Pictures From “The Big Show” ~ Clarkson Craft, Food, & Wine Show 2012

Well, another show has come and gone. The show was a huge success and a lot of projects I’ve shared here sold out, including the melted snowmen ornaments, both the big and little homespun candy canes, the large spray painted jingle bells, the pins, and the night lights with silicone bulbs! It was a ton of fun and I thought I’d share some pics!

I also wanted to stop say thank you to all of my new followers who have commented and “pinned” some of my ideas here. It’s such an honor to have so many people who enjoy reading my posts. It all started as a little crafty area to document my projects, but it has blossomed into something bigger than I could have imagined. Thank you!!!

Have and awesome weekend and Happy Crafting!

Halloween Cupcakes 2012!

It’s that time of year again! The Halloween Cupcakes Spooktacular 2012! Mel and I decorated our brains out and came up with some fun new creations this year!

Some of the classics: The owl and the worms

And in our office, of course we gotta have EYEBALLS!!!

Monster’s Inc character

And a witch’s hat!

The classic tomb stones…

And one of my personal favorites, PRETZEL MONSTERS!

New this year is a gang of mini aliens…

A zombie awaking from the dead!

Frankenstein marshmallow pops turned cupcake toppers!

A Reece’s bat

And my favorite new character, the pretzel skeleton!

Stepped up the Fall trees this year using Twizzlers instead of just piping it on…

And another new character: the peeking monster!

Skull with tic tac teeth

And some fun minis!

We did a batch of gluten-free cupcakes for one of the girls at work. It was quite an experience! They are pretty tough to work with because of the crumbly consistency. They taste pretty yummy though, and she is happy to be able to share in the spooky treats!

And lastly, our yearly photo in front of our masterpieces! Looking back on cupcakes from a few years ago, we have really stepped it up! It was so much fun and I can’t wait til next year’s Halloween Cupcake SpOoKtAcULaR!

I probably won’t be back until after my craft show, wish me luck! I hope everyone has a great weekend and very HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Frankenstein Marshmallow Pops

So I took a little break from crafting for some Halloween cupcake preparations! Tonight my friend Melanie and I are doing our annual Halloween cupcakes to bring into the office tomorrow. Last night, I made some Frankenstein marshmallow pops, some of which will become cupcake toppers. They came out pretty cute and were super easy to make!

Here are the ingredients, minus the pretzels. I was going to use them for the bolts in Frankenstein’s neck, but ended up going with slivered almonds instead. You’ll need large marshmallows, green melting chocolate, candy eyes, chocolate sprinkles, and pop sticks.

I microwaved the chocolate wafers for 30 second increments, stirring in between. It took about 2 minutes to get it to this consistency. Be very careful not to burn it!

Then you put the marshmallow on the stick, and dip it in. Tap the stick on the edge of the bowl to get off any excess chocolate.

Next make his “hair” by dipping the marshmallow into the chocolate sprinkles. Add the eyes while the chocolate is still melted.

I hate using styrofoam because it’s not biodegradable, but I couldn’t find anything else to use to prop them up to dry.   I have seen others using one small block of foam, or even the green floral foam covered in foil.

I used slivered almonds for the neck “bolts” and black sparkle gel for the mouth. I let the chocolate harden a bit before applying the mouth.

And there you have it! Easy, fun, Halloween treats. These would be great wrapped in little baggies for Halloween party favors, or a fun project to do with the kids.

Stay tuned for Halloween cupcakes coming very, very soon!

More Craft Show Display Ideas

The craft show preparations are in full swing! That means tying up lots of loose ends and coming up with some new, creative ways to display my stuff. I did a post a while back on craft show display ideas, but here are a few fun ideas I have decided to go with for this years show!

My favorite display utilizes this little red suitcase that I picked up off the side of the road…for free! It was in good condition except for the inside missing some fabric. An easy fix…

I hot glued on a square of red & green fabric and tucked the edges underneath the cute red ruffles. I will use a small crock to separate the mini candy canes!

How cute is this little suitcase?? A simple safety-pin holds up a string of twine that I will use to hang up more candy canes!

Next I needed a place to display my gazillions of magnets I made this year. I literally have probably 10 times the amount of magnets, between the snowman clips, the sparkly snowman faces, and the marble magnets. I decided to dedicate this board to hanging up enamel pans, which the magnets will stick to! I’m always picking up colored enamel pans when I am out and about, for this very reason!

I recently got ahold of this cool old coal bucket from my Grandma’s house. I am not going to sell it, but I will use it as a display for my primitive tree toppers. I find it so much more visually interesting than say a plain basket or plastic container. In my opinion, displays like this really work to create that primitive/country feel you want in your space!

