Happy Fall!

Photo taken at Crawford Farms, Hodgenville, KY

Party Prep

We are T-2 for the Gibson 2010 Halloween Party and I am starting to put things together.  Up until now I have had things scattered around the house because I had to do some rearranging to make room for this display and for some party food on Friday night. 

I love the Eat, Drink and Be Scary sign and the gal that created this has it as a free download from her blog, Craftily Ever After.  She also has another great sign here.  After you download them take a look around her blog as there are lots of great ideas and inspiration there.  The Crafty Witches Book of Magic Spells was also a free download from the Chickabug blog.  There is an abundance of great party ideas there and I have added it to my favorites.  For the book you simply download the file, print it, cut it out and stick it on a book you already have on hand.  The Apothecary label on the flower pot (a re-purposed Yankee candle jar) is from Echo Park.  I love digital downloads because you can re-use them! 

I really love DIY decorations and with the power of the internet, a few minutes and a printer you can find just about anything these days.  Now I need to actually get off the computer and start cleaning up!  Have a great day.



Felt Halloween Banner

I have really been struggling with getting a good photo of this banner because it is so long but also because it is not hanging in a good place to get some natural light. I was inspired by this mini felt banner after visiting a blog in search of Halloween decoration ideas....unfortunately I did not write down the blog so I cannot give credit but if you know where this came from please let me know so I can give proper credit. I was sure I would remember the blog but after much searching I have not come across it again.

Here are the instructions in case you want to stitch your own. This was super easy and did not take too much time. The triangles are about 3 inches high and I used 3 9x12 inch sheets of black felt and another 3 sheets of orange felt for this. I used a rotary cutter and a ruler for this and it took me about an hour to cut all the triangles. I stacked the pieces so they were alternating and then stitched them together using my sewing machine. I slightly overlapped the edges and then back stitched across them to give a little extra durability to the banner. I stitched 3 inch pieces of black ribbon in the ends so I could hang it up. That's it! I said it was easy!

I have the banner hanging across the wall and window in my living room and it has really held up well. It has been up for a month now and I love looking at it every day.

This is the last Halloween project I have unless I feel the need to make something else but I am ready to move on to some Thanksgiving and Christmas projects that I can share. Thanks for sticking around through all the Halloween ideas. I have been going a little overboard this year in preparation for our Halloween Party.

Have a great day!

Another DIY Halloween Project

I made a red, white and blue version of this decoration back in June after seeing the instructions over on Martha Stewarts website.  I looked so I could share the directions here but now can't seem to find the project so I will tell you how I made mine.  I want to add that the one I completed in June looks different because it only had 12 cones and this one has 16.  To be honest I like the fuller version better.

You will need: 

4 sheets of 12x12 double sided scrapbook paper

Paper Trimmer

White Craft Glue (I used Martha Stewarts glue and really liked it for this project)

8 inch cardboard circle (an empty cereal box works great for this)

Hot Glue Gun and glue sticks

6 inch piece of ribbon

Some type of embellishment to cover the center

First you will need to cut your papers into 6x6 inch squares.  Once your papers are cut roll each square into a cone shape and run a thin bead of glue down the edge of paper and press it together.  I generally hold the seam with my fingers for a minute until the glue takes hold.  Do this for all the squares of paper until you have 16 cones.

Take your cardboard circle and a cone and run a line of glue from the center of the circle to the edge and then press the cone down into it.  Repeat until you have all the cones glued down.  Hot glue your embellishment over the center of the circle to cover the tips of the cones.  I always have a difficult time getting the center to stick using regular glue.  This time around I actually used some dimensional glue dots to hold the center on so if you have that on hand go ahead and use it.  Finally, fold your ribbon in half and hot glue it onto the back so you can hang the decoration up.

It takes less than an hour to complete this project and I love how easy it is to make a cute and fairly inexpensive decoration.  Here are a few things I learned this time around.  First, when working with a patterned paper that has stripes (or words) make sure you fold the cones so the design goes in the same direction (you will notice that this did not happen for me but I was not going to start over).  Second, it is much easier to use hot glue when putting the paper onto the cardboard. 

I do not have an abundance of Halloween themed papers so I used Photoshop Elements 7 and digital papers to create my project.  The papers are from Echo Park's Apothecary Paper Pack #2 that you can purchase and download from here. 

I hope you feel inspired to give this a try.  I plan on making another one for Christmas!