Fall ~ Autumn

Fall (Autumn) craft tutorials for Thanksgiving that incorporate into table settings, centerpieces, mantels, entryways, vignettes, and outdoors.

A Garland: Evil Eyes & Rotting Flesh

Evil eye and rotting flesh garland

The title of this post tickles me to no end.  I usually make ‘pretty’ garlands like these, but I just couldn’t help but make some gruesome rotting flesh with an evil eye centerpiece to go along with my Zombie Candles.   I adore pretty Halloween with glittered skulls and fancy cocktails potions, but I was just in a more gruesome mood this year.  I don’t think many people will want to recreate this garland, but I did a quick mashup of the process in case anyone was interested. It involves plaster, paint, and plastic sheeting.  Here is an interpretation of … Read more…

Spooky Spider From Gloves

Stuffed Halloween spider made from gloves

Hello and Happy October Craft Thyme readers! My name is Laura, and I blog at The Experimental Home, where I share my everyday creative experiments. I “met” Brianna back in August, when she was my package pal. We hit it off, and decided to pull the ol’ switcharoo on you today, I hope you don’t mind. Now that it is actually October, I am getting excited for Halloween. It is such a fun holiday, and it is so much fun to make silly and spooky decorations. Yeah, for me, silly and spooky go together. I am the kind of girl that laughs … Read more…

Zombie Candles For Halloween

Undead Candles

I happen to be just a tiny bit obsessed with the undead.  I love to watch zombie movies! Needless to say with Halloween rolling around I needed to make something related to zombies.  In comes the idea for inanimate objects turned into zombies and out rolls my tutorial for undead candles: The following tutorial involves flame, knives, and paint attached to questionably flammable surfaces.  Basically, do not try this at home and then sue me.  I have no money anyway.  Supplies for the Zombie Apocalypse: Candles: White or suitably decaying flesh color Steak/Serrated Knife Flame in the form of lighter … Read more…

Faux Cast Iron Finish

The final finish has a lot of texture and is matte in nature like real cast iron.

I developed this paint technique to create a cast iron finish on a HID-E-OUS brass lamp we had in our living room.  My husband and I have a lovely cast iron legged side table and a shared like of Restoration Hardware.  Also a shared like of not spending that type of money.  I tried to find a good tutorial to fake a cast iron finish but gave up and started playing with paint.  After multiple attempts, hauling the side table around to compare, and scraping off bad finishes I found a way to paint a faux cast iron finish.   … Read more…

Halloween Vignette

Halloween Decorations; cast iron vases

Halloween is just around the corner and I hope this display gives you some Halloween decoration ideas.   It is one of my FAVORITE holidays.  I pretty much love every bit of it, from gaudy plastic spiders to sophisticated decorations.  Costumes! Candy!  I could go on and on.  This particular vignette was going for an old-timey, sophisticated macabre. The cast iron vases were created from two cheap glass vases.  You can see the tutorial for faux cast iron here. I added an old picture, and lord my Mama would smack me, but I can’t remember which relative this is.   … Read more…