This year for Halloween...Erica and Wes are going to a masquerade!

"Masquerade! Different faces on parade, masquerade!"  Last month, we went to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Civic Center. I think it was my favorite musical I've been to thus far. One of my favorite scenes was the masquerade song. And so I thought, "I want to go to a masquerade!!" Since I probably won't be invited to any here anytime soon, I decided that Wes and I would just have to pretend.  Here is my mask.

Nothing too fancy. Just a white mask from the local craft store and some glitter, feathers, and other fun embellishments.

What I'd like to showcase is my hat.

I got all of my supplies from the Dollar Tree. A plastic party hat (like the fake bowler hats you wear for New Years or 4th of July), some floral arrangements, a piece of poster board, and paint...only $4, guys!! Here is how you turn a cheap plastic hat into a mat hatter's, masquerade worthy top hat:

Materials needed: all mentioned above, AND a paper sack, scissors, tape & glue, ribbon, any embellishments.
1. Cut apart the plastic hat; the two pieces should be the brim and actual hat part.
2. Roll a piece of poster board into the circumference and height of hat you want. Tape the poster board roll into the brim of the hat. Tape the other hat part to the top of the poster board. Now your plastic hat should look like a stovepipe hat.
3. Cut pieces of poster board into small sections and tape them to the brim of the hat. This will expand the brim. Trim as needed.
4. Now your hat should look like a mess of tape and poster board. Rip part the paper sack and glue it over the poster board.
5. Now your hat should look like its made of paper sack. That will be your canvas to paint. I just painted mine one color but if you're more artistic, work your magic!
6. I used the ribbon to hide how I glued the floral pieces to the hat. I glued a piece, tied ribbon around and then glued more floral, etc.

I'm off to the ball...

Last year for Halloween...Erica was a cupcake!!

Its that time again... costume parties a plenty. What are YOU going to be for Halloween? Last year, I was a cupcake and Wes was a baker.

 

Yup, we were adorable. We made it to two Halloween parties and I got to strut my cupcake-ness all night long. Once again, this tutorial would have been awesome if I took step-by-step pictures but I didn't know at the time that I'd need the aforementioned pictures. So, here's the best I could do. (Just a tad bit of advice...this project should be done over multiple hours with breaks or days in between and its best of have an assistant, boyfriend or craft night buddy to help because there's lots of "hey, can you hold one thing out of the way while I hot glue something else" involved.) 

 

Cupcake costume tutorial -

Materials needed: laundry basket, poster board (2 pieces or more...depending on how big your basket is), shoe laces (I used two sets), tulle (the mesh fabric, I bought a yard), cotton stuffing (one bag should do), embellishments, hot glue (A LOT of hot glue... so much so you'll develop a love hate relationship with it in the end), scissors, duct tape, a small bag (I used one of those little bags that you get when you buy jewelry from a craft fair or boutique)  

 

1. Purchase a laundry basket you can fit in. Cut the bottom out of the basket and tie the shoe laces on as if they were suspenders.

2. Cut your poster board into a few pieces and fold each piece accordion style. Since the basket is round, you can't use one piece all the way around. I cut a piece that folded into about 2 - 3 accordion folds and hot glued it on.  One piece at a time until the basket resembles the cup part of the cupcake.

3. If your poster board is not evenly shaped in the end, go around with scissors and trim the top and bottom. I found this easier than measuring each piece to make sure they were the same size.

4. Hot glue is amazing but it doesn't hold everything. Duct tape the poster board to the inside of your laundry basket to make sure none falls off. This would be another good time to have a buddy help you hold everything in place while you go around with duct tape... not necessary but it does make it easier.

 

After steps 1-4, you should look like half of a cupcake. This would be a good time to take a break and find your assistant. You'll need him or her for the next few steps.

 

5. Cut the tulle into 4 - 6 pieces. Glue the edge of each piece onto the top of the laundry basket.
6. Open the bag of cotton stuffing and tear apart the stuffing and fluff it up so its not one large bundle.  This is where it becomes a two person job...
7. Hold some cotton stuffing on the edge of your laundry basket, fold the tulle over and hot glue.  Do this all around your laundry basket. I used soooo much hot glue and burned every single one of my poor little fingers but was successful in the end.  Don't despair!!
8. After hot gluing all the cotton stuffing into the tulle and onto the laundry basket, I went around a second time and glued all the loose pieces to each other or onto the laundry basket. This would be another good time to have a buddy help you hold everything in place while you go around with extra glue.

After steps 5-8, I became a cupcake!!

 

 9. Lastly, is the fun stuff. Embellish that cupcake!  Give yourself some sprinkles, some jazz and pizazz. LOL I used stick-on gems on the accordion folds of my poster board and little cupcake and baked good stickers all over the tulle. I wanted to add glitter as sprinkles but figured that would be way too messy. 

10.  Tie your little jewelry bag inside your laundry basket. Then you can be a partying cupcake without a purse or clutch and still have your lip stick, keys, etc.

