Apple Shrunken Head

These are so fun and easy to make! However, you need at least 2 weeks to achieve success. I started this as the 1st item for the OPY swap, but it was the last one finished. As you can see inthe pics, I had planned to put it on a spring and have it jump out at her, but I ran out of room in the can. And, the hair was so thick it wouldn't slide out very well. I ended up removing the ugly spring underneath and just tying it to the lid.




To make one, you carve the face in the apple after removing the skin. Soak it in a mixture of lemon juice, salt and water for 24 hours. Then, you let it hang for 2 weeks or bake it on 200 degrees in the oven until it starts to dry. Once it is done shriveling and shrinking you can seal it and start decorating. The eyes I used are the same cat eyes on the spider beanie with the exception that I scratched off some of the paint and repainted it red to get the bloodshot streaks on the iris.

Spider Beanie

This item, which was the first thing I completed for the OYP swap, didn't fit in the can. Well, it did before I made everything else, but here it is modeled by me:





I used scrap yarn I was given. The orange/black (acrylic?) yarn is kinda scratchy, so I put a thick fuzzy chenille type on the band around the head. The knit pattern was made on my DIY pen loom with a slightly altered rib stitch I learned online. I made the pom pom body, but the head is a store bought pom pom I had left from another project. The spider (cat) eyes were also bought for another project. Overall, I think it turned out really cute. It looks ordinary until you see it from the back staring at you.

My daughter didn't want to give it up, so I guess I'll be making her one. Probably pink/brown.

Paper Mache Witch Boot

To decorate the can for the OYP Halloween Swap I made a paper mache boot:


Note the Pringles guy JOL.


The can leg is removable and is a poison bottle. On it's label were the contents of the package inside. I didn't tak any pics of it finished, but my partner has a pic in the gallery images. Here is the label:





My sister came up with the idea to add what I'm calling "fiendship" pins to the laces:



To make the paper mache boot I used a large Frosted Flakes cereal box for the sides and some free newspapers I dug out of the post office trash cans by the mailboxes for most of the rest of it. (Yes, I was dumpster diving for them. It's usually only full of junk mail discarded when sorting mail, anyway, so :p.) I used a cut up toilet paper tube for the heel. Everything was held together with masking tape before I pasted the newspaper strips on. I glued it with wallpaper paste, although Elmer's glue watered down would work just as well. The paste that I used , which is a powder, I've had since 1991! That's some old paste! Worked like new! I can't believe I've hauled that stuff with me for this many years. Still have a lot left, too.

Anyway, here are some pics before I painted it:



I'll be posting each item separately and linking them all in my last post. To many pics for one post!