Nightmare Before Christmas Trunk or Treat

After frantically working to finish this project at last the big day has come and gone .   For those of you interested in learning how to make all of these crafts, check out the series for instructions  on how to create each of these characters for yourself . These range in size from 6 inches to 12 and could easily make a great centerpiece for any Nightmare Before Christmas themed party . 

Nightmare Before Christmas Trunk or Treat Lock, Shock, and Barrel Figurines: Barrel Instructions

Nightmare Before Christmas Trunk or Treat Lock, Shock and Barrel Figurines: Instructions for Shock

I love the Nightmare Before Christmas and I feel like Lock, Shock and Barrel embody the spirit of ‘trick’ in trick or treat so I decided that for my Trunk or Treat display I needed all three.  In this installment I will teach you how to make your very own Shock.

The Halloween Spirit

As you may know, Halloween happens to be my birthday and therefore one of my favorite Holidays next to Christmas so I thought I would share with you my decorations this year.  I have been slowly collecting and crafting decorations for years.

This is actually not even close to the amount that I own, but my husband already has his patients tested with just this amount.  Next year I want to start working on my graveyard fence in late July to early August so that I can make my lawn look like a proper graveyard the way it’s begging to be.

Well, I hope that you are a little bit inspired and get outside to decorate your house for this spooktacular holiday!  Happy Halloween and happy crafting!

Nightmare Before Christmas Trunk or Treat: Part 5

Today I completed my spooky tree for my graveyard scene and in this installment I will teach you how to make your very own!

Nightmare Before Christmas Trunk or Treat: Part 4

Have you ever wondered if you could speed up the air drying Clay’s drying time?  Well, wonder no more! 5 minutes in the microwave and done!  So, now all I need to do is glue hands and feet on and paint them!

I’m almost finished with my project.  I only have to complete the Mayor,  paint my tree, hill, make tombstones and paint the background.  I will definitely be finished by next weekend and once finished step by step tutorials for this build will quickly follow.

This project has taught to me to experiment and keep an open mind when it comes to materials. Don’t be afraid to use things you’d typically recycle or discard in your crafts.  If I had inmy Zero would not be finished nor would my Shock sculpture.
I’m currently waiting for my paper mache tree and hill to dry, but tomorrow I will post another update!

Happy Halloween and remember it’s all for the love of craft!

Nightmare Before Christmas: Trunk or Treat Part 3

After a long and busy work week I finally got back to working on my trunk or treat project that I have to get finished by 23!  Today I finished my Zero and Barrel figurines,

Trunk or Treat: Nightmare Before Christmas

Since I am clearly in love with the Nightmare Before Christmas (secretly I think I am the Pumpkin Queen since my birthday is Halloween),

Nightmare Before Christmas Lock, Stock, and Barrel on a Oogie Boogie Hill

After re-blogging Crafts ‘n Coffee’s blog about her Halloween Polka Dot Ghost wreath it made me want to finish the one I started last year! I was so excited that I stayed up until 11 PM and then worked all morning and afternoon to complete it finally after only a mere 1o hours later! I guess I’ll do anything to avoid working on dear old Tick Tock 😎🐊!

Materials Needed:

• Styrofoam Ring (sold at craft stores)
• Black Yarn
• White Yarn
• Foam Core Poster Board
• Air Drying Clay
• Floral Wire
• Black and White Polka Dotted Wire Ribbon
• Yellow Acrylic Paint
• Light Yellow Acrylic Paint
• Orange Acrylic Paint
• White Acrylic Paint
• Red Acrylic Paint
• Black Acrylic Paint
• Purple Acrylic Paint
• Hot Glue and Glue Gun
• X-acto Knife
• Pencil
• Wooden Shish Kabob Skewers
• EZ Bow Maker

1. Wrap in alternating colors of black in white in 2-3 inch strips until your Styrofoam Ring in completely covered.  Start and finish each strand with a dab of hot glue smoothed out so it’s unnoticeable.
2. On the foam core board trace your wreath so you can cut out the swirled hill for your background using your X-acto Knife.
3. Place hill silhouette on top of foam core board to draw a moon for the background.
4. Peel both sides of the paper off of the foam core board hill and moon.
5. Paint the swirled hill using the black paint.
6. Paint the moon starting with the yellow paint, using a blow dryer to dry slightly and then layering in a light brushing/blending of light yellow paint for contouring.
7. Draw each characters mask and/or hat and body on the foam core board and cut out with your X-acto Knife.
8. Use the air clay to coat the foam core board pieces and make them look 3D by making exaggerated noses and 3D arms and hands. (See photo gallery for examples). Make feet that you will add on afterwards with hot glue.
9. Use your blow dryer to dry out the sculptures and then paint them.
10. I mixed black, white, and purple paint for faces and hands.
11. Mix black and purple with a touch of white, painting the color of her dress adding less white than for the face and hands.
12. Paint each character according to its color scheme.
13. Cut the Shish Kabob Skewers to the right size for the witches legs and paint black.
14. Glue together characters and paint using its coordinating colors.
15. Glue swirled hill onto the back of the black and white wreath.
16. Paint “trick or treat” in black on the moon as shown in pictures.
17. Glue moon to the back of the swirled hill.
18. Glue each character in place.
19. Using the EZ Bow Maker to make a wreath bow using the black and white Polka Dotted Wire Ribbon to make a bow for your wreath.

Try this out if you love Nightmare Before Christmas too!  This looks harder than it is! Happy Halloween and remember it’s all for the love of craft!

 

Cast Your Vote: Is This a DIY “All Hail” or “DIY Fail”? Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie Battery Operated Candle

 

As I was painting this I had to keep myself from trashing the project, but I just kept on trying until I  came up with this.  If you like it and want to learn how to make one for yourself