Halloween Cards: Quick, Easy, and Stashbusted

While I love nothing more than shopping for new goodies each season, sometimes you really need to use what you have. For this year’s Halloween cards I decided to do that and pulled out miscellaneous things from my stash.

The cards themselves ( Canvas Corp) were from a pre-made pack. Black and white polka-dot cardstock. Perfect for Halloween! I used a label sticker from a pack I’d picked up along the way somewhere.  For the card shown above, I added a chipboard banner shaped sticker on top of which I put a scrap of a Halloween rub-on. Added a sticker from another leftover package and finished with a leftover orange rhinestone, and scrap of glittered ribbon.

I did the same with the other cards I made, coordinating whatever went together from what I had on hand.

Batty-Licious Halloween Earrings

Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter to win my giveaway from Oriental Trading Company. Go here to enter.

I posted last week about some of the items I received from the. Included were some soldered Halloween themed charms. Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Post by Oriental Trading Company. Project Idea and opinions are my own. 

They have an image on one side and text on the other. I thought they’d make fun earrings to wear throughout October. The earrings are  big and bold but not as heavy as they look.

I grabbed some findings and beads from my stash and played around, stringing a fire polished black crystal bead, some metal spacer beads, and the soldered charms on beading wire. Attached to a square pendant piece and adhered a clip earring back with jewelry glue.

People may think I’m batty, but I’m loving my batty-licious earrings!

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Bewitchingly Vintage Witch Hats and A Giveway From Oriental Trading Company!

I continue to be drawn to more muted and vintage Halloween décor. I mentioned earlier that I was planning on switching up my mantle this year from Poe inspired to Shakespeare. It was the Three Witches from Macbeth that inspired this project.

It was perfect timing when the folks from Oriental Trading Company gave me the opportunity to review and play with some of their Halloween crafting goodies. This post is sponsored by Oriental Trading Company. Project idea and opinions are mine.

If you're not familiar with Oriental Trading Company or haven't been there in a while, in addition to a great selection of party supplies and project kids that are great for kids, they have really really expanded their crafting supply section. I was able to go through the ordering process which was straightforward and easy, and my shipment arrived quickly.

The hats themselves are not actually hats. They started out as these:

Plain paper mache cones. I covered them using torn and twisted kraft colored butcher paper and Mod Podge  and glued them to a cardboard circle base.

Since I knew I wanted them to be old looking, I wasn’t precise and just kind of went over the form until it looked like a witch’s hat. When dry, painted with black paint. Now for the fun stuff!

I chose some of the Halloween papers from Oriental Trading Company along with epoxy poison labels. I used the papers to make layered flowers that I scrunched and crumbled. After all, the witches from Macbeth would not be seen in pristine new hats.

Using some of the die cuts and stickers I also received, I made accessories for my hats, keeping with a poison potion theme.

Waste not want not, so I used from of the scraps of paper to embellish the hats going around one of the cones, and one of the brims.

I had so much fun with these and cannot wait to play with some more of the goodies that were sent to me so check back!

The best part is,  one of you will get to play with some goodies of your own because the awesome folks at Oriental Trading Company are offering one of my readers the chance to win a $25 gift card to their site! It's easy to enter (using Rafflecopter) and winner will be announced next Tues ( 10/8). Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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BFF Open House Link Party #124 and Features

Hope the first official week of Fall was a good one for you. Here we are on the cusp of October which is hard to believe. The crafterverse is in full creative mode so here are a few features from last week's party that inspired me. 

You all know I have a slight paper addiction. I'm looking forward to using some of mine up making a big bouquet of these paper flowers from Artsy VaVa

Can't even tell you how much I love these confetti pumpkins from Kim at Made In A Day. Oh. Em. Gee. 

If you need an easy way to bring some fall into your home, check out this idea from Fonda at Southern Scraps. Wouldn't this look great next to some confetti pumpkins?

This week's chocolate feature speaks for itself. Chocolate truffles from the aptly named blog Dieter's Downfall. Resistance is futile. 

OK let's see what you all have been up to this week !

A Shakespeare Halloween: Toil and Trouble Printable

I'm planning on swapping out my Edgar Allen Poe themed mantle for another guy this year. Bill. Will. The Bard. You know "that Shakespeare dude".  It occurred to me that Shakespeare has a lot of quotes and themes that are perfect for Halloween. Some are obvious like Macbeth, which was the inspiration for this printable. A quote from the Three Witches. 

