DIY Tombstones

 This Halloween I wanted to have a mass grave site in our

front yard and we already had a few (6) but 

it was not enough to get the look that I was going for.

And as everyone knows I'd rather not spend a lot

of money so I thought why not make my own.

I found a pin on Pinterest where the site used Styrofoam

from a hardware store and then they used their fancy

cutting machine to cut out the shapes and engrave 

the tombstone sayings.
Well I bought a Dollar Tree saw and it fell apart the second
I started cutting so DON'T DO IT!

Supplies:

• 6 pack insulation foam ($10) - makes 12
• Gallon of light gray paint ($10) - only used 1/3 so I suggest a smaller size
• Box cutter
• Black acrylic paint
• Large & small paint brushes
• Black & white spray paint for effect (optional) ($.98 each)
• Plastic throw away gloves
• Paint sticks or wire hangers to stake in the ground

First outline the design with a marker to where 2 designs fit on 1 board

Second cut out the design with a box cutter which is really easy.
The picture shows the saw that broke after a couple of moves
I then rubbed off the access Styrofoam (there will be a
big mess so do this outside!)

On some of them I etched out the saying,
I sprayed painted the words in black which was a big
no-no, I guess something in the spray paint melts
the Styrofoam but regular wall paint & acrylic paint is fine

After all the boards are cut out I painted the front and sides gray
and then let them dry for a day and painted the backs.
A second layer was not needed and I only used 1/3 of
the can & we'll be able to use the another time. 

I wanted to make some of the tombstones look older so I
used a spackle/spray method (I don't know the official name) where
you put your finger almost covering the paint spray hole (use the
plastic glove for this) and then shook the can 5 or so inches away from
the tombstone. This creates little dots which gives it an older look.
I uses both white and black for this.
Also I sprayed the black 8 inches away from some of them
to give it a darker gray look.

I googled some stupid/spooky/funny tombstone sayings
and painted it on with acrylic paint.
Some tombstones I made a drippy look with
watered down black paint.

After everything was dry I used both paint sticks & wire hangers
as spikes to secure them in the ground.
The paint sticks I tried to stick half way into the
Styrofoam (did not work) and also tried hot gluing the
paint sticks on the back (does not stick to paint).
The best method is taking apart a wire hanger and cutting
it into 4 pieces. I stuck 2 pieces into each tombstone so
it would be more stable.

So far they are sticking up!

Easy Halloween DIY

 It's almost that magical time of the year!

Last year I made a couple of super easy projects. 

A swarm of bat's flying in

I cut out three different sizes of bat's on black construction paper. I think 

I ended up with 50-60 bat's. I used duct tape to stick them to the ceiling

but I strongly suggest another alternative because when my boyfriend 

took them down (without patience) it took some ceiling paint with it.

I made the swarm look as if it came from our front door and led out to the patio.

Creepy Crawly Spiders

I bought a package of black plastic spider rings

from Dollar tree and cut the ring part

off of the spider (tiresome after a few).

I then cut out small rectangles from large flat magnets

(I used to work at Dunkin Donuts and they were replacing 

doughnut magnet labels so I took the old ones)

Then I hot glued the magnet to the spider and created a swarm.

Easy-peasy 

Supplies:

• Acrylic paint (orange and yellow)
• Paint brushes
• Paper plates 
• Scissors
• String
• Tape

Paint the outer layer of the plate (closest to the edge) with
orange paint. Next ring paint yellow and the inner ring
 is already white naturally. After it drys, cut the plate like
a pie in 6 pieces. Tape string to the back and string around the house. 

Ceramic Skull painting

 For my 20th Birthday Maria got me a ceramic skull from Jo-Ann's

and it took me about a year to figure out how I would decorate it.

I outlined my design in pencil and then painted the details. 

Finished product

On a side note I am actually repainting this soon. 

I like change so I change things up  a lot.

Paintings

 Every once in a while I concentrate and paint something that usually

takes a lot of time. Most of the time my paintings are

given as gifts but here are a few.

Kristina's x-mas gift

I traced out a skull & cut it out
and then traced the cut out onto a canvas 
(BTW I reuse every canvas, meaning I buy already 
used canvas at the thrift store and paint over it) 

 I started with the darkest parts on the painting and then later
shaded the edges out to flow.

