Hope you're having a ....

.... spooky evening!  Happy Hallowe'en to those who like it! I do!!

Here's my Hallowe'en mantel - I saw the bat thing on Pinterest, so I made a load of bats and decorated my office door at school the week before half term, then I took them all down and brought them home to do duty here.  I made the skull picture and put it in a nice (and cheap!) gold frame from IKEA.

And here are the pumpkins - Jed decided he was too old this year for trick or treating, but he wouldn't miss the pumpkin carvings.  We did quite easy ones this year as we were under time pressure.  His is Patrick Star from SpongeBob (a repeat from a few years ago) and mine is a sort of moon/skull hybrid.

Will be back tomorrow with a card.

Thanks for looking!

The promised ....

.... pumpkin post!!  I've got three pics, the camera ran out of batteries and then we realised too late that we hadn't put the pumpkin lids back on!!

Here's Jed in a blur of movement just as we finished carving, right on the dot of 6pm.  His costume was just finishing in the tumble drier (a gorilla onesie - he'd worn it to the party on Wed night and played football in a muddy field in the dark, as you do) and his friends were at the door waiting to go trick or treating, so there was no posing for photos all costumed up.

Here's Jed's Minion pumpkin - very on-trend!!  This was a hard one to carve - the teeth and glasses were very very fiddly - he made a few mistakes and was upset and annoyed - but when we lit it up the mistakes didn't matter and he was thrilled with how it looked.

Mine - I don't know what it is - a sort of ghoulish melty guy?

Anyway - that's that for another year. 

Thanks for looking!

Happy Hallowe'en ....

.... to everyone.  I'm posting a very quick post - Jed and I are about to go and carve pumpkins (I'll put up pictures of them tomorrow), bit under time pressure, so I'll get to my card.  It's a Hallowe'en birthday card for Jed's friend - his party was last night.  Again, I was under time pressure, then the crackle glazed bat didn't dry properly, then it was too dark to get good pictures (and so the excuses roll on!).  Here's what I made:

 

I used the sketch from last week's Deconstructed Sketches and I'm entering the following challenges too: Daring Cardmakers ("Spooky Birthdays"), Simon Says Stamp ("Anything Goes"), Crafty Creations ("Make it Yourself"), Card Crafters Circle ("Autumn Splendour") and Totally Gorjuss ("Spooky").  I made the letters from the birthday boy's name, and I also made a spring-loaded bat!  I glued several layers of black cardstock together, drew and cut out the bat shape, then liberally coated it with crackle accents.  Then I swanned off for lunch with some friends, confident that when I came back, the bat would be both dry and crackled. BUT, it wasn't!  Eeeek - what to do?  So I put it in the hotpress for another hour.  No difference.  Then I took a heat gun to it.  Eeeek - dry but blistered.  So, as time had run out, I stuck two googly eyes over the worst blisters, attached the spring (from an old notebook spine) and called it a day!!  Here's a terribly lighted side-shot of the bat:



Recipe:

Papers: Cosmo Cricket "Matilda" and Rusty Pickle "Costume Party"

Other: Computer generated font, googly eyes and spring from stash

Thanks for looking - for those who enjoy Hallowe'en - have a fun evening!!

More adventures ....

.... with boxes.  Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while will remember my son's self-made costume, "box-head", from last Hallowe'en!!  Well, this year, the box went upmarket with a coat of gold spraypaint.  Jed, ever the innovator with his obscure ideas for costumes, declared that he was going to be "the gold robot head dancing guy from the video for Party Rock Anthem"!  Riiiiiiiiiggght - we all know that guy, don't we?!!! 

Having decided that "the guy's" gold lamé tracksuit wasn't necessary for the finished look (phew, I dodged a bullet there!), here he is about to head off out trick or treating:

I've had a bad back for the last week or so, hence no crafting, but I'm glad it had improved enough to be able to tackle the pumpkins, as I love carving them. Here's what we did this year.  Jed made the "Scream" movie character, and I did an oozing skull.  Here they are finished and ready for display and the following pics are them lit up:

My back is definitely on the mend, so with husband's birthday coming up shortly, I hope to get up to the craftroom very soon.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Hallowe'en ....

