Krazy Deal Daze: Tutorial

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Wednesday, October 18, 2023

DIY Halloween Spell Books

These DIY Spell Books are absolutely Creeptastic!

Be sure to watch the full Video Tutorial below!

This post may contain paid affiliate links, please read our Advertising Disclosure Statement.

You'll need:

Books

Cardboard

School glue (Dollar Tree) $1

Hot glue gun (Wal-Mart)

Hot glue sticks (Wal-Mart)

Assorted mini Halloween creepy crawlies (Dollar Tree) $1

Mod Podge (Dollar Tree) $1

Paper towel or tissue paper (Dollar Tree) $1

Paint brushes

Black paint

Brown craft paint

Gold metallic craft paint

Tea bag

Hot water

To start this project you'll need some books. Although it doesn't matter what the book is really about, I chose to be a little authentic and used some actual "witchy" books. You can use whatever old books you have lying around or you can get some old books at the thrift store.

Two of the books I chose to use are soft covers, but I want them to be hard covers. So, I'm going to start with turning my soft cover books into hardcover books by using some cardboard and school glue.

I'm going to take my cardboard and tuck it inside the front cover of the book, then with a pencil or marker trace around the edge of the book cover marking where to cut your cardboard. With your scissors or rotary cutter cut the cardboard to size. I used a craft roller to flatten out one side of the cardboard that would be tucked inside along the spine, this step is optional. I then covered one side of the cardboard with school glue and glued it inside the front cover of my book; I then repeated this step with the back cover of the book. Set aside to dry.

Next we're going to take our hot glue gun and we're going to embellish the covers of our books by using the glue gun for writing and drawing designs, also to glue on our creepy crawlies. This is where you can get really creative. After our hot glue has dried we can start working on covering our books. You can cover them with paper towel, single ply is best. However after trying the paper towel method, I can definitely say I prefer using the tissue paper.

So to cover our books we're going to take a paintbrush and our Mod Podge and paint over the cover and everything that we glued on.

We're then going to take our single ply paper towel (if using paper towel you'll need to dampen it first) or tissue paper, crumple it up (I personally didn't like the effect of the paper towel so, I ended up only using the tissue paper), then open it back up and gently lay it down over your Mod Podge cover and pat it down. When using the paper towel you'll need to use a paintbrush or foam brush to really get into all the nooks and crannies of your design. With the tissue paper, just pressing firmly with the palm of your hand seems to be all it took for me. Now we're going to set our book aside to dry for a couple of hours.

After the Mod Podge on our newly covered book is fully dried, we're going to trim the excess paper towel/tissue paper, however leaving enough to wrap just inside our covers.

Now we can take our black craft paint and paint the entire book Black, again set aside to dry.

After the black paint has fully dried we can then go in with a dry brush and some of our brown craft paint and stipple the brown paint onto the book to give it an aged look and /or use our gold metallic paint to dry brush the raised bits of our creepy crawlies and our hot glue gun designs to add dimension.

Now to finish our cover by folding the extra paper towel/tissue paper over and glue it to the inside of your cover. Then take a plain piece of paper and cut to size to cover the inside of our covers and glue in place. Then, set aside to fully dry.

After our painted books are dry we can move on to the final step to really give our books an authentic aged and creepy look. For this last step you need a tea bag, hot water and a paint brush. Steep your tea bag in a small amount of hot water until the water reaches your desired color. Then dip your paint brush in the tea and gently bush the edges of your book's pages. This really gives a nice aged look to your books and in my opinion really completes the overall look and feel of this project.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out our DIY Halloween Spell Books Tutorial! What did you think of this project? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

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Have a great day!

Do you love Halloween? Be sure to check out all of our Spooktacular Halloween posts!

Friday, October 6, 2023

3 DIY Halloween Arrangements Tutorial

These DIY Halloween arrangements are just spooktacular!
Be sure to watch the full Video Tutorial below!
This post may contain paid affiliate links, please read our Advertising Disclosure Statement.

~Skull and Moss vase~

You'll need :

One or more clear vases

(Dollar Tree) $1 each

Bag of moss (Dollar Tree)$1

Mini skulls (Walmart)$3.98

For this project you simply layer your moss and skulls in your clear vase till you reach the top of your vase. Then you just have to find its new home in your Halloween decor and you are done!

For this Project I spent $6.98 for two vases

~Upcycled glitter pumpkin arrangement~

You'll need:

Glitter pumpkin arrangement (Walmart) $5.84

1 glass pillar candle plate (Dollar Tree) $1

1 4" glass taper candle holder (Dollar Tree) $1

1 round tea light candle holder these come in packs of 2 (Dollar Tree) $1

E6000 glue (Walmart) $2.97

black gloss spray paint (Walmart) $1.66

optional: Halloween floral

Without adding the optional floral for this project I spent $13.47

I got the Styrofoam pumpkin at Walmart and although it's cute the way it is, I wanted to bump it's wow factor up a notch. Also, it's top heavy and a little wobbly.

So for this project you're going to take your E6000 glue and glue your taper candle holder to the pillar plate. I chose to flip my pillar plate upside down for this project. Then you're going to glue your round tea light holder to the top of the taper candle holder and set aside to dry fully.

