Sunday, October 16, 2011

Halloween-a-thon: More Home Decor

My house is going to look like the Aadams family lives there, with all the Halloween stuff I'm going to have in it! This is my fourth and final canvas. I hate to cover up any of this wonderful paper from SU so just draped a skeleton over it.
This may be my last Halloween-a-thon post, Since I messed up and didn't get a post up on Thursday, I am probably going to throw in the towel. But you never know....BWAHAHAH!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Halloween-a-thon: Continued

This project is the third in my series of wall canvases. You can see the first two HERE and HERE. This one uses some more of last year's awesome Halloween paper. The BG is a sheet with Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven on it. I remember we had to memorize that poem in the ninth grade and it is long! Luckily it has such a steady rhythm that it is fairly easy to memorize. The top part is cut from another sheet of the paper. This is a very literary piece!
The spider web is cut from the October 31 Cricut cartridge, and the spider trim on the bottom edge is from JoAnn's. Thanks for looking!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Halloween-a-thon: Interrupted part 2

Okay, here are the two pix that wouldn't fit in the last post.

To see the rest of the ornaments and the finished Halloween tree, scroll down. Thanks for looking!

Halloween-a-thon: Interrupted

So, I actually had this project finished and photographed by Wednesday evening, but I had to work late yesterday and didn't feel like blogging it. Still, I can't believe I actually posted 12 days in a row--I think that's a record for me!

Today's post is a project I actually planned since I saw THIS blogger's post last year. Unfortunately, by the time I realized I had to do it, all the MS Glow-in-the-Dark glitter had been snapped up. Luckily they offered it again this year.
What you do is take those glass balls that you can get from Mike's or Hobby Lobby. Take the top off and pour in a little Future Floor Wax (I think it's actually called Pledge with Future now). Swirl it all around the inside of the ball and use a paper funnel to dump in some of the awesome glowing glitter (it really does glow in the dark--my son had to take it into the closet to make sure LOL) and shake it all around until the inside of your ball is coated with glitter.
Then I used my Cricut to cut some Halloween images out of black vinyl.
I painted a cool stick from my back yard black, stuck it in some florist's foam in a black plastic cauldron that I got from the Halloween store. I got some purple LED lights from Wal-mart and wound them around the tree,
The scary critters were all cut from the October 31 cartridge, and the spooky words are cut from Happy Hauntings.
Here is the finished product! Blogger wouldn't let me put all my pix in one post, so the last two are in the next post. I love how this turned out! Thanks for dropping by.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 12: Wish shoe a Happy Halloween

So, another Cricut card to show you today! This is from Happy Hauntings, cut at 4". All the DP is last year's SU. The ribbon is from Mike's--it matches much better IRL, I promise you!
I plan to do a computer-generated greeting--"Wish shoe a Happy Halloween!" Have a great day! Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 11: Jack-o-lantern Card

Ha! Bet you thought I gave up on my self-challenge to post every day in October! Truth is, I almost did LOL! But that would be silly when the Cricut makes it sooo easy to create stuff. So here is today's entry--quick-n-easy!
I used the Wrap It Up cartridge, the card feature, cut at 4.25" high. I used my Gypsy to make sure my layers fit. CS is Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, and Old Olive. And I had fun with embossing folders, as you can see!
Here is the inside. Stamp is retired SU. I love how this turned out! Well, off to make some more cards with my Cricut--have a great day!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 10: Halloween Cupcakes

Emily had her bestie, Sunnie, over for a sleepover on Friday night, and she had wanted to make Halloween cupcakes.
Here they are mixing the cake batter.

Sunnie getting ready to put her cupcakes in the oven.

I put orange food coloring in the frosting. Unfortunately I bought the "fun-fetti" type, so our jack-o-lantern cupcakes look all pimply and warty!

They used cut-up green gumdrops for the stems and mini chocolate chips for the features. Isn't Emily the cutest little ham ever?

And here is the finished product! Awesome!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 9: If Mummy ain't happy, ain't NObody happy

Here is a picture of my DH wearing a Halloween T-shirt I made for him. He, better than anyone, knows the truth of the title of this post! I used my Cricut to cut out the mummy image from freezer paper. Then I ironed the negative image onto the T-shirt as a stencil and used a foam brush to apply glow-in-the-dark fabric paint. I used criss-cross brush strokes to mimic a mummy's bandages.
Freezer paper is great for this sort of thing, and it's cheap!
I think this project turned out pretty cute, and the model's not bad either! Thanks for stopping by today!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 8: Candy Bar Pull Up Treats

I made these treats for my co-workers. It's a Hershey bar in a cute little wrap. You can find the tutorial for this HERE. These are very easy to make with SU's Jumbo Wheels. I used Haunting and Spooky Skyline, both retired. The tag frame is from a retired set that goes with the curly label punch--the stamp has a 'thank you " in it, but I just used a marker to get the frame only. The sentiment is from the current set, Wicked Cool. CS colors are So Saffron, Tangerine Tango, Wisteria Wonder, and Elegant Eggplant.
I actually made two of each one.
I added highlights to each of these with a Spica pen, but of course you can't tell it in the photo.
I love SU's wheels. They are great for doing stuff in bulk because they are very fast. I'll probably be showing you more projects using wheels this month. Hope you're having a great October so far!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 7: More M & M's!

Here is a treat card I made using the SCS weekly tutorial from a couple of weeks ago. You can access it HERE. Believe it or not, all products used on this card are current SU except for the cat tab stamp at the top, and the pom pom trim which is from Mike's. The main stamp set is Sweet Centers, embossed with a mixture of black and iridescent ice EP. This is a very easy card to create with a big WOW factor, and who doesn't like getting M & M's, right? These are the autumn colored ones, which went very well with my DP.
The only change I made from the original tutorial is that I used the Sizzix window card die so I could put my treat cup in the center of the card. In the tutorial they only used the 1 3/4" hole punch, so the cup has to be to one side. The circle I punched out of the main image so the treat cup could go through I adhered to the tab holding the candy inside, so that even after they've eaten the candy, there is still a greeting showing. It says "EEK! You're sweet!"

