Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Throwback Thursday - Happy Halloween!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! 

Trick or Treating.  Candy.  Jack-o-Lanterns.  Spooky Bats and Cats.  Mr. Bones.  I love it all!!!

For today's post, I thought I'd just take a quick walk down memory lane.  Call it a Thowback Thursday - Halloween Style.  :)

2009 B.C. (Before Children - albeit pregnant).  Oh Grandma, what big ears you have!!  I actually made these costumes in 2007.  I'm a terrible sewer so I was pretty pleased with myself.  :)



2010.  And we have a duck now.  The Halloween post with more photos from 2010 can be found here.


2011.  Buzz, buzz, buzz!!  Our little bumble bee.  See more photos on this blog post.


2012.  Adding another pumpkin to our patch.  This was Benjamin's first "outing" since getting discharged from the NICU.  He was still 11 days shy of his due date in this photo but doing great. 


And here's the monkey ballerina with her baby pumpkin.  Monkey Ballerina.  Hehehe, I mean, awesome, right?  :)





This year shall involve some monsters and princesses.  We'll see how it all goes.  :)  Hope everyone has a very happy and safe Halloween!!!

As always, thanks for stopping by!


Friday, October 4, 2013

Xyron and Core'dinations Blog Hop - Framed Halloween Subway Art


I cannot even begin to fully express how freakin' excited I am to be hopping with Core'dinations and Xyron today!  Core'dinations was the first (and only) brand of cardstock that I purchased when I started scrapbooking almost four years ago.  I loved the weight, the texture, the range of colors, the color core! I was spoiled from the beginning.  Four years later, I still have not discovered another brand that lives to the same standard of awesome that Core'dinations does.  And when you partner Core'dinations with Xyron adhesives, there are no limits to the crafting possibilities!

For this blog hop, I wanted to create some holiday home decor.  We are now committed to October and Halloween is on my mind!  Here is a decorated frame with some Halloween subway art that I created.


Supplies:  Core'dinations Cardstock; Core'dinations SandIt Tool; Patterned Paper (Bazzil - All Hallow's Eve); Adhesives (Xyron High Take Adhesive Dots, Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker); EK Success Mini Pennant Punch; EK Success 2 Point Flag PunchSpellbinders Bitty Blossoms Die; Sizzix Framelit Dies; Paper Studio Tiny Stars Embossing Folder; May Arts Ribbon; Studio Calico Mr. Huey's Shine; Ink Jet Transparency; Digital Files (Kolette Hall, Lori Whitlock); Little Yellow Bicycle Stick Pins; WRMK Floss, Target Washi Tape.

I wanted to be sure to share a couple of tips and tricks that I learned in the process of making this frame.

1.  Patterned Paper + Ink Jet Transparencies = AWESOME Framed Artwork.  I really wanted to use this file from the Silhouette Online Store and designed by Kolette Hall.  It is intended to be cut out of vinyl and I was trying to decide between cutting it out of vinyl or cardstock.  However, after my electronic die cutting machine was giving me so attitude (it does that sometimes), I started searching for another solution.  Then, like a light bulb popping out of the top of my head, and as the clouds parted to reveal magnificent rays of sunlight, it came to me.  Pure genius.  And I didn't even steal the idea from Pinterest, for realz.  TRANSPARENCIES!!!

Using my normal and amazingly boring ink jet printer, I printed the word art image onto a sheet of ink jet transparency (I use Sparco Ink Jet Transparency Film originally purchased from Amazon but I don't think they carry it anymore).  I layered that directly over some Halloween patterned paper from Bazzil All Hallow's Eve trimmed to fit inside of the frame.  Then, just like that, I created the look of vinyl with the super crisp black words without the fuss of cutting anything.  I mean, come on?  Pretty awesome, right?  And now, you can super easily change out the word art throughout the month!!!

2.  Xyron High Tack Adhesive Dots and Rolled Flowers.  The New! Xyron High Tack Adhesive Dots are perfect for making sure that your 3D paper flowers stay together.  They were also strong enough for me to directly adhere the flowers (and everything else) directly onto the frame without having to turn on the nasty glue gun!


