halloween ideas - The Idea Room

Severed Witch Finger Pens

We just got back from a family vacation where I ate WAY too much and went unplugged for a week. It was awesome! And now I am having a horrible time re-entering my regular schedule. The vacation was just what we needed…and unfortunately had to come to an end at some point. Now I am knee deep in laundry and all the mess that goes along with a family trip.

But I wanted to hurry up and get these Halloween Crafts up so that some of you might have a chance to make it before Halloween this year if it is something you are interested in…Halloween Severed Witch Finger Pens.

My son came home with one of these from a Halloween Classroom Party last year. It was a huge hit at our house. So, of course, I had to make some this year. All you need are a few simple items.

You will need:

Model Magic (we used white)

Fake Fingernails

Pen

Simply grab a small bit of model magic. A little bit will really go a long way. You need just enough to cover the pen. Then simply roll the clay between your fingers and a table top so that you have a long “snake” like roll that is just a bit longer than your pen.

Place your pen on top of the roll making sure to leave the writing end of the pen uncovered. Carefully pinch and roll the clay around the pen so that the pen is completely covered. Gently roll the pen and the clay now between your fingers and the table again so that you get a nice smooth edge where the clay comes together along the seam. Make sure the end of the pen is covered completely. This is going to be the tip of the finger.

Then gently press in areas on the finger that would coincide with the knuckles and natural bends in a finger. I then took a knife and gently made some marks to look like the wrinkles over the knuckles on the skin of the finger.

Push the fake fingernail into the top of the pen so that it looks like a natural fingernail. I pushed it in a bit more at the base of the fingernail so that it gives it a more natural fingernail. You can leave the fingernail natural or you can paint the nail. I chose to paint ours red. I simply took the nail off the clay before it dried and painted it. When the paint was dry, I glued the nail onto the finger with some hot glue. Then you can let the fingers air dry for a couple of days or bake them in a very low oven (100 degrees). Be sure your fingernails can handle the heat before you go that route though…

These are so easy to make and would be the perfect party craft for kids to make on their own. What do you think?

12 uses for old book pages

Fall is my very favorite season and I have asked a few of my favorite bloggers to share some of their fall favorites here with you. I am so excited to have Michael Wurm, Jr. from Inspired by Charm here sharing 12 FABULOUS Halloween Crafts using pages from old books as part of The Idea Room Fall Festival!

Hello, Everyone! Michael here from Inspired by Charm. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here today. I’m a huge fan of Amy and The Idea Room. Her Fall Festival is the bomb, and I’m thrilled to be one of the festival bloggers.

Today I have twelve mini-projects to share with you. Yep, twelve! Old books and old book pages are popping up everywhere in blogland and the craft world. So I decided to take this idea and give it a festive twist.

To get started, I picked up a couple old books at a local thrift shop. (Book lovers, cover your eyes.) I tore out a few pages from the books and then grabbed my laptop. I hit up one of my favorite clip art galleries, The Graphics Fairy, and downloaded all the Halloween-related images.

Using two small pieces of double stick tape, I attached one book page to the center of a piece of standard card stock.

Using the word processing program on my computer, I selected one of the clip art images and printed it on the book page taped to the card stock.

Simple as that! I repeated those steps for all my images. With a stack of embellished book pages in hand, I started to get crafty. Let’s get going!

No. 1: Place Cards

Just add a name in your word processor before printing your page (or write it in later) and then cut to fit. I guess this means Amy is officially invited for dinner!

No. 2: Vase Update

I have this great rectangular vase that was begging to be jazzed up. I just cut around the printed image and attached it to the vase with double stick tape.

No. 3: Wall Décor Accent

I have a display of plates and mirrors in my dinning room. I simply tucked in a few of the book pages for a spooky new look! This could be done to anything hanging, be it a frame, mirror, or other wall decoration.

No. 4: Decorative Jar Candle

Have a simple looking candle? Wrap it with an embellished book page. After cutting out the image, I attached it with double stick tape.

No. 5: Vintage Wreath

This one is a piece of cake. Just tuck a printed page into your favorite wreath for an instant vintage touch.

No. 6: Put a Cloche on It!

Slide a mini-pumpkin and one of the pages under a cloche. Anything under a cloche always looks special and important.

No. 7: Candlestick Wrap

Trim the page so there is just enough to wrap around the candle. I used double stick tape to affix the page. Being tall and skinny, the skeleton key graphic worked perfectly. Use caution if you do decide to light these as old paper and flames don’t really go well together.

No. 8. Jazz up Your Jam

I thought the paper would rip on this one, but it couldn’t have worked better! Cut a square out of your paper with your image centered. Place it on top of your jar lid and screw on the top. I then added a fun label to make the presentation even more special. In case you were wondering, that’s peach jam.

No. 9: Art Swap

This is another easy one. Swap out a piece of artwork for one of the pages, or add it on top of a piece of artwork that may be a little larger than the printed page.

No. 10: Specimen Jars

These vintage mason jars are always coming in handy for me. After I printed the orange and black butterflies, I trimmed the pages to size and tucked them into the jars. These would look great all year long!

No. 11: Boring to Bold

It’s all in the details! Take a boring glass of striped drinking straws over-the-top by sliding in a page printed with skeletons. It doesn’t get any easier than this!

No. 12: Goodie Bags

Last but not least, turn an old book page into a fun label for treats. I folded my page in half at the top of the label and cut it out, making sure not to cut the fold. Again, using double stick tape on both sides of the interior of my label, I attached it to a bag full of yummy pumpkin kisses.

That’s it! Simple, but totally fabulous and unexpected. It really is all about the details. I hope you can use some of these ideas for your Halloween and fall decorating. What other ideas do you have for embellished book pages?

Thanks again to Amy for having me here! It was an absolute joy sharing my ideas in The Idea Room!

Thank you so much Michael! You can bet I am coming to your party. Thanks for setting a place for me at the table! If you have not stopped over to Michael’s site you really need to. He has some amazing recipes and all sorts of fun things he shares. You will not be sorry! –Amy