MIA - Life Happens!!

On the 26th my daughter and her boys from Austin drove in and spent the night and we all flew to Kansas City the next day. We were there to celebrate my mother-in-law's 90th birthday. She is in assisted-living but still can get around a little and is alert and cognizant. We took her to her favorite Italian restaurant for a birthday lunch on Saturday.

Mitchell was so tired he fell asleep just before we got to the restaurant and he slept on the floor during the entire meal.!

On Sunday we all flew back to Dallas; my husband drove home; and I drove down to Austin with Kelly.  Monday we looked all over for pumpkins as the ones they had gotten earlier in the month were rotting. The two pumpkin patches had none and were closed. We ended up at the grocery store which only had small pie pumpkins left.  That night the boys carved their pumpkins with their Dad.

Then on Tuesday, Halloween, my husband flew in and we went to Carl's school for his kindergarten Fall Festival. It was freezing cold and windy so we were glad it only lasted an hour! The kids all wore their costumes and it was really cute. Each of the 6 classes had 2 booths of fun/learning activity games.

And then it was trick-or-treating time!  Carl was Pikachu - Kelly made stripes on the back of the yellow pjs and also the tail. The costume even made it through the school day intact.

Mitchell adores the Moana movie and was Maui.  Kelly made the leaf skirt, necklace and hook. She had bought tattoos to put on his chest and arms but since it was so cold she got a t-shirt and just drew them on with Sharpie. Mitchell didn't know the difference.  He had refused to wear the wig for days, but that night he wore it! It really finished the costume off nicely.

The next day we came home and brought Mitchell with us for three days as Kelly had to work and her babysitter was unavailable. He was a joy to have - such a sweetie and no homesickness or missing Mom and Dad.  I had ordered him a suitcase for his first solo trip. He chose a Minions theme and loves it.

So, this week there is nothing planned for a change and I hope to catch up on everything and get back to arting and blogging! And resting

October DLP unPlanner 2016 - Week 4

More catchup...

This is Week 4. I was at my art retreat this week and working on various projects (I will share later) so not much on the calendar.

Since Oct. 31st fell on Monday, I didn't want to use an entire weekly page so I used the back of a darling Halloween card I received. (See second photo.)

Here is what I did for my Monthly Pocket Picks. I used another full sheet protector and fused pockets in it according to the sizes I needed.  Once again I used a black tag for some photos of the month. I love how that looks.

Front

Back

I still have a few October PACs to catch up on so will share those next.

Life Happens...

I cannot believe I've neglected this blog for almost a month! Life has been crazy busy all through October!

The kids gifted Bill and I Bob Dylan concert tickets on the 18th for our August birthdays so we were back in Albuquerque for a few days that week and took the boys to the pumpkin patch. A few days after returning, I left for a ten-day art retreat with eight friends, all but one of whom I met online. From there, we visited the other grand boys in Austin for Halloween - yet another pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating. Arrived home a few days ago and have been playing catch-up since!

Here are a few Halloween photos until I can get some art posted.

Carl and Mitchell carving pumpkins

4-yr old boredom with photo-taking

Carl as Ironman

Mitchell as Bevo - enthralled with pumpkins this year

Kelly and Josh dressed up as "Nosy Neighbors" - Carl made his spider hat in school and
decided to wear it trick-or-treating instead of his mask

Mitchell loved trick-or-treating

Drew was an EMT - John dressed as a banana

Grant was a fireman

Candy - the best part!

What a mess!

Halloween "Row House" Swap

Recently I participated in a Halloween swap and just received my last one in the mail. We were supposed to send out three and receive three back.

These are the three I created and sent. They are almost identical. It's hard to see in the photo but there are little black fences on either side of the doors, a little black cat in front, and scary things in the windows!

And these are the ones I received - love them! I haven't yet decided how to display them. Maybe string them into a banner or prop in a tablescape.  Right now I just wish it would get cooler and feel more like fall/Halloween!

Halloween Treat Bag

As part of my LBH Media Team packet this month, I received a variety of Crate Paper Halloween papers, a glitter-stripe kraft sack, a spiderweb stencil "Fragment" from Crafter's Workshop (Ronda Palarrazi), cute black glitter stickers, cheesecloth and ribbon. From these supplies, I create! the cute little treat bag above.

It was featured Sunday on The Little Blue House Blog here. Click on over to see the full details about how I made this.

Here's a close-up view of the cute little spider I made with two buttons, some short lengths of wire and two goggly eyes. He's not scary at all!

"You've been Booed"

Last Wednesday my Halloween treat cone project was featured on The Little Blue House blog. Take a look at this simple and fun project!

