Michaels is my favorite place for easy, DIY projects. You can buy items and do everything complete from scratch, or you can buy semi-finished items and add your own touch to them. My choice usually depends on how much time and money I have. This year I went the easy route. I bought three wood items that were in various stages of finished. The first is the BOO sign. You can pick up the letters unfinished or you can do what I did and purchase the BOO already attached together and painted black on one side. All it needed was a little embellishment... and glitter! The small glitter pumpkins are scrap booking stickers. I am sure you can purchase wood pumpkins and decorate yourself. The next step is the fun part!
First, gather all of your supplies:
Newspaper
Craft glue that will work on wood
Small paintbrush
Container of glitter color of your choosing
I like to lay the newspaper out so the glitter can be gathered in to the crease when I am done for easy pouring back in to the container.
Take the small paint brush and dip it in to the craft glue and brush it on generously to desired area.
Liberally pour the glitter to the glue-brushed area (make sure you are doing this quickly so the glue doesn't have time to dry).
Let sit for a minute or two and then tilt piece and tap to remove excess.
Voila! Done!
I may still go back and glue on some spiders but I think it turned out pretty cute.
The next item is a simple Happy Halloween sign with the same technique as the spider webs inside the BOO. However, instead of glue, I used acrylic paint in relating colors to make the glitter stick.
The last project involved a little more effort. However, it's a cute light up pumpkin decoration that is perfect for the front window. Since I am new to this blog thing, I forgot to take a picture of it completely unfinished.
Supplies:
Various sized paint brushes
Acrylic paint in desired colors
Recollections fine glitter in desired color (link to glitter I used)
Newspaper
Craft glue (optional)
I decided to do three different colors, one for each pumpkin. I love using acrylic paint because it is smooth and inexpensive. My number one tip when using acrylic paint on porous wood is to do thin coats. Each color has a different opaqueness so some colors (mainly yellow and orange) require more coats. When working with acrylic paint it is easy to get it clumpy, so work quickly with those thin coats.
There wasn't much to this piece. I painted each pumpkin a different color and let it dry. Once dry, I used the black acrylic paint as glue and painted the stripes and pumpkin top and sprinkled with glitter with the same technique as the above projects.
The second picture is finished with the light feature turned on. To be honest, I wasn't completely thrilled with this one. If I could redo it, I would choose one color, most likely black, and I would do the teeth and eyeball pieces with different colors or glitter. However, it was a fun and easy way to make our front door area more festive.
Tip: If you are going to put these projects outside, be sure to spray with sealer or shellac so the morning dew or rain does not ruin your masterpiece.
Hopefully this has sparked your creativity. Even those without artistic abilities can do these projects! These are easy ways to make your space more festive for the holiday. Happy crafting!
