The eHow tutorial is here.

We are celebrating the one year anniversary of Bella Crafts Quarterly™ with a Halloween/Birthday themed blog hop. If you’ve never seen an issue of Bella Crafts Quarterly™, be sure to check it out online here. It’s free! There are tons of great articles about crafting, and they even had the genius insight to feature me in the fall issue.

For this blog hop, Bella Crafts Quarterly™ would like to thank the following sponsors: iLoveToCreate®, Spellbinders™, Rowlux®, and Westcott®.

Bella Crafts Quarterly™ is also celebrating with a fabulous GIVEAWAY! Thanks to Graphic45 for this wonderful gift pack. Click here to ENTER: http://bellacraftsquarterly.com/bella-crafts-birthday-celebration-giveaway

And now, on to my project. Our assignment was to incorporate all four sponsors’ products in either a Halloween or birthday (or both) theme. Here’s what I received in the mail to work with. 1) Rowlux® Illusion Film, which is this super cool material that looks like it has wavy 3-D patterns in it, 2) Spellbinders™ M-Bossabilities Reversible Embossing Folder, 3) Westcott® Cutting tools, 4) Aleene’s Tacky 2-sided Adhesive Sheets and Tulip Fashion Glitter from iLoveToCreate®.

To make the eyeglasses, I found a free template online at firstpalette.com. Then I sprayed some Elmer’s Repositionable Mounting Spray Adhesive on the template and placed it on the back side of the Rowlux film so i could use it as a pattern.

I used the Westcott Titanium nonstick scissors to cut along the outlines. For the interior holes of the eyeglass frames, I used a Westcott hobby knife. The Rowlux film cuts very easily.

Next, I cut strips of the Aleene’s Tacky 2-sided adhesive strips and adhered one side to the eyeglass frames to make stripes.

I placed the frames and the ear pieces in the Spellbinders M-Bossabilities folder and ran it through the Spellbinders Grand Calibur machine to give the Rowlux material even more dimension.

Next, I removed the top protective layer of the adhesive strips from the eyeglass frames.

I placed the eyeglasses face down on some Tulip Fashion Glitter, pressing down to adhere the glitter to the adhesive strips.

I brushed off the excess glitter and attached the ear pieces to the frames with a small piece of Aleene’s Tacky 2-sided adhesive.

I had some extra Rowlux film left, so I decided to cut out a matching mustache, sticking it to a skewer with a glue dot.

Happy Birthday Bella Crafts Quarterly!

Disclosure: I was not paid for this post. I received the materials free of charge for this project.

I’ve always wanted to make monster building blocks – where I could mix and match body parts on wood blocks – and was never sure how. Now that I’ve discovered Wood Attitude printable film, I am the mad scientist I always wanted to be. Bwahahahaha!

Here’s what I did. First, I drew 6 monsters and divided up their heads, bodies and legs. I drew 6 because each cube has six sides. (I know! I actually drew these. My Adobe Illustrator teacher would be so proud.)  I also sized them to 2-inch square sections because my wood blocks were 2-inch cubes. (I bought the wood cubes at woodcrafter.com.) You can download these graphics for free with the links below:

Build a Monster Download 1

Build a Monster Download 2

Then I printed them out onto two sheets of Wood Attitude printable film – three monsters per sheet. Wood Attitude is one of the Craft Attitude films, which let you apply any image or photograph onto practically any surface. And it goes on wood like buttah. (If you have one of the other Craft Attitude films like Shoe Attitude, Jewelry Attitude, etc., they work identically to the Wood Attitude, and you can use them for this project, no problemo.)

Next, I cut all the individual squares of the Wood Attitude film while the protective backing was still on. For me, cutting is the most tedious part of doing crafts. I need an intern who can just cut for me. Also, the wood cubes are usually not exactly 2 inches – they have variances. So I would recommend placing the cut pieces on the wood sides to see how they fit and make adjustments accordingly. (Boy, I used a lot of adverbs in the last two sentences.) I think it’s better for the Wood Attitude to be a little bit smaller than a little bit bigger than the wood.

