Episode 41: 3rd Halloween Special

Here are the show notes to episode 41 of my local access show "Its Easy Being Green."  

How to make Halloween treat containers out of toilet paper tubes.

How to make fun Halloween jewelry out of plastic bread tags.

Google eye picture frame

A little show and tell.

Swap package to LadyKatka     &    Swap package from LadyKatka

Swap package to spookycuddles  &  Swap package from sppokycuddles

Swap package to E.B.             &         Swap package from E.B.

T-shirt necklace                               Spiders & Plarn

Halloween Swap Package from Spookycuddles

My friend spookycuddles and I agreed a year ago that we would do a Halloween swap together this year.  We both love Halloween a lot, and always decorate for it.  Here is my swap package from her.  I loved everything in it.  

She sent me some wine bottle labels.  I was really hoping to get some of her fun chenille stem items.  She made a Halloween snowflake ornament and 6 Halloween candy canes out of them.  

In the right hand picture above you can see two lollipops that she made sparkly chenille stem spiders for.

For the recycled item, she painted 3 thread cones to look like jack-o-lanterns and added fuzzy green thread to the top and bottom of them.  So cute!  

Here is my Jack Skeleton treat bag that she made.  I can carry it on my wrist to Salem this year.

My little one loved the plastic pumpkin.  He is using it to hold his marbles in.

I really wanted a set of holographic Halloween portraits.  Spookycuddles titled them Grandma Ghoul and Grandpa Ghost.  My youngest son loved them.

Check out this cool leaf mask that she made for me.  I will be wearing this to Salem this weekend.

She also made me this cute felted tomb stone and crochet spider web ornaments.

This card was cute, and the witch is removable.

She even thought about my kids, and made them both a goody bag.  I love the chenille stem twist ties.  My youngest loves the plastic rings that were inside.

For the wearable item, she made me this fuzzy, sparkly scrunchie.

For the kitchen item she crochet this candy corn dish towel.  It is hanging up in my kitchen right now.

I loved everything!  I'm looking forward to our next swap together.

Halloween Swap Package from E.B.

I received my 2nd swap package a week or two ago, but I haven't had the chance to blog about it until now.  This package was part of the Halloween ornament swap.  My partner made me a temari ornament, 3 blank cards, 1 card for me, a spider web with a spider ring, and 2 chocolate bars.  The Peanuts Gang item above is an envelope.  She used one of the Peanuts activity pages that I had sent her to make it.  Very clever and cute.  I love everything.

The temari rattles, because she made a rattle out of beads and two bottles caps and placed it inside.  Plastic bags are also inside of it making it a very recycled item.  She chose Halloween colors (secondary colors) for it.  It is beautiful, and I have wanted one for a long time.

Halloween Swap Package from LadyKatka

Last week I received my first Halloween swap package in the mail.  It was from LadyKatka in Canada.  I loved everything.

For my trick or treat bag, I got this cool crochet eyeball bag.  You know its cool when even my 12 year old, who doesn't show an interest in much, said "Whoa, that is awesome!"  I've already used it as a project bag this month.

I took these for a spin today, since it was chilly at the park.  She designed these cool spider Halloween gloves herself.  I was really hoping for some fingerless gloves.  Now I have something awesome to wear to Salem this year.

This is the decorative item, 4 squares that say BOO!  I can either hang them up or use them as coasters.  Then there is a little felt bat that will be added to my youngest son's felt board stories.

A little added bonus was this beaded spider.  I'm going to have my jeweler friend help me turn it into a brooch.  If you look at the first picture, you can see the front of the purple card.  It had a cool drawing of a black tree.

The recycled item is these two painted tin cans that are tea light candle holders.  The orange one has a jack-o-lantern punched out of it, and the Black one says BOO!  

On one of the packages was this bow made from black and white pages of a magazine.  I know that there are several different directions on how to make these on the internet (if anyone is interested).  

She also send me some Kinder chocolate.  You can't buy these in the states.  I had heard about them, but I didn't really understand what they were until I opened it for myself.  They are hollow chocolate eggs.  Inside of the eggs are these yellow plastic containers.  Inside the containers are surprises.  Can you believe that this airplane fit inside of one of those plastic containers?  The other one contained a small hour glass.  We have yet to open the 3rd one.  My kids loved them.  I'm thinking of punching 2 holes in the top of the plastic containers, adding a jump ring and a key chain ring, and attaching it to my on-the-go crafting kit.  It can hold something small in it, like stitch markers or buttons.

Thank you LadyKatka for everything!

Halloween Swap Gifts for LadyKatka

LadyKatka (ravelry) was my other partner in the larger Halloween swap.  She received her package recently (in Canada).  Here is what I made for her.

A treat bag / project bag made from 3 large M&M wrappers (donated from a restaurant) and skull duct tape (more pictures below), a knitted dish towel, a crochet plarn scrubby, a google eye picture frame, skull stitch markers, gauntlet style fingerless gloves, toilet paper tube treat containers, a cork witch...

Some small goodies like a skull stamp, parachute black cat, spider rings...

A magnet made from a wooden Halloween piece (the toad warts), a plastic bottle ring crochet wreath ornament, pumpkin decoration, a bat ATC, Halloween pencils, Peanuts Gang activity pages, and a card.

Here is my video tutorial on how to make this google eye picture frame.

Gauntlet style fingerless gloves, which I am currently making myself a pair.

This wreath ornament was made by crocheting around a plastic bottle ring.

The pattern for this ornament is:

- Chain 20 stitches.

- Take a plastic bottle ring and half double crochet around it.

- Join with a slip stitch.

- Triple crochet twice in every stitch around, and join with a slip stitch.

- Chain 15 to 20 stitches, and tie to the other chain length.

- Then just add accessories.

Here is my video tutorial on how to make this bag.

Modfied Feather & Fan Hanging Dishtowel

The plarn scrubby pattern is just simply crocheting a basic circle:

- chain 2
- crochet 8 times into the 2nd chain from the hook
- single crochet twice in every stitch = 16 sts
- 2 sc in next stitch, 1 sc in next stitch, repeat = 24 sts
-  2 sc in next stitch, 2 sc in next 2 stitches, repeat = 32 sts- repeat until it is the size that you want. 

I used 1 Kohls gray plastic bag and 1 small black plastic bag to make the plarn.

These were the first stitch markers that I had ever made.  I loved them so much that I made myself a set.  The skull beads were found at Michael's Craft Store.

These cork witches were based off of this  Korknisse pattern.  I just modified the pattern slightly.

This artist trading card was made by watercolor painting on watercolor paper and then drawing on it with a black fine tipped sharpie.

Here is my video tutorial on how to make these toilet paper tube treat containers.  I put all of the smaller items in these containers.

LadyKatka said that she wants that skull duct tape.  She loved the skull stitch markers, especially since they are piratey.  She was hoping to get a cork witch and an ATC from me, so its good that I made some for her.  The magnet is already on her fridge.  Not pictured above, because it was a last minute add, was a red Kool Aid juice pouch notebook.  I had so much fun making things for her.