Kid Project - Boo Banner

Do you like to craft with your kids? I love to craft with my daughter, but I have to admit - sometimes it's really hard to let her do her own thing without me "directing" her. This month SRM asked me to create a project with kids and let them have fun! And guess what? We both did!

 For this "Boo Banner" project I used 5 embossed glassine bags as the banner bases. I added some acrylic paints in yellow and orange for color and texture and let it dry. I let my daughter pick out a font for the letters and cut them out with my die cut machine. Then I gathered all my Halloween themed stickers from my SRM stash. 

I told my daughter to use the borders to decorate the bags and then we would add the letters on top. My idea was to keep everything in nice straight lines, but she had her own ideas. So, with a deep breath, I stepped back and let her create.

As you can see, she piled on stickers and borders in all directions and you know what? It's awesome! Each piece is fun, colorful and original - just like her. We attached the pieces to ribbon with mini clothespins. Each mini clothespin also has a spider sticker on a punched white circle attached.

Letting your kids into your crafting stash can be scary at times, but it's also a wonderful way to celebrate and teach confidence in their own style and creativity. Plus, you'll both cherish the time you get to spend together and have a great project to show off both of your talents!

For this project I used:

Embossed/Chevron Glassine Bags | Orange and Yellow Punched Scallop Pieces | We've Got Your Sticker Treats | little borders Halloween | Stickers By the Dozen Halloween | Stickers by the Dozen Trick-or-Treat | We've Got Your Border Halloween

Trick or Treat Layout

We aren't big into the scary parts of Halloween at our house, but we are all about the candy! SRM's clear stickers are perfect for us and it was fun to mix and match the iconic jack-o-lanterns, spiders, and candy corn, as well as lots of phrases and border stitches in this fun layout.

My daughter wanted to apply her own make-up when it was time to get ready to trick or treat, so I just watched and took some adorable photos. Behind my 5x7 photo are plenty of borders from various SRM sticker sheets. I also added a little bit of black acrylic paint for a bit of boldness and to tie in with the scalloped borders.

Titling my layout was easy with another phrase from the clear stickers on a cardstock flag above the photo. I just trimmed it out with a few more sticker stitches.

I cut out a few different sized white cardstock circles for the round stickers and popped them off my page with foam dots. To add more dimenstion and interest, I added the small candy corn stickers and then drew in black dots with a sharpie pen to round off the "confetti" look to my layout.

I had one lone spider that I hadn't used on my layout, so I grabbed a small kraft pillow box, more sticker stitches, and a bit of twine to make a quick treat holder - perfect for a couple of chocolates or a handful of yummy candy corn.

For this layout I used:

Stickers By the Dozen "Trick-or-Treat" | We've Got Your Border "Halloween" | We've Got Your Sticker "Treats" | We've Got Your Stickers Plus "Jack-o-Lantern" | Sticker Stitches "Halloween" | Small Kraft Pillow Box

Happy Halloween Wreath

I just had to pick up this cute paper by Bella Blvd.  I mean, LOOK at those OWLS!  They make me smile. And so does this little paper wreath I made with Bella Blvd. papers.  Start with a flat cardboard form (I used a cake round) and cut out the middle so you have a flat ring.  I cut 3-4 inch strips of varying widths from all the cute patterned papers and arranged them around the wreath, overlapping and adding until every spot was filled in. Notch the outer ends of each strip. Add a row of black sequins to the middle (mine are from Teresa Collins).  Cut several 3 inch squares from the black star patterned paper and add these to the back of the cardboard form.  Adding them to the back of your form (so the cardboard is between the squares layer and the strips layer) helps give a little dimension to your wreath.  Position them with points out and overlap them to fill in space.

Finish your wreath with a few extra embellishments from the collection, especially the owls!!  Fussy cut some of those adorable owls and add them around your wreath with pop dots.  Cut the "Happy Halloween" strip and add that on a diagonal.  Fasten a ribbon hanger to the back and you've got the cutest wreath in town to hang on your door!

Halloween Treats With Cricut

I was excited to be able to get the new Create a Critter 2 cartridge - I love these little critters all decked out for the holidays!  They are the perfect not-so-scary treat toppers for our Halloween dress up party at preschool.  I added a bit of glitter glue here and there to dress them up a bit.

I also picked up these cute notebooks at the Target dollar spot and topped them with more Critters.  The title phrases are also on this cartridge - can't wait to use them in our scrapbook pages!

Here is a shot of my worktable (before the cellophane wrapping on the notebooks).  Also shown are two cards I made with Teresa Collins' new Christmas cartridge.  I recieved both in the mail the same day and just couldn't wait to start working with them.  I have to say it's been awhile since I've been so excited for new Cricut carts :) and it felt great!  I can't wait to have some time to make the Christmas critters for another set of treat bags - they are so cute, too!

