BOTTLE OF BOOs

Easy Halloween craft or gag gift made using recycled items for free!

I had originally seen something similar about 10 years ago on a co-workers desk and loved the idea and have make made several over the years not only as a decoration for Halloween, but also great as gag gift (especially for uptight co-workers that are worried they are going to be involved in a HR moment when they hear you say that you put a bottle of "Boos" on the desk.  I usually use a smaller bottle and fabric and fabric paint, but for this one I decided to go with entirely recycled items  and it is  easy enough for school age children to make.

Items used

• 1 clear bottle
• White plastic bags
• Black Marker or Sharpie
• Scissors
• Straw (optional)

Carefully remove the label from your clear bottle.  I used a 2 liter bottle and used soapy water and an old toothbrush to clear off the residue that was left after I peeled off the label.  

Cut circular to rectangle shapes out of the white parts of a plastic shopping bag - they don't have to be perfect.  Cut out the parts with lettering and set in separate pile to use for stuffing for the head.  Use the handles and and other strips as needed from other parts of the same bag or a different bag.  I used 2 plastic bags total on my project.

After the basic shape for the Boo is cut out, wad up bits of the lettered portion of the bag into a ball and stuff into the center of the Boo.   It should be about the size of quarter - you don't want to go too large as you have to stuff it through the neck of the bottle.

Tie a strip of plastic that is about 6-8 inches long and about and inch or so wide around the neck into a knot below the wadded up ball to form the head.  I left the ends on the tie to form spooky arms, but you could snip it at the knot for a neater look.

Draw faces on the "boo"s with a black marker or Sharpie. I just colored in a two circles for the eyes and one for the mouth to keep it simple, but you could draw them however you would like.

Stuff the Boos into the bottle.  On the longer and thicker ones, it is easier to twist the bottoms to get them to go in.  If you want to adjust them once inside the bottle you can use a straw to push them around.

Use a Black marker or Sharpie to write "BOOs" on the outside of the bottle.  If you wanted to go for a fancier look, you could create a label and print it off and stick it on the front.

$10 Wall Art - Sharpie Artwork

This amazing artwork was done by Charlie Kratzer, who is a lawyer, on the walls of his basement in his Lexington, Kentucky home.  For a 360 view of the basement see the original article at Kentucky.com.

The drawings range from classic impressionist art to drawings of fictional detectives, a fake fireplace, a library, one drawing of  artists' father and even TV cartoon characters Rocky and Bullwinkle.   The article indicated it started when he started drawing the Salon by Picasso and it progressed from there. 

While this is not  something you can do if you are renter, lest you risk losing a portion of you damage deposit  as it takes lots of scrubbing and eventually painting over before you move out (lesson learned the hard way by my little budding artist when he was about 7), but if you are a homeowner with a little artistic talent and a light colored walls, this could be a cool option for decorating your wall to reflect your personal style and flair and do it very inexpensively.

Photos from Kentucky.com

CHANEL BAG - THE EARTH DAY EDITION?

While this is just a clever DIY, had it been executed a little more carefully it could have been a contender.

Spotted and picture from  jakandjil