31 Days of Halloween: Day 3- Eek Boo Tree

Day 3 is here, and along with it another day of marvelous projects! Just as a reminder, if you need to know the rules for 31 Days of Halloween, take a look at this post.

Before I show you my project, I have some sponsor info for you! Once again, you have the opportunity to win the fabulous Rick St Dennis digi set, so be on the lookout for that hidden image. But wait, I do believe we have another sponsor for today!



"Graphicat Designs is a Canadian based stamp company specializing in their own line of snarky and sarcastic, humorous sentiments and images. We carry both digital and rubber forms of our sentiments and are the only Canadian retailers of fabulous companies such as Simply Betty Stamps, Tickled Pink Stamps and Glo Skulls (more to come soon). We carry a selection of other paper crafting necessities and are adding to our inventories constantly. Come on by and check us out, sign up for our newsletter and join in our challenges. We'd love to have you! And we're proud to sponsor Smeared and Smudged!"

Graphicat Designs will offer the winner a choice of a $10 Gift Certificate to the store, or their choice of 5 digi images! Isn't that awesome?!? So when you are hopping today, you should be on the lookout for TWO hidden images! When you find them, shoot us an email and let us know where they are. Don't forget to come back by later on to check for the Day 2 winner as well.

Ok, now I am ready to show you my project for today. I so fondly named it my Eek Boo Tree. I'm sure you have seen all the cute little Halloween trees popping up in the stores lately. I really wanted one, but not a plastic or wire one, and not one that would cost me $30! So, I decided to make one myself for practically nothing.

I started by gathering some dried up branches from my cherry tree and wrapped them with floral tape in the spots where I needed to attach them together. I then drilled a hole in a scrap piece of wood and stuck the "trunk" through it for stability. After wrapping that as well, I spray painted it all black.

It looked amazing already, but I wanted to go for a different feel. So I sponge painted all the branches (very tedious!) with white, then did a brownish color wash after the white dried. I added rocks to the bottom of my container, which is a small plant container left over from buying seedlings, and then stuck the wood piece with branches in.

*click pics to view larger

In my backyard I have a birch tree and I've wanted to use the paper-like bark on a project for quite some time now. This ended up being the perfect opportunity!! After removing all the bugs (gross!), I hot glued the bark to the outside of my container. Then came the fun part...

I took air dry clay (10 lb box is only about $8, and I already had some) and shaped all my little ornaments, which include small birds, a pumpkin, a cat, and a ghost. I took tiny alphabet stamps and pressed them into the birds to spell eek and boo, and did the same on the pumpkin's hat. After drying, I painted them up and added hemp hangers to them. I have to say I cheated a little as this and the painted spool words are the only stamping I did, but I just love how it looks! Speaking of the spools, I just painted them and small wooden beads, stamped my words, and added them to hangers as well.

The final steps were to find spots to hang everything, add one bird to the front of my container, and then add my jewels to the inside of the pot. The colors mimic the colors of paint I used on the ornaments.

And voila! There you have it!! Super inexpensive handmade Eek Boo Tree!

I hope this gives you some ideas, and that you are enjoying 31 Days so far! I know I certainly am. Now it's time for you to hop along; and don't forget hidden pictures and checking back on winner info. Have fun!