Happy Halloween, everyone!  Stay safe and get crafting!

Halloween Layout and Tags

It's that fun time of the month when I get to highlight some wonderful products available at Scrapdoodles in Fredericksburg.  I love going into this store!  Super friendly ladies and tons of scrapbook paper :0  Makes me happy. 
This trip, I focused on their Halloween selection - so much to choose from.  I was inspired by the orange/blue color combo and vintage feel of October Afternoon's "Witch Hazel" line.  (You can check out the whole line HERE)  It made me want to dig up some old childhood photos.  Luckily, I knew just where to look and put together this layout.  Can you see my mom making a goofy face in the door window? He he - Fun times.  For this layout, I broke up the heavy patterns by just using blocks or strips on top of a more neutral cardstock background.  I tore some of the paper edges, distressed others, and inked around the background sheet.  I also used Washi Tape from a My Mind's Eye collection and a few stickers off my Authentique Halloween collection.  I cut the title with my Cricut (Happy Hauntings).

This line isn't just for your "vintage" photos, though.  I thought the blue would be a great complement to these pics of our daughter as Cinderella from last year.  With some creative placement of my photos, I was able to highlight the black paper titles, instead of creating a new one.  Trying to keep a softer touch, I created these Washi Tape flowers (My Mind's Eye tape and enamel dots, and stickers).  I used about an 8 inch piece of tape and gathered it around the middle.  I placed an enamel dot in each center.  I did add an extra glue dot or two to get them to lay right on my page.
Here are a few tags I created with some of the scraps.  I thought they would be fun to place on a card or use to embellish treat bags this Halloween.  Tags are also a fun way to experiment with new products or techniques.  I used my Washi tape to alter some of the strong paper patterns - the moon and the chevron backgrounds on the first and last tags below, for example.  It was a fun way to get more out of the papers and highlight some of the cute images and patterns.

October Afternoon recently hosted a "Witch Hazel" blog hop on their blogs, if you need more inspiration!

Halloween Wreath and Layout

Just got back with wonderful goodies from Scrapdoodles!  They have an awesome selection of fall and Halloween papers and embellishments right up towards the front of the store and, if you're anything like me, you will be standing there a long time trying to decide what to go home with.  :)  Oh this paper addiction!

Anyways, I knew I wanted to create a rolled paper wreath ever since I saw this video tutorial from Graphic 45, and thought a fall or Halloween theme would be great.  With that project in mind, I chose (finally) some double sided papers from We R Memory Keepers' "Black Widow" line.  You can see the whole line here, and of course at Scrapdoodles.  I picked out the "Happy Halloween" embellishment for the middle of the wreath (I added some more paper ovals to give it more "weight") and when I saw the metal charms, I knew I HAD to use them somehow, too.  I added an eyelet to the ends of some of the paper cones for strength and hung the charms with some Tim Holtz jump rings I had in my stash.  Generally, I followed the tutorial from Graphic 45 with just a few changes.  Instead of a chipboard backing, I used a scrap piece of foam board,

since I had that on hand.  I also used a bit of foam board in the middle behind my center ovals and embellishment.  In the tutorial, the paper cones are attached with staples.  I had some difficulty with that, so I ended up using hot glue more than the staples.  I love how this wreath turned out.  An added bonus is how the little charms jingle on the door - love it!

Of course I can't let a Design Team week go by without a layout.  For this week's layout, I chose a few papers from Echo Park's Halloween line, "Chillingsworth Manor."  You can see the whole line here.   Lots of cute and spooky details in this collection!  I took home a sheet with spiders and polka dots and knew I had some cute photos of Hannah with spider cookies that I could use.  My layout includes a combination of lines - Echo Park, some of my leftover scraps from the We R Memory Keepers collections, and some sticker elements from Authentique's Halloween line, "Enchanted."   Man - there is a lot of good stuff out there for all your Halloween, pumpkin, and spider photos and projects!

For this layout, I punched several circles and simply straight stitched them right to the page in a line.  It's a great way to add lots of pattern and texture to your layout.  My title was cut with Echo Park papers.  I used my Cricut and the "Happy Hauntings" cartridge along with some sticker elements from Authentique.  I also used another sticker element (the spider and the fly quote) off to the side and added some Black Diamond Stickles to the two spiders.  At the last minute I added a thin black cardstock frame with distressed inside edge.

I had a few scraps left, so I cut some 3/4 inch by 5 inch strips to make this little paper pumpkin.  I just used brads to hold the strips together and then fanned them out and shaped them into a pumpkin.  With a few more paper scraps and a leaf punch, I added the stem, vines, and leaf.  I could see several of these decorating a table this fall. 

So, while the picking is good, visit Scrapdoodles and pick up some fall/Halloween collection papers.  I hope you have an easier time deciding than I did ;)