.... everybody!
It's so lovely to be on holidays - a week of rest and relaxation after a very busy September and October.  It was a quick run-up to Hallowe'en this year, we only put up decorations yesterday.  My daughter didn't trick or treat this year for the first time (at 17!!) - even last year, she and her friends dressed up and went around after all the little ones had finished.  Tonight, she went off to a friend's house for an evening of watching scary movies instead.

So J and I carved the pumpkins - here they are just finished:

 

And here they are lit up - mine is Beetlejuice on the left and J did Devil Flanders:

I really like our fireplace this year - we painted the chimney-breast black earlier in the year and it just hadn't occurred to me until now just how good it would look at Hallowe'en!!

And my son's costume this year - hmmmm - all I can say is it was cheap!!  He got this old copy paper box about a month ago, spent some time defacing it, and declared himself all set for trick or treating.  He calls this extravaganza "box-head"!! 

Tomorrow, I might get to my craftroom - I have a commission for the end of the week and husband's birthday coming up too, so no excuses.

Thanks for looking!

Hello again ....

.... remember me?!!!  It's a very long time since I've blogged, reason being I haven't been doing any craft stuff or internet/blog-surfing whatsoever.  Long story which I won't go into, suffice to say September was a bad month on all fronts, and I had neither inspiration nor inclination to make anything.  But anyhoo, I'm an optimist when all is said and done, it's now Hallowe'en, my favourite holiday, we went to Italy last week for some well-earned r and r (translation, hurtled round Umbria and Rome and came back exhausted!!!).  I went to a crop yesterday and made something and it felt gooooood!!!  Not sure if it looks good, but hey, it's a start!

Here's my card (if I can remember how to upload photos!):

I've used the sketch on this week's Basic Grey Challenges, and the lovely new Pyrus papers.  I'm also entering it into the following challenges: Simon Says Stamp ("punch 'em"), Creative Inspirations (brown, sage and cream) and Crafty Creations (Autumn).

And it wouldn't be Hallowe'en without pumpkins, here's what we made this year, the first is mine and the second is my son's:

Thanks for looking. And for all my DT teamies, followers and those that I follow, I have really missed joining in, looking at everyone's blogs and commenting, not sure how much I'll get done, either blogging or craftwise, over the next week or two, but I hope to be revving back up to top gear soon.

More seasonal ....

.... stuff - I've been overloading you all with orange for the past few posts.  Well, it ain't over yet!!

This fortnight's challenge on Creative Card Crew is called "Autumn or Fall" (covering both sides of the Atlantic!!).  We are sponsored by Sassy Cheryl, and she gave us some fun images to work with.  As soon as I saw the raggedy Star Annie, she reminded me of a spooky Hallowe'en scarecrow, so I decided to make a Hallowe'en decoration thingie on a stick.  Here's the front:

For the front, I used the sketch from this week's Sketch Saturday.  I'm also entering this into Sassy Cheryl's Challenge (use a Spellbinders' Die), Totally Papercrafts ("Let's go Dotty") and Stamp Something (Spots and Stripes).

And now for the back (and the orange!).  I printed off the lettering from the computer, transferred onto chipboard, cut it out and covered with crackle accents.  I had run out of time so, for once, the stitching is faux (eek, the shame!!):

Recipe:

Image: Star Annie by Sassy Cheryl

Papers: very very old Daisy Ds

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Other: American Crafts velvet rick-rack ribbon, Crackle Accents, kebab skewer painted black!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Hallowe'en ...

.... to one and all!!!

I love Hallowe'en - everyone on the estate where we live goes in for it in a big way, and it's always trouble-free and fun for all ages. We've just handed out the last of the treats, and so now I can post the pumpkin pictures:

My children did this one, well, my son chose the subject (Patrick from Spongebob) and then disappeared when all the work had to be done, so his sister did all the carving:

This is mine - I like to carve something a bit ghoulish and very detailed - then it goes outside on display. This one is Mr. Bonejangles from The Corpse Bride:


And I have to show you my newest Hallowe'en decoration - a very very early birthday present from my friend, Lisa. Her friend, Carol, makes the most extraordinarily detailed clothespin dolls (amongst other things), and has an Etsy shop to sell them. And here's my little Hallowe'en sweetheart made by Carol - isn't she perfect, with her little broom, witch's hat and spider.

And here's a slightly closer view:

Thanks Lisa and Carol!!!