Time for Trick or Treat!

You've seen some Halloween projects, decorations and some yummy treats. But, Halloween is really all about the costumes, trick-or-treating and getting lots of CANDY!! I simply can't bring myself to paying these prices for Halloween costumes in the stores, so we decided to make our own.

Here is my daughter with her best friend. They came up with these crazy lady costumes. It's all about finding things around the house and making it work! She's working balloons for these costumes. These hips would make Shakira jealous!

Call me!!

My husband and I dressed as insurance commercial characters. I thought of doing Flo and he of course would make the perfect Mayhem!

He's out jogging. He needs to keep it looking a perfect 10.

Are you checking out his awesome headband?

Then the girls dressed up for a school dance. They make the cutest nerdy chicks ever! Look at those dance moves!!

Happy Halloween!

Scenes of Halloween

I invite you to take a look around my house. These are just a few fun decorations I have set up this year. Some are items I created last year while others are new like this first one.



Have you seen these blood dripping taper candles? They are from Yankee Candle and really creepy cool!



My daughter filled the jars this year with eyeballs and spiders! The skull sits atop some classic Halloween films.

I love my Mr. Bones! You can find these cuties at Party Lite.

I created this Halloween countdown last year. It's simple to create. You'll need an old frame, wire and paper crafting products to create tags.

And finally a "Spooky" banner that can easily be created using the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge!

Halloween Cards

I created two Halloween cards to send out to friends and family this year. I am also entering them in the Ribbon Carousel Challenge this week. On this first card you really have to look closely to see the "ribbon" I used. Did you find it? It is actually the "BOO" sentiment. I cut a small portion of the ribbon and used it as the sentiment detail of my card. I also went for an unusual color combination for Halloween, what do you think?

This next card keeps with very traditional colors typically associated with the Halloween holiday. I had fun painting these chipboard stars white then embellishing them with a big brad and sparkly rhinestone. My choice of ribbon for this card is some white ric rac.

Inside of card and back of envelope~

Dear Friends

How cute is this little dear? I am shifting gears from Halloween to play with this sketch from Mojo Monday. I love the traditional colors and that dear is just so sweet!

Mischief Rub-Ons Layout

Are you scared by Rub-Ons? They can be a little bit intimidating, but once you get the hang of them you'll find that they are fun and easy to use on any project. You can find the Mischief Complements Rub-Ons in the Autumn/Winter Idea Book on page 46. Two sheets are a Halloween theme and the other two are an Autumn theme. In this 2 page layout I kept it all in a Halloween theme.


I used the Mischief papers for this layout and the design is from the Magic book. {Magician's Choice}


When you take a closer look you will see that I've created quite a bit of dimension with them. Rub-Ons would typically be used in a very flat manner. So what I've done here is rubbed them on the cardstock, cut them out, and then used 3D foam to pop them off the page.

Notice that with the jars I was able to rub-on a spider's web on top of another rub-on creating more layers. It really appears that there is depth on a shelf or counter.

Hmmm.... I wonder if anyone would like some Halloween pages ; ) !!!

Halloween Challenge on H2H

Heart 2 Heart's challenge this week is anything Halloween or an Autumn theme. I have wanted to try one of these paper cupcake's for some time now. I've seen some that have a hidden gift card in the center, but I wanted to use mine as home decor. To achieve that I used some CTMH pin clips to hold a cute pumpkin and sentiment, but I can also clip pictures of my kids in their costumes too!

Halloween Decor

I really enjoy decorating my house for Halloween. With the new Art Philosophy cartridge from Close To My Heart I was able to create this fun banner to decorate my kitchen nook this year. I used a pennant shape set at 5 inches. Then created a jagged circle and all the letters too.

I am also entering this in the Ribbon Carousel Challenge this week. This photo just inspires fun and playful decorating. I also used a few different ribbons to complete the top of each banner and to string it all together.

As you can see it stretches almost the entire length of my nook.

Here is a closer look~

Chili Cook Off 2011

My final post for "Giving Back Week"! I wanted to post this yesterday, but I was so exhausted! I worked on our annual Chili Cook Off all week long. Much organization, some sign making and 3 days worth of baking! Normally I would have just made posters with some markers, but now that I have a cricut and the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge, I was able to design these professional looking signs.

Here is some of the baking I did. I made some other goodies, but did not think to snap a picture.

Cake pops~

Mini Cake Bites~

Peanut Butter Dipped Fudge Shortbread cookies~

{Have you seen these Jif to go cups? Easy way to spruce up some store bought cookies.}

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Gourmet Cupcakes~

{These were amazing, the peanut butter buttercream frosting was to die for!}

Hershey's Chocolate Halloween Cake~

{This cake was auctioned off for $20}

Mojo for our Military

Giving Back Week continues with a sketch from Mojo Monday. A friend of mine asked to donate Christmas cards to those serving in our military. This way they can take the hand made cards, personalize them and send them home to their families that they are desperately missing over the Holidays. I pulled out 20 cards that I've been holding on to and decided to create a new one using this weeks Mojo Monday sketch. Check it out.

Lots of hand~made love. Hope these create some smiles!

Can Cozies

One last project for the Elementary school's Santa Shop. I wanted to do something for the Dad's and Grandpa's. I thought about these can cozies. They are useful and personally decorated for the man of the house. {well we ended up with just a couple pink & purple ones too for mom} I am also entering this first design in this week's Heart 2 Heart challenge. They wanted to see numbers on our projects...so how about that 1 cool Dad!

I have more to "Give Back" this week, come back soon!