Monday, October 31, 2011

As you can see, the party is spirited and a huge success.  Some might even say... to die for.

As you can also see, I actually have a really amazing photographer taking pictures for me.  Thank you Thomas, you're the best!



Toad is going as Batman (posterboard mask, an extra cape).  The Doctor is going as Doctor House (a paper cane, twisted with glue to keep its shape).



  Van Gogh is going as that redheaded doctor in Grey's Anatomy.  Look at the resemblance, it's eerie.


Oscar Wilde is what only Oscar Wilde can be: a bird with ridiculous plumage.  This is all out of paper and gloss, attached with plain clear tape, turned inside out and hidden.  And I made Poe a pair of Groucho glasses with pipecleaners, wire, and paper.  Poor Poe.


You can get a better shot of his tail in this one.



The candied and caramel apples are made of paper and aluminum foil on toothpicks, painted thickly with watercolors for the deep color and shine.


The lollipops are foil and tissue paper on wire; the other candy is foil and tissue paper.


The Halloween baskets are part of this ridiculous drinking straw that they sell at the dollar store.  I scored cut lines with a scissor, and because the plastic is hard I didn't want to risk cutting through and ruining a scissor.  I used a wirecutter for that, and it worked fine, half of the time.  The other half, I ruined the pumpkin.  Thankfully, each straw has four, and it comes in a package of several.  Then I covered it with orange tissue paper to give it a nicer texture and a less plasticky shine, and added a wire handle.


The triceratops is a horse for Halloween, with a little rider made of foil and tissue paper.  The rider is actually a tiny Van Gogh, with orange yarn hair and beard.

The 'organic zombie' growing out of a flowerpot!  Okay, I've seen this somewhere before, but I don't remember where.  Basically, I used one of my mess-up hands from the dolls I'm trying to make, painted over the skin tone with green watercolor, blotted when needed to create that gross, mottled look, and made a 'seed packet' out of posterboard and part of a skewer.



Look at how pretty that lamp looks under decent lighting and a good camera!

Annnd here's my Halloween costume.  Bowties are cool.  Trust me, I'm the Doctor.


Sunday, October 30, 2011

If I've been quiet, it's because I've been finishing my Halloween costume!

I won't tell you who it's of, but I'll tell you it's a member of the house. (There will be pictures.)

Fingers crossed that I can whip up a Dollar Dollhouse Halloween party at the last minute.  Wish me luck, honeybees.

There will be candy, there will be mayhem, there will be terrible puns. 

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Alrightypants.  I've made a rocking horse and Flounder from the Little Mermaid.  Not really scary/Halloweeny, unless you count the state that Flounder was in. Terrifying, yo.


Unfortunately, I don't have a post-painted Flounder picture, but I'll get one at some point.  The blue paint was all chipped and the eyes were blurred and the mouth was all... at any rate, fixed!


This is the original rocking horse and the original Flounder.  The rocking horse was an ornament that I destringed and repainted!

It's hard to see in this picture, but there are swirls all over the horse.  Unicorn.  Rocking unicorn.  Done in the style of Van Gogh, complete with sunflowers at the bottom, a saddle with the moon, and orange hair.  I was going to cut off one of his ears but my mom convinced me not to.

I made the horn with the pointy bit of a skewer, and string swirled around it and glued.  Painted, glossed, tada!  The mane is a pipecleaner, the tail is the same hair I used for Rapunzel but painted orange.


Happy arting!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Welcome to another one of my terrible blurry photos!  But the thing I'm photographing is actually pretty awesomeshaped.  It's a little crooked, so I'm going to try to weight the base, but I was just too excited to wait to do that.

The skulls come from a dollar store necklace (they already had the holes in them, so, perfect!)  I painted them white and drew the designs on them with sharpie.  Then I strung them on a skewer with beads in between, and added and repaired a broken lampshade that I got in the big pile of dollhouse furniture that my buddy gave me.  The very bottom is a pill bottle top. 




Better pictures will hopefully come eventually.  Happy arting!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Here's a slightly less creepy picture of Rapunzel!

And now, a report on my Garage Sale Saturday:

Two boxes to put tiny stuff in, so I can organize all the household items that I've made.  After setting up the bookshelf for the upteenth time after bumping into the table that the house is on, I've decided that with how clumsy I am, it's probably best for me to keep stuff in boxes for a while.


Lovely flooring and fabric, from a woman who only charged me a dollar for both!  (If you're reading this, hi, and thank you again!)


From one side to another: a velociraptor, a cheetah (that I might repaint), a tiny triceratops, Flounder from The Little Mermaid who needs a new paintjob, a closet monster, and a rocking horse Christmas ornament that I need to remove the string from and repaint, perhaps as a zebra.
Seriously, check out the monster, he's adorable.

And, finally, a nice, heavy lightswitch cover that would make a perfect tabletop or headboard or something.


 Happy arting!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Guys, today is part of that Super Secret Surprise that no one everyone was awaiting with bated breath! 


Here's my first attempt at a person.  Rapunzel, with her hair out of the window, all like, "Whatevs."  I saw part of Tangled, and decided to do my interpretation (given that I can't find a proper Rapunzel in the right scale).

Here she is standing (leaning).  Her legs and head are made of clay.  Her hands are foil with paper because I made them out of clay and decided I didn't like them, and foil is forgiving while teeny clay fingers might (read: will, if you're me) snap.

The hair is hair 'extensions' that I got from the dollar store from a Halloween costume display.  This is my first experience trying to wig anything, and I messed up hardcore.  I couldn't find anything that would properly connect barbie doll hair with clay.  Not hot glue, not Elmer's, not super.  Maybe I'm just not in the cool kids' club.  So I just used a combination of the three and the top of the head looked all different shades of jacked up.  That's why I added the crown, out of copper tape.

