Star Painting (using Contact Paper)

Lately the cooler temperatures and shortened daylight hours have me looking at the sky to find stars.  However, since we live in a well-lit, urban environment, star gazing isn't really a viable option.

So once again I felt the urge to make some star-inspired artwork.  If I can't see stars in the sky, then I'll just have to make my own to enjoy.  Now, if you've been following this blog for some time, you'll recall that this isn't the first time I felt drawn towards the stars.  Last year I placed a galaxy of cardboard stars on our living room wall.  Then earlier this year I painted the inside of an umbrella to look like a galaxy.  This time I took a simpler approach and made myself some star artwork using contact paper.

Materials:

• Canvas
• Contact Paper
• Pen
• Scissors
• Paint
• Sponge brushes (or paint brushes)

Directions:

1. Sketch out your stars onto the back of your contact paper.  Cut the stars out.
2. Place the stars on your canvas.  Play around with their arrangement until you're satisfied.  Once you have a pleasing design, pull the backing off and stick the stars onto your canvas. (Make sure that they are stuck on well so that you get nice crisp lines.)
3. Dab paint over your canvas.
4. Once the paint dries, carefully peel off your contact paper stars.  You should see a bunch of white stars where your contact paper blocked the paint.

Quick and easy, right? Just remember to make sure that your contact paper stars are completely stuck on tight.  Eeek!  See that leftmost star below?  The paint bled through because the contact paper wasn't sticking to the canvas properly.

 Happy star crafting!

Making "roses" out of Autumn leaves

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
―Albert Camus

Was anyone else so caught up in Halloween that they didn't really notice the leaves changing colors until this past weekend?  Anyone, anyone?  *Cricket chirps*   Oof.  Maybe it was just me.  I guess I was just stuck in my own little candy and costume daze.

But now that my head is back on straight I'm seeing color... and I'm liking it!  Wowzers!  The trees are looking a-mighty gorgeous.  I'm going goo-goo ga-ga over all the brilliant reds, happy yellows, and rich oranges that greet me on the street. 

Last year I pinned this DIY autumn leaf bouquet, and I swore to myself that I would try it next year.  Well, it's now next year!  So, I grabbed a bunch of leaves and made myself some autumn "roses."   Quick and simple, this craft perfectly captures the colors of fall. 

The "rose" on the left was made with different types of leaves than the "rose" on the right.

Halloween photos (Past and Present)

How was your Halloween?  Ours was pretty jam packed.  We entertained some out-of-town guests, carved pumpkins, attended a couple of kids' parties, and went trick-or-treating.  I was loving most of it until the very end.  I was definitely burned out by the last Halloween party.   Phew.  Too much candy and partying for this mama.

Here are some photos from our Halloween adventures:

Several pieces of felt and dozens of hot glue sticks later.... I finally finished both Mack and Lightening McQueen costumes.  Chuck and I wore them out when we trick-or-treated around our neighborhood.   (Click here to see how I made the costume and click here to see how I made his matching Lightening McQueen shoes,   Or, click here to see Chuck's previous  Thing 1 Costume and his Mr. Potato Head Costume.)

In addition to trick-or-treating, we attended two Halloween parties at the library.  It was uber-cute seeing dozens of toddlers dressed up in costumes.  I also couldn't help but ooh and ahh over the cute treats that some moms made.  Check out these marshmallow monsters.  Too. Darn. Adorable. 

Happy Halloween from a little Lightening McQueen

Happy Halloween everybody!  

Hope you have a wonderful and magical day!  

As promised, here are some photos of Chuck in his Lightening McQueen costume at a church party.
(And if you want to see my matching Mack costume, click here.)

(Did you see shoes?  Click here to see how I painted his Lightening McQueen Shoes.)

And here are a couple of photos showing how I made it. 

Painting Lightening McQueen Shoes

Here's a fun fact- In the past couple of months, I've watched the movie Cars probably twenty or so times.  By now, I know all the characters' names and I could probably recite 50 to 75 % of the movies' lines from memory.

Why this sudden and intense interest in cartoon vehicles?  Well, it's Chuck.  We're a Cars household because he just loves the movie.  If you ever visit our home, you'll probably find him either (1) racing around on his bike, pretending to be Lightening McQueen, or (2) playing with his toy cars.

This Halloween, Chuck's going to dress up as Lightening McQueen.  I thought it would be fun to try painting him some shoes to go along with his costume.  It was my first time painting shoes. Here's how they came out: 

At first I wanted to get white or red canvas shoes, but they only had black ones at Walmart. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.  They're super cute.  But, I'm not sure how long (or how well) the paint will last.... so the jury's still up about that.   I'll probably update this post in a couple of weeks to include some notes about wear and tear.... but for now here are some photos of my process in case you wanted to see what I did.

Materials:

• Canvas shoes
• Chalk
• Acrylic paint
• Thin paint brushes
• Pencils
• Paper
• Q-tip
• Paper towels
• Jar with water
• Tray to hold paint

1.  First I placed a piece of paper on top of my shoe and traced the top of the shoe to see how big to draw my images.  Then, I drew and cut out my Lightening Mcqueen.

2.  I briefly lamented not having white canvas shoes because I wasn't sure how to transfer my image to the shoes. (Seasoned crafters out there- do you know of a good way to do this?)  I ended up just tracing my image onto my shoe with sidewalk chalk (way too big, I know... but this was the smallest chalk I had) and sketching out the details.  (There's gotta be a better way, right?)

3.  I pulled out my paint and started painting my images.  After I filled in all the colors (see right shoe), I outlined my images using a pencil dipped into my black paint.  The black outline made my images much sharper and nicer to look at (see left shoe.)  Then, I just cleaned off my chalk marks with a wet q-tip.

And that's all!  Ka-chow!

Chuck's really enjoyed wearing these bad boys around town and I'm just glad that I got to craft something useful and cute.   

How are you getting ready for Halloween?  Happy crafting!