After your glued base is dry, it's time to paint it with your spray paint, I did two coats. While waiting for your painted base to dry if you have chosen to add some additional Halloween floral, now would be a good time to do this. After the painted base has fully dried it's time to grab your E6000 glue again and glue the glitter pumpkin to the top of its new base. Allow to fully dry before finding its new home in your Halloween decor. (You can also use some hot glue to secure in place till your E6000 glue dries fully, like I did in the video)

~Skull "urn" floral arrangement~

I also needed a Dremel-Not Pictured

You'll need:

Plastic skull (Walmart) $3.84

1 glass pillar candle plate (Dollar Tree) $1

1 4in glass taper candle holder (Dollar Tree) $1

1 round tea light candle holder these come in a pack of two (Dollar Tree) $1

5 black and or purple rose bunches (Dollar Tree) $5

1 floral bunch to create height (Hobby Lobby) 40% off $4.19

1 floral foam (Dollar Tree) $1

E6000 glue (Walmart) $2.97

1 can black spray paint flat (Walmart) $3.96

Optional: 1 cascading floral bunch (I got mine a year ago and I cannot remember where...)

Without adding the optional floral

for this project I spent

$23.96

Now you're going to need to cut the top portion of the skull off so you can insert the Floral foam. I used my floral foam as my measurement tool and traced around with a marker. Then I needed to decide how I was going to cut it...? The plastic on the skull I used was too thick to cut with an exacto knife or a box-cutter. So I asked my husband Craig what I should use and he suggested I use my Dremel. Because I had never use my Dremel as a cutting tool before he did this part for me while he was showing me how to do it. I then went in with my Dremel to clean up all the rough edges and smooth it out. Now we can insert the floral foam.,

After your glued base is dry, it's time to paint it with your spray paint. I did two coats. After the base has fully dried it's time to grab your E6000 glue and glue the skull to the base and set aside to fully dry. Once dry we can then start adding the Roses/flowers. I like to start with the Roses first, then the cascading pieces and finally add the height element. Now to find its new home among your Halloween decor and admire your new masterpiece!

Thank you for stopping by and checking out our 3 DIY Halloween Arrangements Tutorial! What did you think of this project? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

Have a great day!

Do you love Halloween? Be sure to check out all of our Spooktacular Halloween post!

Monday, September 18, 2023

DIY Halloween Apothecary Tutorial

Check out all the spooky goodness in this DIY Apothecary Tutorial
and be sure to watch the full Video Tutorial below!
This post contains paid affiliate links, please read our Advertising Disclosure Statement.

Halloween 2016 was our first Halloween in our new house. The thrill of decorating this new house was almost overwhelming. Figuring out where I was going to put things, what theme was I going to do, should I even do a theme at all, do I have enough decorations (this house is twice the size of our last house...), what am I going to make?...etc. So many questions and so little time to make up my mind and get it all done...!

Apothecary Jars

One of the projects I wanted to make last year was an apothecary cabinet unfortunately I ran out of time and was unable to get it done... Fast forward to 2017 and here we are, my first project of the Season! While perusing Pinterest looking for inspiration I found there are several methods to making Apothecary jars. I found it hard to choose just one, so I've decided to try them all! As the old saying goes "variety is the spice of life."

So to get started, right off the bat you need a variety of jars and Bottles. I collected a variety of bottles and jars periodically throughout the year after deciding I wanted to do this project. You could ask friends and neighbors if they would save theirs for you as well. You could also check out your local thrift stores and even get some from the Dollar Tree like I did. You can also collect a few candle holders to add interest to some of your jars.

Next is figuring out what creepy crawlies you're going to put in your jars and bottles that you will be able to actually see the contents of. Eyeballs, spiders, snakes, worms, mice and assortments of creepy-crawlies are best (all fake of course...lol) you can find these items at Dollar stores like the Dollar Tree, party supply stores, Amazon and the party or fishing sections of most department stores like Wal-Mart.

Apothecary Labels

Now what about those labels? Well if you're handy with Photoshop or any desktop publishing software and you're creative, you could make your own. You could also jump onto the Google machine and type “free printable Apothecary labels” into the search bar and see if any of those results tickle your fancy.

Next you'll need to gather your crafting supplies:

sandpaper
E6000 or other really strong adhesive
Feathers
Scissors
Tea bag
School glue
Glue gun with glue sticks
Mod Podge
Paint
Paint brushes
Container of water for brushes
Paint palette
Twine
Moss
Burlap
Fabric scraps
Paper towel
Food coloring
Printer paper
Water
Container to mix water and food coloring
Assortment of toppers for jars and bottles
Corks

Now that we have everything we need let's get started! Did you decide to get candle holder bases? Grab your E6000 glue and glue those on and set aside to dry, also dye fabric with tea bag if needed. (Don’t forget to dry them after you get them dyed.) Now we need to age your containers.

