Glow in the Dark Pumpkin DIY Tutorial

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10-diy-pumpkin-no-carve-ideas

I have always been one part in love with glow in the dark and one part scared of it.  The scared part comes from childhood whenever I had a glow-in-the-dark object in my room.  When I went to sleep at night, I’d always have to turn the other way cause the glow object creeped me out and kept me up at night.  Luckily, I’ve grown out of those feelings. LOL.  I now know the glow object can not come after me or haunt me by looking at it. Also, another factor as to why I love glow is because my fiancé William LOVES it.  He has all kinds of cool glow stuff, blacklights, powders, paints, etc.  He recently even made glow rocks for his fish tank, which are pretty awesome!  They don’t hold a blacklight to my glow-in-the-dark ornaments (sorry honey) though.  Anyway, I digress.  Here’s how you make your own glow pumpkin sure to haunt you all Halloween long!!!

P.S. If you like this post, you’ll love my DIY Halloween page called Easy Pumpkin Ideas where you’ll find 10+ project DIYs! Check ’em out!
10-diy-pumpkin-no-carve-ideas

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DIY Glow in the dark ornaments

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I guess you could say I’m not a traditionalist when it comes to holidays.  I’m a gal who likes to live on the edge (LOL!). Seriously, who says Christmas has to be only red and green? I’d like to think everyone can celebrate in their own personal style!

These ornaments are partly inspired by my fiancé who loves all things glow-in-the-dark.  He’s done his own DIY projects using glow, everything from glow fish rocks to screenprinting using glow in the dark pigments. I had a few leftover plastic bulb ornaments from years past and decided to give it a go…or should I say GLOW? I’m so inspired by these ornaments that I just might have to make William his own mini glow in the dark tree!

I wish I could say I slaved away on these, but honestly they need little to no explanation. I’ll give you one anyway. Here goes…

1. Take the cap off the ornament.
2. Squeeze in some Tulip Glow in the Dark Dimensional Fabric paints. Random side note: If you buy the 6 pack at JoAnn or Michaels, I actually designed the packaging. Here’s a peek at it.
3. Shake and swirl the ornament, pour out any excess you don’t want.
4. Put the cap back on.

I’m very curious to see how long it takes for them to dry. I’ve seen other acrylic paint ornaments done this way and they take actually a few weeks to dry in the glass ornament because it’s hard for the air to get in there to cure the paint.  I don’t anticipate opening them up or dropping them, so I don’t think there’s any problem for wet paint to be inside.

For honesty’s sake, I will admit that I did shine a blacklight on these to make them glow more powerful.   Glow in the Dark always looks best when under a blacklight, because the light gives it a super charge, more than an average lightbulb does!  I plan to hang these ornaments on a fake white or tinsel tree and the lighting for the tree will be blacklight mini bulbs instead of regular white or colored lights. I think this will look amazeballs!

Here’s some more pictures of my glow creations.

I realized how this project would be perfect for a rave…a craft Rave, that is.  Haha. Actually, my friend Kathy (The Crafty Chica) helps put the Phoenix Craft Rave together. It’s actually this weekend, so head on out if you want to experience a 10 hour make and take marathon.

So this crazy animated gif is in their honor.  It’s so funny!

What do you think? Would you give them a try or have to take a pass?

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

My boy loves his glowing toys

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electric orb
A few weekends ago, my boyfriend William pulled this electrical orb out of his closet to show his niece. I wasn’t surprised that it was in his stash. I asked him if it had been a present of Christmas past and he said, “Yes, when I was around 12”. He’s a super curious, cool guy and I know that he also was like this when he was a kid. I was always fascinated by these as a kid as well. William was actually quite surprised it still worked. It’s still pretty fascinating to play with!

electric orb

electric orb
Among the other cool things in his toy stash are his glow-in-the-dark powders and paints. He has made sculptures, glow rocks for his aquarium and much more over the years. He is a BIG glow-in-the-dark/black light fan and we both share a fondness for it at Halloween.

glow in the dark stuff
In his box of goodies, I found some Glow Scribbles® and Tulip® Glow-in-the Dark 3D Paints. They are made by iLoveToCreate, the company I work for, so I got the hookup if he ever runs out!! Cool, eh?


