Halloween Popcorn Box Hop

 
What does Halloween Time mean for you? To many, Halloween symbolizes so many things Magic, Witches, Wizards, Ghosts, Goblins, Jack'O'Lanterns, Pumpkin Pie, Costumes and Treats. Its that time of year where kids are adjusting to a new year at school, temperatures start to drop, sunlight is shortened, scenery is basked in the rich hues of amber, reds, yellows and hybrid violets, eggplants and black. Fall festivals, candy apples and themed carnivals get in their last hurrah for the year. We begin to make way to cozy nights indoors w/hot chocolate, cider, soups, buckets of movie popcorn, and holiday cheer. Every farm is celebrating with grandeur pumping out pumpkins, mums and stalks in a frenzy, corn mazes are waiting for you to explore and new adventures waiting to be started.

For me its all of the obvious, but it also allows me to celebrate my Grandmother's Birthday which is on Halloween, it's this time of year that my creativity begins to soar and allows the creations inside my secret world to come to life, this carnival inside my head begins to beam out all forms of creative magic for everyone to enjoy. When I was asked to join this blog hop, all my creative juices began to whirl, I saw the seer sucker red and white popcorn box and knew instantly what I was going to do.

Instead of pulling put the typical creatures and colors related w/Halloween to decorate my box, I decided on playing with its other themes; Carnival/Circus which I relate to the popcorn box, magic, adventure, back to school, ABC's, Storybook, the unusual, lanterns and lights. I pulled inspiration from my book, Altered Art Circus, Quarry Books and the essence of magic, the result is; "The Flight of the Giraffe", revolving around Lucy the Giraffe and her magical adventure.

Halloween time is the time of year where everything goes, magic comes to life and new adventures are being made. Now come set sail with Lucy and her friends for the adventure of a lifetime....

"Lucy Wistlebee is a ballerina giraffe from Maplewood, she is the niece of circus sensation Jeannie "the Giraffe" Bellows who toured the lands with the Carlisle Circus and other troupes, her fame enabled her to open the Bellows School of Dance where Lucy was also a student, where she learned tap, dance and ballet twice a week. During regular hours, Lucy was enrolled at the Lavendoor School of Magic, where she excelled in potion-ology, astronomy and carnival spells, quite often Lucy would get into some mischief with some of her classmates who formed the Willawig Club, designed to uncover secrets and hidden locations all around the school grounds and neighboring towns, Two years ago Lucy and her friends uncovered the forgotten Lionel Tunnels which connected the Savory Lighthouse to the edge of the school gate, once thought to just be school folklore.

This year Lucy was ready to compete in the Constance Bellamy Mid Summer Fair Competition, which she prepared for months. On Full Moon Eve, in the countryside of Peapack, the competition was held and Lucy won first place, what Lucy didn't know was she would embark on the adventure of her life when she meets Lionel Cromwell at the awards ceremy. Lionel Cromwell is a Professor of Carnival Magic Studies and the leading Wizard of Marble Magic which is a series of spells using the energy of marbles and orb wands, he is the leader of a secret underground society aimed at stopping bad magic and the descendent of Lionel Woodbridge who built the Lionel Tunnels.

Little does Lucy know that she possess a rare power and a marble which is the key to other portals which Becker Horricle wants to get his hands on, so that he can rule these portals and the world we live in. Lionel must stop Becker and protect Lucy, securing the rare Olibuate Marble and the 3 others which are found in the other portals. 

"You look stunning Lucy" boasted Abigail Dickles, who is Lucy's best friend and co-founder of the Willawig club. "Thanks so much Abigail, I feel like a super star after winning the competition" replied a happy Lucy, " You should" replied Abigail, the two began to walk to towards the big tent to find their friend Oliver. "Hey you guys, I'm over here", waved Oliver, soon the three where united, laughing and dancing with joy as Oliver won third place in the skelliwag competition, both were sharing a look at their awards, until the majestic sound of calliope music began piping loudly outside of the big tent.

The three walked outside the big tent to see where the music was coming from, as soon as they opened the curtain, they saw a glowing calliope flying machine with lights, rides and fun docked. "Wow that is amazing", "Oooh let's see if we can get closer" "Yes, let's" boasted the three, they started walking closer to the calliope flying machine and were soon greeted by Lionel Cromwell. "Aren't you Lionel Cromwell?" asked Lucy, "why yes I am", replied a cheerful Lionel, he then asked the kids if they wanted a tour of the flying vessel, they all agreed and hopped on board. Little did they know that one step onto the flying vessel, would begin the adventure of their lifetime.

