Halloween Decor

If you haven't already noticed, Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. I'm not sure why...but I just love everything about it. I added to my decor this year with some homemade decorations that were super easy, super cute and super cheap!

First up are these yarn candy corns that I have in my bathroom. It took less than 10 minutes to make all three of them. You simply take a styrofoam cone and wrap it with yarn. I used pins to hold the yarn down when I switched colors. You just keep wrapping and wrapping, there's no right or wrong way! The top was the hardest part because the yarn kept sliding off the top. I would definitely recommend getting white styrofoam and not green just because a little bit of the top does show, but you can't tell at all unless you look really close up; however, I'm sure the green would make it much more obvious.

Isn't this adorable?? It's made from a small terra-cotta pot, a terra-cotta saucer, glass bowl from the Dollar Tree and a wood ball! I painted the pieces black, hot glued everything together and embellished it with some ribbon and an SU Spooky Treats rub on.

Do you notice the little glass block in the background?? Melissa's mom made that for me last year and gave it to me at my baby shower. It was one of the first things I put out this year and I'm going to be really sad to have to put it away!

Here is what my little chest looks like in my entryway. The lighting on this picture stinks, because it's so much cuter in real life. The banner is a printable that I found on Pinterest. I just printed, cut and stapled to a ribbon. The tree and Frankenstein light are a hand-me-down decorations from my mom, I got the frame at my baby shower and it has a picture of my son wearing a Halloween shirt, the middle frame is another Pinterest printable (a witch), and the bottles are two old Starbucks frap bottles that were spray painted black. The smaller one is embellished with a Spooky Treat rub on.  I finished it all off with some black cheesecloth.

The rest of my house is decorated with fall-like pieces, so they will be able to stay up through Thanksgiving. I need to come up with some new ideas to replace these ones now that Halloween is pretty much over. 

Enjoy your Halloween and Trick or Treat. Ours got moved to Saturday due to the weather forecast. My husband and I both have tomorrow off, so I'm excited to have a weekday off with my favorite two guys!

Halloween Party at the Rudy's

This past weekend I had two of my best friends, Melissa and Carrie, along with their husbands and kids over for lunch (Melissa has Mila who is 3 1/2 months and Carrie has Reese who is 9 weeks). It gave me an excuse to plan some sort of Halloween themed shindig, since it is my favorite! I kept it pretty simple and made Zuppa Toscana in the crock pot, garlic breadsticks, Italian sandwiches from Giant Eagle and then some miscellaneous treats and appetizers. Melissa brought a side dish and Carrie brough cupcakes for dessert. My favorite thing was my "pumpkin" cheeseball! Thank you Pinterest for the idea! hehe

I also had little gifts for the girls and their moms, which I couldn't just wrap up any old way! I got little Halloween books for the kids and candles from my neighbor who pours her own candles for Mis and Carrie. I thought they turned out super cute. Reese's name could have been spaced out a little better, but that's okay.

I used the Big Deal Alphabet set to stamp the names on tissue paper after wrapping the books and oval and circle punches for the pumpkins. The stems were cut and attached to the back and the little green squiggle is a pipe cleaner. I tied it off with some raffia. The candles were wrapped in small sandwich bags with half of a doily folded over the top. The stamp set was Holiday Best, which I colored with markesrs and I used the scalloped oval to punch it. I finished it off with a small piece of raffia and the tiny binder clips! Needless to say, they loved them! :)

Here is a picture of the spread. It's sort of blurry, but you get the idea. I wish I had taken more pictures.

And, about 30 minutes before they arrived, I couldn't figure out where to put the silverware. So I pulled out some old baby jars (I never throw them away, because you never know when one will come in handy!). I wrapped scrap ribbon around the top and punched out two more pumpkins. The baby food jars themselves looked cute, but I love adding extra details.

Halloween Baby Shower!

Okay, I'm a day late...I'm so sorry! I knew I never should have made a promise to post three days in a row! haha

Anyways, last year on October 23, I had my baby shower, which was all Halloween themed. Halloween is my favorite holiday, so it was a no brainer as to what my theme was going to be. With the  help of my amazing friend Melissa, everything turned out great! It was held at a local bed and breakfast that I had driven past every day for 4 years on my way to work and always hoped to have an event there. I absolutely loved planning it and was pretty bummed not having something Halloween themed to plan this year (especially since I've discovered Pinterest and there are so many cute things on there!).

First up are the invitations: The bear is from SU's Teddy and Train stamp set, while everything else is from a clear stamp set I bought at Michael's or Joann's, so is the paper. The bear is popped up with dimentionals and I used the criss cross card technique. These were extremely time consuming, but I absolutely LOVED then end result and they were a huge hit!

 I loved the candy corn stamped on the envelope.

All 50 of them!

This was what the room looked like. Melissa and I made the centerpieces out of supplies we picked up from Pat Catan's. They were also prizes for the games.