Just starting, do you see all the paint I used!

Almost done, except I moved the cheek hollows down.
I also showed my inspired original photo next to it.
I didn't like the original skull structure so I changed it up a bit.

This is the original artwork

Kristina wanted something in the background so I
watered-down paint & dripped it.

                    Tara's Birthday gift

She often says "Let go and let god" when she is frustrated about one of our 911 callers not giving enough information. (BTW I'm a 911 operator) I thought this would be a great reminder.
I painted a slanted blue ombre, I ruffed up the canvas a little with all the layers of paint I put on (because I painted so many backgrounds before I could decide) and then I painted the quote in silver metallic and added decorative mandalas.

Rachel's Birthday gift

I painted a black background, then splattered on all the bright neon colors I could
 find and then painted her name in metallic silver. 

Maria's no-occasion gift

Hamsa hand

Tree in my hallway

We actually have painted over this now but when I painted it
I added more frames and it was about 4 ft tall. 

Map of the world 

Metallic silver background. I traced the world in pen from a paper
outline that I cut out.

Finished

Keith's 18th Birthday present

Keith's logo

I made a cut-out of his logo and traced it on a white canvas.
After I painted the logo and let it dry I covered it up
and splattered black paint on the background. 

Baby Shower with a Rubber Duckie theme

 So my boyfriends cousin (Liz) is having a baby boy, yah!, and a group of us

(Kristina - Liz's sister- Stan -Liz's brother-in-law)

are planning the baby shower.

And we're creating as
much stuff as we possibly can

for decorations. 

BEFORE THE BABY SHOWER

I created a couple of things on the computer.

I just made this simple sign to post around because this trend is in.

The final product looks a bit different and Kristina added more decorations before printing. 

Seed packets are the perfect favor for a baby shower.
I still don't see the point of favors for adults,
(Favors are for children at birthday parties)
but its a tradition. This baby shower will have a lot of
guest because it is co-ed and we're expecting 40 attendees.
Kristina & I have been looking for less-expensive gifts &
 we thought even shopping at Dollar Tree for each person would
 cost around $40 which is unnecessary if you still have to pay
for EVERYTHING else. So I thought maybe make individual duck
shaped soaps or even duck chocolates but then I ran across this idea
 on Pinterest I thought YES!!!! The saying is cute & you can personalize
 it by the flower & dates & blah blah blah. I researched what flower
belongs to the month that Liz is due: Larkspur. I googled blue Larkspurs
& found that Etsy had the  best price: 500 seeds for $3.78 with shipping
I found them on Etsy.

I think this was a bargain since they're $0.99 on eBay for 30 seeds.
So you can supply your guest with a lot of seeds
& keep some for the mother-to-be & hopefully yourself.

*Remember if you buy 4 packets for $1 (probably not finding the flowers you want)
the packet will probably include 5-10 seeds which only 3 seeds might
work so I suggest supplying a lot*

Also if you are lazy (not the point in DIYing) than there are sites that will do this for you.


AFTER THE BABY SHOWER:
 Here are the decorations around the house:
As our guest walk in they are greeted with our homemade sign & piñata 

Kristina printed out the letters & decorated a large yellow poster board with mini ducks & 

larger duck cutouts that we found at Dollar Tree in the teaching section.

I made the pinata with cardboard & tape (I probably made it too durable
 since it was hard for the kids to break) and then decorated with yellow streamers.
To get the pinata effect with the streamers I cut 3/4 up the horizontal streamer. 

Here is an example (not my own picture) of how I cut the streamer. Then 

I attached it by gluing the top uncut piece with liquid glue (it works better but messier)

and started at the bottom so each later on top would cover the uncut pieces. 

After all streamers are in place, I ruffled some pieces up to give it some dept.

I added orange construction paper around the beak & black paper for the eyes.

For the feet I cut a long piece of orange paper & folded it like a fan

& then glued the feet on.  

Decorations:

• Balloon/streamer wall
• Blue/yellow pom-poms (5 pk garland or 2 pk fan ball)
• Hanging dots
• Piñata 

Easy background. Color themed balloons on top of twisted streamers
and a sign on top. This background was next to our activity table
with all the games we were going to play.
$4 with extra supplies

Just another angle

Tissue pom-poms 5 ct pom on 1 string $1 D.T.

