Etch a Halloween Treat Jar with etchall!

Fall is here!  First up and just around the corner is Halloween and a good excuse to make fun decorations and give treats!  I found a large jar with a wooden stopper lid at my local Goodwill.  Etchall is the perfect match-up to make my jar into a cool project worthy of giving as a great gift or decorating the house with.  It will hold lots of goodies!

You will need a few things to start:

*etchall:  dip 'n etch liquid, a 32 ounce container; Detail Pick Tool; etchmask Stencil Combo Pack

*Die-cut Machine with Halloween dies or disk

*Large plastic jug with top cut off for dipping your project in.  (*Make sure the jar will fit before starting. Mine was almost too tall!  Lesson learned!)

*3 ply jute string

*natural raffia

*Fall leaves, small sticks from branches

*Acrylic paints:  Orange, Black, White

*Paintbrushes

*scissors

*Adhesives

Instructions:

Wash and dry the glass jar before starting.

Positive Stencil:  Cut one design from the Etchmask at a time.  Lift out the shape; position and adhere it to the jar.  Gently rub out all air bubbles.  Repeat for all of the shapes you will be putting on the jar.

Etch:  Make sure to have a container that will fit the jar and not be too big around.  You will have to etch the entire piece at one time to get the right effect.  Place some weight in your jar.  I used glass marbles; but when those weren't heavy enough I resorted to a bottle of wine on top of that and it was finally weighted enough to stay put.  No; I didn't need to use the watermelon that you see in the picture.  Lol.  I had a different plan for it!

Carefully pour the etchall liquid into the plastic receptacle.  This could take the entire bottle.  You will be re-using it; so plan to pour it back into the etchall bottle when you are done.  Let the piece sit in the etchall for 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove the jar from the etchall; remove the stencil stickers and weights, then wash the jar thoroughly. 

Now, you might want to pour a glass of that wine and continue with the rest of the project!

Lid:  Apply craft glue to the top and sides of the lid and wrap the jute string around the entire lid until it is covered. I started with a tiny circle in the middle of the top of the lid and worked out to the edges, then the sides.

Raffia:  Pull out about 6 strands of raffia.  Tie a knot in the middle.  Wrap around the neck of the jar and end with a shoestring bow.  Shred the loops and tails of the raffia for a fuller look.  Adhere a leaf to the bow. Trim excess.

Pumpkins:  Use a wooden chopstick or similar object to emboss the recessed lines in the foam ball.

Use the chopstick as a handle and paint the ball Orange.  Paint Black facial features and highlight with the White paint.  Finish with a little piece of branch stuck in the top for the stem.  Glue a leaf to the side of the stem.  Repeat for each Smoothfoam pumpkin.

Below you will see a ghost variation of the pumpkin.  Also made out of a Smoothfoam Ball; white and black paint.  

I hope you enjoy our Fall weather and got a little inspiration here today.  For more information about using etchall and all of their great products; go to http://etchall.com/ and follow the links!

You should be able to find the haunted house on the Smoothfoam blog at http://www.smoothfoam.com/blog/

Hope you take time to enjoy all of the little blessings along the way and

Live Life with a Flourish!

Marilyn

Etchall for Halloween Gift Giving and Decorating!

TRICK OR TREAT!  Do you like to give special treats to your friends and family for Fall and Halloween?  These bottles are craft store finds and were very inexpensive.  A little Etchall, some cardstock, stamps, inks and ribbon transformed them into spooky little containers perfect for holding sweet treats!  I can't wait to treat my friends with them.

To get started, I gathered my supplies.

etchall Glass and Mirror Etching Cream
etchall etchmask
Detail Pick Tool
Squeegee
Cardstock papers:  Orange, Black, Brown
Halloween themed rubber stamps and ink
Inks:  StazOn Brown, Black and White
Wedge sponge
Die cutting machine and Halloween shaped dies:  Use the negative image for the spider and skull
Crown pins
Scraps of ribbon and lace in black and white (or cream)
Painter's tape
Bottles:  3 in various shapes and sizes, the tallest about 6" high.


Remove the corks from the bottles. Wash and dry thoroughly; removing any sticky labels.

Measure the surface of the bottle.  Cut out design on the die-cut machine.  For the skull and bones; use the reverse image as shown below.  Use the painter's tape to protect the bottle from excess etching creme.

Lay the bottle flat and liberally apply the etching creme.  Let it sit for 15 minutes.  Check to make sure the creme is not sliding onto the glass where you don't want it to go.  When the 15 minutes is up; remove the excess creme with the squeegee and put it back in the bottle to use on another day.  It can turn the darkest shade of brown and it will still be good to go!

Wash the residual etching creme off of the bottle.  Remove all of the etchmask; rinse again and dry.

Place the corks back in the bottles.

Using the sponge, apply black StazOn Ink to the spider.  The etched design will have "tooth" to hold the ink.  I used White for the skull and bones and for the spider web.  Use a clean rag to wipe each bottle clean to remove any excess ink.

I used the die-cut machine to cut out the tags.  I stamped on the cream colored cardstock with brown ink.  I cut out a second slightly larger tag and adhered the first one to the background piece.  

Poke one crown pin through a tag so the saying shows. Stick it in the cork.  Repeat for the others. 

Tie a piece of ribbon around the neck of each bottle.

Now, the fun part is filling these up with colored candies and giving them to my friends and family for Trick-Or-Treat.  If you are like I am, you will need to get a head start to make sure you don't miss it altogether!

The etchall products were kindly provided for me to use by B & B products.  I hope you got some inspiration here today.  If you would like to watch a tutorial on etching, you can go to the official website at http://etchall.com/ and Barbee has provided a great tutorial to get us going.

I hope you enjoy the small blessings you find along the way and

Live Life with a Flourish!

Marilyn