Halloween Floating Frames

I just LOVE the floating glass frames Chelsea made and had to make some of my own.  These are such an easy and inexpensive project to make.  I'm thinking I need to make some for other holidays, too!

To start off, I used some old frames that I had.  I spray painted them white and used sandpaper to rough up the edges.  For this one I used a cherry wood frame and I like how both the cherry color and natural wood color come through. 

 I removed the back of the frame and added a dab of glue to each corner to keep the glass in place.  

I also added ribbon to mine so I could hang them, but they look cute sitting on an entryway table like Chelsea's, too!

 I used my cricut to cut some black vinyl.  I used the Paper Dolls cartridge for the skull and tree and and svg file for the bat.  

I just love the way they turned out!

-marie

Halloween Subway Art

Last year I shared with you some Fall Subway Art I made.  I decided to utilize the back of that one and turn it into some Halloween Subway Art.  Two for the price of one. :)

I used my Cricut to cut out a bunch of Halloween related words onto cardstock.  After painting the board black I used Mod Podge to adhere the words on.  I added another coat of Glossy Mod Podge over the entire board to seal it all in. 

I also wanted to show you these platters.  I picked them up at a thrift store for maybe a dollar each.  I love that they are a nice, solid metal (not like the flimsy dollar store ones) and they already came tarnished and vintage-looking.  Add a dollar store crow and some spider webs and they are the perfect Halloween decoration!

-marie

Glow in the Dark Halloween Art with Mod Podge

Chelsea and I were talking the other day about how much we LOVE decorating for Halloween.  It's probably my favorite holiday in terms of decorating.

I was so excited to get this fabulous box of Mod Podge products to try.  The Glow in the Dark Mod Podge was the first thing to catch my eye and I knew I needed a glow in the dark decoration in my house.  :)










Items used:

• 4 pieces of wood 12x12
• black craft paint
• sand paper
• images cut out on cardstock (I found some images online I wanted and used my Cricut to cut them out, but you could just as easily cut them out by hand.  Here are the links for the images I used: skull, owl, bats, and spider)
• Vintage Mod Podge
• Glow in the Dark Mod Podge
• Mod Podge roller
• Paintbrush
• Stickles

For this project I used some wood scraps leftover from a previous project.  I got a large sheet of wood cut at Home Depot in 12x12in squares.  I started off by giving the wood a couple good coats of paint.  I found that spray paint doesn't work well on this type of wood, but craft paint works perfectly!

I applied Vintage Mod Podge to the entire surface of each board with the handy roller applicator.  You can use regular Mod Podge but I like the look of the Vingate for this project.  It makes the stark white cardstock a little yellow-ish and aged.

I carefully placed the images on and used a flat-edged tool (a credit card works well, too!) to smooth it down and remove any bubbles.  Then I applied a second coat of Vintage Mod Podge.

Once that was completely dry I added 4 coats of Glow in the Dark Mod Podge to make sure it was nice and "glow-y".  

After that was dry I added a little spider web and hour glass to the spider block.  And now all that's left to do is wait for it to get dark to watch the magic happen!

So here's what my mantle looks like during the day:

And here's what happens to the blocks when it gets dark:

As my almost 3 year old twins say, "Ooooh, it's spooooky!"   :)

So there you have it.  A fun, easy, SPOOKY Halloween project!

I wrote this post as a part of a paid campaign with Plaid and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.

You can find more info about Mod Podge and other Plaid products here:

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/InspiredByPlaid
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PlaidCrafts
• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/PlaidCrafts

-marie

Linked to: Ginger Snap Crafts, House of Hepwroths, Sugar and Dots, Lil Luna, Rae Gun Ramblings, Fireflies & Jellybeans, 

Framed Lucky Rainbow

After making some framed paper trees for Christmas, and a heart tree for Valentine's, I wanted to do something a little different for St. Patrick's Day.  I found this cute rainbow cut on the Hello Kitty Greetings Cricut cartridge and knew that's what I wanted to do. 

First, I cut the image at 6 inches.  Then I used my Swiss Dots embossing folder on the different colors of the rainbow (my two-year-old was getting in the way very generously helping!). 

I embellished the cloud with some stickles around the edges and a few colorful buttons.

I printed "color me lucky" on some white cardstock and glued the rainbow on.  Then I put it in a frame and that was it!  It's nice to have a bright burst of color amidst all my green St. Patrick's decor.  :)

-marie

Linked to - Rae Gun Ramblings,  Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Keeping It Simple, Becolorful, 
Sugar & Spice, Fine Craft Guild, Classy Clutter,  Oopsey Daisy, Lil Luna,

Frugal Friday: Valentine's Plate

I saw these white square plates at Dollar Tree and picked up a couple.  I love using plates for decorating and I liked that these ones were square (and of course I couldn't pass up something for just a buck!).

For this plate I used my favorite Cricut Cartridge: Create a Critter.  This cartridge has so many cute animals and fun little images and accessories that I've used on lots of projects.

I just cut everything out on vinyl and applied it to the plate. (You could also cut it out on cardstock and mod podge it to a plate.)

Here are the sizes I cut:

• branch - 4/12 inches
• small bird - 2 inches
• large bird - 2 1/2 inches (flipped image)
• heart - 2 inches

It was a super quick and easy project, my favorite kind! I was excited to use some turquoise vinyl on this.  Turquoise is my favorite color and now that I have a little on this plate I think I'm going to incorporate some more turquoise into my Valentine's decor.

Linked to:

Framed Heart Tree

Remember my Christmas Tree Paper Piecing?  Well I thought it would be cute to do one for Valentine's Day.  This one was sooooo easy and came together quickly.

I used my 8x10 frame but decided to use the mat in this one so the opening is 5x7.  I cut the bare tree from the ZooBalloo Cricut Cartridge (7") and the hearts from Plantin Schoolbook Cricut Cartridge (1/2", roly poly).  Then I just glued them onto a piece of white cardstock. 








The mat that came with the frame was ivory which just didn't work.  So I gave it a coat of Valspar Frosty Berry and it looked much better.  :)

Linked to:

Bead Board Christmas Sign

After getting rid of a few outdated Christmas decor and stuff that didn't really match our new house, I realized I was left with very little to work with.  This is what I put up on my fireplace mantle and let's be honest, it looked pretty pathetic.  Too much empty wall space, too few/small decor.  So I needed something else.

 

I started out with a piece of bead board we had sitting in our garage and I spray painted it a dark reddish color.












Then I used sandpaper to rough it up a bit.













I cut out "joy to the world" in white vinyl on my cricut and placed it on there, along with some glitter snowflake ornaments I found at Dollar Tree. My other Dollar Tree find -- spray painted star -- worked perfect there.   Then I added some green garland I already had and a flower garland (thank you once again, Dollar Tree!). It makes my fireplace mantle look SO much better! :)

Now I need to get to work on my OTHER mantle .... ;)