I had a lot of fun making this card! You should give it a try. Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Halloween -a-thon Day 6--Time for Treats!

Some people would say the whole point of Halloween is to dress up. But SOME of us might say the whole point is the TREATS! I know for my kids the treats would (probably) win out. Anyway, I've done a few cards done a few decorations--now it's time for some treats. These are super easy to make. I used PTI's glassine bags--you can find them HERE. I used a (yes, retired, of course!) SU set called Halloween Backgrounds. I stamped on the bags and LET THEM DRY! This will take a few minutes! Be patient or you will smear them. Then fill with treats, fold over the top, punch a couple of holes and tie a "cheater bow". Voila! You are done.
I used Elegant Eggplant for the bats, Green Galore for the spiders, Only Orange for the candy corn, and Summer Sun for the moons and stars.
I went to buy candy corn and M & M's to fill the bags and what do you suppose I found? Candy Corn M & M's! They are oversized white chocolate M & M's that are yellow, orange, and white. Cute, but too sweet. I like regular ones better.
Here's a pic of several together. I may just finish up my supply of glassine bags and give these out to Emily's GS troop and Sunday School. I already have other plans for her classmates.

Hope you've enjoyed this post and maybe gotten a little inspiration! Have a great day.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 5: a la Zindorf

This card is a CASE of a Michelle Zindorf card--you can see her vastly superior one HERE. I actually think this turned out well except for the white gel pen accents--I can't do mine as well as she does, and the white accents really make her card. But it's still cute! This is the Haunting Jumbo Wheel, stamped in Basic Black Craft. I mounted my panel on Cajun Craze and Basic Black, on this year's (I know, right? Something current!) SU Halloween DP with some black grosgrain and mounted on a CC card measuring 4 x 7.25".

As long as I'm posting my Zindorf CASE's, here is one I made a couple of days ago. I was very pleased with how it turned out. You can see Michelle's original HERE. I needed a sympathy card for a dear friend from NC who lost his son recently. I knew I wanted to use this stamp and in the process of doing a search on SCS, I ran across Michelle's creation. The stamp is Sail Away, from this past summer mini. She mounted hers on Marina Mist, but I didn't have any so used Perfect Plum. It makes it rather dark but oh, well, I still like it. The other panel is River Rock. measures 7.5 x 4 I think.
Please take the time to investigate Michelle's blog or SCS gallery. She is an amazing artist and also teaches workshops all over the country--I went to one several months ago and it was awesome! You should definitely try to go if she comes to a town near you.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 4--Happy Fright Night!

Here is another long-retired SU set, Happy Fright Night, colored with Copics and chalk/blender pen for the cauldron and bats. I had originally colored the witch green, but she was too dark, so I did another one and made her flesh-toned. I used a white gel pen for the bats' fangs and Liquid Applique/green Doodlebug Designs glitter for the "brew".
I love this image and had fun coloring it. Thanks for looking!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 3--More Home Decor

More fun with SU's awesome Halloween DP from last year! I really feel like no stamp company does Halloween better than SU. It's all I can do every year not to order their entire Halloween line. In the Sept/Oct issue of PaperCrafts they had an amazing card featuring the cameo in this picture. I looked it up online and found it in an Etsy store called SnapCrafty. You can find these cameos HERE, but she has all kinds of cool stuff.
I think this needs something else, not sure what it is yet though. Let me know if YOU think of anything! Thanks for dropping by.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 2--Home Decor

Good afternoon all! Sorry to be posting so late but I've had a bad headache all day. It's finally calmed down enough that I felt like sitting in front of the computer. This is a piece of 12 x 12 wall decor that I made using last year's SU Halloween paper. It was such awesome paper! I mounted it on chipboard and plan to mount it on a cheap 12 x 12 canvas I got at Mike's. You can't tell in the pic but the bats are flocked. I used my Cri-kit gel pens to outline the Cricut shapes. The witch and moon are from October 31, Bewitching is from Happy Hauntings. I popped the witch and the title up on foam tape. I was going to put some ribbon or something on it, and I may still add it later.
I have another 3 of these planned so you'll probably seeing more of these in the next few days. Thanks for looking!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Halloween-a-thon Day 1!

So I've challenged myself to post a Halloween project EVERY SINGLE DAY in October!!! Now for those of you who follow this blog and are used to LOOOOONNNNGGG dry spells without a post, you know what a big challenge that will be for me. But I have so many cute Halloween stamps and Cricut cartridges that it would be a shame NOT to. So here we are at Day 1:
This stamp set was one of the very first SU sets I ever bought when I became a demo. It retired that same year, 2001. I also made my 2nd swap ever with this set. I love it and will never sell it. I also realized that I have yet to show off my "skills" with CO-pic markers that I paid a lot of money to learn. I have been practicing a bit, and I think this image turned out pretty well. I don't have any dark grey copics, so their shoes are colored with chalks and a blender pen. I colored another of this image that I liked but colored outside the lines a bit and was unable to fix it to my satisfaction. I plan to cut it out later and use it for something else. If anyone is interested in which copics I used, exactly, I will let you know. I don't have very many! I've been buying them one at a time with HL 40% off coupons, so it takes a while LOL. CS is SU Pumpkin Pie and Gina K Pure Luxury layering weight white. Ink is Brilliance Tuxedo Black. These were some of the recommended paper and ink for coloring with copics. Thanks for stopping by!