Here are a couple ways we can do this for your clear containers that you will see the contents of:

Sand them with sandpaper

Paint them with school glue

Add a little green and or brown paint to some school glue and paint them to give a dirty, muddy effect (my favorite option)

For your containers you can't see the contents of you'll want to add some embellishments first:

You can use your hot glue gun to write on the containers or even glue on some creepy-crawlies before you paint.

Spray paint with flat black paint or hand paint (I prefer hand painting. )

Dry brush with a lighter color like gray or brown, allowing some of the black paint to show through. When you add dimensional embellishments it gives them more character and interest.

You could also Mod Podge paper towel or fabric scraps to your jars and Bottles before using the painting techniques mentioned above.

After you've aged your jars and bottles and allowed them to dry, it's time to fill them, seal them, and add their top Embellishments. For your “clear” bottles and jars you're going to add your creepy-crawlies, then mix up some colored water with your food coloring, pour it into your jars and put the lids/caps on them. If you don't want them opened ever again you can glue your Lids on at this point.

Then add any extra toppers and paint the lids if you so desire. After your lids are done and dry “(if painted), you can now add your final embellishments and labels.

Finally it's time to set up your apothecary display. When setting up your display don't forget those little extra touches that really make your display pop. You can add some Halloween figures, little skeletons, lights...etc. For mine I added some spells scrolls tied with twine and put them in a crystal bowl that already resides in the cabinet I set my display in. Instead of finding the bowl a new home, I found a way to incorporate it.

Get creative and let your imagination run wild. The spookier the better!

Thank you for stopping by and checking out our DIY Halloween Apothecary Tutorial! Which DIY Apothecary technique did you like the best? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

Have a great day and Happy Haunting!!

Other Krazy Deal Daze Post You May Be Interested In:

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

DIY Styrofoam Headstones

DIY Styrofoam Headstones | Spooktacular

This post contains paid affiliate links, please read our Advertising Disclosure Statemen t.

DIY Styrofoam Headstones

About 15 years ago I decided I wanted to add a graveyard to my Halloween display. However, money was extremely tight and we couldn't afford to buy any foam headstones.... Where my husband was working at the time, he had access to Styrofoam scraps which gave me the idea to try and make my own! So I asked him if he would be allowed to bring home some of the scrapped Styrofoam? Thankfully he was able to get me quite a bit of Styrofoam scraps! The rest of the materials I used we already had laying around our garage and shed so, in the end, I made 15 headstones and spent zero money!

To this day we still have all 15 of those headstones and I'm ready to add to our collection. So, I'm going to share with you how I made mine all those years ago. Unfortunately, this time they will not be completely free because I do have to buy the Styrofoam and the green camo paint. But they will still be much cheaper and more original than the store bought ones!!

You'll Need:
Styrofoam (Your Local Home Improvement Store)
Serrated knife
Ruler
Marker
Exacto knife
Gorilla Glue
Spray Bottle with water to activate the Gorilla Glue
Medium gauge wire fencing or tomato cage (I've used both)
Light Gray primer
Dark Gray primer
Green Camo Paint
Black craft paint

Optional:
Brown and green craft paint
Moss

First, we're going to need to decide on the size and shape of our headstone. Either by freehanding a design from your imagination or you can google headstone shapes to get some ideas.

You can use your maker to draw out your headstone onto your sheet of Styrofoam.

Then with the serrated knife, carefully cut it out.

Now, what's your headstone going to say? We had a lot of fun coming up with phases and saying for our headstones! You can also google funny headstone sayings for some great ideas as well. After you've decided what your headstone is going to say and how you want it to look, draw it out on your headstone.

Then using your Exacto knife carve out your design and writing.

On some of my headstones, I added bases using the extra Styrofoam I had left after cutting out all my shapes.

I cut the extra pieces to size and glued them to the bottom of my headstones using water-activated Gorilla glue and adding pieces of wire fencing or a tomato cage for extra support, this time around we had an old tomato cage we used.

We then took the tomato cage and cut out an "H". I then pushed the top part of the "H" into the bottom of the headstones all the way to the middle part of the "H" and then I pulled it back out. Next, I put some water-activated Gorilla glue into both the holes I just made and also ran a line of glue connecting the two holes, then I reinserted the "H" into the newly glued holes and set aside to dry.

After they are fully dried, I put the headstones into the ground by pushing the bottom part of the "H" into the ground so that each headstone was standing upright.

Then I started lightly spraying them with the first coat of gray primer.

I also used two different shades of gray primer and green camo paint to give an uneven color effect.

After the final coat of primer was dry I went in with my black craft paint and a paint brush and darkened all the carved out areas.

You can stop here and enjoy your new headstones or you can move on to the next optional step to add a bit more character to your headstones.

Last year while I was touching up the paint on my headstones (1st time needing to do this after like 15yrs!) I decided I wanted to add a little "something" to spruce them up a bit. So I gave some of them a little aged and dirty effect with some brown and green paint (think algae and runny dirt), I also got some moss from the dollar store and glued it on a few using Gorilla glue.

Have fun and let your creativity run wild!!

Check out our video tutorial on DIY Styrofoam Headstones

Thank you for stopping by and checking out our DIY Styrofoam Headstones Tutorial! What did you think about this project? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

Have a great day!