halloween trees - spooky and sparkly

first off, this weekend was AMAZING. i'll post more about it once i have time to edit photos and write everything up, but Trish was a wonderful teacher, and there are so many incredible things that you can do with encaustics. i have a million ideas running around in my head, of course, the day before i go to pick up my new embroidery machine and software! too much inspiration at the same time. it's too bad it can't be bottled and kept in reserve.

in the meantime, halloween is getting closer and closer, so i thought i'd post another halloween project.

trees!

i saw a variation on these in a christmas magazine, and immediately thought "white?! they'd look even better in black!"




i did mine a little bit differently. i used 3/4" dowels, because that's what i had, and i painted them after i drilled them. i can't imagine painting them first, as they chipped/splintered a bit when they were drilled, and i had to sand them smooth. you'd just have to repaint them anyway. i also didn't make my trees as tall, i cut the dowels at random lengths.





and instead of the foam in an urn base, i used blocks and triangles that were leftovers from a recent project. i drilled a hole in each block with a 3/4" drill bit, and the dowels fit in nicely. after i painted them, i used white glue to coat each edge lightly, and pressed them into black glitter.



i used a spray adhesive to apply the glitter, and that made them look a little more matte than i'd like. i think i'm going to spray them again with a gloss, to bring out the glitter, and to help it stay on. but i like them.



and i can't wait to make a tall silver one for xmas!