Bingo! More Halloween Earrings

Have to get in one last Halloween project--more earrings! I found this cute monster/Halloween paper to make earrings from bingo chips. The bingo chips are 5/8" in diameter & I have a circle punch just that size--yea! I love it when I don't have to trim or sand to get things to fit perfectly. I think the most fun part of making my paper-embellished jewelry is picking out the paper designs :-)

So, I always use a strong adhesive like SU! Crystal Effects to glue the paper to the chip--on things where the paper is the exact same size & so the resin may not even touch the chip, if it's not on securely, the paper, even covered with resin, can come right off! Ask me how I know...

Before spreading the waterproof Colores Doming Resin over the paper, I sealed it (front AND back) with Mod Podge--very important step!!

Once the resin cured (I leave it overnight), I screwed in the little eye-screws at the top (by hand--if you're patient, you don't need to drill a hole first) and attached the earwires.

This last picture shows the back of another pair so you can see what the bingo chips look like (I glue the paper to the actual back of the chip. The side with the numbers isn't smooth--besides, I think being able to see that something is a game piece makes it more interesting. For this pair, I'd actually drilled a hole through the chip and used an eye pin so that I could add a bead dangle. You could also just add a second eye screw too. I'm starting to get handy with the jewelry tools, I tell ya!

& if you really like my monster earrings--they're on sale in my etsy shop! (see side widget)

Bingo! More Halloween Earrings

Haunted House Treats

The Bradley Farm Haunted House asked me to sponsor a room this year so I made these Halloween treats using "Batty For You." I made about 300 of these for a "monster" to pass out to the kids as they go through "my" room. These are pretty easy to make--but 300 of them do take a while (there's a whole 'nother plastic bag not pictured)! There was a lot of gluing during So You Think You Can Dance! The candy sandwiched inside the black & pumpkin pie cardstock are peanut butter caramels. The wax paper is not very conducive to adhesive--Snail won't stay but Crystal Effects & Tombow Mono will--you just have to press & hold for a few seconds (so yeah, ---took a while!)

Haunted House Treats

Tile Coasters

I know I don't need any more new craft fair projects but I was reading on splitcoaststampers a discussion about them and decided I needed to try them. & when I try something, I end up making a bunch because I want to try different designs and then it's only worth it if I sell them & well...on it goes.

The main thing I learned is that there are tons of conflicting advice on the best way to make them. The consensus though is to use "tumbled" tiles from a home improvement store. These are the tiles that are porous and NOT glazed. I found ones that were 9 to a box so of course, I had to buy at least 4 boxes so I could have even sets of 4. I do recommend checking out each tile before buying though because they can be chipped or broken.

Next, I wiped off my tiles with a baby wipe front & back to get the dust off. Then I stamped the main images with Staz-on. Most of the tutorials say that if you use permanent inks or sharpies then you don't need to heat set the tiles to maintain the images. I'd probably heat set Staz-on before coloring with sharpies though just so the colors don't mix at all. I wanted to color mine with softer chalk ink so I did have to heat set. You can use regular chalks too with a Q-tip but I'd first put some Versamark on so the chalk stays better. I used a heat gun on mine after coloring with the chalk ink (most of the time I just used sponge daubers to color & then smudge with my finger to blend a little). I decided to be safe & went the extra step of baking the tiles in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. I just put them right on the rack. Finally, I sprayed them with acrylic matte sealer to protect the images from fading etc.

These coaster sets used Stampin' Up!'s retired "Summer by the Sea", retired "Celtic Knots" & the current "A Tree For All Seasons" (how did I live without that set until just last winter??) I could even see using some of them in a tile backsplash too!

Tile Coasters

Pumpkin Poop with My Digital Studio

I needed something else for the fall festival I'm doing on Saturday & decided to make "Pumpkin Poop" for the first time. It's definitely not an original idea--you can see samples all over Splitcoaststampers (& that's where I got the poem). My take on it was to try my first project with My Digital Studio (Stampin' Up!'s new digital scrapbooking & card making program) to mass produce these puppies.

The "Eat, Drink & Be Scary" set is included in MDS--which is GREAT because I don't own it! I love that you can do some things with the program you can't with the real thing. For example, the "punches" can be resized so you can always mat them (like the curly label one here). Then, you always have a perfect bow. There isn't a Garden Green ribbon in "real life" either. Then, I didn't have to worry about the expense of using up all my brads either. One tip--give elements a drop shadow to add to the 3D illusion.

For the project itself, I was able to print out 10 of the white part on a piece of whisper white cardstock. Then I matted it with Garden Green cardstock folded over a cello bag of candy corn.

The only tricky thing is that MDS doesn't let you "divide" up a stamp yet to crop or color only part of it. However, because it does let you open an element in a different photo editting program, I was able to open the project  in Photoshop Elements to color only the pumpkin "Pumpkin Pie". In MDS, click "Export to jpg" under "Share Project". Then just find the jpg to open it in your photo editting program.

Pumpkin Poop with My Digital Studio