Bats on the belfry: plastic bat headband

Hello! You probably didn't know this, but I have a very mild super-power. If you give me a range of objects and ask me to choose one, I will instantly gravitate to the most expensive one. Oh, wait, are super-powers meant to be useful? Hmm. I may need to rethink this. Anyway I saw a picture of this really cool bat headband on Pinterest and instantly decided I needed it. And then I saw the price tag and instantly decided to make one instead.

So I had a dig around in my craft room and found some black plastic bats leftover from last Halloween, some silver spray paint, and an old headband. The headband was one that originally had some ribbon on it so you could tie a bow at the back of your head, but I wanted to wear it as a hair tie instead so I took the ribbon off and then I had a kinda gooey headband left over. I tried to clean it off with Goo Gone, but to no avail. So I had another little dig in the craft room and came out with a nice thick piece of ribbon which I attached using my hot glue gun.

I coated the bats in silver spray and then left them to dry. For AGES. Seriously, these things were sticky for WEEKS. They kept leaving traces of silver on my fingers whenever I tested them and so I thought putting something that did that in my hair wouldn't be such a good idea. Again, to the craft room. I found some spray varnish which was meant for painting and papercrafts, but figured it was worth a go anyway. And it worked! Yay! I still let them dry for a couple more days to make sure, but it worked well.

I used E6000 to attach the bats to the actual headband. Seriously, I love this glue. I know it's probably the most toxic stuff ever, but it works so well. I would kiss it, but it would probably kill me to do so. Anyway, the finished head band doesn't really look at all like the inspiration picture. But, you know what, I think I like it better this way anyway! And a $193.10 saving is nothing to scoff at either, right? ~___^

I'm working on another stash craft at the moment, so hopefully I'll have that to show you soon. And I've also got two birthday gifts in the works, and a wood working project, and I think I have to make a zombie project since I'm doing an assignment on them and now I really want to craft zombie things (again). I think we can safely say that my craft list is never getting any shorter!

- Lisa xx

Bat necklace, spider ring, rat ring: jewellery made from Halloween toys

Hello! A while ago I shared with you how to make hair clips out of leftover Halloween plastic rats, but I still had some animals left over!

My favourites were probably these little bats; they're so cute! They had a suction cap on the back, but they didn't stick very well so I had no qualms about making them into necklaces ^___^

They were really easy to make into necklaces; all I did was poke a sharp needle through their wings and then attach chain using jump rings. So simple!

 

 

I think they add a really fun touch to an outfit ^___^ 

I also had about a bazillion plastic spiders (yep, that number is totally accurate) so I made one into a ring simply by glueing on a ring base.

 

I wore this ring to work which, in hindsight, wasn't a great idea. Cue a lot of people shrieking and jumping as they saw it and thought it was real. Ooops, sorry folks!

 Lastly, a rat that didn't make it onto a hair clip became another ring.

Less people scream when they see this one. Do what you will with that information! ~___^

I think a necklace out of spiders is next on my list ... ~___^

- Lisa xx

Leather bat bows

Hello! How are you? I feel like somehow my life has actually been busier since uni finished which really does seem improbable! Maybe it's just been going by quicker since I've been having such fun! ^___^ If you follow me on Instagram you'll already know some of this, but since my last blog post I have dyed my hair blue (well, bluey green with sections of black ... ~___^), crocheted enough granny squares to now have over 100, had a flower crown making party to celebrate my birthday, completed an epic thrifting roadtrip with Rebecca (photos of which I will share with you soon!) and I've also been making myself a scarf (highly practical in this Australian summer heat!), sewing a few Christmas presents, and I even finished a project to share with you today! Omg, right? ^___^

I saw a photo of cute bat-esque bows on pinterest, but unfortunately the image was uncredited (don't you hate it when that happens?). I still wanted to make some though, so I drew up a quick pattern and got to crafting!

 If you'd like to make some too, you can click on the image above to download the pattern from Google Drive! ^___^

Here's what you'll need to make your own batty hairclips ^___^

1. Some leather or pleather scraps

2. Fabric and paper scissors

3. The pattern

4.  A needle and thread

5. Bobby pins

Firstly, cut out the pattern. I have a special pair of scissors that I use only for cutting paper, because I don't want to dull my lovely fabric scissors ^___^

 

Then use the pattern to cut out the shape from your fabric. If you can, do this without pins because they will often leave marks on leather/pleather. If you find this step tricky though, you can draw the outline on the back of the fabric and use that as your cutting guideline.

You'll also need to cut out a small rectangle of fabric to serve as the middle of your bow. Mine was about 1cm x 2cm, but this doesn't have to be exact.

 

Then fold the middle of your bat shape like the letter 'm' and use your needle and thread to secure the fold.

 

This is what it looks like from the back ^___^

 

Wrap your small rectangle of fabric around the bow and sew it together to make a small tube around the middle of your bow.

Tie off your thread, and then slip a bobby pin through the fabric tube. 

 

The tube should be rather snug so your bobby pin will stay in place without the need for glue or stitches.

 

And then that's it! You're done and now you can make more! ~___^

Yay! I think I'll make an extra big one to wear as a headband too! ^___^
I hope you like it; if you make one then I'd love to see it! ^___^

Now I'm off to refresh my university emails repeatedly until my end of year results come in! Eeek! Wish me luck?

- Lisa x