness..... :)

10/21/13

You are Invited to a "Vintage Santa" Charm Swap!

You are invited to a Vintage Santa Charm swap!

Premise:
Make 20 charms no larger than 1".
 You must use any vintage Santa clip art/image somewhere in your charm. - Make them all the same.
All charms must have a lobster claw attached.
I will provide charm bracelets for everyone.
Charms must also have sort of 'winter' sparkle added....German glass glitter, snow, chunky or fine glitter, rhinestones...
If you want to sign up, aim to make 20 charms.
 If you have any extra after the head count, you can use them as holiday gifts. :)


Swap items due: November 18th, 2013
Please individually wrap or place your charms in small zip lock bags along with your name and contact info.
Feel free to design a tag to go along with the theme of the swap.
-Any packages that arrive after the due date will not be included in the swap. 
(I have a short window to mail them to everyone before the Thanksgiving Holiday)
Must include money for return shipping, check, or by pay pal. .....$7 for the U.S.
If you send pre-paid postage, I will be unable to provide you with a secure tracking #..
I will be using priority mailing for all packages.
 Sign up by emailing me with your full mailing address,
name and mailing address, even if you think I already have you on file.
Including your blog or website is optional.
michellefraecummings (at) gmail (dot) com
See sign up list and past charms swaps here.
..

Rainbow Fan Tutorial



OK. I was first inspired to make this Rainbow fan on Pintrest. But their idea was to spray paint the fan blades with paint, which seemed all to permanent for me. So one day while taking the fan apart to clean all the collected dust balls off I  thought, Why Not Alcohol Pens?
I can always change it with a few swipes of nail polish remover and do something else!

 I cleaned the fan blade with pure white vinegar and let dry.


 I used multicolor pens to spread out the color palette. Made for a colorful pattern and saved me from using up my pens. Don't worry if your color squares are not perfect, you will not see this once you reassemble the fan.

 Do the rest of the colors.


 Assemble the fan.

Turn on and enjoy!

10/18/13

Venetian Masquerade Mask

 Today you can find me here, on The Robins Nest blog.
There you can find the tutorial for the above "Venetian Masquerade Mask" and details on their current craft making contest!

Enjoy!

10/16/13

NEW! Wire Wrapped Birds Nest Pendants in my Shop! Plus 2 Giveaways!

These are 9 of 15 New pendants listed in my shop!

 Today I have listed all these beautiful Birds Nest Pendants you see above.
To celebrate, I am giving away 2 pendants to 2 lucky friends!

These are the giveaways for OCTOBER!  :)
 Comment here no later than October 31st, 2013  for a chance to win.
Please state which color you would like - pink or green.
Hungry for a extra chances to win? (optional) Share this give away and let me know in comments link-wise where you shared it...FB, your Blog, Twitter,...
As the Grand Re-Opening of my shop,
I will be hosting 2 giveaways every month!
Shipping included!

Thanks for supporting me and good luck! :)

Simply Mini Halloween Treat Tags

 This easy stamped tag idea can be found on The Sin City blog. 
Enjoy!

10/11/13

Sin City Stamps Halloween Blog Hop!

 Hi Everyone, Welcome to the "Sin City Stamps" Halloween Blog Hop!
Sin City Stamps is having a fabulous giveaway but in order for you to have a chance to win, you will need to Start at The Sin City Stamps Blog, leave a comment on all participating blogs (7 total), and like their Face Book page.  Good Luck!

Here I am showing you how to make this Vintage inspired Halloween treat cone

Halloween "Owl" Charm Swap - reveal!

Michelle Frae Cummings
 Hi Everyone, here are the Amazing charms and jewelry pieces from our recent swap,
"Halloween Owls"!  Enjoy!


Ashani Samuel


Buffi Gentry


Carol Hoffmann

 
Deb Patrick


Kathleen Leanna

 
Lyneen Jesse

 
Maria Soto

 
Marilyn Weyman Kegg
 

Molly Jo Walsh

 
P.J. Waldrop

 
Sarah Carlson

 
Sue Cox
 
Susan Brown

 
Shelia Goldsberry
Thanks for coming by! We hope you enjoyed our charms!
If you are interested in joining future charm swaps, leave me your email in comments and feel free to join our FB page. :)

10/07/13

Kitschy Charm Swap Reveal!

Last May, I hosted  a Kitschy Charm swap.
Kitschy refers to the "low-art" artifacts of everyday life such as items from the 50's, 60's and the 70's. 
8 creative Artist, made and swapped what they feel to be 'Kitschy' along with matching ATC cards.
Enjoy!

Here are my charms and ATC


Above Pin and ATC by Ann Butler.


Shrink Plastic Dangle and ATC by Veronica Noechel
 
Ring and ATC by Stephanie Meadows
 
Owl charm and ATC by Joan Alcantar
 
Ring and ATC by Ashani Samuel
 
Groovy Mushroom and ATC by Kathleen Leanna
 
Vintage Fruit and ATC by Vicky Breslin

Want to join in on the next swap? Go here for more details!

Bleach Painted Halloween Shoes

 Hi Everyone!

    
This months theme is Halloween. So I thought I'd make a pair of fun "spooky" Halloween shoes!
The technique is the same as some bleach painted shoes I made this last July.

 Items that you will need:
  • Inexpensive black canvas shoes. These are from K-mart. $10.
  • 100% straight bleach in a small container.
  • Small fine tip paint brushes, the more real they are, the better for the project.
  • A white cloth pencil.
  • A heat tool, sketch pencil, paper, and black Sharpies.
  • A well ventilated area.
 Begin by sketching your design first onto the craft paper.

Then with your white cloth pencil, you can add your design to the shoe. The nice thing about the cloth pencil is that it disappears later with water.

 Once you have your shoes sketched out, you can begin with the bleach. Simply dip your paint brush into the bleach and carefully paint along the lines of the pencil on the shoe.
You will see results immediately.
Add 1-3 coats of bleach to each design. The bleach becomes a lighter orange as the design drys, but if you need to speed up that process, you can go over what you are working with the heat gun. I did this for larger designs. These designs were ones like the jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, or bats.
When you are done painting, you can correct designs or add detail with your black sharpies. Make sure the shoes are very dry or you will need to use several pens to bring out the darkness of the sharpies.

Don't forget to add some fun detail to the inside of the shoes!

Now the shoe below, that is closer to you, is the result of when I first experimented in this project last July. I tried a Bleach Gel pen first, which did not work at all, and (for some strange reason) never fully washed out- so the finished design with the straight bleach is a a little less precise -design wise- than the other shoe.
I think they both look great and the markers helped alot.

Below are the shoes I made last July.
On the left , they are newly finished. The right, well worn and after a few washes.

So while you may love this reddish color, be prepared for them to fade more over time, but still look Amazing!
Thanks for coming by, let me know what you think in 'comments' and have creative day!