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I am SO excited to finally be showing these. I am a slow crafter, and I have been working on these for a week. I'm sure someone more skilled would be able to do these in a lot less time. Here's the finished product:
Even my boyfriend thinks they are adorable!
All the supplies I used came from the Dollarama.
10 1-inch styrofoam balls (1$)
Halloween colored pipe cleaners- black, orange, purple (only showed here were the black ones, because I wasn't gonna use the other colors at first) (1$)
1 Pack of assorted size googly eyes (1$)
Fuzzy spider web net- black (1$) You could also use black yarn, which was what I was looking for until I found this.
Other supplies everyone has that I had to get since I'm only starting doing crafts:
Black craft paint (1$)
Paintbrushes (1$)
White glue (1$)
Glue gun + glue sticks (13$)
So all in all, they would cost 4$ to make 10 spiders, as I am assuming you have all of the second list.
Alright, here we go! Let's get ready to make some cute spiders!
Step 1: Paint balls black; no matter how much string you put, there will be some white spots if you don't. I found it easiest to just stick a pipe cleaner to hold the ball while painting. It was then really practical to stick that in my pen holder to let them dry.
Step 2: Cover the ball with glue. I used white glue, I knew it was gonna take a while to dry, but at least it would dry clear. Anybody got a suggestion as to what else I could've used? I thought of using the glue gun, but then realized I would be burning my fingers a lot while putting the string into place.
Step 3: Apply the string.
When I bought the spider web, I hadn't realized it was pre-made, therefore not a continuous string, but rather a bunch of string knotted together to give the spider web. I wanted long strings, so I was patient and actually undid a lot of the knots. In the end, I had 2 long pieces for every ball. It was not quite enough for all the balls, but I also had some little bits of string.
At first, I tried putting the string on with no particular pattern, but that was problematic. It slips easily on the glue, since it doesn't dry quickly, and that just made it really hard. Then I found this way of doing it:
Just start at one point and apply in a spiral. Try to press it down exactly perpendicular to the surface of the ball, or else it slips sideways and push the rest away and off the ball. I did a little more than half the ball with 1 string, then let it dry overnight (I work on my crafts in the evenings). The second half was a lot easier to apply and I no longer needed the pipe cleaner stuck in the ball to grasp it properly.
Here's the ball half done, and one completely covered:
Step 4: Add the legs.
Cut the pipe cleaner to the desired length. I did a few different lengths. Some I cut in 4, some in 3, some in 2, and for the queen spider I used 3/4 of 1 pipe cleaner. I wanted variety. I also mixed up the colors.
Step 5: Hot glue the eyes.
I was actually a trooper and looked at real pictures of spiders' eyes close up (I hate spiders...), because I wanted to reproduce as much as possible. In the end though, I just made different patterns for every spider using 8 eyes of different size for each.
And here they are once again in all they adorable glory.
The queen I think is my favorite!
I put a few with my Dollarama pumpkins! See, pumpkins and spiders can be friends... except that last one on the right doesn't seem to be enjoying himself too much :S
I am so glad to finally be done 1 Halloween craft. Tomorrow I am hopefully getting my Halloween cupcake liner topiary done (original from CraftOManiac). I went to 4 different Dollarama's before I could find some cupcake liners. I got 2 different packs of 50, and am making 2 small topiaries. I'm really hoping that will be enough, because I don't know if I will be able to get more. I can't wait to make them though!
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I`ve been starring at splash stains on my wall behind the stove for a month now, and finally I said no more! My walls are quite hard to clean since the person before me decided to use mat paint; do not like! Since I do live in a rented apartment, I don`t really want to invest in making a full on tiled backsplash, nor do I know if I would be allowed. So I came up with this simple, cheap, easy to put up (and removable!), clean solution.
This is what my kitchen looked like before:
Kinda boring, white cabinets, with beige paint on the walls. 2 of my kitchen walls are dark(er) red though, so at least I've got a bit of color in there (I'm keeping the previous tenants color). But still, if I could bring more color on the other side of the kitchen, I would!
I bought some pretty sticky shelf liner stuff, otherwise known as contact paper I believe. I wasn't sure what I would find in the store, but I found one I rather liked in the color scheme I got going, and bonus it looked like tile! All I did was just cut it to size and taped it to the wall. I wasn't sure how easily removable the sticky of it would be, so I didn't use it's natural stickiness to stick it to the wall (woah, too much sticky in the same sentence!) I used instant-tac (that stuff is AWESOME!).
(EDIT: After my fake backsplash had fallen to the ground about 3 times, the instant-tac failing to hold, I decided to just stick it directly to the wall. It seemed like it would be easy enough to remove it in the end. Actually had to unstick it a few times because it was bubbling up as I was putting it up. So should be removable in 3+ years when we move.)
And now I got this:
I'm happy with it. Only thing is I didn't put enough instant-tac, so it bubbles up. I might still use the natural sticky other side, but I gotta test out how easy or hard it is to remove first.
Now I'm kinda debating if I put some all along under my cupboards. The only problem is that my counter is lower than standard, yet the cabinets are higher than standard, therefore I have a wide space between the 2, and the liner is not wide enough to fit the whole space. But I'll start with this, and we'll see.
What's that cooking, you ask?
It's ham!! Smoked pork picnic shoulder ham to be exact. Super simple to make, too, and the tastiest. Just boil ham with 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup maple syrup (I kinda just go by eye really), for 3-4 hours. My parents also add molases, but I never bothered to buy some. Then turn off heat and let sit for an other couple hours (the longer you let sit, the more tender it will be; we did it overnight this time cuz we started it late at night, so it sat 6 hours). The bone should fall *right* off! Just try not to get sick off of it, like my boyfriend almost did (it's seriously his favorite meat now. He says he'll never leave me cuz I can make this lol). That's it!
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When we went shopping this weekend for food, leeks were on special 3.99 for 6 BIG leeks! I LOVE creme of leek soup, but I don't yet own a blender :( I did, however, receive money for my birthday last week, which I plan on spending on a blender and some crafts stuff.
So, thinking ahead, I decided to buy the leeks and freeze them, so that I would have some later when I buy my blender! It's a great solution for when you want to save money on fruits and veggies but don't necessarily plan on eating them right away. All you need to do is:
Buy on sale. I got 6 leeks for 3.99$!!
Prepare. In this case, rinse and cut those leeks up! This is the first time I keep so much of the greener upper parts, we'll see how it turns out.
Pack'em up into bags. I had 6 leeks, so put 2 cut up leeks into each bag.
And put'em in the freezer! I'm lucky enough to have a second small freezer, even if we do have a small apartment. So I'm planning on buying only on sale and freezing for later.
Here's a recap, not that you need it, but I was playing around with photoshop...
The recipe will make about 6 big bowls of soup. I will post that recipe when I make my soup next time! Hope you enjoyed this quick how-to!
I've got a few projects started up, but haven't had time to finished them, and I don't know how long it will be until I put them up on my blog. I seriously admire all you women who can hold up a blog, post multiple times a week, and still be a mom and wife. I've got so much to learn!
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If anyone actually reads this, I would love feedback. I'm only getting started blogging, and I feel like a newbie. My pictures are crap leave something to be desired, but I really don't know what more to do, I have barely any lighting in my apartment on a sunny day, and do most of everything at night anyway, so I have no choice but to use the flash. Not to mention my camera sucks. I've tried photoshopping them a little, but yeah. I'll probably get better with time.
Also, I've tried to finish my pictures up a little more, I don't know if that makes it too busy or what. And I realize the font there might not be all that readable. I have to find a font I like. All in due time.
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