Close up of the centerpieces. 

These are the favors I made. They were baby food jars filled with various Halloween candies. I used my Big Shot to cut Halloween fabric using the scalloped circle die. I glued that to the jar lid, tied it off with some raffia and used the scalloped circle, 1 1/2 and 1 3/8 punch for the tag. Each one also had a button attached to the bow. These buttons came from a jar of antique buttons I purchased a long time ago at Joe and I's favorite antique store. All of the buttons were either orange, gray, black or white...except one blue one. Whoever had the blue button also won a prize!

Here are some pictures of the dessert table. I made all of the cookies, Melissa made the popcorn mix and my friend Carrie made the pumpkin cupcakes!

Witch hat cookies, chocolate dipped pretzels, oreo bombs, pumpkin cupcakes!

 

Are these not the cutest things ever???

 Halloween popcorn mix with candy corn and M&M's.

 Pumpkin cupcakes made by my great friend, Carrie.

You can also see the picks in the fruit. I used the Batty for You stamp set as well as the same patterned paper from the invitations to create those.

There was one aspect of the shower Melissa didn't allow me to know about/make on my own...the drinks. Her and her mom took the time to cut out pumpkin faces out of duct tape and attach them to orange cups. They were so cute and I thought it was such a great idea!

Speaking of Melissa, here is a picture of her and I. (I'm obviously the one on the left! hehe) Now, one year later, she has a little one of her own who is almost 4 months old! She's actually pregnant in this picture, but didn't know it yet. How neat is that?!

Pumpkin Party

How cute is this?? Made 100% digitally, I used elements from this site. She has a ton of cute free stuff. As much as I like making cards/invitations with cardstock, stamps and ribbons, making them digitally is fun too and the results can be just as impressive and it makes it easy to get a whole bunch done in a short amount of time. (you can click on the picture for a clearer picture...not sure why it's showing up so blurry?)

I always love how projects look once they are mass produced. It just seems like such a great accomplishment, especially when each one is made by hand and even though that's not the case with these, I still think it looks neat.

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

Well, I definitely haven't been posting as often as I would have liked to, but that doesn't mean I haven't been stamping!! Stamps aren't just for cardstock anymore :) I made this cute little decoration out of a canvas, the Stampin' Up Big Deal Alphabet and my son's sweet little feet. I originally was going to free hand the letters, but that really scared me. Then I was going to do stickers, but I didn't like that idea either...So I thought "I wonder what would happen if I put paint on my stamps?" and this was the final result! The spacing isn't 100% where I wanted it, especially the word 'feet', but I still think it turned out cute! The script is from a clear stamp set I got at Michael's or JoAnn's (so is the bat). And the paint wiped right off the stamp. I was quite surprised. I want to do a canvas for all of the months, so I'm sure I will have more of those to share!

I've been working like crazy on invitations. Unfortunately, I don't post invitations until after the event, and both of the events I'm working on (a wedding and a bridal shower) aren't until next year. But trust me, they are super cute!!

Tomorrow I will share digital invitations I made for a one year old's birthday party and then Tuesday I will show you all of the awesomeness that was my baby shower exactly one year ago. It was all Halloween themed and I loved it -- especially the invitations!

Halloween Treats

As promised, here are the treats that I made for my fellow Directors at work! I am usually the first one in the office, so I went around to each of their offices and left all of these on their desks. I loved hearing each one of them come in...they all knew I was the Halloween elf! :)

Here is a picture of all 3 treats that I gave out.

A close up of the frappachino bottles

And the tops of the bottles

Little Ghiradelli chocolate holders made from the Top Note Die

The inside

And my favorite...the mummified Hershey's bar!

M&M Matchbooks

Hello Everyone! I'm so excited that it's Halloween week! Today's post is the first of several Halloween treats for staff at work. These M&M Matchbook's were cased from this post on SCS. I made a total of 30 to give to my Health & Fitness staff at the Y.

Stamps: Batty for You

Paper: Basic Black, Cast A Spell DSP

Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant

Accessories: Scalloped Circle Punch, 1 3/8 Circle Punch, 1 1/2 Circle Punch, Staples, Sponges

I ran out of M&Ms and had to use a few packs of peanut M&Ms and while they turned out okay, it was hard to get the belly band around the bigger candies.

Halloween Birthday

This coming weekend I'm going to visit my friend and she asked me to make her a birthday card for her sister...who's birthday is on Halloween Day! This is what I came up with! I love this Little Boo stamp set, so I couldn't resist using him. This card is similar to this card, as the front is shorter than the back. In this case, the inside has a place to put a gift card. When it's laid flat you can see the black DSP and see the complete design. I'm going to be really sad when Halloween's over and I have to put away my Cast-A-Spell DSP. I can't wait to show you the treats I made for my co-workers and employees at work! I am going to save them for next week though, just so the secret doesn't get out :)

Stamps: Little Boo, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Cast-A-Spell DSP

Ink: Old Olive, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Scalloped Edge Punch, 1 inch Circle Punch, Pumpkin Pie Ribbon, Sponges

1. Score a 4 1/4 x 11 piece of Pumpkin Pie at 5 1/2 and fold on score line.

2. Cut 1/4 of an inch off of the front piece and then punch the bottom edge with the Scalloped Edge Punch. Sponge with Basic Black ink.

