Mini Jack-o-Lanterns

If you waited til the last minute to get your Halloween pumpkin this year, you may think you don't have time to really decorate anything anyway. Not true! These mini pumpkin Jack-o-Lanterns are super quick and easy to whip up, you can have a whole army of them by Halloween night!

To make these easy mini Jack-o-Lanterns at home you will need:

One small pumpkin
one pair of plastic Dracula teeth (I found mine in a pack of 8 at Target in the dollar section. BONUS: they glow in the dark).
Carving tools
paint or marker

To start, measure your Dracula teeth to see how large of a hole you need to make in your tiny pumpkin to fit them inside. Decide where you want the mouth to be on your pumpkin, and then carefully carve out a space to insert the teeth. I have some linoleum block cutting tools from college, and I think they do a really good job of carving pumpkins, but you do need to be careful as they are sharp and can slip if you aren't paying attention.

Once your mouth hole is carved, you can remove any of the insides of the pumpkin you feel necessary and then insert the teeth. It actually looks pretty creepy just like this, stop here if you want!

Finish your Jack-o-Lantern by adding eyes, etc. with paint or permanent markers. Presto! A tiny Jack-O-Lantern complete with glowing teeth!

Glow in the Dark Halloween Mug

I've been playing around with some glow in the dark acrylic paint and while wandering the aisles at a local Dollar Store I found a plain mug and knew it needed some glow in the dark flair! I decided to paint a face on it for Halloween, it looks quite a bit like Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas and I am just fine with that. I'm especially fine with the overall cost of this project (with coupons I spent about 4 dollars for all the supplies, and additional mugs would only cost an extra dollar each as there was plenty of paint left over.

To make your own glowing Halloween mug you will need:

1 plain mug in color of your choice
DecoArt Glow-in-the-Dark Paint
paintbrush
Extra acrylic paint colors of your choice for mixing (optional)


Start by making sure your mug is clean and dry. Next, mix your acrylic paint. I like the DecoArt glow in the dark paint because you can mix it with other colors in a 1:1 ratio. I wanted a really vibrant glow here, but decided to add in some glittery acrylic paint in gold for this mug. I've tried mixing in other solid colors and it still works, but dulls the glow a little. These glitter paints mix without dulling the glow in the dark paint, and they came in this sample pack for a dollar, great because I didn't need a lot of extra paints but it gives lots of color mixing options.

Next, I painted on my eyes. I did this first because I wanted to base the rest of my face on the size and distance of the eyes. After painting them on to my liking, I put in the nose holes and then the crooked grin.

I put on quite a bit of paint, so to aid in drying evenly I carefully laid the cup on its back, so the face I painted was pointed at the ceiling. If I hadn't done that the paint would have eventually pooled at the bottom of the eyes and possibly ran down the side of my mug. Another option would be to flip the cup every so often while drying so that it rests on the lip and then base of the mug.

*Note: While this paint works great on glass surfaces, I recommend hand washing to give your mug the longest life. I also recommend letting the paint sit out to dry for at least a week before you use and wash it at all.

Don't forget to follow The Craftinomicon on your favorite social media so you don't miss any other great projects!

Painted Tiles: Space Invaders Coasters

In yet another installment of "crafts for guys" I made these Space Invaders coasters for my husband using the same technique of tile painting I used for these. The husband and I are total video game nerds, but I don't think anyone would turn these little guys away. The straight lines of 8 bit video game graphics really help give this project more ease if you aren't so handy with an Xacto knife, as a ruler can be used as a guide if needed. I personally like being able to tell my projects are handmade, so when a line isn't perfect, I don't freak out. As I didn't really give clear instruction in the other post here goes:

You will need:

A ceramic tile (or tiles) from the hardware store
Enamel paints
an image you like
contact paper
an X acto knife

*If your image doesn't fit on your tile, you can always crop it any way you like or use a copy machine to change the size to fit.

To start, I clean my tile with rubbing alcohol and then cover it with contact paper (any color will do), make sure to smooth out any bubbles.

Next, I placed my image onto the contact paper and taped it into place.

Then, using an Xacto knife, I cut around my image pressing firmly so I would cut through both my paper and the contact paper.