The Core'dinations cardstock is so thick that it is perfect for making these Spellbinder Bitty Blossom flowers.  For the leaves, after cut and embossing the leaves, I used the Core'dinations SandIt Tool to add more detail and dimension to the leaves.  I really think that if you are ever going to cut and emboss anything, you NEED to use Core'dinations cardstock with the sanding block.  There is no other product that gives you such amazing results.

The beautiful color core also shines through in this pennant element along the top of the frame.  To create this effect, I embossed the Core'dinations cardstock with a stars embossing folder and then sanded with the Core'dinations SandIt Tool.


And did you see that I just covered the sides of the frame with washi tape?  Oh yeah.  Awesome.

Make sure to head over the Xyron blog to check out some seriously gorgeous projects featuring Xyron and Core'dinations.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Catching up with Project Life; 30 Days of Gratitude - Day 11.

So I am now determined to finish my Project Life 2012 digitally and get everything printed and bound in a beautiful book.  I'm serious.  I mean it.  But, um, I'm just a tad bit behind.  And when I say behind, I mean that I still have to document the middle of March through the end of October.  But I can do it, right???  Just wanted to share some pages towards that endeavor.  But just think how awesome it's going to be when I take a photo of me with a beautiful bound album of all our 2012 memories.  You just wait.  I'm so going to do this.  :)

1.  Week 44 (First Half).  The highlight of this layout was definitely Halloween.  Charlotte has been telling everyone that she was going to be a monkey ballerina for MONTHS!!  Click here to see Week 44 (Second Half).




2.  Week 45.  Big events this week were saying goodbye to Justin (again), Charlotte's lantern walk at school, and Benjamin's two month birthday!!!  




3.  30 Days of Gratitude - Day 11.  I didn't include a photo for my Day 11 journaling.  I won't lie, after this week, it was hard for me to keep up with the 30 Days of Gratitude Challenge and I found myself trying to remember what I was grateful for in retrospect.  But I still think it's definitely worth following through.  But, as I noted in my layout above, for Day 11, I am thankful for military wives.  Despite the obstacles that life seems to throw at us, we continue to persevere and thrive with the support of each other.  

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!


Hope everyone has a fun and SAFE Halloween.  Charlotte is dressing up as a monkey ballerina and Ben has a cute little pumpkin sleeper his big sister picked out.  Photos to come.

And just because what is a post without some sort of crafty project, here's a Halloween card made with some digital goodness from Designs by Dani.


Supplies:  Digital Elements from Design by Dani, DIY Foam Tape, Photoshop CS5.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Xyron and Quick Quotes - Halloween Layout

I love it when Xyron teams up with an awesome manufacturer like Quick Quotes.  I received some papers and elements from their new Halloween Collection and thought it was the perfect excuse to finally scrapbook last year's trick or treating photos.  While a lot of the papers and elements seemed to lend itself more towards scary Halloween projects, I was able to use them perfectly for these super cute photos of Charlotte in her bumble bee costume.


Supplies:  Patterned Paper (Quick Quotes); Cardstock (Recollections); Die Cuts/ Journaling Tags (Quick Quotes); Stamps (Studio Calico, Lawn Fawn, American Crafts); Ink and Pens (Quick Quotes, Uni-ball, American Crafts); Punch (EK Success); Adhesives (Xyron Creatopia, Xyron Mega Runner; Homemade Foam Tape); Digital Die Cutting Files (Silhouette); Silhouette Cameo.

The Quick Quotes die cuts and journaling tags made embellishing this layout super easy.  This amazingly intricate die cut tree provided the perfect Halloween background when paired with a graveyard silhouette that I cut using my Silhouette Cameo.  The die cuts were super easy to adhere to the page after I ran them through my Xyron Creatopia.


I cut apart the Be Afraid Chipboard Pieces and then inked it with some Quick Quotes chalk ink (purple passion) to embellish the top corner of the photo collage.  And finally, a cut one of the Quick Quotes Instant Journaling Strips into a banner/ title element for my page.  Some stamped labels (again, using the Quick Quotes chalk ink), finished my page. 


