Make It With Mason - Spell Books

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When the leaves begin to change color and there is a crisp in the air, I can't help but get excited for Halloween. Lets be honest though. I'm thinking about Halloween all year long. Every once in a while I like to find a project that me and my friends can all do together. To kick off this season, I chose to to make Spell Books. They really are quite easy and took everyone about 3 hours to make their books from start to finish. There are many How To's on pinterest and the internet so I won't post a How To here.

Basically you get an old book, glue on objects or cut out shapes from cardboard or foam sheets to design the look. Then take a paper towel or napkin and using only a single ply portion of it, you glue it on over the cover, spine and back and on top of all your objects. Then spray paint it all black. Then using a dry brush technique, lightly brush on copper, gold or silver to get the raised areas to really pop! I love how different everyones turned out but how cool they all look together!

Nibbler Plant How To

Here is a jpg of the instruction sheet should you choose to make your own. Watch your fingers!

Ok so here is my latest creation! A few years ago I made an eyeball plant that was huge and I love it. (I'll post it soon). Then I made small little eyeball plants. I called the big plant "Eyegor". Ever since, i've wanted to make a plant with teeth. Well, i recently watched a youtube from Stiltbeast Studios on how to make teeth using Hot Glue! Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtpoCzC5qRY

After watching that, I knew I had to begin my creation! Here is how my teeth turned out. I wanted to make sure I had a recognizable teeth pattern so I made two big front teeth, small bottom teeth and some incisors.

Next, I began with a tennis ball size styrofoam ball. I cut a wedge out of it with a hot wire but you could use a knife i'm sure. Then I cut a groove where I was going to insert the roots of my teeth. I ran some glue in there and placed the teeth.

Then, using an elmers glue and water mixture, I took paper towel pieces and dipped them in the mixture and covered the entire ball. Using a wire I made a stem and wrapped that as well. I would roll the wet paper towel like a worm and create lips and veins. I would also leave pieces hanging away from the ball to act as leaves. 

Next came painting. I began with a dark green color and painted everything. Then I did a dark brown and black inside the mouth. 

Then came a few rounds of dry brushing lighter shades until i got the look i wanted. I would then go back and highlight the veins and pop the lips to stand out more. 

Then I added some moss to the pot and distressed it some. I love how it turned out!

Jack-O-Lantern Contest

For Halloween at work, we held a Jack-o-Lantern contest. We gave everyone a small foam pumpkin a couple weeks before halloween and told everyone to decorate it however they wanted. They could go scary or cute or disney or a theme. Then at our Halloween party we had a "pumpkin patch" where we displayed everyones creation and voted for the most creative, scary etc. It was a lot of fun and they were all so different from each other. 

I made mine by starting with arm and finger shapes out of bendable wire. Then I wrapped the wire with tin foil and added up areas where I wanted a thicker arm and elbow and such. then I covered the tin foil with tissue and a maché glue mixture. I carved the pumpkin with a hot wire and then painted everything. I added leaves from some cheap fake flowers. I loved how it turned out and didn't take very long at all. 

I also made the candle inside the pumpkin. See another blog post for how to instructions. http://amasonsayswhat.blogspot.com/2015/07/creepy-candles-how-to.html

a dollar door knocker transformed

Halloween is always on my brain and to my delight i've started to notice stores putting out halloween items already. Usually its just a bunch of junk but with a little paint and a dash of imagination you can transform crap into frightful treasures. This is the result of my latest transformation...