Best Witches for Halloween

Happy Halloween all.

Halloween Party Sleepover Goodie Bags

Here are the finished goodie bags the girls got to take home with them on Saturday. I used the regular cellophane goodie bags from the $ store, inserted a piece of black cardstock to provide a bit of stability and then stuffed with all sorts of goodies. Including a gross candy finger, creepy spiders, stickers, and a mouse. I had a time of it trying to get the bags stapled, so I ended up putting two staples in before I put the topper on. I actually had to take out two of the items that the girls wanted to include. I just put them in a bowl during the party and let them snack. I kept the decoration simple because the girls are just going to rip the bags open and toss them. And I needed to spend my time on the mini albums.

The candy skull bracelets came in a four pack. I split them up into bags and topped them with paper to match the goodie bags. Which also matches the invitations. The monster seeds came in a 10 pack. Morgan and I came up with the instructions, printed them and bagged them. It was all her idea. She is SO my kid.

Giveaway - Buttercup Reedweb at A Thousand Sheet of Paper

Amy at A Thousand Sheets of Paper is giving away all of this yummy goodness. Go check out her blog. She is one talented lady. And generous too. New stamps are being released on November 2nd and to commemorate the event giveaways are running rampant. Get yourself over there. Now.

Halloween Party Sleepover Mini Album

I made 16 of these mini albums for the girls that attend the party tomorrow night. I will print the photos either Sat or Sun to finish them. My girls can take the finished albums to school next week to give to their friends. I used the same type of album as last year with a few differences.

Here's how I did it:

Supplies used for the Halloween album.

1 piece - Stiff felt for cover - 3x6 inches (folded in half)

2 pieces - Cardstock for pages -2.75x5.5

1 piece - Acetate for pages - 2.75x5.5

1 piece - 12 inch ribbon for closure

1 piece - 8 inch ribbon for binding

8 pieces - 2.5x2.5 background patterned papers

Embellishments, various

Simple directions to make the mini album:

1. Fold the cover in half and punch holes for the closure ribbon. I used my Crop-a-dile. It is easier to punch these holes before you add the pages. The Crop-a-dile won't reach the center far enough to get the holes near the spine. I just kinda eyeballed it. You could measure, but it won't really make that much of a difference.

2. Fold cardstock in half and adhere background papers.

3. Fold acetate in half and layer with cardstock pages. I put cardstock, acetate, cardstock.

4. Place pages onto cover, lining up spine. Center and punch two holes for binding ribbon. You can use a binder clip to hold the pages, but I held them in place when I punched the holes.

5. Thread binding ribbon through the two holes you just punched and tie. Trim ribbon if you desire.

6. Thread closure ribbon. (see photo of album cover)

7. Now decorate. I went old school, and used white glue to get the felt spider web to stick to the felt cover. A glue dot to add the plastic spider.

NOTES: I used stiff felt for the covers. It's what I had in my stash. I think if I were to buy them specifically for the Halloween album I would have gotten black or orange, but I had brown, so they are brown. I think it works anyway. I made them 3 inches square instead of 2.5. The larger size sure made things easier to decorate. I couldn't staple them together because the stapler wouldn't reach, so I punched a couple of holes and tied them with matching ribbon. I fussy cut Martha Stewart felt spider web ribbon and glued to the cover. Then attached a plastic spider with a glue dot. I used Halloween papers from Michael's, Recollections. I just bought a pad of acetate and was anxious to use it, so I added clear pages. I cut the ring part off of those little plastic Halloween rings (spider and bat) and used them to embellish. I used the scraps of patterned paper to make some of the embellishments. I used Stampin' Up stamps and Studio G stamps. Punches I used: 2" circle, 1.5" circle scallop, mini tag, 2" square, and Stampin' Up ticket corner. I used Studio G inks in black, white, purple and green. They sparkle and they were only 50 cents each.

I hope this was useful. Please let me know if you make one. I would love to see it.

From SCA to Chicago Politics

Melissa has a future in Chicago politics. She wanted to run for school Historian. I was thrilled. She was showing an interest in something. She had to prepare a speech, to be given next week, AND make a few posters to put in the hallways at school. I told her to make sketches of what she wanted on her posters. After 45 minutes of concentrated drawing, she showed me her sketch.... I told her she could in no way, shape or form, put the following on her posters:

MELISSA for HISTORIAN

Vote for me, or watch your back.

I have since slept with one eye open.

Friday Fill-Ins #146

And...here we go!

1. So are we going to get crack-a-lackin on this project, or what?

2. A wet, chilly, windy day is what's up ahead.

3. I love to PLAY.

4. Everyday I need to create something of some sort.

5. I walk a lot less than I should.

6. Being comfortable in your own skin is the true elixir of life!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to pizza and Survivor, tomorrow my plans include carting the girls to Karate, birthday parties, finishing up the goodie bags for the Halloween Party and Chinese Food for dinner and Sunday, I want to finally see Harry Potter, craft some and relax!

Haunted House Design

I stumbled upon this site. It is Halloween year round. I will be visiting year round. I can't explain my attraction to Halloween. Any way the first challenge was to make a creepy treat container. I submitted this year's Halloween party invitations. And guess what? My project was chosen as one of the Gruesome Twosome. I am so thrilled. Go visit and check out everyone's works.

Blog candy @ Wendy's

You have got to check out Wendy's works. She is a very talented lady. AND she is hosting a give away.
She is giving a shadowbox creation to one lucky winner. But you will win just by checking out her layouts.

Halloween Party coming soon

The girls are giving out Halloween Party invitations tomorrow. Yikes. No turning back now.

Here's the invitation:

Goodie bags are in the works.

Go to my crafty blog to see the matchboxes which will hold the invitations.

LOAD Day 5

Just a quick post to show off my nephew Aaron.

He's such a great guy.

I'll explain more about LOAD later.



Toodles. I'm off to bed now.

Order of the Opus Gluei Challenge #27 - Copy Cat

I love Paperback swap. I put books up for swap and request books I want. All for the price of postage. I posted a book from my youngest daughter. I got a request for it and sent it off. A few days later I got a reply that I had made several young girls very happy. (Insert big smiley face here.) After several emails, I had decided to make and send scrapbooking supplies to these young girls. They are in a home for children who have been removed from their homes for different reasons. Then, as I am apt to do, I kept thinking that a scrapbook would be a better, more finite project for these girls. So I am making and sending 14 kits to these girls. They are split into 2 groups. Younger and older. Yesterday I made the kits for the younger girls.

The front page in the album will have punched out letters. This is PSE7 text inserted to show what it will look like.

I know these look a bit blank, but they look pretty good when you have pics in place.

The white page on the left (below) will have some word punched out and glued on.

I just need to figure out which word would be GREAT for younger girls.

The ribbon on the these pages is real ribbon.

I think I will probably run it through my Xyron to make it easier for the girls.

And older girls.

Any ideas are very welcome.

I used the punches and dies that I have. And all the paper and cardstock is from my stash.

See ORDER OF THE OPUS GLUEI - CHALLENGE #27 - COPY CAT for more info.

Basically, I copied the format of an album I already have.

Again, I have used patterned paper for ribbon strips. I think it will be easier for the girls to glue down.




I really had fun making these kits. Again, the ribbon on the last page is patterned paper.

I have pics of some of the original album pages next to my altered versions on
ORDER OF THE OPUS GLUEI.

Thanks for looking.