I created this one in PicMonkey. You should be able to click on to bring to full resolution, then right click to save as. If you use, I'd love to see how! 

BFF Open House # 123 Happy Fall Features!

Can you believe it's time for Summer to come to an end this weekend? Doesn't it seem like it just started? Truthfully, I am really ready for Fall. I love the crispness of the air, the changing of the leaves, sweaters, boots...

You all are gearing up for Fall if last week's party is any indication. Lots of wonderful Fall and Halloween ideas. Let's see a few:

Antonella from Quilling, Art and Expression shared this delightfully spooky spider card. I just love the dimension on the spider and of course the black and white! I can't wait to get started on some Halloween cards. 

You have to check out these DIY Felt Halloween Pillows from Christine at I Dig Pinterest. Love how simple yet bold they are. 

Wouldn't Christine's pillows work perfectly with this Fall wreath shared by Laura at The Shed? You will have to go visit to find out the secret for making these flowers. Can't wait to try. 

And after you're done making these great projects or before you sit down to pin them on Pinterest, be sure to whip up a batch of these Caramel Milky Way brownies from Danielle at Busy Mom's Helper.  When I think Fall, I think caramel. Of course chocolate is year round. YUM!

Now on to this week's party. What tricks and treats do you have up your sleeve this week? 

Fangtastic Treat Bags

I still can’t believe College Boy is a Sophomore but he is. And if I’ve learned one thing as a parent of a college student, even though they’re all “grown up” they still love to get treats from home.

At my son’s college, freshmen are assigned to small groups of 12-14 called Sponsor Groups based on their housing forms which puts them as closely together with people who share similar interests etc. He loved this so much as a freshman, that he applied and was accepted to be a Sponsor this year.He and his “Co-Spo”  have a group of 14 freshmen they help get acclimated, used to college life, are a resource for questions etc.

Last year I decided that I could still have fun with the kinds of things I used to do before he left for college and sent goodies to his “Spiblings” as they’re called. So why should this year be any different?

It’s also mid-term time for them so I included some things to lighten the intense mood and remind them to be silly. Jumping frogs and glow in the dark Vampire fangs.

I made the graphic for these labels in PicMonkey, imported to my graphics program,  and printed them on card stock.

Got some double chocolate and salted caramel hot cocoa packets.

And of course candy…all chocolate of course. I used black and white polka dot paper bags by Whisker Graphics, placed one of each thing in the bag and sealed with red and white dotted Washi tape.

Finished off each bag with one of the tags and off to school! Here’s the card I made to go along with the goody bags,  also using my label :

I used some red crepe paper to make a ribbon for the card, mounted the label on red glittered cardstock and went over the letters with red Stickles glitter glue.

Vampire Coffin Boxes

I know a couple of people who love all things Vampire. Even though I’m not that into them, Vampires do give me an excuse to play with my signature colors: black and white. And what’s a Vampire without a little red?

Started with one of these from Michaels. Painted the sides with Martha Stewart red craft paint, over which I painted Martha's  red glitter paint.

Mod Podged a black and white patterned paper to the top and bottom and then went around the edges with some black and white washi tape.

Do your family members send you random things when they clean out their junk drawers? Mine do. The Mumster sent me a bag of keys. I don’t know that Vampires use keys but they seemed to fit. I also used some keyholes from a pack by Tim Holtz . 

Embellished the top with red rhinestones and black pearls. Vampires have to be glam right?

Since they sleep during the day, do they say “day day” instead of “night night”?

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Glitter Frame and PicMonkey Halloween Printables

I’ve mentioned before that I love PicMonkey. That was before Halloween decorating started. and they added a whole bunch of new effects. Yowza. They have got quite the collection. No matter your Halloween decorating style…from gothic, to ghoulish, to scary, creepy, funny, zombie you name it.

What fun is a printable without a great frame though? I started with an unpainted filigree frame I picked up at Michaels:

and painted it black. After which I had the Rolling Stones stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Once the paint was dry, I used a spray adhesive and alternated sprinkling black and clear glitter like a madwoman.

Then I just printed my printable,  adhered it to the back of the frame, and added a few rhinestones.
So here’s the printable I made completely in PicMonkey which I’m happy to share with you. Click on to bring to full resolution then right click to save as.

Of course with all of the fun effects, I couldn’t stop at just one printable:

And now for something truly frightening:

Mwaaaahhhh…It’s me in Witch Hat, crackle and zombie effect applied.

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