Within minutes, Lionel lured the kids to a secret tent on the flying vessel and proceeded to tell them of Lucy's danger, the marble, Becker Horricle and what they must do to save her and the world, just then an explosion occurred lightening and thunder, lights out, weird mists, full moon hidden, he was here, Becker Horricle was here and on a mission to kidnap Lucy and take the marble.

"We must go now!" yelled Lionel, within seconds the flying vessel was under attack, Lionel and his crew hurried to get out of there to safety, soon they had escaped to another portal filled with sunshine, rainbows, golden landscapes and cherry cap trees, it was here that the lost world of Gnomes lived and Henrik Widdlebatt lived, the gnome wizard of Graspby, now they would be able to secure the second marble and gain help from Henrik...."
I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into Lucy's world of adventure and a preview of her story, now I'd like to introduce you to the Enormous Calliope Flying Vessel that they flew in. You can now make a replica of her vessel like I did right now with these simple directions and easy to find materials.

Materials:

• Popcorn box
• Paper cupcake cups
• Paper straws
• Paper lantern
• Sturdy gauge floral wire
• Small rubber or plastic animals
• Scrapbook paper
• Embellishments, Lisa Kettell Designs
• Buttons, Laura Kelly Designs
• Rit Dye, various colors
• Glues: hot glue, mod podge, plaid
• Tools; hot glue gun, scissors, hole puncher, XL zip lock bags,
• Other: scrapbook embellishments, white crepe paper, glitter, paint, bakery twine, Chipboard, wood block scrap

Company products I used: Laura Kelly Designs, Lisa Kettell Designs, Rit Dye, Plaid, Graphic 45, Crate Paper, Clearsnap, K & Co, Michael's.
Directions:

1. Open the popcorn box, insert a wood block to the inside bottom of the box, hot glue in place. Flip popcorn box over and hot glue a piece of chipboard to the outside bottom of the box. This will secure the box and give it some weight.
2. Punch a hole on 2 sides of the popcorn box, 1/2 inch from the top edge. Make sure each hole is punched across from each other. 
3. Thread a piece of floral wire through each punched popcorn box whole, thread a paper straw through each piece of wire, set aside. Now wrap a piece of floral wire around the lantern base. 
4. Now attach the lantern to the wired popcorn box by threading the ends of the popcorn box wire through a section of the wired lantern base, secure each side w/hot glue and a button, let hot glue cure.
5. Attach a paper cup cake liner to each side of the popcorn box.
6. Insert scrapbook paper to the inside of the main popcorn box.
7. Cut 3 yards of lightweight white paper floral wire, attach triangle shapes cut from scrapbook paper to the paper floral wire, leaving a small space in between, attach with hot glue. Set aside.
8. Pour about 1 Tablespoon of Rit dye in color of choice into an XLzip lock bag, followed by a 1/4 teaspoon water, insert white crepe paper, shake around until covered, pull out crepe paper w/plastic tongs, let dry on a disposable tin pan.
9. Decorate the rubber/plastic small animals using crepe paper, scrapbook paper, trims and embellishments. 
10. Begin to assemble your flying vessel with the wire banner, decorated animals, scrapbook embellishments, lettering, trims, buttons and carnival pieces.
11. Insert triple A or required battery to the lantern, hang or place in your favorite part of the house or studio. 

 
Tips/Tricks 

• Refer to my book Altered Art Circus for more fun ideas on decorating rubber/plastic toy animals
• Use collage images in place of the decorated animals such as Dresden scrap images and storybook images lined onto chipboard and cut out. Use my doll head embellishments from Lisa Kettell Designs to enhance them, I recommend the Bailey embellishment.
• Coat areas of your piece w/mod podge and sprinkle with glitter, shake off access.
• Make a triple sized lantern w/more popcorn boxes, or one XL popcorn bucket tub and attach three various sized lanterns. 
• Add Rit dye to mod podge for glaze coloring and coat your embellishments with it for a fun effect.
• Use colored streamer crepe paper if you don't have any Rit dye on hand. 
• Cut a plastic animal in 1/2 with metal cutting shears, small hand saw or hot knife, use caution when using these tools.

This is a great project to create with your children, or for a fun party, using any theme you like. Its a perfect re-invention project, recycled project and great for using project scraps over again. I re-use everything and recycle as much as I can. I hope that this project has inspired the creative magic inside of you.

I want to thank Laura Kelly for asking me to be apart of this fabulous blog hop and give a shout out to the Sponsors and Cre8Time for all they do to spark the creativity in all of us. Be sure to enter the raffle to win $100 from Disney!

Links:
www.laurakellydesigns.com
www.laurakellydesigns.com/laurakellydesignsblog
www.cre8time.org

And check out the rest of the wonderful blogs that are apart of this hop:

An InLinkz Link-up

xoxo
Lisa