Tricks and Treats Shadowbox

 Hooray, October has arrived! I have been collecting all of my Halloween goodies from Alpha Stamps for weeks and finally sat at the craft table to make a little thing.

It is a sweet 3" x 4 1/2" shadowbox with a notched lid that's stuffed with spooky treats! Inside the shadowbox is a Retro Bottle Brush Tree decorated with Polymer Clay Halloween Slice Mix, a cute Mini Halloween Cake, an altered jack-o-lantern gumball machine, a treat bag loaded with mounds of candy, some ghastly sodas, and a plate of tiny candies. Oh, and an apple!

The gumball machine started out with a red base and a clear globe, but it didn't quite work with the paper from the Halloween Market and Masquerade pads. I very, very carefully broke the clear globe off (wear protective eyewear and gloves if you do this!), discarded the glass, and saved the gumballs. To remove the bits of glass from the inside, I used a heat gun to melt the glue before picking out the glass with tweezers. Once it was clean, the base was spray painted black, and I added some stripes with an orange paint pen. The new glass globe was colored with orange and black Sharpies. I filled the inside with only the yellow gumballs before gluing the new jack-o-lantern globe to the base. The witch hat is made from polymer clay.

I also built a small heavy cardboard shelf inside the shadowbox:

I had leftover candy that didn't make it in the shadowbox, so I pulled out some 1" sytrofoam balls and air dry clay to make a couple of pumpkin pails. Can't let anything go to waste! But before we get into the making of the pumpkin pails, can we talk about the super rad Mini Creepy Sign Post? How cool is that?! The post has signs galore, plus the creepy crows are fab! 

Okay, let's peek at those pumpkin pails:

Hee, hee! They're kinda cute. All you need to make them are a few teensy styrofoam balls, air dry clay (a quality brand, please), acrylic craft paint, wire, and optional shaping tools.

Chop a little off the top of the styrofoam ball, like so:

Smash air dry clay over the ball:

Smooth the outside, then cut off excess clay from the top of the ball and slightly flatten the bottom.

Using a ball stylus or other tool, carve a kooky face, then add the rim of the pail with a strip of clay.

Poke holes for the handle!

Eat Count Chocula while it dries.

Paint!

Attach a wire handle...

Squish your candy inside, and just like that, a treat-filled pumpkin pail!

Happy October to you! Hope you are having a scream creating your own Halloween things, whatever they may be!

And GO RIGHT HERE to see everything used in both the Tricks and Treats Shadowbox and mini pumpkin pails.