Hanging colored themed dots.
 I collected paint samples from Walmart that went with the color scheme. 
I went through 3 whole punches (Finally found  the right one from Joan Fabric's). 
I punched out 1 1/2 in circles and then hot glued circles back to back with fishing line in between. 
The clear fishing line gives the whole thing a nicer effect.
I looped the top so it would hang easier. 

Everyone helped decorating by adding dots anywhere we could

fill space. Also in the background is a blue pom pom from

tissue (Dollar tree- 2 pk) and a balloon attached below. 

When the guests come in the first table has the themed clothes pin

for the Don't Say BABY game. I also laid out the guest sign-in sheet,

 the ABC book (see below), Alexanders baby notes for 21 years (see below),

and "guess when the baby will be here" calendar.

The favors (gardening seeds) already on the table so they

 know to grab them when they leave.

Food:

• Tea sandwiches (cucumber & cream cheese, tomatoes & cream cheese, tuna salad, & buffalo style chicken salad)
• Babies in a blanket (pigs in a blanket)
• Veggie platter
• Fruit in a watermelon baby basket
• Cheese & quackers (duck shaped cheese slices)
• Pretzel chicks (chocolate pretzels)
• Deviled eggs (died blue)
• Duck Krispies
• Bow tie pasta
• BBQ meatballs
• Floating ducks (blue Jell-O, whip cream, yellow Jell-O ducks)
• Cupcakes
• Blue punch (lemonade, blue Hawaiian punch, lemon-lime soda)
• Water bottle w/ personalized labels (I made the labels on word document w/ rectangles as long as the page [about 6 to a page] I added the nutrition ingredients (image found online) and personalized it w/ the shower information) 
• Wine/beer

Pretzel chicks

Not exactly duck themed but no one said anything.
Its yellow chocolate melted down and added to pretzels, Small
chocolate chips for the eyes and orange chocolate beaks.

Baby basket- fruit dish 

Duck rice krispies
small chocolate chips for eyes and then they same

melted down chocolate from the pretzels we used

to cover the beaks.

We created water bottle labels that were personalized to the baby and then taped it around the bottle. They sat in the large duck tub (Target $13) which doubled as a baby bath tub (the real purpose of it) and a gift for the parents.

We also made a bow tie napkin holder. Its a small piece of paper wrapped around a cocktail napkin in the middle to where the ends flare out like a bow and then they paper is secured with tape and we also added the silverware under the secured paper so it would be easy to grab.

We also made the tier stands with different size plates
and used heavy duty super glue to attach.

For the cupcakes we actually planned out something totally different but when time is running out, plans change. We printed out tiny ducks and glued them back to back on tooth picks.

Games:

• Don't say BABY (painted the clothes pin blue & glued on yellow cut out ducks)
• "My water broke" (small babies frozen in ice cubes- I suggest having all the cups ready first with extra ice cubes, after its set up plop in the baby cubes fast and distribute. Our's melted too fast)
• Feed the baby (one person blind-folded and feeding their partner the whole jar before everyone else)
• Candy poop in the diaper (Identify the weird looking melted candy in the diaper. We printed out sheets for them to write their answers on and tallied who had the most right)
• Guess how many goldfish (duck food) is in the jar (that's their prize too)
• Build a baby (who ever creates the best play dough baby according to the parents)(Dollar Tree has mini play dough jars in an 8 pk!)
• Baby bottle chug (we filled ours with beer & who ever chugged fastest won)(2 pk at Dollar Tree)
• Guess when they baby is due (We printed out calendars [July & August when she could possibly be due] and had the guest put a sticker on the date and initials)
• We also put out filler games just in case like animal baby names and baby unscramble
• And we found Baby's against Parents (cards against humanity) and Baby Taboo

Crafts:

• Alexander's ABC book- this is the best idea that I have found on Pinterest for a baby. Create your own ABC book by printing out each letter on a page & of course an awesome cover. Give the guests crayons/colored pencils and have them personalize a letter. Kristina had the book binding materials at work and it all turned out.
• 21 years of birthday wishes/advice- we printed out note pages for the guest to write on and then put in an envelope with the corresponding birthday year. He'll  get this extra treat every year.

ABC book