by Sharon | Sep 6, 2015
Here’s a great Fall project that will get a whole lot of attention when you put it in your front yard.
I like starting the season with fun projects. It’s excellent to be able to make these plastic pumpkin planters and fill them with flowers or herbs. These do have personality.
Basically, what you see is what it is and how to make it. I can give you some basic tips, but you may already have an idea of how you’d like to create your own DIY project.
As I said, these are plastic pumpkins. You can make the face you want on them and drill a hole in the bottom of each pumpkin for drainage.
To keep these beauties in place, you’ll first need to put a long stick into your planter pumpkin pot and one-by-one decide how the pumpkins are going to be stacked, allowing plenty of room for the flowers or herbs to grow and be beautiful. You will be doing a lot of drilling holes in your plastic pumpkins to get their placement just right on the stick or stake.
I was thinking this would be fun to set up, on a smaller scale, for a party centerpiece for your table minus the dirt in the planter pumpkin pot. There are plenty of variations you can do with this great idea.
For indoors you could use twist ties to attach the pumpkins to the stick and have them for your guests to take home with goodies packed inside. You could even add names on the back of them.
I do like this idea for the yard, but it’s always fun to come up with variations for indoors as well. I’m sure you’ve come up with a few ideas of your own.
As with all DIY projects, have fun and allow your imagination to soar.
Thanks for stopping by and please leave me a comment with your thoughts about this project and what variations you’ve dreamed up.
Sharon
by Sharon | Aug 25, 2014
Free is always good. These pumpkin face stencils can be used for your pumpkin carving project or cut them out of fabric to decorate a t-shirt and I’m sure you can think of a dozen other uses for these free stencils.
Just off the top of my head, I’m thinking about using these stencils to paint some goofy and scary faces on pumpkins. You could paint bottles and fill them with candy. You could decorate all kinds of things with these stencils, maybe even make a costume or use them for face painting.
Image and stencils compliments of http://www.craftbuds.com
Have fun and create all kinds of great things . . . they may make some spooky cookies or cupcakes, too.
by Sharon | Aug 9, 2014
When I saw this on Pinterest I just had to make my own, but there were no templates and no instructions. But, as they say, “A picture is worth 1000 words.” So, by looking at the picture I decided I’d make these using fence boards and other materials. I did want them to be water proof if I was going to place them outside, or if I’d put them in a window, I could use just about anything from Styrofoam to thick poster board or whatever that stuff is called. It’s always fun to see what’s available at your favorite craft store.
The pumpkin is relatively easy to make with all the templates available on-line for carving pumpkins. You could get a suitable face to paint on or cut out of other materials. The same is true for the ghost and even Frankenstein. Now, the mummy is what caught my eye with the burlap and muslin wrap. You’ll be able to find the burlap and muslin at your local craft store, cut out some strips and have this project wrapped up in no time. Add embellishments and you’ll have some Halloween friends that will be the envy of the neighborhood.
by Sharon | Jul 10, 2014
Here’s a clever idea for your front porch. The sign reads, “It’s all about the CANDY” with two clip boards used for the numbers you’ll be changing daily counting down the days until Halloween or Trick and Treating. This should get the neighborhood kids excited as they walk by on their way to school in the morning and the whole neighborhood as well. It’s a reminder of how many more days they have to get their decorations up or to stock up on candy. Or prepare for their Halloween Party. Oh, my goodness what to wear?
You can use pallet wood or fence wood, cut 2 1/2 feet long for each part of your sign that you’ll nail to two 7 foot long 2″x2″ posts.
For the kids it may all be about the candy and this sign works quite nicely, but it is Halloween and I’m sure you can come up with some spooky sayings to go along with your countdown sign. Maybe to do with witches flying around in the night sky or something about ghosts . . . pumpkins and carving jack-o-lanterns or getting your costume . . . there are several original directions you can go with this project.
This image of the front porch Countdown Sign is compliments of http://www.cornerhouseblog.com I like the bottom display with pumpkins, the skull and hanging skeletons and is that a raven?
The more involved you get with the lettering the more you’ll realize the need for a Silhouette CAMEO Electronic Craft Cutter Deluxe Bundle – Vinyl + Tools to cut out the stencils you’ll be using for your sign. And then you can paint over this one and do something clever for Christmas. For me, it’s all about recycling what I make to use for other holidays. Once you make it, it can be used again instead of just storing it in the garage. For me, it’s not something I would use again next year. My neighbors expect something new.
Besides the pallet boards or fence boards and the two 2″x2″ posts, you’ll want some white paint and use it as a wash over your boards. To make a wash you add water to the white paint so it’s runny and does a light coloring to the wood. You can distress the wood by hitting it with the back of the hammer or the garden tools you have around. Just to mark up the wood so it doesn’t look new.
I use butcher paper to lay out my design to figure out how many boards I need and how I’m going to place everything on the sign. In this sign there were candy corns.
Once you have this all worked out, you’re ready to nail the boards to the posts using 2 to 4 nails for each. Then put down your stencils and paint them using a foam paint brush for dobbing the paint inside the stenciled letters. You’ll also need a variety of paints you can use for this project. I also have a drop cloth on my patio so I don’t leave evidence of this or other projects.
Once the sign is done and while it’s drying you can get to work on the display that’s going to be on the porch to help hold the sign in place and to add some Halloween color.
I forgot the clipboards and the numbers you can print out on your computer, but I’m sure you already figured that part out.
As I said earlier, this is a clever idea that you can use with the saying of this project or work out one of your own.
by Sharon | Jul 9, 2014
This is an excellent DIY Halloween project that is fun to make and will be the envy of the neighborhood.
This project is courtesy of http://www.burtonavenue.blogspot.com
Here are some Halloween fonts you may like to use for unique lettering of your signs:
Sketch Bones Ghoulish Head Hunter Pumpkins Along Came a Spider Horrible Squish Pumpkin Face Jackie O’Lantern Frankentoho Halloween Spider Belfry You Murderer Wild Wood Bleeding Freaks Nightmare Blood of Dracula Skullphabet Haunting Attraction Bloody Slime Jack-O-Lantern
For this project you’ll need:
- pallet wood to make the signs
- various colors of paint for your signs
- a 2″x4″ sign post
Each sign is not of uniform length to make each sign unique. You’ll want to place them at angles to make the sign post attractive and eye catching. You’ll want to paint the 2″x4″ post and allow to dry before attaching the signs and placing it into the ground. It’s a nice touch to put rocks around the bottom.
Each piece of pallet wood is cut at different lengths with one end cut into a point to indicate if that particular street, circle, drive, boulevard, court, avenue, way, road, alley or highway is to the right or to the left. Just as a rule of thumb for this project, but the pallet in half, but don’t measure to make the lengths vary as will the lettering on the signs. For longer sign names, you may not need to cut the pallet other than to make the point.
You will want to sand any rough edges to keep from getting splinters and for easier painting. The edges are painted black on each sign — you may also want to paint the post black.
I would get my names of the various signs together and select my fonts, cut out the lettering and place it on the pallet before cutting.
The easiest way to do the signs is to paint the pallet piece, make a stencil out of vinyl for the lettering, secure it to the pallet and paint the inside of the stencil.
Making vinyl stencils may be difficult for many to do and very time consuming, especially if you are to make many different signs. That may be why you should start your projects early or get a little help with a die cutting machine. One very popular and versatile one is Silhouette Cameo. It may be a bit pricey, but if you’re going to do a lot of craft projects for holidays and special occasions, this die cutting machine is a “must have” item.
This is a fun and rewarding project. This one is specifically for Halloween, but you can adapt the concept for other holidays.