Another idea I got was to use this old seed bag cart to hang up ornaments and pins. I tried selling this cart at the co-op forever, to no avail. It’s been sitting in my basement because I knew I would find a use for it eventually. All I did was hammer in a few nails and voila! It will add height and visual interest to my table!

I have been debating on how to display the melted snowman ornaments because of how fragile they are. I also don’t want them swinging around and burying the eyes and noses down into the snow. I think I am going to prop them up on mason jars of varying heights.  Think of how cute this would look as a line of colored, vintage bulbs along a mantle!

And lastly, I finished up a batch of country night lights and was going to hang them up. Instead, I went with them fanned out in a shallow basket.

I have had a busy few days and finished up a TON of projects! I am so proud of myself for gittin-r-done!!! Here are some pics of some of the finished projects! Starting with my #1 best seller and personal favorite…the homespun candy cane!

And this year, some MINI candy canes too! I was going to tie them together in small bunches, but I think I’ll sell ‘em individually instead.

My annual snowman magnets…changed up the faces this year. Some with eyebrows and no mouths!

I haven’t had good luck selling my rag balls individually, so I decided to bag them up. Maybe a new look will help them sell as an instant collection of bowl fillers.

And last but not least, some sets of marble magnets. All packaged and will hopefully scream “stocking stuffers!” I have tons of single magnets, so I thought some themed groups would be fun. Cupcakes, leaves, pirates, hieroglyphics, vintage machines…something for everyone!

Hope you all had a great day and until next time, happy craftin!

Another Holiday Dollar Store Craft: Snowman Clothespin Magnets

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I’m loving the cool, crisp, Fall weather!

I have been working on a project for my show in a few weeks and wanted to share it with you, because I love how it came out! You may remember the tiny little snowman clips from years past, but this is a new take on the same project. I was inspired by my fellow crafter & blogger Lisa to use the larger clothespins and make them into magnets for the fridge, to hold papers, pictures, or whatever. See Lisa’s take on this project here: http://www.booth555.com/2012/09/snowmen-clothes-pin-magnets.html

I started with cheap clothespins from Walmart – a 100 pack for around $3. Score! I know you can get these at any dollar store also, which is why I consider it a “dollar store craft”.

I spray painted them white with Rustoleum Heirloom White. Did one side, let it dry, and did the other side. The over-spray was enough to cover the sides.

I like to do each step in bulk, rather than do them one at a time. I always start with the noses first!

Then I used a Sharpie paint pen for the eyes and buttons. The paint pen was too thick for the little eyebrows so I used a fine tip Sharpie marker (just a regular permanent marker as opposed to a paint pen) for the fine eyebrows.

I prefer the little round magnets, which are also from the dollar store, because they are a lot stronger than the flat magnets. I ran out of them, so I used some of these flat magnets, cut into thin strips, and hot glued on. They work, but do not have as strong of a hold. If I have time, I may go back and replace them with the round ones, if my dollar store still has them in stock.

Here are some of the completed snowmen. Some have scarfs and some have little tin stars, just to mix it up a little!

I also did a batch with vintage buttons!

To display magnets, I normally would use a large tin star, the back of a cookie sheet, or the back of a large enamel pan. This time I had way too many and decided to use this old tin/metal table as a display! The magnets cling to it really well. Using some brown kraft paper from the dollar store (comes in rolls, and I use it for everything!) I just cut a piece long enough to drape over the length of the table, and voila! Thinking about stamping it with my logo stamp, or some fun Christmas stamps!

Here is how it will stand up. I left the drop leafs folded over, and it stands up perfectly. As you can see, I used these little tiny dollar store clamps (the small black ones along the top of the kraft paper) to hold the paper in place. You could easily just tape it on too. I am so excited about this idea, because it will be an easy display to transport, and will give a lot of height to my table!

Before I go, a quick update on the wooden snowman spoons! I thought they were too “blah” so I grubbied them up a bit by rubbing on some Deco Art gel stain, and then wiping off. I then sealed them with sparkle mod podge, which doesn’t show up that great in the picture because it’s a subtle shimmer. They have a little more pizzazz now, and a bit more of that “prim” feel!!!

Well, have a GREAT week and happy crafting!!!

