Halloween Crafting

It's time I started posting the craft projects that we have been/are doing.  Summer has come and gone, and now that school has started back, we are beginning to get back in a regular routine.  Thus, more crafting time! 

Halloween crafting is always so much fun.  I hope to be doing several different projects and will share with you along the way.

This is a Halloween tag that I prepared for my monthly stamp club.  We each made tags and swapped with each other.  It was fun, and I love to see everyone else's ideas!  I have been getting in the Halloween mood, so I wanted to do this Halloween tag.  My original inspiration came from Pinterest.  It was from a Stampin Up Connections post, so unless you are a SU demonstrator, you can't get to it. But, check out my Halloween Board on Pinterest if you are interested in seeing the difference in our tags.

Supplies: Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, and Basic Black Cardstock, Basic Black Ink, Spooky Bingo Bits stamp set, Big Shot: Spider Web Folder and Two Tags Bigz, Basic Black 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, and Pumpkin Pie 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon
(all from SU)

Here's the first candy holder of the year for me!  This was really fun because I actually pulled out the sewing machine to complete this.  My inspiration came from the September issue of SU's Stampin Success magazine. The combinations and embellishments for this candy holder are endless!

Supplies: Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP, Tangerine Tango and Very Vanilla Cardstock, Black Staz-On Ink, Scallop Punch, Googly Ghouls stamp set, Basic Black 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Googlies
(all from SU)

More projects to come!

Halloween Treats for School Part 1

I have been busy this week getting all the Halloween treats for school ready.  For every holiday, I alwasy have good intentions of planning and starting early, but it is always busy that last week before treats are to go out!  Here are a few pictures of the treats we prepared for everyone.

Cooper has 2 sets of classmates at his preschool, so we decided to make 2 separate bags for his treats.  He has food allergies, so I always include things in his bag that he can have.  His bags contained Smarties, Skittles, A Scooby Doo Fruit-by-the-Foot, and Halloween stickers.  I used my Build-A-Bear dies and Big Shot for the paper sack, along with the Bingo Bits stamp set for the  "CANDY" stamp -- all from SU!  The paper topper is from a set I picked up in the $1 section at Target. I used the Top Note die on the toppers of the cello bags and the same Target paper.  The pumpkin stamps are from Bingo Bits as well.

These are the treats we made for the teachers.  We covered Hershey nuggets (YUM!) in 1"x 3" Halloween paper (SU!).  The toppers were made using my Big Shot and the Top Note die.  The two ribbon colors are Lucky Limeade and Basic Black -- both SU!  I cut the spider from my Doodlecharms cartridge and the pumpkin from Pumpkin Carvings.

We were in such a hurry this morning, that I forgot to take pics of the older two kids' treats!!  I always send more, so I hope they make it home with them so I can make pics and post them as well.  I had a lovely display already set for one of the treats, and I am so disappointed I forgot to photograph.  I'll have to make up for that at Christmas!

I did get the most important picture this morning though, my babies.  Emilee is Beth Chapman, Dog the Bounty Hunter's wife, and Brody is Big Al, Alabama's mascot.  Cooper is just himself this morning, until (see below)...

Here is one more photo from the fun activities at school this morning.  I think Cooper, who was "taking off from school today", had as much fun as the grade-school children!  He loves this picture because he is allergic to milk, and I don't let him get near the real stuff.

Have a nice Halloween!

Halloween Anti-Bacterial Treats

I have started following a great blog at http://pinkbuckaroodesigns.blogspot.com/.  Wednesday, she posted a cute project using Bath and Body Works' anti-bacterial hand gels.  I thought they were so cute, and when I made an unexpected trip to the mall on Wednesday afternoon, I had to run in and pick up a few for the kids' teachers.  I was so excited to find all their Halloween items 75% off!  The saleslady gave me a great idea of getting the regular shape Halloween anti-bacterial gels for classmates (only $.37 each!).  Of course that's what I did and you'll see those in an upcoming project. 

But, I wanted to get something a little different for the teachers, so I chose the round bottles, which you can find the tutorial for the container I used at the Pink Buckaroo site I gave above.  As with most projects, you can use someone's idea as inspiration, and then make it your own with your embellishments.  Here's how mine turned out.

Here's a few "behind the scenes" shots of making this project.  For the tags, I only have one size tag punch, but I like the layered look.  So, I used the square punch to make a piece that fits nicely within the tag. 

Also, I wanted to stamp "To" and "From", but I don't have a good Halloween tag stamp.  So, I found a Christmas one that would fit on my tag, used my SU! black marker, and only colored in what I wanted to show up on the tag.  Custom made!  I thought I would share this because I have a friend that is just beginning stamping, and she asked a question about how to get different colors on stamps.  As it turned out in that example, it was with markers.  When you are use to doing something, you sometime think everyone just knows how to do it too!