I also added little hair cuffs out of copper tape, and tiny jewels from a dollar store manicure kit.

The arms look kinda lumpy, but let's just say that's because of the dress I sewed onto her and leave it right there at that.  I'll fiddle with it, yet.  Happy arting!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The super secret project is still underway!  So, to buffer for time, I made another project that the kids at the school are making.

First, I made this sort of 'canvas' paneling with paper wrapped around a small rectangle of posterboard.  Then I painted the background, and set it aside to dry. 

This next part is super neat.  A pool of black watercolor, thick enough so that it's opaque, and a straw.  Blowing through the straw makes the branches!   Pretty Van Goghy, huh?


Happy arting!

Monday, October 17, 2011

The house has been abuzz with the rumor that Van Gogh was murdered in his time.

I went and volunteered at the elementary school, and I was inspired to do the project the fifth graders were doing, but tiny-sized!

Basically, I just folded a paper into fours, drew a tree on it in pencil, and cut it.  Winter, spring, summer, fall, with watercolors.  Then I used a toothpick to do the leaves, and a thin brown magic marker to fill in the tree!  I mounted it on black construction paper, a little bit apart.  It's a pretty cool project, sure to liven up any itty bitty home.  I did other stuff too... but I don't want to show you until it's finished.  But I've gotta tell you, I'm excited!
Happy arting!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Today is my sister's birthday!  Also, it's Oscar Wilde's birthday.  In honor of the second one, he's getting a present (my sister already got one).  There was discussion of giving him the Doctor, since he already has a bow on.

However...
He gets a rhino.   Back to my regularly scheduled arting tomorrow!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Fiftieth post!  Which means imaginary champagne for all.  Feel free to leave me a comment; let me know how I've been doing, what I can do to improve your mini-perusing, and what I ought to do next!  I take suggestions!

Since it's the fiftieth post, I wanted to make something especially pretty.  I had my dad drill a hole in the skull that came from the body that I made the skele-table with, fixed the weird dent in the back of the head that all of these skeletons come with, and went to work!  A vase!

White acrylic paint and sharpies, plus a gloss finish.  The flowers are cut out from plastic water bottles and colored with sharpies, then shrunken and warped with a heat gun.  Seriously the most fun thing to do ever.


The colors in real life are actually a lot more vibrant.  One day I'll hold a photographer hostage and make him take pictures for me.


This is just when I was trying to get a picture of the back of the skull and ended up getting an unflattering picture of my torso and volunteering name badge.  Happy arting!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

I'm taking a teeeeeny tiny itty bitty break from Halloweening to make stuff for Van Gogh.  I'll be honest with you, I've been playing with Van Gogh since the day I got him.  I carry him everywhere.



The paintbrush furthest from the camera is the paintbrush Van Gogh came with.  Not bad, but very obviously plastic.  The paintbrush next to that is the one I made.  I used a toothpick, and shaved it down smaller using an emery board.  I then used copper tape that I got at a garage sale and some bristles from one of those cheapo paintbrushes that are plastic and come with watercolor sets.  I used a magic marker to darken the wood.  Then I snipped the bristles to make them even, and tada!  A tiny, functional paintbrush.

Happy arting!

Monday, October 10, 2011

A darling buddy of mine came over with skeletons for me! She's hoping to do a really cool house herself, so we split the skeleton garland down the middle.  Two for me, two for her.

Then we spent a long time coming up with skeleton puns.  My favorite from her: "You really get under my skin!"  My favorites from me: "Hi, I'm Moldy and this is Skully, and we're in the X-Files" and, when I moved a skeleton's leg near the bowl of strawberries, "Here's some fruit by the foot!"

Due to a brilliant suggestion, I made one into a table.


Clear plastic top!  Pretty neat, huh?  I basically just cut the legs at the knees, and moved them to the shoulders, cut the arms at the elbows and folded them around the stomach.  The head will have a use all of its own, but I'm not telling... except for everyone I've already told.  I still need to fiddle around with it a little, but happy arting!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

The house has a new inhabitant!  One Mister Vincent van Gogh, who I imagine will get along swimmingly with the rest of the crew.

And I got a whole bunch of baby stuff!  Garage sales rock.


I think I might end up doing garage sale Saturdays!  I usually find something, even if it's teeny and it needs a little bit of elbow grease.  I know I need to replace the fabric on the baby stuff because it's fraying, and I want to make Vincent a proper brush and a painting smock.  Happy arting!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to make next in a tizzy, a friend suggested a Halloween tree!  It seemed like the perfect use for the little tree my sister brought with her from South Africa, but you can use a tree-looking stick, if you want to!


I apologize wholeheartedly for my blurry photography.  Just pretend that you're viewing the picture through a sheen of frightened tears.

The skulls are just paper and glue, the sphere-y bit is pre-crumpled paper (to soften the lines), covered in glue, and rolled up.  The lower jaw is folded separately.  Details drawn in pen.

As for the little skeletons... string and posterboard.  The joints are little overhand knots. 

Then I sandwich the insides in, and curl string around the black posterboard for the ribcage.  Happy arting!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Today was super duper easy.  Following in line with my October theme, I made a Halloween costume for a turtle that I got at a garage sale.



The awesomest thing ever?  Maybe.  Happy arting!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

I opened the cabinet, and lo and behold, five Cheshire kittens, and a proud mama. 


The Doctor has taken a particular shining to this one, who is in a constant state of licking himself.

Making them was just like making the rats; making all the little shapes (legs, body, tail, head) out of foil, covering them with paper napkins and glue, and sticking them together.  Painting was more challenging.  I must have done five coats with all the correcting I had to do.  I painted a lot with a safety pin.


They'll grow into their smiles yet, I'm sure.