After all that cutting, I sprayed some Scotch Super 77 adhesive to the ink side of the Wood Attitude squares, pressed them sticky side down onto the wood blocks, and peeled off the protective backing. If you don’t have spray adhesive, you can use a glue stick, although I would apply the glue stick to the wood and then press the Wood Attitude film to that. Be sure to put all the heads on one cube, the bodies on the second, and the legs on the third.

And it was as easy as that! I love how it looks like the monster graphics were printed right on the wood. And now that I’ve found a source for cheap wood cubes, I may make all kinds of decorated wood blocks. I’m thinking baby gifts! Craft Attitude, you’ve created a monster! Me!

But for now, I’ll play with these Halloween-inspired Build-a-Monster blocks. And you can call me Dr. Fongenstein!

Note: I am a designer/spokesperson for Craft Attitude, and the links on this post and elsewhere on this site are affiliate links. But you can tell I love this product, and my enthusiasm for it is genuine.

Click here for eyeball printable

The eyeballs look cool displayed in an apothecary jar. They are also magic eyeballs, so if you use the iris image I drew, I will be watching you. Oh yes, I see you now. Bwahaha!

Note: I am a designer/spokesperson for Craft Attitude, and links on this post and elsewhere are affiliate links. But you can see how cool a product it is, and how I would use it anyway.

Since Halloween is coming up, I came upon the idea of turning the plastic into pumpkins, decorating the plain clear plastic with some Craft Attitude printable film. Plastic packaging pumpkins – I had to do it for the alliteration.

Step 1: I cut apart two plastic packages into four rectangular sheets. These packages were 4″x8″, so I made the four sheets that size.

Step 2: I bought a photo of candy corn from istockphoto.com and printed the image on two sheets of Craft Attitude printable film. I know I use Craft Attitude in a lot of my projects, but it really is a creative problem solver for me, allowing me to add images to practically any surface – in this case, the clear plastic.

Step 3: Each sheet of the Craft Attitude was big enough for two of the 4″x8″ plastic sheets. I sprayed one side of each plastic sheet with Scotch Super 77 spray adhesive and placed it face down on the ink side of the Craft Attitude. Now, why didn’t I spray some Super 77 on the Craft Attitude and apply it to my surface? Simple. The plastic sheet was smaller than the Craft Attitude, so it was more logical to do it that way.

Step 4: Burnish the plastic onto the Craft Attitude film and peel the protective layer from the back of the Craft Attitude.

Step 5: Cut the four plastic sheets into 1″ strips, so you have 16 one-inch strips.

Step 6: Punch a hole on both ends of each strip.

Step 7: Place the holes of one end of all the strips through a four-inch screw. I bought a combination four-inch screw and bolt set at the hardware, as pictured. It’s up to you whether you want the shiny plastic side or the Craft Attitude side on the inside of the pumpkin. I chose to put the shiny plastic side on the inside, so the Craft Attitude would be on the outside of the pumpkin.

Step 8: Place the other end of the strips through the the top of the screw. Do this in order around the pumpkin rather than at random so the strips do not get tangled.

Step 9: Screw the nut at the top to secure the plastic strips and keep them from coming undone.

Step 10: Wrap some ribbon around the screw to hide it and create a stem for the pumpkin. I used double stick tape to secure it. You can also use glue.

If you’d like, you can even push a few of the strips apart and slide an LED votive in the pumpkin to light it from within. I love this pumpkin! Makes me want to upcycle more of my plastic packaging to make more crafts.

Note: I am a designer/spokesperson for Craft Attitude, and the links on this post and elsewhere on this site are affiliate links.

Even toilet paper gets into the Halloween spirit with these disguises.

Everyone can use a helping hand at Halloween.

Doesn’t bunting look like monster teeth? It sure does when you add giant googly eyes.

I made these spiders out of paper clips and electrical tape, and dangled them from the ceiling.