 Pop dots are used on the front embellishment along with googly eyes on the stamped images.

The round gels fit so nicely in the circle.  In the tutorial, you will see that the 1 3/4" circle punch is used.





These were fun to make, and really don't take that long.  I have a few more to make using the "regular" shape bottles, so we'll tackle that this weekend!

Halloween Treat Box

Here is my Halloween Treat Box that I made as part of My Pink Stamper's Pinkalicious Blog Hop. 

My usual go-to cartridge for 3-D boxes is "Tags, Bags, Boxes & More" and that's what I went with for this challenge.  I decided to make the popcorn box and add Halloween decorations.  My paper is from Stampin Up!.  Using my Gypsy, I cut the popcorn box at 6.1".  That makes the actual box about 4" tall.  From "Gypsy Wanderings", I cut out the cute pumpkin at 2.5".  Out of black cardstock, I cut the regular pumpkin from this cartridge, but it had slits cut from it.  I used the Gypsy to remove the slits to just make a solid pumpkin that would match up with the one that had a face.

You may not can tell from the picture, but I gave the box a little texture using the polka dot texture plate and my Big Shot.  The stamp set, "Spooky Bingo Bits", is from SU!.

I love doing my crafts, but another love of mine is couponing.  I get to share with you a great deal of mine this week with this craft -- the candy!  Publix's 1cent Mystery Item this week was their Publix brand candy.  I got the last bag of mixed hard candy.  I've needed a container for this all week, and my Halloween popcorn box works great!  Thanks  for looking! 

Halloween Countdown

Even though we have been making lots of new Halloween decorations, I have been behind in getting out our older decorations.  We finally got to that yesterday, and I found the Halloween countdown that we had made last year. 

We used a round pizza pan as the base.  I used the Cricut Designer's Calendar cartridge for the calendar number and "Halloween" title.  We used various Halloween papers for the little number covers and put magnets on the back.  For some of the number covers, I used my FAVORITE Halloween SU set, Batty for You.  I also used some Halloween stickers that we had.  I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch 2 holes in the top and threaded ribbon through for a hanger. 

As we uncover a number each day, the kids taks turns and place the cover along the edge of the pan.  They look forward to this each day! 

Thanks for looking!

Halloween Wreath

This is a picture of the Halloween wreath that I made.  This took a little longer than I thought, but it was fun!

Most of the paper is from Stampin' Up.  There are a few that I used DCWV paper.  To make, decide on the width of your paper (anywhere from 1"-2" or so -- larger width=larger circle).  For sizes 1.5" and greater, you need to prepare two 12" strips.  Otherwise, just  one 12" strip will work.  Then you need to do an accordian (or fan fold) on the strips every 0.5".  The easiest way to do this is to use a scoring board and mark off every 0.5".  Then just fold on the score lines.  Line up and tape the wider pieces together.  Then, carefully fold the ends around to each other while maintaining a "flat" middle area.  Glue the second ends together.  Use about a 1-1.25" circle to stabilize the backside.  I glue-gunned the circle to the bottom.  This circle also helps in gluing down on your wreath base.  Then, I added whatever colorful circle to the center of the other side.  Make lots (I used 16 in various sizes on this wreath), and play around with placing them on your base.  Glue gun down, and you have a beautiful wreath!

Halloween Home Decor

Finally got around to using my Word Collage cartridge and chose the Halloween sayings.  I cut this out of orange vinyl, and put on a 5x7 piece of black cardstock.  This was very easy using transfer tape.  Then, I put the cardstock in a black picture frame.  Sorry for such a bad picture!  Still working on that.

Also used the Pumpkin Carvings cartridge for a vinyl wall decor element.  I loved the owl sitting on a branch, so that is what I went with.  I set it to cut as large as it would on a 12x12 piece of black vinyl.  Then, again using transfer tape (a must here!), I put it on the wall above one of our Halloween displays.



I plan to do more holiday wall pieces this next year.  The kids love to see what new item is displayed!  A few more Halloween treats to show you later!  Thanks for looking!

Halloween Lights

A few weeks ago, I saw the cutest project on www.pinkcricut.com.  She used Dixie cups to make little party lites.  Hers turned out to be quite chic and perfect for her daughter (as I have these planned for mine as well and sports ones for my sons!).  But, she mentioned the idea of making these for Halloween.  We are in Halloween craft central right now, so this became a project that we added to our list. 

It's simple, but a little time consuming, so be ready.  I got a pack of 35 lights from Hobby Lobby for about $3.50.  Then, I just covered Dixie cups with colorful Halloween paper.  As the Pink Cricut suggests, make a pattern from a cup first.  The paper I used is from DCWV.  I did use some stronger tape to hold the paper around the cup.  Then, I made a little cut in the bottom of the cup and pushed the light through.  Cute and can be made for any occasion to add a little LIGHT!  We are going to start working on the other two and will post pictures of those when we finish.