Pumpkin prints

With Halloween and Thanksgiving upon us I am getting inspired by all things pumpkin!
This is a simple paint printing project using the caps of a gallon or half gallon milk jug.

You will need:
 White or other light colored paper
Orange paint or red and yellow to mix
 A  tray or other surface to put the paint on
Markers or colored pencils in green, black, orange and brown.

Step 1 Dip the cap slightly into the orange paint and print an arrangement or circles on the paper.Let the printed circles dry.

Step 3 Go into the dry circles with marker of pencils and either draw Jack o lantern faces or pumpkin ribs.

                                                                   

Step 4 If you want to make the project more elborate cut the pumpkins out and make an scene with them on another sheet of paper.

Haunted House

Twice a year I make these graham cracker houses. I make them at Halloween time with Halloween candy then again at Christmas time with holiday candy.I used chocolate grahams for the Haunted house. The graham crackers are "glued" together into a box shape with frosting.I used full sheets of crackers for this townhouse. I prefer using half sheets for Christmas so it looks more like a cottage house. Then two cracker half's are put at an angle to create the roof. Its kinda like when you build a house of cards.Broken cracker crumbs created the "grave stones" the "sidewalk" and the "dirt". I usually build the house on cardboard sheets with aluminum foil or in this case plastic wrap over them. Best to use something disposable.

Pumpkin collages

This a quick one day project you can finish it in under a half hour.Prep time goes quick with use of a paper cutter. I cut orange construction paper into strips 1 to 2 inches wide and smaller strips of green paper. Students had a choice of stacking strips horizontally or vertically and rounding off the edges to create the shape of their pumpkin. some choose to let the black background paper show through and others did not. I let the students choose if their pumpkins would have a face or not.

Halloween pin'ata's

I made some paper mache pinata with my after school kids. We used an air filled balloons for the molds.We created a mummy putting the large part upward for the head and then we put the large put facing down to create a pumpkin. The mummy is two layers of white torn paper. The jack o lantern is torn paper with fringe cut orange tissue paper.The faces are made with construction paper.

skulls !!!!!!

I don't know if you like skulls but I do and my sculptresslink etsy shop is full of them.

These are hair accessories and jewelry all skull wear made from polymer clay by me and are available for purchase on sculptresslink.etsy.com

Ceramic jack o lantern

This is a simple fairly simple clay project that you could probably do with older elementary students say in 4th or 5th grade. I made it is part of a hand building clay class I am taking. This was made with two pinch pots one stacked on top of the other. A coil was rolled and put over the seam then smoothed out. I made the lines on the pumpkin with a oval shaped chopstick but the rounded edge of a Popsicle stick would probably do. After the bisque firing I just used a orange acrylic paint on it and let parts of the stoneware color of the clay show through on the lines and the stem.A hole was cut in the bottom and on Halloween I am going to out a battery powered tea light in it. You could also vary this to be a pumpkin and skip the Halloween holiday edge then it could be a table topper for thanksgiving or other fall occasions as well.Just be sure if making the pumpkin variation that you cut a hole in the top or bottom to let the air out before firing.

Happy Halloween!

 I have been working on several Halloween projects both at work with my students and at home. I have found some Awesome projects on other peoples blogs and adapted them.

 I have made milk jug skeletons before and we made them with the after school program this year. There is a lot of cutting involved and younger students needed a lot of help putting of the milk jug handles and assembling the pieces.


 I also found some flag banners on anothers persons blog and adapted these for work by making a Boo banner with construction paper. the kids glued precut shapes of bats witch hats, letter etc on to the pendents then glued plastic drinking straws on the back to hang them.

I made a more elaborate  version of this for my home that used punches scrap booking paper  etc.

Last week we did the song "Five little pumpkins" and  a created this card stock prop to use in the sing along. I made copies of it for kids to color in and make there own. there just cut colored and added tongue depressor sticks to the back.


and of course the costume.. This part is always a challenge the sewing machine always decides to freak out on me last minute. I supposed it is because of the nature or if the Halloween fabrics I use. They are never anything like the normal fabrics I use and the sewing machine never knows how to deal with them.

So anyways I have always wanted to go as Lydia from Beetle juice abut this requires someone to go with me as "Beetlejuice"  During the summer at a street fest in Syracuse after finishing two dance performances with a group I stumbled across a bag sale and one of the items in it was a black and white striped suit. I was going to go make one.. but that would require going from good will to good will etc... painting sewing altering... so we just used the suit altered it a little and used the smaller stripes instead. I also made a tie and some wrist wraps as well as. The cape was a nightmare to make and took three attempts before arriving finally on the easiest whihc was to use my red cape and put electrical tape on it.I had used two other capes with a stretch fabric but the ribbon is was trying to apply did not stretch-- disaster!

Halloween hair stuff!

 I make new polymer clay Halloween items each year and love to do tons of Halloween craft projects with my students.  I have several Halloween hair items up in my sculptresslink shop for Halloween themed events.

I also have a large array of hair falls in my tribaltrends shop that might be great for a costume.



 I was asked to do a commission piece for a friend who wanted a witch hat head band.. I went off to may favorite store the Dollar Tree, actually several locations of it and scavenged for items for this task.

new etsy shop items

 I am working on several projects now and have gotten behind on my blog.. I have been updating my etsy  though and here are some of the new items on my tribaltrends page just it time for Halloween.The above piece is  wool needle felted hair fall for a rubber bat attached...

My sculptress link page has many new polymer clay Halloween themed items as well like the mixed media vampire just put up.
 I have been making hair falls and feather extension headbands to see more like this go to my shop tribaltrends.etsy.comhttp://www.warehousearts.org/Susanlinkart.html

Meet selena

 My Halloween theme this year is skeletons. I remember I saw this is in a art project book for kids a few years back.

Selena here is made entirely out of milk jugs. These are strung together with cording to connect her head, torso and pelvic bone.The arms and legs are cut from milk jugs. So altogether you need about five milk jugs. We hole punched the "bones" and then connected them with cable ties. The face and other details are drawn on with Sharpie.

Etsy shop markdown

I might be moving. I have so many art teaching examples and so many crafting supplies. I move a lot. I hate this process!  However It does help me downsize and not accumulate to many things.

So I am having an etsy sale! my Halloween (halloween not capped on etsy) tagged items and several artists trading cards are on sale!Artists trading cards make great stocking stuffers.!

 These are just some of the items marked down.
I mean really marked down to the point I am not sure if I even break even.So look for this logo and save big for your holiday gift buying! especially if your friends are like mine and love Halloween themed things for Christmas!

All photos by Susan Link

Getting all Halloweenie

So besides the Etsy line and the charm swap I of course have house decorating to do and costume accessories to make. Then cookies to bake and frost. I usually make a Halloween house with graham crackers and frosting.

I just started decorating.I should mention that I used to be a preschool teacher.So most of these decorations are from my preschool classroom. I made a tree out of cardboard and at each session the kids could hang charms on it that represented the season we were in. I hot glued yarn loops on onto "Woodies" shapes.  I have put them outside on a branch which is just stuck into a planter with dirt in it.

Halloween line of jewelry and accesories.

Halloween is by far my most favorite holiday.I hit up the Halloween stores in force (usually to get thing to wear other times of the year). I say that Halloween is like my Christmas. I also love doing things with students on this day and to pull out all my costumes accessories. I am creating a Halloween section to my Etsy shop. Here are some images. to purchase go to sculptresslink.etsy.com. Also look there for hair falls clips and other items to complete your Halloween costume