Happy Halloween!

How to confuse my children... make their Halloween costumes 5 days before Halloween.  Usually we are working on costumes right up until the first trick-o-treater comes to our door (I am ferociously working, as I'm being barked at by a little one as to how: THAT IS NOT HOW BAT WINGS LOOK!).  Seriously, that's how it usually goes.  Not this year.  I got 3 of the four costumes done a good 5 days early!  And the following 5 days were followed by a bombardment of questions as to why we weren't going door to door that night.

The Monster Mash!

Now it's no secret that owls have been an important part of our lives the past few years.  My daughters each wanted to be an owlie.  And thanks to the encouragement and inspiration from my Etsy OWLS teammate. Squarejane, they were the perfect little hoots!

The first-grade-smile owl

Hazel sat on the set next to her "owl pumpkin" hooting the night away

Another current house obsession is bats.  Thanks to my 5 year old son, we have learned a lot about bats, made bat-houses, been to bat festivals, crafted up a lot of bats, and made at least 2 official bat costumes.

The flying fox fruit bat

Frank 

The Monster Mash song is a very popular tune around our household, Halloween or no Halloween - hence our little Frankenstein.  I hope you had a Happy Halloween.  I must say I had a lot of fun making costumes this year - who knows what Handmade goodness I will be pushed into next year (the count down has already started)!

A Little Halloween Craft

I found this matchbox paper pattern a few years ago on the Swap-bot blog - I figured it was time for me to make something fun for Halloween for my little squirrels.  I found some Halloween paper and embellishments and got to work.  This was one of the times it was fun to have to make four of something.  I had the time, and the inspiration.  I put 5 little orange pumpkins for them to decorate and use in the "5 little pumpkin" poem.

I know for sure one of them is already smushed, but the kids enjoyed them.

I love using orange and purple together.

My Little Bat Boy. . .

... or actually I should my my little boy dressed up as a bat.  As that is what he was for Halloween last year.  It was about this time last year I decided once and for all I was going to become the new owner of 100 Proof Press.  My son was flipping through the catalog and found image#5737, the boy dressed up as a bat. That image is what he used to design his costume.  My sister had the task of bringing this stamp to life, to my son's very specific specifications.  I think she did a wonderful job, and eventually we convinced Joe it looked enough like image#5737, the BOY dressed as a Bat.

This photo makes me so very happy.  It was a beautiful day, and I'll never forget this little boy dressed as a bat trying to fly in the wind.

I made Joe this Halloween card this year with the bat boy stamp.  The saying is just perfect: "Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story."  Joe finally outgrew his bat costume - he got very good use out it , he wore it weekly. This year he wants to be a bat, not a BOY dressed as a bat, a flying fox fruit bat (we have a stamp for that too!).

Fun card, I just loved playing with this paper!

Baby Boo Feet

I thought of a fun little crafty thing to do with baby this past week.  Paint the soles of the feet in white paint, and turn them into ghosts of course.  I think it makes a cute little keepsake for baby's first Halloween. Of course this can work with bigger kids too, but the baby boo feet are the cutest.

So, if you have some baby feet and white paint, you might want to give it a try, just takes a few minutes, and you can have the keepsake forever, because those little feet don't stay tiny for long!

Trick or Treat, Stamp my Feet. . .

It's a Halloween Party...

... for the spooky paper dolls.

I recently just got back into the paper-crafting world.  Before this week, I had always just used a glue stick for my paper creations.. never again!  I got some awesome Helmar products to play around with, and well, I am in love.  I was actually having so much fun testing them out I made two paper dolls - just so I could use some more Zapdots - the zapdots were perfect for attaching the "puff-balls" to the hats.  And of course I used several 100 Proof Press images, and that famous inkadinkado dress stamp.  Let's just say I  had some fun with adhesives, stamps, scissors and paper.  Boo!

Party Skull

Also, I am going to enter them into the Halloween Contest over a Retro Cafe Art - I figure they are all dolled up and ready to go out I better take them somewhere.

Punkin' Party Gal

Skirt Detail

Let's Party!

We would love to have more attendants at the party, if you have a Halloween doll, I'd love to see it.  We could have a parade.