Halloween Decor, DIY Vinyl and Cbsession with Crows~

I've been really thinking about stenciling, lately -checking out my blank wall space, wondering... Then I began thinking about vinyl, maybe some branches, and birds -crows in particular. Then I wandered over to Kimberly's interesting post using contact paper, and the rest is history!

I found an inspirational picture from the newspaper, of all places. (I have some ideas for a moon, but haven't gotten to that yet.)



You will need some standard black contact paper, pencil, permanent marker, repositional glue (I used Scotch 3M repositional glue stick), tape, scissors and any desired silhouette shape. I Googled "crow silhouette" to find the shape I used.

Print out your shape on standard printer paper, and glue it to the colored/non-sticky side and cut around it. Of course for the image to face the opposite way, just place on the backing side. :) If you are going to use your silhouette a lot, maybe use cardstock instead.

Since I wasn't sure how close I could come drawing out the tree I had in mind, I started off with pencil and traced over that with the marker.


I taped the tree to the wall and kept moving the branches around until it was "just right" then peeled the backing off a bit at a time. Because the color is solid black, I had no problems adding to the length of some of the branches and the too narrow parts of the trunk. I even made the trunk longer -sorry not pics of these developmental fixes!

A few leaves for the finishing touches, and that's it. My tree is so inviting, but I guess not tall enough to entice my crow over to it!


I let the light fade too much and had to lighten the first photo a bit, then added leaves to the tree and tried the flash.
And here he is around the corner, sitting on another picture.


Have you tried this before? Let me know what you come up with! I'm off to write to Magic Cover (contact paper company) and ask them to make more solid colors to choose from...

UPDATE:
I couldn't leave well-enough alone, and had to try some more silhouettes! All of the shapes or patterns I found were via Google. If you have any problems, I would be happy to help you out. I added a Skull, a pair of Witch's Boots (stockings included), and a Witch Flying Past the Moon. ~




For the Witch, I drew a circle on clear contact paper and colored it with a sponge and alcohol inks. I cut it out at set it aside. I added the Witch directly onto the moon. If you look closely, you can see that I added the broom handle separately. I should have just extended it from her body instead of setting her over it -she has a line-bump! Oh well.





I am linking to:
The Thrifty Home
Someday Crafts
Frou Frou Decor