Good Night Halloween... Thanks for the Memories!

Farewell to this crafty event that is Halloween!! It was such an amazing night with the best of friends as well as the little trick or treat-or's  amazing costumes that kept me smiling and laughing well into the night!

Now that things are beginning to wind down and the house has been cleaned up and the decorations taken down in hopes for a change. We have begun out jaunt towards Christmas and all that this entails (dreams, treats and crafts included ;)). Before we get started into the world that is Christmas, I wanted to share with you all of the amazing crafts and decorations that helped make our house great for All Hallows Eve!

*** Note a BIG thanks goes out to my future sister-in-law for donating many of the non-crafted items :) She is amazing!! (also, don't sorry she got them back all in one piece :p)***

The Spooky house (night shots didn't show up!)

Our very happy pumpkins,
and the first ones we have carved together!!

Best Dollar Store Sign!!

The ghosts are having a seance around the light!

The decorated hallway to set the mood.

Our banners, from my awesome SIL !!!

Even our pictures are in costume ;)

Well hello there Mr. Mouse.

The little mice you have seen before.

Our spooky kitchen :)

And finally, the Bats!!

I had such an amazing time making all of these crafts and setting everything up I can't wait for the new ideas that next Halloween will bring!!

I hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!!! 

I hope you are all excited as I am to move on to the next crafty holiday ;).

-xo-

The Mice Have Come Out To Play!!! - Halloween Style

The mice are here to stay and play!

Here is your second post of the night!! Aren't you lucky ;).

I know I am!

So this tutorial is going to be very brief because it is basically the same concept as the "Bat Cave" but you use Mice templates and not Bats!

Bat Cave Tutorial (Check it out here!)

Mice Templates (from Martha Stewart)

All you need to do is choose your template, Choose the colour of your paper and cut away!!

Then place these cute and sneaky mice wherever they can get into the most mischief ;)

These sneaky mice are heading up to the kitchen for a midnight snack ;)

I love how these mice add so much fun to a simple staircase. Where have you placed your mice??

Have they gotten into anything mischievous??? I know mine have ;)

-Happy Crafting-

-xo-

DIY Halloween Garland

So it is almost time!!!! 2 more sleeps!! Are you excited?? I know I am... can you tell??? 

I have been getting so carried away with decorating the house for the Halloween bash that I almost forgot to take pictures... Almost but not quite ;).

Are you ready for this... Since I was delayed this week you get two separate posts today!!! wooohooo

The First tutorial is for a paper garland that hangs from the roof and add a dramatic flair over what will be our snack table :). (note I did not make the hat ;) it was left over from last year's costume) lol. Also there will be so much more going on with the table in 2 days!! haha

Lets take it away because the count down is on!

Your Supplies

What you will need!
-A paper Cutter or a Circle Stamp ( I already had mine)
-Sticky Tack (I use the white one for the roof)
-Coloured paper or construction paper (many pages)
-Sewing Machine with Thread
-Scissors and Imagination!!





Once you have everything ready and laid out, choose the colours of your paper and figure out if you want a mismatch or a patter or the same colours. You can even use glitter paper or clear plastic paper.

Take your Circle cutter and you can either cut out  each circle individually.... I did not have time for that ;). So I folded each piece of paper a few times and got stamping! I had many circles ready to go in just a few seconds! Once I had all of the circles punched out I organized the colours into the pattern I wanted for the garland.

Best Halloween Colours!!

Chain Stitch Away

Now get your Sewing Machine (make sure it is threaded and cleaned and ready to go!) and drop your presser foot and let the feed dogs of your machine move the paper. This is the simple part you Chain Stitch all of the circles you want in a line (this is where the imagination comes in!!! Save a little for later though ;)). You can make a long chain this way or make the individual dangling garlands like I have shown here!!

Here is the Pile of garlands!! :) 

p.s. be careful they tangle easily 

(guess how I learned this ;) lol)

You are on the Home Stretch!!! Now this is where the second part of your imagination comes in handy!!! All you need to do is take small amounts of your sticky tack or tape and arrange the garlands to your hearts content and make the designs of your dreams!! 

It really makes the room more festive!!!

You are done!!! Congratulations!! 

I hope that you love the way your garland looks and I would love to see pictures of them too!!! 

-Happy Crafting-

-xo-

How To: Halloween Spiderwebs

Here we are! Back at it again. I know I have promised you more information on the Sizzix Big Shot and how it works and what kind of projects I am going to do... well those are still coming. So wait with baited breath ;). I want to finish a project and show you a "How To" as I explain the machine as well:). Crazy I know, but I want you all to get the full experience. Additionally, I don't want any of you to miss out on the Halloween tutorials!!

Seven again I say 7 Days and counting until All Hallows Eve!!!

Do you have your costumes ready??? I sure hope so and I would love to hear all about them so send me a message or a comment ;).

As for right now I am going to show you how to make amazing and realistic spider webs from the dollar store bags of material!!.  I know that a lot of people don't really like these fake spider webs because they just look clumpy or they don't stick well and there are many other excuses...  I hope to break all of those excuses today!! So here we go!!

Supplies:

One bag of spider webbing, Spiders optionals ;)

Sticky Tack (white) or tape

You can find bags of the Spider Webbing at any main stores, drugmarts, dollar stores and even some grocery stores carry them. These bags usually have small plastic spiders included (they enhance the effect ;)), When you open the bag, the material is usually all in a big bundle, don't worry it is mostly just cotton so unfold it a little and we will get started. 

Don't worry the creepy crawlies wont come running out of the bag lol

Out of the bag

I ripped off a small piece to work with so that we will be able to have more control. Remember you can always add more if you need some for the project. There is sooooo much material once it has been stretched out, I usually only use one bag for the whole house, that is how much this stuff stretches!!)

Now that you have your bundle to work with, get you fingers moving and stretching. Feel free to rip even smaller pieces to work with. The smaller the bundle you are working with, the thinner you can get the strands and the more realistic it will look.

Getting better, working out the kinks

OOO Looks spooky almost there!!

You can see the difference between the two pictures here, the more you stretch and pull and move the material around the better it will work for your needs.

**Tip: Don't be afraid if your pieces get a little sparse, you can keep moving the fabric around and pull more material from the larger bundles and it will fill up. This material is very forgiving***

Here is the fun part... are you ready?? 

Get small amounts of your sticky tack ready and start dreaming of the scariest spider placements you can dream up... I know I know, its not hard because spiders are always creepy and scary ;)!!! Is that just me?? 

Here are some of the places I dreamed up, you really can place it on everything!!!

Typical cobwebs hanging from the beams

The Spideys are coming!

The corners are always amazing because they are out of the way and help create and maintain the atmosphere of the room.

The thin strands on the photos around the room, adding effect

The thin strands look amazing on windows and frames, Give it a shot and see what you think!!. Also the best thing about the frames is that you may not even need to use the sticky tack because it will hook onto the corners!! Why not try it out?

Last tip and tick for today is that the webbing can also be used to look life fog in glasses and bowls and things. All you need to do is play with is a little less and keep it fluffy. Wrap it around and make sure there are different densities of the webbing in the bowl to make it look as if the fog is moving.

One of our centre pieces!

I hope you learned a lot from this post and that you are able to be more creative now that you know how to effectively use the Spider Webbing!! Send Pictures and let me know how yours tuns out!!. I would love to hear what you all are planning for Halloween!! 

Remember 7 days left for all your arts and crafts and until the final reveal here ;)

-Happy Crafting-

-xo-