Today Photo Friday is Bonus Tutorial Day!

Oh you lucky ducks! Thursday was an especially productive day for me and you get the benefits! 

Do you remember that I told you to hang on to your bats? Well here they are going to good use!

Get your paper mache bats and a few other supplies:

A 9" wreath (thank you dollar store)

Ribbon: in black, white, and orange--that's the same ribbon from the flanner tutorial, and the leftover leaves, too. My house is on it's way to being matchy-matchy.

Leaves: the fake ones with the wired stem. Three of them.

Black paint and a paintbrush.

Florist wire and wire snips

White glue

Scissors

Take your orange ribbon and start to wrap it around the wreath form. Wrap on a diagonal.

Place a line of white glue on the wreath and on the part of the ribbon that will be hidden by the overlap.

Keep wrapping on a diagonal so that you cover the wreath form just a bit with each wrap.

Leave a five inch (or so) tail on your ribbon when you get back to the beginning.

Loosen your last wrap-around just enough to slide the tail through to the other side.

Once you get it through, pull it taut. Then straighten out the wrapped portions so that none of the wreathe form is showing.

This will be the top of your wreath, where we'll attach the ribbon for hanging later.

 Next you'll need to paint your bats. Black is preferable. Set them aside to dry.
(If you don't have paper mache bats, you can cut bat shapes out of black card stock.

Next get out your leaves. Lay one over the other like so:

Then twist the wired stems together. Place the third leaf on top of the others and twist all three stems together.

Bend the stems so that the leaves mirror the shape of the wreath. Then fold the stems towards the back of the leaves to make a U shape.

Pretend your wreath is a clock. Between 5 and 6 tuck the U under the wrapped ribbon--you'll need to wiggle the stems and lift the edges of the ribbon to get it in there. 

Then take some florist wire (about 6 inches) and wrap it around the bottom leaf (right where the stem begins) and the wreath.

Flip the wreath over and twist the wire ends until the loop is snug, then fold your wire tail up against the wreath.

Now you could put a hanging ribbon at the top and stop right here. It's a nice autumnal wreath.

Or you could get out some thin ribbon and make a wreath for your pagan friends

Or you could take 8 inches of florist wire, bend it into a U and duct tape to the back of your bats.

And then wire your bats onto the wreath.

Make sure you fold up those loose wire ends at the back.

Cute, right? Not quite finished though. It needs...something else.....

Ribbon! Get your black ribbon , about 14 inches, fold it in half.

Then loopty-swoop it onto your wreath. Or just tie it.

Next: more black ribbon. 18 inches this time. Make a bow. 

Loop 6 inches of florist wire through the knot of your bow.

Affix bow to wreath like you did with the bats. Over top of that first piece of black ribbon.

Next! Ribbon for hanging! Take a length of white ribbon (about 24 inches). Wrap it three times around the top of the wreath. Tie a knot. Gather your ends and tie another knot--or a bow--to act as the hanging point.

Display your bat-tastic wreath on your front door. Once Halloween is past, you can un-wire the bats and the black ribbon and put on pine cones or corn husks instead.

I hope you enjoyed your bonus tutorial! 

Have a great weekend!

Artful Wed--um, Thursday: glowing disco Halloween orbs

Welcome to Artful Wednesday Thursday! Yesterday was my wedding anniversary, so blogging got pushed aside a bit.

Onto the show!

Glowing Disco Halloween Orbs!

Admit it. You want one. You don't even know what it is, or how to make it, but "Halloween" and "disco" are right up your alley.

Intrigued yet? What if I told you that it lights up from within, and there's a bat-shaped illuminated outline? 

Go on and scroll down if you don't believe me. I'll wait.

Oh yeah. You want one. 

It's a two-step process, so bear with me. 

Step one! Paper Mache! You remember this from elementary school, right? Paste, balloons, and paper?

Paste: 2 parts water to 1 part flour.

Balloons: from the dollar store. 

Paper: you can use newspaper, tissue paper, or any other kind of thin paper. Avoid card stock like the plague. 

Assemble a work area. Mine's in my art dungeon in the basement. I blew up four balloons, tied them to string, tied the string to a dowel, and suspended that between two chairs.

Then I put my paste mixture and all of my torn paper on the floor and worked from there. 

Work one layer at a time, and let dry between layers so you don't get mildew. I was letting my layers dry overnight, but you can let them dry 3-4 hours.

At this point, expect someone to walk in a snicker at the pendulous-looking paper-mache orbs. Do at least three layers, but no more than 5 or you won't be able to cut through the paper-mache.

Now that your orbs are good and dry, it's on to Halloween-disco fun. Untie your orbs from the dowel and assemble some other supplies.

ModPodge, matte

Sponge brush (or old paintbrush)

Exacto blade

Pencil

Paper-mache orbs

Assorted Ribbons

Glitter Glue (or white glue and glitter)

LED candles (PLEASE oh PLEASE DO NOT USE FLAME IN YOUR ORBS)

Black tissue paper

Hot Cider and Halloween music to put you in the mood

Cut a hole in one side of your orb with the exacto. This will also pop the balloon inside, which you will want to pull out and throw away. Make sure the hole is big enough to put the LED candle inside.

On the side opposite the hole, draw a bat shape in pencil.

This step is optional, but I find it make the next step easier: take a thumbtack and poke holes along the bat outline. Homemade perforation!

Use your exacto to cut out the bat shape. 

Stick your fingers through the back and pop out the bat shape. .

Set the bat shape aside--we're going to use it Friday.

Paint a thin coat of ModPodge on the front of your orb.

Lay one large sheet of tissue paper over the ModPodged section.

It will look like this below. You may need to make additional cuts in your paper to get it to lay flat-ish.

Cover the rest of the orb with ModPodge and black tissue paper--leave a hole for your candle!

Get out some ribbon--you can use orange, but I like white. Measure around the orb to figure out your length. This ribbon will go around the sides that do NOT have the bat or candle hole.

After you have your ribbon cut, apply a thin layer of ModPodge to the ribbon, and then affix the ribbon to the orb.

Next you'll want a thinner ribbon to go across the front. Measure it & cut it.

Then tape it in place. I used silver tape so it's easier to see.

I even taped on the inside.

Put your candle in and go somewhere dark to check out your handiwork.

Wooo! Boo-spooky!

Alternately to Ribbon, you can use decorative tape.

And now it's disco time. Take the candle back out. Get out your glitter glue and get spotty.

Set that aside to dry. Once it's dry, hang in a window or from your dining room chandelier.

Thoughts on the process: 

In hindsight, it may have been easiest to use black tissue paper for my final paper-mache layer. 

I'm also going to make white ones with skull cut-outs to look like Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls. Because sugar skulls rock my socks.

Quote of the Week

*********************************

WORK HARD.

BE KIND.

*********************************

Not quite as fancy- schmancy as the last few quotes, I know. 

My sciatica is KILLING me today--it's like cold fire running up my spine and down my left leg. It's definitely a sign that I over-did it this weekend. I suppose in addition to "work hard" there should be an addendum: but don't work so hard you injure yourself.

Today I'll be creating birthday party invites, finishing some paintings, and working on the tutorial for Wednesday. I was going to walk the dog, but I can barely walk myself. 

I hope you are enjoying an injury-free Monday. 

Oh! Also: I joined twitter. I'm @KaraPaints come say hi!

And I'm on Pinterest. There's lots of pretty things to look at.