Creative Ideas Are In The Consciousness

Walking along Queen Sreet last night I came across this window display. Well, well, well....isn't that interesting? They had two owls done this way, and two coyotes as well! I didn't think you could get plastic coyote decoys. I found it interesting that they would paint everything black.
Even the tree stumps were painted black.
Anyway...I thought it was quite interesting to see that someone else had the same thought to light up the eyes of owl decoys!

Papier Maché

Here's a turtle I had to make in 4 days!
First day:

Second day:

Third day:


Fourth day:



Finished and ready to be delivered!

An Arm and A Scythe

These aren't finished, but here's one arm for my Grim Reaper...(sitting beside the half finished cauldron)

And this is the scythe that the Grim Reaper will be holding in his right hand.

Plastic Dollar Store Skull Transformation

I only buy these cheap plastic skulls because they're easy to transform into something more interesting. I repainted this one and cut a hole through it to allow the wires of an other dollar store product...the LED flicker light to go through and become a burning candle on top.
I had to "hack" the LED light to lengthen the wires. It was so easy, a child can do it. All they need to know is red from black and how to use wire strippers. Easy.

Click HERE for a link that goes into more detail.

More Hallowe'en Stuff

Yes, when I'm unemployed I keep myself busy with hobbies....and for some strange reason I often seem to be out of work around Hallowe'en. Hmmm. Strange...but anyway, here's the owl decoy BEFORE:

And AFTER:

It's going to be dark out so I exaggerated the markings a bit.

And here's a new project...the CAULDRON! I had a big plastic outdoor planter that was just the right size. I drew a template for the curves of the cauldron, made a whole bunch more out of cardboard and attached them with latex caulking. (I decided to use it because the masking tape wasn't working too great and I just happened to have some left-over caulking lying around the house)

I began to papier maché over the cardboard and now it's starting to look really cool. I'll post more photos as I progress.

Faux Verdigris Patina Technique

I am including this image of a resin gargoyle statue just to show the colour of mine when I began. I didn't start photographing mine until I decided to do a patina...I originally painted it black....like iron...but then I changed my mind.I mixed gold craft acrylic with a small amount of dark brown and painted the whole statue. I allowed it to dry overnight.

I then took a forest green acrylic and applied that with a rag, buffing the colour onto the gold colour so it still showed through.

The next stage really makes it look great. I mixed a tiny drop of green and a bit of navy blue with white. I tried to achieve a milky turquoise and then I watered it down a bit. I painted it onto the statue a small area at a time making sure it got into all the cracks and crevices. Quickly I would wipe off the excess with a clean rag leaving it mostly in the crevices.

For the final step I watered down the turquoise even more and allowed it to run down the statue, blotting up the excess where I had applied it, but not the drips. Leaving the drips makes it look as though it has been out in the rain and weather.

And there you are. A fake bronze statue. This is more for indoor use...or just to be put out as a decoration on Hallowe'en. If you wanted to keep it outside in your garden you'd have to coat it with an acrylic sealer .....probably satin finish. I'm not going to bother with mine for now.