 

 

Here is the finished project.  I went to one of my good friend's epic Halloween party and took third in the costume party. Here's me graciously accepting my ribbon.  Another costume to come next week. See you guys then : )

Erica LOVES earrings!

I knew I had to organize and rearrange my earrings for this blog's pictures. What I didn't know is that I'd get carried away and organize all of my accessories... necklaces, bracelets and hair accessories were done along with the earrings. I love living with my mate but there's something therapeutic about having the apartment to yourself and cleaning with loud music on. I'm so productive!! Here is what my earrings ended up looking like. All nice and in line. I had more but I got rid of a ton of stuff I don't wear anymore.

Funny story about this thing.  I knew I had way too many earrings and throwing them in a box would not work.  I couldn't see them all and they were getting tangled : ( I had an idea in my head and I was fairly certain I've seen this "aluminum sheet of thing with holes" at a hardware store before.  So I head to Home Depot and find the first stocker walking the aisles.  "Sir," I said politely as I approached, "I have an idea of how to organize my earrings. I need a sheet of something I can hang that's about the size of your standard poster. I need it to have holes punched in it.  I need the holes to be spaced evenly so I can stick all my pairs of earrings on this thing and hang it in my closet. Can you direct me to something like that?" And surprisingly, he took me right to this thing. I guess he's been asked before. Crafty girls must come to Home Depot a lot.

It works great on my dangly earrings but what about the studs? How about something like this?

I got this idea off  Pinterest and here's my take on it...
     Picture frame & Ribbon earring holder tutorial -
     Materials needed: picture frame (any size will work, I went with the standard 4"x6"), 2 types of ribbon, scissors & hot glue

1. Take the backing and glass out of your picture frame.  Save it for another craft! : )
2. Start on one corner and tie your vertical ribbon (the piece that's not lacy in my picture) into a knot behind the frame.
3. Wrap about a couple of times up and down the picture frame. Hot glue the end piece to the back of the frame.
4. Then tie the horizontal piece of ribbon. I tied mine into a bow because I couldn't cleverly disguise the knot anywhere on the frame.
5. Pull across the frame, cut and hot glue. Repeat until you have enough rows for your earrings.
6. Glue a piece of ribbon on the top right and left corners to hang.
7. Let hot glue completely dry and make sure the frame is cool before putting earrings in.

Easy peasy. Thanks for spending your Monday with me!!

Erica's first art night project...

Kensington looking dapper with my sewing kit, art box and traveling art kit

Those of you who know me in real life know I'm pretty old school.  I swear I'm 29 going on 50.  I love writing things down, like with ACTUAL pen and paper. I think the journal and Post-It notes are two of the gnarliest inventions. That being said, I've been jotting down notes for each Monday Craft Night entry and which projects I want to highlight. Well, tonight, I discovered that I can start a blog...jot down ideas, insert some pictures...and then save it as a draft and come back to it later! OMG!! I know you're probably giggling but I don't care; I'm proud of my discovery. LOL

This is extra great news because Wes is out with a buddy tonight so I have the whole apartment to myself to brainstorm.  And we'll be out of town next week so, presto, blog ideas done on a Thursday!! But you'll never know it's a Thursday because I won't post until Monday.  Okay, okay...I'm getting way too excited about this.  Now for the actual crafting part.

Festival of the Arts 2013... I went with a friend and as we were walking around the booths, I confidentially said, "I can make stuff like this! I craft, I'm artistic, I have hobbies..."  That really got us thinking so after the festival, I took us to the local crafts store and we bought these!



Then we planned a reoccurring craft night. One Monday at her place, one Monday at mine. We put our supplies in handy little "boxie" and off we go!! Dinner and crafts and girl time. What better way to relax on a Monday night? : ) My first project was this -

Kensington is having quite the photo shoot tonight!

Wire & Ribbon pencil holder tutorial-
Materials needed: wire (I got mine from Lowes), ribbon, scissors, something round that you want the shape of your pencil holder to be

1. Make the bottom of your pencil holder by shaping a circle out of your wire & criss-crossing more wire through the middle until it's mostly filled in.
2. Make the top of your pencil holder by shaping another circle.
3. Put your round object in between the top and bottom pieces. I used a bottle of vitamins to get my shape.
4. Take your wire and go crazy; connect the top and bottom pieces with wire until your pencil holder is sturdy enough to take the center object out.
5. Press down on the top so the wire bows out and the pencil holder is pumpkin shaped. Keep pressing on the wire until you get the exact shape you want.
6. Take your ribbon and thread it in and out of the wire, basically covering all the empty space.
7. Wrap ribbon around edge of top circle to form a lip around the pencil holder. I also used this to hide all the knots I tied with the ribbon and wire.

And you're done!! Here are some pictures of how tightly wound the wire and ribbon are. The first picture is the bottom, second picture is what it looks like from the inside and last picture is the outside.