How to Make Your Own Stamped Gift Tags & An Impromptu Ghost Hunt…

Happy Fall!!! We just got home from week in Orange County, NY, for a Police K-9 Seminar that Greg was sponsoring, and boy was the weather and scenery spectacular! Upon getting home I realized there is just one month to go before my craft show and sooooo many things left I want to do…crap! I wanted to share some stamped gift tags I made because I think they have potential to be really great craft show sellers! I will also share some pictures from a little creepy detour I took in an abandoned hospital, where some of the K-9 training took place. More on that in a bit…

For these cute lil gift tags, I used a heavy stock brown kraft paper, which I got out of the scrapbooking section of the craft store. It was like  $.20 a sheet or something ridiculously awesome like that.

I cut the card stock into strips and used a small tag punch to punch out tons of tags. I got this at one of the craft stores (Michael’s I think?) for about $12, after using a coupon. It was originally around $20, but TOTALLY worth it since you can make an unlimited amount of tags!

I used a tiny hole punch to make the holes and some black string for the ties.

I made a TON more than are shown here…they are so versatile! For gifts, price tags, decoration, craft show sellers, or general crafting! You could use different thin ribbons and different colored inks / papers…there’s soooo much potential!

I decided to leave some blank and stamp some, both for my craft show. I chose this cute little gnome stamp which sorta passes for an elf for the holidays…

And of course, Santa!

 I packaged ‘em up, 4 to a bag. I am thinking $1 per bag. It’s a descent profit for me, but a great deal for customers too. What do you think?

And now, for the ghost hunt you’ve anxiously been waiting to hear about! Forget this crafty crap, now THIS is COOL!!! I thought my fellow blogger Eva Halloween over at The Year of Halloween would particularly enjoy this, as she shares my affinity for the dark side! It all started when I heard we were going to an abandoned hospital for an afternoon of dog training…

And it didn’t take long for the stories and rumors to start, about how the place is haunted and all of the weird “encounters” the officers have had while training there. Naturally, I decided to take a detour down to the morgue and snap some photos in hopes of catching some otherworldly friends on camera. I didn’t capture anything in my photos, but I did HEAR something. A cart rolling down a hallway to be exact. With no one else on that floor. Hmm…

Let’s take the tour, shall we? Not to the basement, but down to the SUB-basement we go! For those of you who are less fond of the mortuary sciences, I apologize for the morbidity of the photos to come.

Turning the corner  heading towards the morgue was this lone, randomly placed chair. I so badly wanted there to see a figure sitting in it upon examining my photos. No luck.

The freezer where the deceased were stored until they could be put to rest.

And a lovely vintage incubator that looks more like a giant toaster oven to me. Same principle I guess?

And the much-anticipated morgue. All of my photos were devoid of any orbs or ghostly encounters like I had hoped. Still very interesting to see the table and tools so up close and personal.

A little foam neck holder to help position the body. Looks comfy, eh?

And what exactly were they slicing and dicing so hard that they left knife marks and scratches on the metal table? Guess we’ll never know…

The tools…just left there one day and never touched again.

Look at the size of that knife!

I never knew the liver weighed so much!

A nearby laundry room…

And some peculiar art work on the walls of a children’s operating room. I’m not sure a giant, blood-red octopus is really the most “calming” imagery they could have chosen…

And I will leave you with one last image of the deserted hospital memorial room. This place left me so intrigued and grateful for the opportunity to explore! Sweet dreams my friends!

Dollar Store Candles Turned Cute Country Decor

First of all, let me just say I am loving this crisp, cool, Fall weather and LOVE this time for year for many reasons, including:

Upstate New York is AMAZING this time of year…just sayin’. So anyway, on to the latest project – jazzing up some dollar store candles. I ordered this burlap jute webbing with many projects in mind, and I did put some of it up for sale in my Etsy store. I simply cut it to size and hot glued it in place. It is very thick, yet cuts easily. I experimented with candles and plain glass votive holders. I’m loving the tall candles – which can be found at any Dollar Tree.

Using a little bit of twine, I tied on some vintage-looking keys.

I kinda like the look of the burlap covering the entire glass holder. These would be cute for votives or even a small vase / plant / herb holder. I currently am using this one as my tooth-brush holder. Hehe.

Another variation on this project was using some torn homespun fabric. Again – just hot glued it.

Isn’t it cute? You could use any color fabric depending on the time of year of holiday you are decorating for!

There are so many ways you can take these projects and run. I’m thinking of doing a texture fierro coating on the outside, or a cinnamon / mod podge coating to get rid of the stark white of the tall Dollar Tree candles. Hmmm…so much to do, so little time!

If you make these, send me a pic! I’d love to show some variations of the project and see other peoples ideas. Hope everyone has a wonderful week and enjoys this awesome Fall weather!