Boo! - Some Halloween Pumpkins and Sugar Skulls

First, I have a Pinterest-inspired project to share.  I saw a lovely white pumpkin that was decorated with.......melted crayons.  I just had to try it.  So the first challenge was finding a white pumpkin and not pay an arm and a leg for it.  We did find a decent-sized one at the fruit stand that we usually frequent on our way back and forth to the condo.  When we got it home, I looked for, and was surprised to find so quickly, the shoe box of crayons that I had stashed away for projects such as these. 

The directions said to lightly crazy-glue the crayon pieces to the top of the pumpkin.  Sounds easy enough, right!  Well, I should have paid more attention to the details and the picture of the stages. The project originator actually glued the crayons the other way - end to end around the crown of the pumpkin.  I chose to go with a little more stability and glued them into the natural creases of the pumpkin top.  

I was working outside because I knew that melting wax was not something I wanted flying all over the place inside.  I tried first with a hairdryer.  That didn't work too well. It was pretty chilly outside. So I got out my heat gun and used that keeping my distance from the surface of the pumpkin so I didn't burn it.  You can tip the pumpkin a little holding onto the stem to get the wax to drip in the direction that you want.  (And make sure to use good wax crayons.  There were some that I found were not made of wax that was easily melted so I swapped them out.)  This is where it would have been helpful to follow the directions on how to glue the crayons on. Surely if they were the other way, there would have been more surface to melt along and the tipping wouldn't be necessary.  

The hot wax will continue to drip off your pumpkin so make sure to put something disposable underneath it and keep your distance for flying wax!

You can see that it came out pretty neat.  Not too much erroneous mixing of the colors!  It's going on my desk at work until Halloween.  Then the squirrels and chipmunks will enjoy it. 

Another colorful project that I had worked on was using another sheet of the watercolor paper that I had been experimenting with my new Brushos on.  It looks very tie-died I think.  But what to do with it?  You might remember the card I made for my mother last month here.

Using my Silhouette, I found a pattern for a pretty sugar skull and cut that out of plain white cardstock and then added the "tie-died" piece behind it.

I really like the way this looks.  I think I would have enjoyed coloring a background for that skull, but the paper works beautifully.  And it went to my blogging friend Clare in California who loves Halloween.  

And lastly...... sorry for such a long post....... I took a 75 cent pumpkin about the size of a softball and with a fine-tip black marker, tangled it using the natural grooves of the pumpkin as sections.  

I didn't take the designs all the way down.........

but only about 3/4ths of the way so as to look like the design was draped on.

And then I just rubbed it very lightly with a little petroleum jelly to give it a little sheen.

Oh, gosh, I did say last but here is the real last - promise.  The Stampin' Up Paper Pumpkin kit from September had the supplies to make these cute little broom treat holders.  Just a few pieces of chocolate and a couple of pumpkin Rice Krispie treats fit in the bag and were distributed to a few of my favorite buds.

So Boo to you and have a Happy Halloween!  

And if you want to see some more worldly BOO - please check out Our Beautiful World here.