Autumn Pumpkin Collage

With the calender turning to October, Autumn is in the air! I have always been a fan of Halloween, pumpkins and black cats. Here is a quick craft you can do for yourself  and with the kiddos!

Supplies are shown below:

-Vintage dictionary papers
-Various shades of orange magazine papers
-Green and orange burlap
-Twine
-Stencil of trees
-Mod Podge/glue sticks
-Clear modeling paste
-Clear Gesso
-Golden Qinacridone Nickle Azo Gold and Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide
-Various orange and yellow paints
-Art brand ultra chalk paint in squeezable tubes. Color Black and Antique Copper
-Paper Artsy Metallic Glaze
-Palette knife
-Paint brushes

I used one of my art journals but you can use a canvas too. Fisrt find some older papers to put as a base. No need to gesso the paper or canvas first. Mod Podge the papers and let dry. These will just be a background but if you have some interesting images on them, position those where they might be seen more easily. Once the glue has dried, put a layer of clear gesso over the page and let that dry:

After the gesso dries, pencil in your pumpkin and visualize where you would like to see your tree trunks:

Next water down some paints and paint in your sky and ground. You could use watercolors as well:

Then take your stencil or free hand and put in some tree forms with clear modeling paste. Once the paste dries,  paint the trees whatever color you want. I chose a brownish orange. Here comes the fun collage part! Different papers with orange and yellow for the pumpkin. I outlined the pumpkin with the chalk paint in black:

For the finishing touches, I used more clear modeling paste to create a moon, applied some of the burlap to the pumpkin, added some twine over the black chalk paint and put on a steampunk heart and a few quotes:

I hope you enjoy this craft and if you do make it, please post a picture of it in the comments!
Thank you for stopping by!

Treasure Map

My parents came in for a visit and when that happens, the Slay household becomes ubber crafty! My Mom has been an artist for fifty years and is amazing!! She loves to do crafts with our son Brenden. He wanted to do a treasure map so this is what we came up with. Very fast and easy!

We started with an 81/2"x11" off white card stock (good at absorbing paints) and several different colors of 'Sharpie' permanent pens.

The next part is the fun part - draw your map! We did ocean on one side and an island on the other side of the paper. Don't forget your compass and the 'X' marks the spot. As you can see we did two maps. One is Brenden's version and the other is my Mom's. Brenden had to do a "Shark Cove Kov"and a "Danger Danjr" area on the map.

 Now you can roughen up the edges to produce a nicely worn look. Brenden loved this part!

Next water down some tempera paints to 'antique' the paper.

While the paint is still wet you can crumple up the paper to achieve an improved worn look. Brenden loved this even more!

Let your maps dry in the sun and voila! You are ready to find some pirate booty!

Luck O' The Irish

Our son wanted to make his Kindergarten teachers a St. Patrick's Day card so I browsed around and found this idea of making shamrocks from shaped used toilet tissue rolls and tempera paints. He loved embellishing them with the glitter glue. In fact I can't get him to NOT to use the glitter glue sticks.

School Aged Simple Collage

Here is a GREAT way to make an end of the year memento of your children's art work for the academic school year without having to save every piece of paper they bring home! This was a collage I made from our son's pre-school art work in 2011.

 Simply lay out the art work that is photo friendly on a neutral surface (kitchen table) and take your best digital shot of them. Plug the images into a free photo editing software like Picasa on your desktop which can instantaneously arrange them into a collage to your liking. Place their school picture in the center and.... pooooof! An easy and unique 8 x 10" memento for relatives and teachers to have! Trust me it is so easy!

Craft Stick Fish

Our 5 year old son LOVES any type of sea creature so any craft with that theme is an easy sell to him. I even got my husband to make one! These are very easy and inexpensive. You can embellish them to your heart's content.

Materials:

Craft sticks

Paints

Tissue papper

White glue

Glitter glue

Googly eyes

Yarn Easter Eggs

Gather your materials. You will need glue, yarn , a balloon and some ribbon.

Blow up your balloon(s) and tie them

 

Cut some yarn in about 12 inch pieces. For this craft I used about 20 , 12″ 10" and 8"pieces for a total of 60 pieces.

 

Mix your glue with a tiny bit of water if you want, this made it easier to soak the yarn but it took longer to dry. Either way works- just don’t dilute it too much! Saturate your yarn with the glue mixture.

 

Start to crisscross your yarn onto the balloon.

Keep going until you feel you have enough to make the egg shape.

Let it dry and then pop the balloon and fish it out of the shape.

Vintage Blue Mason Jar Votive Holders

 My friend's bridal shower is coming up in a few months and I have decided to do a beach themed party for her. I actually bought these Mason jar 100 year old anniversary blue beauties last year knowing I could and would do something fab with them. This will be the perfect occassion! I bought some Epsom salt and filled the jars 1/3 full.  I then tied some starfish that I had sitting around (from an ocean themed baby shower I did last year) with some twine and dropped a tea light candle in each one. Very quick and easy - my two favorite words!