You’ve been BOOed” Door Hanger

Don’t you love the Halloween tradition of secretly delivering treats to neighbors on their front step with a note that they’ve been “Booed”? Here is a super cute project for delivering these treats in style.

 

Roll a full 12”x12” piece of double-sided patterned paper into a cone. I used the Crate Paper- After Dark Collection. Use Scor-tape to secure the edge. Trim around the top. 

Punch two holes at top and thread ribbon through holes from front to create a hanger. Knot ends so they do not pull through the holes. 

Tag: I inked the edges of the tag with black ink. Add Orange and Diamond Stickles where desired to decorate tag. Tie to one side of the handle. Tie two bows with a coordinating ribbon at base of hanger.

 

 

Cut 4 12”x1 1/2” strips of coordinating paper and score entire length of each at 1/2” intervals. Fold at score lines. 

Add Scor-tape all around open edge of cone and position 2 strips over tape around opening. Pinch into “pleats” as you go. Add Black Stickles around lower edge of “ruffle."

Glue two remaining strips together end-to-end to form a circle and create a rosette. Add Black Stickles to edge.
 

Cut kraft tag into a 1 3/4” x 5 1/2” strip. Dove tail the ends. Add Orange Stickles around edge. When dry, add “BOO” glitter stickers, 3 glitter star stickers and handwrite “You’ve been” to the left of BOO and add “ ‘d “ to right.

Glue kraft banner to center of rosette and rosette to center of cone. 

Fill with treats and hang on the doorknob of a special friend or neighbor!

 

I'm late - for Halloween!

Hope everyone had a fun and candy-filled Halloween! My little grandsons were so cute in their costumes. We even were able to go trick-or-treating with Carl as they came into town to spend the weekend with his two little cousins in Plano. How cute it was to see those three littles (oldest is 3) figuring out what it was all about and then getting really into it!

Drew went as "Boots" from Dora, his favorite show

Carl was Superman - last minute costume change - don't ask

These were the treats I made them. Didn't want to do a lot of candy since they are so young, so found these on Pinterest.

Frankenstein snack cups (snacks from Walmart, painted cup, added cut
black card stock hair, eyes and drew on mouth - Peanut butter cup "bolts")

Small Playdoh containers with goggly eyes and pipe cleaner spider
legs glued on. Original pin had pipe cleaners in colors to match
lid but I only bought 1 package.

Each of them got a fun-size M&M package but I put Drew's in
this treat bag made at the LBH Make&Take last weekend.
I only had one so it had to go in his mailed package!

Again, Happy Halloween everyone! It's on to Thanksgiving and then Christmas. (Actually I'm very busy creating Christmas projects this week for our Holiday Open House on Saturday!)

New Halloween/Fall Class Projects

The last few weeks I've been busy creating lots of fun Halloween and Fall projects for our new classes at The Little Blue House. They debuted at our Open House last Saturday.  I will show my projects here, but be sure to head over to the LBH blog to see all the wonderful projects available!

First a layout - "Fall is Simply Delightful"

Last year we started making "treat jars and lids" for every season.  You create the jar once and then the lids and wraps are interchangeable.  This is the new Mummy Lid and Wrap for Halloween and the Scarecrow Lid and Wrap for Fall.

The pumpkin mixed media canvas is a companion to one I did two years ago. That one was round and done on a 12x12" canvas. This pumpkin is taller and done on an 11x14" canvas.

And, back by popular demand, is the Halloween Haunted House canvas from last year. This was the first in a series of four seasonal house canvases I did. Many people didn't start until the spring house and wanted to finish out their series. This is actually last year's sample - the new version will be very similar but will use current papers.

So many projects! And next week we'll be starting our holiday/Christmas ones. Can you see why I've not been blogging?

New Fall Classes

I'm busy creating classes for the Christmas classes for the LBH Preview on Nov. 2 (next Saturday) and I haven't even shared the fall classes here yet!

This is the Halloween double layout, "Fright Night," I created using the gorgeous Halloween collection from Teresa Collins.

Crepe paper rosettes

A scary skeleton using Clearly for Art

And lots of washi tape!

 My spooky Mixed Media "Beware" canvas has been very popular. Everyone has had fun with all the paints and "lotions and potions" used on this project. I love that every canvas has come out just a bit different, but all great!

I also designed a new set of tags for our popular blocks and base set. These are non-seasonal and can be on display at any time. I used beautiful burlap fabrics and lace instead of the usual patterned papers. I love the simplicity of them.

Lace, pearls, twine and metal - a perfect combination!

These classes are all being currently taught at The Little Blue House, so if you are local, stop by to visit or call to reserve your seat!

After next weekend, I will be able to share the Christmas projects - right now they are all WIPs!