How to make candy corn planner clips

This year's Halloween theme is most definitely "candy corn". I think this is now my 4th or 5th candy corn craft so far and it's only mid-September!

I die cut 2 sets of each size candy corn in all 3 colors of scrapbook paper with the Sizzix candy corn die.

 I trimmed the top parts off the white candy corns and the bottom parts off the yellow candy corns.
Then I glued the parts onto the full orange candy corns.

Then I glued the two candy corns back to back with a paper clip in between with hot glue.

Note: I did try a wet glue but it made the paper soggy and the paper clip showed through.

How to make yarn cone candy corn Halloween decorations

As a recycled crafter I think my eyes have this way of looking at things and seeing something else....or it just could be my declining bad eyesight :) When sorting through my yarn stash I ran across a yellow one and thought it would make a fun candy corn decoration.

So I went to my other boxes to see if I could find more and it turns out I had 5 cones of yarn in various sizes.

 Next step was to gather up the white, orange and yellow yarns, I even made a candy corn out of the boxes - I swear I didn't think of this it just happened when I placed them on the floor to photograph and there it was!

I had fun picking out different shades and textures of the yarns.

TIP: Start with the top and bottom of the cones then wrap the middle section I found it easier to get the proportions right and get the yarn to stay in place.

Oh and if you like the little guys on top- they are simply acorns painted orange and then little jack-o-lantern faces drawn on with a Sharpie.

How to make a paper leather deer die cut cuff bracelet

Sizzix paper leather is such a fun material to work with. It die cuts like a dream and one of my all time favorite motifs to use in my art, jewelry making and crafts is a deer and this Tim Holtz Holiday Knit deer sweater like pattern is awesome!

So I thought I'd make a cuff with paper leather and the deer die.

The first step was to iron on some Heat n Bond to one side of the gray paper leather.
Then die cut the deer pattern.

Peal off the backing paper and iron the gray paper leather to a piece of black paper leather.

Cut the cuff to the size you would like it to be on your wrist - I did mine about 2 inches wide but you could make it any width you like.

I rounded the corners a bit and ran it through my sewing machine stitching a row of black stitches along each side about 1/4 of an inch in from each edge.

Use your favorite closure method- Velcro would work great or a button and button hole I bet would work great too.

Election year U.S. map and recycled dictionary page card

I remember being at an election part for Obama's first term and the hostess had a map on a board that was colored in every time a state was announced. This U.S. die cut card is inspired by election year maps.

For the background I used a page from an old dictionary and I chose the page that had California on it. To embellish the page I stenciled a field of stars with a blue ink pad and a Judikins field of stars stencil.

I used the Sizzix United States die to cut out both the outline of America and the individual California state.

Happy Election Year!

Glow in the Dark secret inspiration word art

I am a big fan of little secret things in art, hidden messages, images, etc. I thought it might be fun to paint a secret message on two stenciled panels.  During the day they look like pretty decorative stenciled art and at night they glow with the inspirational word "DO".

I started out with some recycled square pieces of wood.
I painted them with two different shades of FolkArt paint- Cascade and Dutch Aqua.

When they were dry I taped the Floral Wallpaper and Nouveau Damask stencils onto the blocks and stenciled them using Waverly Chalk paint in plaster color.

 When the decorative stencil paint was dry I then laid the Waverly letter stencil over the decorative stencil (THIS IS IMPORTANT NOT TO REMOVE THE UNDER STENCIL!) and painted the letter with the glow in the dark finish paint. It doesn't show during the day but when the lights go out they show up.