I also made this super quick and simple layout showcasing some of our pumpkin photos from last fall (and based on a Midweek Mojo Sketch from Scrapbook Steals - Pearl 7).


Supplies: Patterned Paper (Quick Quotes); Journaling Tags (Quick Quotes); Stamps (Studio Calico, Lawn Fawn); Ink and Pens (Quick Quotes, Studio Calico Mister Hueys, American Crafts, Memento, Sharpie, Tim Holtz Distress Ink); Punch (EK Success); Letter Stickers (American Crafts, October Afternoon, Kesi' Art); Adhesives (Xyron Mega Runner; Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker, Homemade Foam Tape).

I wanted to write directly on the background paper.  Since it was such a dark and heavy print, I first sprayed directly onto the paper with some Studio Calico Mister Hueys spray before stamping some journaling lines with a Lawn Fawn Background stamp and then writing directly onto the page.  Unfortunately, all the of the pens didn't do so well writing onto the paint (I tried the American Crafts precision pen, Sharpie fine tip marker, and the Memento pen).  If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know!


I also didn't go crazy with the embellishing on this layout.  A return to simple scrapping.  :) But I'm still really liking it without all the fuss.  It's a good reminder that not all pages should take me 5 hours to finish!


Thanks Quick Quotes for the opportunity to play with your amazing products!  Make sure to visit Beth Kingston's blog for lots of stunning Xyron and Quick Quotes projects from the Xyron Design Team all week long and a chance to win some of the Quick Quotes Halloween products for your own collection!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy {Belated} Halloween!


Despite the cold weather and unfamiliar surroundings, we were still able to get our act together and take Charlotte out trick-or-treating.  Thanks to Wal-Mart (one of these days, I swear I'll actually make her costume...), Charlotte dressed up as a little bumble bee.


We first took her to Washington Square in historic downtown Newport.  A lot of the local shops were handing candy out to the kiddies.  It only took Charlotte a few try before she understood that these absolute strangers would give her candy...




Afterwards, we drove over to Fort Adams to trick-or-treat around the base housing.  There were SO MANY kids there and everyone (even the parents) were all dressed up for the fun.  Justin and I, however, did not dress up.  But here are some photos of us with our little bumble bee. 



And finally, since we're on the subject of Halloween, I wanted to quickly share the story of Charlotte's first jack-o-lantern.  (We sadly never got around to carving one last Halloween.)

A few days ago, we visited the Sweet Berry Farm in Middletown, RI with our dear family friend, Mrs. Polnasek. 




She used to work on the farm for many years and let me tell you, this place is adorable!  The store sells the most amazing gourmet food and sweets.  The farm grounds itself were also nice (although most of the pumpkins were already picked by the time we got there).  Regardless, Charlotte persevered and found two perfect pumpkins.



Much like what we did with the supermarket mini pumpkins, Charlotte painted the smaller of the two pumpkins. 


Justin carved the larger pumpkin.  Notice how skilled his pumpkin carving skills are.  :)


 
And after all was said and done, here are all the pumpkins. 



Hope everyone had a fantastic and safe Halloween!!!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Duckie Duckie Quack Quack


How it is already November?  How do I not have my Thanksgiving menu already planned out?  How have I not posted any photos of Charlotte in her Halloween costume?!?!

So Charlotte actually went through two costumes.  I bought her this cow costume about 2 months too early and one size too small.  However, this photo does hang outside my office door while I'm pumping at work.  (Thanks, Ms. Becky!)


So then I got Charlotte this little duckie costume which she proceeded to wear mutliple times throughout the month of October. 

She wore it at the pumpkin patch at Nates Butt...I mean Bates Nut Farm.  :)


She wore it at home, just hanging out and crawling around.


She wore it to work...well, my work, for office trick-or-treating.

She wore it to a super awesome Halloween birthday party at My Gym (which was amazing, by the way).

She wore it trick-or-treating in Coronado with the Grandparents.



Overall, I think she got some pretty good use out of that duckie costume.  What should she be next year???

 << quack quack >>
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