Decorating on a Dollar

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you a Witches Skull project that was from the $1 store. Since then I have been back to a few of our local $0.99 and $1 stores to find unusual items that I saw potential in.

This week I am going to share with you an idea I fell in love with on Pinterest. The original was done with real pumpkins and if any of you have bought real pumpkins lately you would find they are about the same price as what I paid for these artificial ones at the $1 sore. However, I don't want to remake these every year. So I opted for the fake pumpkins.

Here are your supplies:

• Black lace
• Black feathers
• Black acrylic paint (or Ranger's black crackle paint)
• Black (gloss) and Off White (satin) spray paint
• (3-5) Fall silk leaves
• (3) Artificial Pumpkins (mine are from the $1 store)
• Print "Trick or Treat" (or any other saying) in the desired font on your computer.
• Black Gemstone swirls (say it in crystals by Prima)
• Black Sharpie
• and of course... HELMAR 450

Step 1: Spray paint - the pumpkins with primer or several coats of the off white and the silk leaves with the black.

Step 2: line up the printed "Trick or Treat" on the desired pumpkin and trace over the printed word slowly with the Sharpie. Remove the printed word when done.

Step 3: Fill in the outlined letters with black acrylic paint and paint the stem with also. OR, use gemstone glue to fill in the letters and then glitter or micro bead them. Supper cute!

Step 4: Use HELMAR 450 to adhere the embellishments to the stem. (feathers, leaves and lace)

Step 5: place your swirled crystals onto the pumpkins where desired. (these could also be painted on)

Here you go! Don't you just love it. Now I had all the supplies accept the pumpkins in my craft room. Get crafty and use what you have.

Have a Happy Helmar day!

Spooktacular Skull

It's that time of year again... time to get crafting for the holidays! My favorite is Christmas but I always go in order... something about the fall colors that make me feel all warm and cozy inside. Though I have to admit... Halloween is not warm and fuzzy to me. I still have young kids and we don't do "scary".

This project is not for my home though the skull is kind of growing on me... It's for a new endeavor I am working on and if you fallow my blog you will learn more about it in the coming weeks.

Believe it or not after almost a month of creative block, (yes we all get it) this project came to me in the isle of the $1 store. Yup, I jumped out of line and headed over to the Halloween decor and snagged up a cheap… cheesy plastic skull. I almost put it back too, after getting back in line behind about five people that were originally behind me. "What the heck? It's only a $1, right?" I thought, convincing and rationalizing with myself. In the photo below you can see the wondrous thing of beauty that is the $1 plastic skull... with it's poor paint job and bad dental job.

Though this looks bad, I rarely “never fear when I have Helmar near”! LOL... really I used that handy dandy Glue chart in the upper left column on this blog and found the best glue to adhere paper to plastic. I chose the Gemstone glue. I like in this case that it was not fast drying, I added a bit of water to it also to help the torn pages of the dictionary mould to the shapes of the skull.

Once dry I added a layer of Helmar's Acrylic Sealer to the entire skull to give it a shinny and sealed surface. Once the sealer was dry I used Helmar's Gemstone Glue to fill in the sockets and mouth with black glitter.

Using some beautiful paper from Robbins Nest I began to create the witches hat. Cutting it into 1/3 of a circle and then using the amazingly fast drying Helmar 450 to create the cone top. I added the brim of the hat also using Helmar's 450.

Sealing the hat with Helmar's Acrylic Sealer, I love this stuff, gave the hat just the right sheen.

Once the hat was in place the project started to grow on me... Here is the back where you get to see this great paper from Robbins Nest and some of their Dew Drops (Mardi Gras). These are not brads and oh my they are so much easier to use. They look great and give a metal feel. I just had to add this tear on the brim to have another opportunity to work with them.

Robbins Nest is such a great company. I love all their products. Though this project didn't have much room to so their rubons I did get to sneak one on it with a Tear Drop (Forest Fun), also another product of the Robbins Nest. The Tear Drop brings this spider to life!

I hope you have had a great week seeing the wonderful projects with Helmar and The Robin’s Nest.

Have a Happy Helmar Day!

Mark Your Spot

Hello everyone!

It's that time of year again! I love the fall. School is in, the colors of the season change, the cool evenings and the holidays are on the horizon. With the beginning of the school year I am always on the look out for great hand made teachers gifts. With our school opening back up next week I wanted to share a little gift I am creating to toss into those teacher's baskets.

The wonderful thing about this project is that it is small enough to begin to use up those scraps you have been saving all year. It's quick and easy and useful too, thanks to the Helamr Quickfix Adhesive Runner! Check out this how to video.

Don't you just love how easy these are? I love that I can use up some of those extra stickers too. I have seen these created as page monsters for the kids with teeth and eyes as well as something more elegant with some embossing powder and decorative scissors. Play with it and have a great time. Don't forget to use the Helmar Quickfix Adhesive Runner to make this project even easier!

I hope you all have a Happy Helmar Day!

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue...

I've heard it's been said, Helmar 450 is... THE GO TO GLUE!

Hello everyone!

It's me, Grace. I am back today to show you a paper rose tutorial. This is one of my favorite flowers to create. I love making these for altered items or hair pieces etc. I thought I would show you how to make this style of spiral rose because the key to a good end result is biased on the glue you use! Guess what? Helmar 450 is the go to glue to use!

Don't they look great? I love how they turn out and how easy they are to create with Helmar 450!

Hope you all have a happy Helmar weekend and get that 450 out and make something fun!

Decorating Doors with Helmar

Hello everyone! I am so excited to share with you today a sign I made for my dear daughter. Last month I shared with you all a sign I made for my son's bedroom door. My son loved it so much and my daughter envied it as much so I had to make her one also! Best Creations "Ballet Princess" papers made it so easy!



Like a lot of girls her age she is into ballet and all things pink. She absolutely adores this sign. The ballerina has been fancy cut out of the Best Creations "Ballet Princess" line and I added a tutu with some Helmar 450. Look at all this wonderful glitter. That all came on the paper, perfectly sealed and no flaking!


The sign is an MDF base shape that I got a long time ago on clearance. I used Helmar Premium Craft Glue to adhere the paper to the sign. Then, I layered Helmar Crackle Step 1 and Step 2 over the paper. I ran a dark pink chalk ink over the edges to highlight the crackle. I really LOVE this stuff!



The Best Creations line "Ballet Princess" also has some wonderful sayings and signs. This frame was blank and I added some stickers to title it Trinity's "Studio". The stickers were white and I painted them with some Smooch. I love changing things up! I used Helmar's Liquid Scrap Dots to raise and adhere the stars and Helmar's 450 to adhere the flowers, the eyelash ribbon, beading and grunge board letters.


I hope you have enjoyed all the wonderful Helmar posts this week and in the weeks to come.