3. Stamp the Little Boo ghost three times, one each in Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Basic Black. Punch out with 1 inch circle punch. Also punch out a Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive circle with the same punch.

4. Mat a 1 1/2 x 3 3/4 piece of Elegant Eggplant to a 1 5/8 piece of Pumpkin Pie. Punch two scrap pieces of Old Olive with the Scalloped Edge Punch and cut to 3 3/4. Mat onto other layers.

5. Adhere punched circles as shown.

6. Cut a 4 1/2 x 4 piece of Basic Black and a 4 1/4 x 3 3/4 piece of DSP. Adhere to card base.

7. Adhere image layer onto DSP.

8. Tie Pumpkin Pie ribbon around front layer.

9. For the inside, cut a piece of DSP 4 1/4 x 1 7/8. Use the 1 inch circle punch to punch a half circle where the gift card can be pulled out.

10. Adhere to inside, taping only the outside three sides.

11. Stamp sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

On a different note...I wanted to show you my crazy Halloween nails. I love to get my nails done and I used to get designs all the time. To save a little money I went back to just getting one color, but for Halloween I decided to bring the fun designs back!

Isn't my nail tech talented? She does it all by hand, not airbrush! (speaking of hands, I'm not sure why my fingers look so chubby! haha) Anyway, they look even better in real life because the black has a little sparkle to it :)

Candy Corn Treat

You may remember this post where I told you about my aunt who recently found out she has cancer on her spine. Well, my mom and I went to visit her in Ohio this past weekend and I took this little gift for her. The template is the same one I used for the box in this post and an PDF for how to make it can be found through Papertrey Ink. The pumpkins were made using the Coluzzle and Large Oval Punches along with a little sponging to give it some depth. The stem was hand cut and the little green strip was rolled around a pencil to form the curling effect. The sentiment was tied onto the Pumpkin Pie ribbon with twine and was punched out using the Large Oval Punch and the Scalloped Oval Punch.

Stamps: Great Friend

Paper: Natural Ivory, Kraft, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Ink: Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch, Pumpkin Pie Ribbon, Old Olive Striped Ribbon, Twine

I'm Back :)

Thanks for being patient with me and for all of the nice comments and emails. I have really taken a break recently and I feel it's really helped. I've been working out more, spending more time with Joe and the 4 legged kids and...I actually WANTED to stamp today :) Plus it didn't help that my dog ate my last bookmark (you may remember this post) and I just got a new book from the library. I couldn't bring myself to use anything but something stamped! Since Halloween is my favorite holiday and I haven't used this cute Little Boo stamp yet, I thought it would be perfect for project. I will continue to post sporadically when I make projects or cards (although I do have some lined up). But from now on, most of the things you will be seeing will be things I made because I wanted to, because I'm not going to be taking many, if any, orders for a while.

Stamps: Little Boo

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White, Cast A Spell DSP

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: 1 inch, 1 3/8, 1 1/2, and Scalloped Circle Punches, Paper Piercer, Pumpkin Pie Ribbon, Dimentionals

1. The image was stamped in Basic Black onto Whisper White. The "boo" and pumpkin were colored with SU markers and then punched out with a 1 inch circle punch.

2. That was layered onto a 1 3/8 circle punched from the Cast A Spell DSP.

3. Those were layered onto a 1 1/2 inch circle of Basic Black, which was finally layered onto a Pumpkin Pie Scalloped Circle.

4. I used my paper piercer to punch holes in all of the scallops.

5. Steps 1-4 were repeated so that you have two scalloped pieces.

6. Cut two long strips of Pumpkin Pie striped ribbon. Adhere to the back of one of the scalloped pieces. Use dimentionals to adhere the other scalloped image to the first, sandwiching the ribbon between the two layers.

Halloween Treats #3

Here it is...all of the projects that we will be making next Friday (September 25) at my Halloween Treats class!! We will be making the Fancy Favor Box, the Criss Cross Box, one Petal Card Ghiradelli Candy Holder, and today's project...2 little Peanut Butter Cup witch hats. I saw this idea on SCS and knew I had to make them! They are made with the 3rd largest circle on the Coluzzle which is cut in half. I love when you can get 2 of anything from a single shape! The base is just a scalloped circle punched in the same color as the DSP. Again the Cast-A-Spell DSP was used...and no stamping! Talk about super easy for mass producing! These would be great little treats for your Trick or Treaters :)