Shadowbox From the Crypt

October has been such a busy month for me that I have really neglected my blog! We had our annual Halloween Party this past weekend. It was our 21st...and maybe our best one to date. We had perfect weather...in the 60's, very little wind and even a full moon. Over 80 adult guests showed up and almost everyone came in costume! We had a live band, so that made the night even more fun. It took a LOT of planning but it was worth it because we all had such a good time. We spend a lot of time decorating our barn (where the party takes place) and our yard for the event. What little stamping I did this month had to do with Halloween...so I'm hoping you won't mind one more Halloween post from me.

I made this little shadowbox to add a spooky accent to my bathroom. It was really hard to get a good angle to take this photo as to not get glare from flash on the glass, so it looks like it's all crooked inside the frame, but it really isn't. Anyways... all I did was emboss the cool skull image from the set From the Crypt in Black EP on a piece of Cast A Spell DP. (retired, but available in MDS) I added some green jewels to his eyes, and some orange ones to each corner and even to the spider I had attached to the back using fishing line and a Glue Dot. The mat is decorated with the purple print from the Cast A Spell collection and then I added some of the Black Designer Jewels (available in the Holiday Mini) on two corners. The little spider and web designs are rub-ons from Heidi Swapp. I had this little shadowbox stashed away for a while. I'm pretty sure I got it at Target's Dollar Spot a while back.

We always give away small prizes at our parties for the best costumes. This year I used the tombstone image from Graveyard Gala and omitted the words. I cut out the tombstones and added the prize categories with my Black Journaler and created these candy mugs. In case you are wondering what I dressed up as, here's a photo from our haunted barn.

We were a corpse bride & groom. I got all of our clothing from Salvation Army and secondhand shops and then distressed them to look old and tattered. I was happy with the results and spent less than $30 total for both costumes...less than the price of one pre-made costume.
I have a couple card classes coming up, so I'm sure I'll have some new things to share that are not Halloween oriented real soon. Have a hauntingly good weekend!

Be-Jeweled Pumpkin

Last year on the cover of BH&G Halloween magazine there was an elegant be-jeweled pumpkin that I just loved. I searched everywhere for adhesive backed flourishes so I could recreate it, but had no luck finding them. Much to my delight, in this years Holiday Mini Catalog SU! is offering Black Flourish Designer Jewels...just what I had been searching for last year! So of course I bought a couple of packages so I could recreate that bewitching pumpkin I had coveted since last year.

As you can see, I also found some purple flourish jewels as well. I used a 9" foam pumpkin and just attached the flourishes all the way around. I used 2 packages of the SU! flourishes, but still have most of the jeweled strips left on both sheets to use for future projects.

It makes a festive centerpiece on my dining room table. You can also see a spooktacular handmade Halloween card I received in the mail from a friend of mine who loves the holiday as much as I do.

I hope that whereever you live, you have been blessed with a gorgeous Indian Summer, like we have here in Michigan. The weather has been wonderful and the colors have been amazing. Here's a couple photos I took last weekend in Northern Michigan. The first shot is overlooking the Grand Traverse Bay.

Thanks for stopping by today! ENJOY the weekend!!!

Halloween Invitations From the Crypt

Like I told you in my last post, I've been busy getting ready for our upcoming annual Halloween party. I even managed to send out some cool handstamped invitations. I'm ashamed to say that the last couple of years I've relied on E-vite or Facebook to invite everyone...oh the horrors, right!? Here I am sitting here with all these fabulous Halloween stamps and then not sending out handmade invitations? It ended up being well worth my effort, because I've gotten so many nice comments from those who have received them and they are excited about the party.

Here is a close up of just one of the invitations.

I stamped the skull image from the set From the Crypt on Glossy card stock using Black Stazon and then sponged on Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie & Perfect Plum ink. The Perfect Plum layer is embossed using the Spider Web Embossing Folder found in the Holiday Mini Catalog. The little tag is from the retired set Eat Drink & Be Scary, but if you have My Digital Studio, it is included there. I embossed the tag with Black Embossing Powder. The spider web border along the bottom was created using a Martha Stewart punch.

For the inside I printed the info on my computer but then did a little stamping using Pumpkin Pie ink and images from both Graveyard Gala & From the Crypt.

I couldn't mail these bad boys out in a naked envelopes, right? So I used the Midnight Musings Jumbo Wheel to decorate the flaps, and added a couple spiders for good measure.

Thanks for dropping by today...ENJOY your day!

Just Believe in Elements of Style Gift

The past couple weeks I've been busy preparing for our annual Halloween Party...working on costumes, decorating the house and creating our invitations...so my blog has become very neglected. I can't wait to show you the Halloween invites I made, but I just got those out in the mail a couple days ago and don't want to post those here yet because a few of my guests look at my blog from time to time. Instead I have a little thank you gift I made for a friend a while back and never posted.

I had a whole bunch of photos for her from our annual girls weekend along with some goodies from Bath & Body Works. So I stamped a large cello bag (from Bath & Body Works) using White Stazon and the pretty swirl stamp from Elements of Style.

I made a little box to hold the photos using a piece of Certainly Celery card stock which I also stamped with the swirl stamp from Elements of Style. I used the 1 - 3/8" circle punch to cut a notch in the top so the photos were easy to pull in & out of the pouch.

The label for the photo pouch and the little thank you card attached to the bag were quick and easy to make using the Just Believe set. I finished the gift by adhering some adhesive backed Rhinestone Jewels and tying on some Baja Breeze ribbon.
Have a wonderful weekend!