Halloween Clock with Spooky Spinning Fun!

I love Hallowe'en and I love mechanical paper toys so imagine my excitement when Alpha Stamps sent me the Victorian Furniture Chipboard Set that includes a cool grandfather clock and the Halloween Clock Spinners collage sheet. I was over the moon!

Eeeeek! All of this vintage-y goodness makes me giddy. Here are a few more pictures, and then I'll show you how to make your own, (it is so easy, it's scary.)

Did you see that? The Halloween Clock Spinners collage sheet (oh how I love thee!) has lots of images that will work with the grandfather clock and I had a frightfully good time changing out the rotating part. So fun! Here is the same clock with a different image added.

Ready to make your own? Great! Here's what you need:

Excuse my funky pictures. Most of my crafting happens in the dead of night and I live in a bat cave.

1. Chipboard Grandfather Clock from Victorian Furniture Chipboard Set - Grandfather Clock
2. Images from Halloween Clock Spinners collage sheet
3. Image from Halloween Clock Faces collage sheet (not shown)
3. Miniature brad. 

First, paint your clock. I wanted a vintage Dennison/Beistle look so I started by painting the entire clock orange and let it dry. The next step is simple. Load your brush with a little black acrylic paint and begin painting over the orange, a little at a time. After you have a small section of the clock painted black, take a large tapestry needle or toothpick and drag it over the wet black paint. It will expose the orange underneath and look super neat. Repeat until you've finished the clock.

I have already glued a clock face on the clock, but you can see the how I painted the clock in that picture. The door was glued to a piece of spider web card stock and the same paper was used in the center of the clock.

Then I took my trusty bone folder and creased the hinges of the door, then glued just that itty bitty hinge part to the clock. I poked a hole in the circular pumpkin image (see above) and also in the witch and owl piece, threaded a brad through the hole in the clock and then the images, and called it a day! Not really. I cut out all the spinning parts on the collage sheet and tried them all out. Who wouldn't?

You can also use a smaller spinning part, in this case the full moon face, and can change out the image inside the clock. Like a cute little trick-or-treater.

Or a classic black cat.

The possibilities are endless! I went with a teensy articulated Red Devil from the Halloween Jumping Jacks collage sheet but I'm sure you can find something perfect to hide inside your clock! 

While I was feeling all vintage Hallowe'enie, I kept on crafting and assembled a little shadowbox to hang on the wall. 

Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate.
The first one says, "Oh my it's getting late."
The second one says, "There's witches in the air."
The third one says, "But we don't care!"
The fourth one says, "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one says, "Let's have some fun!"
Then oooooo went the wind and OUT went the light!
Five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

The BOO bags were scissored from a real paper bag and I cut out the letters and backed them with orange vellum. The intention was to illuminate the bags but I haven't gotten around to looking for small enough battery operated lights. I used wool roving for the wind, shaping it with my hands and then covering the wispy pieces with a glue/water mixture, then letting it dry. The leaves were punched from really nice crepe paper!

Isn't this kitty the greatest? She's part of the Creepy Critters Shapes set and decided to make an appearance on the shadowbox.

Hope everyone's Hallowe'en is happy!

Spinning Clock and Five Little Pumpkins Shadowbox supply list can be found right HERE.

Odd Little Ghoul and Charming Jack

I have this bin that lives under my craft table. There's actually several bins under there, but this particular one is where I toss all of my reject projects. Things that have been started but looked odd, or I wasn't happy with the way it was going, or lost the motivation to finish, stuff like that. While rifling through the bin looking for something else, I uncovered a sad little guy that needed a paint job and some eyeballs. He also got a stand and is now hanging out on the book case.

Also in the Bin of Doomed Things was an unpainted paperclay pumpkin head and a separate wire armature body with a polka dotted costume. I don't know why I tossed him in there since he was so close to being a completed project. The head was painted and he got a paper stem and wire vine, and then his noggin was glued onto the body. I tied raffia to his hands and feet and painted a little sign for him to hold, and that was it. 

One of my kids suggested painting his nose like a piece of candy corn (so I did) and another kid told me his name is Charming Jack (and so it is). 

Wonder what else is hiding in that bin?