Remove your image from on top of the contact paper and then carefully remove the area of the contact paper you will be filling in with paint. I used the tip of my blade to help pull up a corner of the contact paper so it could easily be peeled. Peel slowly so that if needed you can redo any cuts that didn't go all the way through without distorting your image.

I then re-cleaned the exposed areas of my tile with rubbing alcohol and dryed it before applying my paint.

If only applying one coat of paint, I try to remove my contact paper guide while it is still wet to avoid messing up the paint edges. If I use more than one coat, I will score around the edges of my design again with my Xacto blade to prevent rough edges or paint peeling off with the contact paper.

Then, depending on your type of enamel paint, bake as directed to set your design permanently.

To make the coasters I used a sheet of craft foam, cut to size and glued onto the back to protect my tabletops from the rough tile back. You could, also frame these to use as wall art, simply add a hook to the back, use as a regular tile, place them into concrete pavers, etc.

Painted Tiles: Alice in Wonderland

First I'm using paint chips, now I'm using tiles. I really never shut off my brain, so when I was wondering through the hardware store, naturally I thought I could find some awesome crafty finds. I really enjoy using my enamel paints, so I'm always looking for new ways to incorporate them into projects, and until I moseyed on down the tile aisle it had never crossed my mind. These tiles are a steal at 16 cents a piece, and come in a white and off white color.

"What are you going to do with a bunch of painted tiles?"

Well, obviously, you could still use it to tile something if you wanted. This little Alice in Wonderland would be great in a series of tiles, and you could definitely use it to tile a border in a child's room, or if you didn't already have the best playhouse ever, you quickly could. You could also attach a hook to the back with some epoxy and use it as wall art, or even frame it. Have a friend that really likes tea? Make some more Mad Hatter/Tea Party themed tiles and glue either cork or foam to the back and voila! Coasters.

My image is Alice falling down the rabbit hole. I made it by placing contact paper on my tile, cutting out the silhouette with an Xacto knife and applying my paint first in one direction (Left to Right) and then the other (up and down). I let it dry in between coats to get full coverage. I forgot to go back with my Xacto knife and score the paint around the edges of my silhouette, so when I pulled off the contact paper, it removed some of the paint on one edge, leaving a rough edge. I actually think this looks better since she is "falling through space" so I didn't go back and touch up the edges. If you decide to try out using contact paper or other stencils, I would recommend either removing the paper while the paint is still wet to avoid this issue, or going back after the paint is dry and cutting around the edges again with your knife.

Then, do as you see fit with your tile. I will be posting another project I made for my husband with this method shortly. It can definitely fit any theme, and you don't need to be able to draw if you just use silhouettes that you can print out and fit onto a tile to trace around.

DIY Vinyl Decals

It's another cloudy, raining off and on kind of day in Portland so I am once again opting for indoor crafting on my days off. Today I decided to spruce up my Expedit bookshelves from the good old IKEA with a new vinyl decal! These are super easy to make, and also super cheap. All you need is some contact paper in any color or pattern you like, a surface for cutting on and an X-acto knife or mat knife/box cutter. Oh, and I guess it wouldn't hurt to have an image in mind for your decal (you can draw your own, or find something from a photograph, book, the internet, etc.). As you can see, I chose a paper airplane, which was extra easy to do because of the straight lines. You can certainly do more organic shapes, just keep in mind your own skills with an X-acto knife and whether you are up to the challenge. I have seen some people make some VERY intricate decals.

Make sure your blade is sharp to get the best results, as you may be able to see from this detail, mine was a tad dull on the inside tip cut of my paper airplane, so it's a tiny bit ragged. Since this is a temporary and very changeable detail to add to a permanent piece of furniture in my home, however, I wasn't too upset about the tiny imperfection. I got my roll of contact paper from a dollar store so I can probably make enough decals off that one dollar to last me a whole year if I update the look once or twice a month, depending on the size of the decal.

If you were wanting to make your decal a more permanent part of your furniture/wall/etc. you could certainly use this technique and paint over your decal, then make sure to gently score around the decal with a sharp blade before peeling the decal off (to avoid jagged paint edges and peeling) and leave behind the decal image on your finished piece. It would be like using a much more intricate painter's tape that comes in a large sheet rather than strips. I'm thinking about making some of these for the little nieces. It would even be great to make them some personalized stickers, since the contact paper peels off of surfaces much better than traditional adhesive stickers. I'm sure my brother would appreciate that.