Happy Halloween 2010

Project Week will continue tomorrow, but real life caught up with me the last few days.  I always forget how many Halloween traditions we celebrate every year too.  Most of my Halloween excitement starts just a day or two before Halloween, so it is sometimes a struggle to get it all done before dark on Oct 31! 

{PNG files in first and last photo are freebies from Ali’s website here. }

 

One of my favorite traditions is pumpkin carving.  There is something about waiting until the last minute (Halloween afternoon) every year and rushing to get them finished before the sun goes down. 

 

Elizabeth didn’t carve this year.  She wasn’t feeling well, so I got to carve her pumpkin instead.

William carved his own pumpkin.  He chose a face because he thought it looked like Voldemort.

(William has always liked the Harry Potter movies, but lately he has been READING all of the books.  I am very proud of him because he has been reading like crazy lately.)   

Bryan carved his own pumpkin too.  He made a cute jack ‘o’ lantern face.

Actually, we had a nice, relaxed afternoon of pumpkin carving.  I enjoyed it!

I made some caramel apples too.  Yum. 

I also made some sugar cookies. 

Which I also enjoyed. 

 

After I made the cookies, I was digging through cupboards and I found some Halloween cookie cutters that I forgot that I had.  Oops.  Maybe I will make some ghosty cookies next year…

Bryan did some facebooking this morning. 

I found a lovely skeleton garland at Michael’s on Saturday.  I thought it was festive :) 

Here I am with my bat pumpkin. 

Hope you had a great Halloween! 

Celebrating Halloween

 

A pair of spooky halloween canvases inspired by an article by Jodi Ohil in Somerset Holidays and Celebrations 2010 issue.

These were incredibly easy to make. 

I used black apple barrel paint on each 6x6 canvas. 

Then I used a white charcoal pencil to draw the background.

 

I gathered various orange colors from throughout the studio-an orange pastel, indian hue and nickel azo gold Golden paints.  And some sakura pens and white gel pens to finish off the look! 

I painted the other canvas with various orange paint hues.  To get the leaf shape, I sprayed Tim Holtz ink using a real leaf as a mask  Then I let the ink dry and outlined the leaf with a black pastel and added a couple of words with a gel pen.  One word says “fall” and the other says “autumn”.  Voila!

I did have a set of 3 hanging in my studio.  But I brought one down to scan and it looked good on the living room wall. 

So that is where is currently sits.

 

And-a colored photo from my 17 year old.  Aww.  Thank you, Elizabeth!

Happy Friday!  Have a great weekend!

Project Week-Fall Memory Journal

This next project has been over a year? in the making.  The memory binder was was originally designed by Janet Hopkins.  I wasn’t able to find it on Scrapbook.com where I originally ordered it, but Janet has instruction for making your own (which I have also done) as well as the binder mechanisms available in her Etsy shop here. 

When I say that the idea started quite a while ago, I mean really a while ago.  The date on the tag says 2009-which is when I originally decorated the outside of the binder.  I had to change it to 2010.  And since it’s October, I barely made that!  I used a Jenni Bowlin butterfly and JB paper on the front cover and sheet music on the back cover (not shown). 

The journal itself documents our weekend back to Illinois to visit my parents and visit our favorite pumpkin patch for cider donuts and apples. 

I used things that I found around my studio for decorations on the cover.  The metal plate is from Making Memories and the blue felt letters are from American Crafts.  The wallpaper heart is from a Jenni Bowlin junque box.  I found the orangeade cap at my local antique store.  

Some Tim Holtz trinkets hang from the spine.

I had to use these Elle’s Studio flashcards on the inside cover.

This paper is double sided, so I cut the page a little wide and then folded it back over. 

I love Fall.

I also love seeing so many Mums in so many colors all at one time. 

The 10th of October. 

 

 

My Mom and I…and Ralph.

Family photo!  I love capturing our family as we are right at this moment.

I had a flattened penny from several years ago that Elizabeth made-it just happened to turn up in my studio right around the time that I was creating the album, so I used it. 

Family tradition.  Seeing how tall everyone is every year.

Snowies. 

 

 

 

Pointing at the beautiful sunset.  That I can never seem to capture with the camera what I see with my eye. 

Hope you enjoyed day 2 of Project Week!  More coming tomorrow!

Happy Thursday!

Project Week-December Daily {Days 1-15}

 

Yay!  It’s here!  Project Week is here!  I decided to start with my favorite project of the year! 

 

December Daily! 

If you haven’t heard of the December Daily, you HAVE to visit Ali Edwards’ website here.  She has ALL of the amazing details.  The basic idea behind the Dec Daily is that you create the base of the album in Oct or Nov, so that you are free to document and enjoy the awesomeness of your everyday holiday celebrations throughout the month of December.  I create my December Daily from Dec 1 through Dec 25.  On the 25th, I add our family Christmas photo, some journaling, and I put it away.  Because really-25 days is enough :)   

This year, I decided to use an old photo album that I bought at a garage sale this summer for 50 cents! I can’t believe that I almost turned down this awesome album, but I figured that if I didn’t buy it, I would regret it later.  Boy was I right about that!  The size is awesome.  The pages are a little larger than 8.5 x 11.  For now the pages are all in the album, but I might take them back out when I start actually working on them.  Most of them are about the same size too, but I might cut them down as I go.  I was originally going to use the black pages in the album, but then I saw all of the beautiful papers in the Dear Lizzy Christmas line from American Crafts and decided they would be way more Christmas-y than just using black paper.

 

I added Ali’s freebie to my front cover.  I even stole her idea to use red stickles on the “25”

I decided to go with pink, red, green, and light blue/teal for my December Daily color pallet this year. 

 

Most of the numbers that I’m using are from the Cottage Christmas Collection by Imaginisce

I love using Ali’s Designer Digitals Hybrid brushes on some of my December Daily pages.  This one is from her Christmas Boxes, Brushes, and Stamps available here.  

Pretty stars on bright red paper.

The “Merry Christmas” is from a set that I found on clearance last year. 

I had to buy some of the cute little Elle’s Studio flashcards too.

Another one of Ali’s “stamps.”

My favorite idea ever from Ali’s December Daily albums over the years is using a baseball card protector and cutting it to size.  I also love these Tim Holtz metal numbers.  And some of Elle’s tags too.

The “6’s” were so cute that I had to use 2 of them.

 

 

Jenni Bowlin’s red vintage button.

One of Ali’s 2010 December Daily 6x8 Overlays.

I had to throw in one of the “Dear Lizzy” numbers as well.

Another baseball card protector for day 11.

Love the pink stripes for day 12.

I am starting to get excited about real snowflakes too.  As long as it doesn’t snow while I’m travelling. 

Day 15:  A plain 8x8 sheet protector. 

Edit:  You can find Days 16-25 of my December Daily here.

Happy Wednesday!