One of these days, we might even have to have a cool party with his stuff and mine (I have some cool glow stuff, a fog machine, and more blacklight goodies). I’ve always wanted to put on a féte like Martha Stewart did a few years back in a magazine feature!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Glow in the Dork Wall Hanging Revisited

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glow in the dork

Make a silly wall hanging from an old school photo! This is more for those people who like more fun and less scary Halloween decorations…very goofy and full of whimsy! I used a photo of myself from 4th grade. Geez, oh pete, cute hairstyle, huh? I think I am stylin’ in my shirt and zipper necklace. Ha, I kinda wish I still had that necklace, but at least I still have the pic. Anyway, here’s how you make this project!

Glow in the Dork Wall Hanging

What you need:
– wooden plaque (I purchased mine from Wal-mart for 97¢)
– Neon spray paint
– Tulip® Glow in the Dark dimensional paint
– B/W printout (pref. laser jet) of a goofy school photo
– Ribbon for hanging
– Aleene’s Tacky Glue
– foam brush
– scissors
– Googly eyes
– glue gun with glue sticks
– small brush

What you need:
1. Spray paint plaque with neon spray paint. Let dry.
2. Print out black and white photo to scale of plaque. Cut to fit plaque and glue down using foam brush and Tacky Glue.
3. Cover any white areas of photo with Glo in the dark paint using small brush. Word to the wise…I used an inkjet printout and it the ink smeared slightly, so this is why I think it would be better to use an inkjet print.
4. Dot around entire plaque with dimensional paint. Let dry.
5. Cut ribbon to fit on back for hanger and glue in place with glue gun. I actually used two ribbons in black/white polka dot and orange.

I think this would be funny if you made several of these with different kids or different family members. Nostalgic photos would be great for this too! I can just picture some funny hairstyles and classic “senior portrait” poses.

I actually lit this up with my blacklight! I love, love the look of neon colors under a black light (I practically foamed at the mouth when I saw the blacklight section in Martha’s Halloween mag last year). I totally want to have a party that is all blacklight one of these years! I love it. Oh, and on a random note, tie dye looks sooooo good under black light too. Looks very creepy and spider webbish.

Hope you have a great Tuesday! Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Glow in the Dork Wall Hanging

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glow in the dork

Make a silly wall hanging from an old school photo! This is more for those people who like more fun and less scary Halloween decorations…very goofy and full of whimsy! I used a photo of myself from 4th grade. Geez, oh pete, cute hairstyle, huh? I think I am stylin’ in my shirt and zipper necklace. Ha, I kinda wish I still had that necklace, but at least I still have the pic. Anyway, here’s how you make this project!

Glow in the Dork Wall Hanging

What you need:
– wooden plaque (I purchased mine from Wal-mart for 97¢)
– Neon spray paint
– Tulip® Glow in the Dark dimensional paint
– B/W printout (pref. laser jet) of a goofy school photo
– Ribbon for hanging
– Aleene’s Tacky Glue
– foam brush
– scissors
– Googly eyes
– glue gun with glue sticks
– small brush

What you need:
1. Spray paint plaque with neon spray paint. Let dry.
2. Print out black and white photo to scale of plaque. Cut to fit plaque and glue down using foam brush and Tacky Glue.
3. Cover any white areas of photo with Glo in the dark paint using small brush. Word to the wise…I used an inkjet printout and it the ink smeared slightly, so this is why I think it would be better to use an inkjet print.
4. Dot around entire plaque with dimensional paint. Let dry.
5. Cut ribbon to fit on back for hanger and glue in place with glue gun. I actually used two ribbons in black/white polka dot and orange.

I think this would be funny if you made several of these with different kids or different family members. Nostalgic photos would be great for this too! I can just picture some funny hairstyles and classic “senior portrait” poses.

I actually lit this up with my blacklight! I love, love the look of neon colors under a black light (I practically foamed at the mouth when I saw the blacklight section in Martha’s Halloween mag last year). I totally want to have a party that is all blacklight one of these years! I love it. Oh, and on a random note, tie dye looks sooooo good under black light too. Looks very creepy and spider webbish.

Hope you have a great Tuesday! Until next time Swellions!

Alexa