what a bunch of whooligans!

When I first saw this layout on Allison Davis’ blog last fall, I knew I wanted to use it for my Halloween layout. Originally, I was going to use a bunch of Jillibean Soup Monster Soup paper I’d won. But then I kept drooling over the Bo Bunny Whooligan line while at my lss…so I ended up with an almost identical layout to her. Oh well! Imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?

I did do a couple things differently.

1) I stayed true to the original sketch & used circles instead of stars.

2) I added more photos (so I had to change the placement & size of a few of the circles.

As you can see, I also popped up the smaller circles & used the circle stickers that came with the line as well. They were the same size & so cute!

Happy Halloween!

We had such an awesome Halloween this year!

Abbie was a bumble bee

Olivia was an 80’s girl

And Brandon was “a killer”…I’m so proud! (insert sarcasm)

 

Our neighbors came over around three & we carved our pumpkins.

After we had dinner together, the dads took the kids trick or treating while Lori & I passed out our candy..and we were “the” stop: three house’s worth of candy at one place! We had a bonfire out front & spent the evening chit-chatting before the kids came back with their loot.

The only downside to the evening was that we couldn’t get the TV out front, so we had to come in to keep checking on the score (Giants 4, Rangers 0).

boo!

Okay, really it says "spooky," but it's my blog so I'll title how I want ;-)

Last year I got a great deal on Cosmo Cricket's Halloween line at Peachy Cheap. I got ribbons, blackboard, cardstock stickers, rub-ons, and stamps for like $15! I knew when I got it wanted to make something (not a scrapbook page), so I stashed it away (I got it in October).

Fast forward to this summer, and the Haunted papers were like 40% at Two Peas. So I bought a sheet of each pattern & again stashed it away, figuring I didn't need to stress until September. Then all of a sudden it was the END of September, I hadn't even thought of decoratings yet! So last weekend I grabbed Olivia & Abbie and ran over to Michaels to pick up some chipboard (oh, I'm sorry, they call it paper mache...whatever) letters. And they didn't have ANY! What?! Last year they did. Maybe I'm blind (my optometrist wouldn't disagree!). So rather than keep searching, I shoved the girls back in the car & ran over ot Joann's. Fortunately they still carry them...and they were on sale for a buck off! Woo-hoo!

The first thing I did was paint the sides & back of each letter black. Then I traced each letter on to the patterned paper I wanted. Really, I should've done the tracing first so I wouldn't have to stress about getting black on the paper, but oh well! The paint was dry, it was just me stressing :)

After the paper was cut out, I modge-podged the paper to the front of each letter. Sometimes my tracing/cutting wasn't super great, but that's okay! That's what sandpaper & black paint are for: See, once the modge-podge is dry, I sanded the edge of it down (if the paper overlapped). Then I took the black paint & ran it over the edges of the entire letter. No big deal.

I let each letter dry at this point (aka, I took a shower!). Then I came out & started playing with the embellisments. I knew I wanted to tie ribbon on the P (above), and I somehow wanted to use the bat blackboard (above as well). The black O was a bit blah, so I used a skeleton rub-on in the corner. I added other rub-ons to other letters as well. Then I applied one coat of modge podge on top of each letter (and rub-on) to seal the deal. This time I was smart too: I didn't put any on the bottom so it won't stick to my shelf! (Yes, this happened with my Christmas letters last year!)

After the modge podge was dry, I started playing with the blackboard cut-outs & leftover scraps of paper. I added a cat face rub-on to the bat, some distressed stickles to the black to add some bling, etc. I had a LOT of fun playing around! (And I made a haunted house too, I'll share it later.)

I'm so happy with how it turned out! The only disappointment is that the P won't stand on it's own. David offered to make some sort of stand, but I found that leaning them against the wall works too (there's glass on the top of this chest that is about 3/4" out from the wall, so there's a nice little spot for the letters to fit).

Happy Halloween!

I love my LSS, Green Tangerines! I love coming up with my own layouts, but sometimes I love it when someone else has done the work for me, too. They have a kit of the week there, and usually it's pretty cute.

Last week I was drooling over what was left of the BoBunny Boo Crew line, and not sure what I wanted to do with it, other than some kind of paper piecing thing. Then I saw what the kit of the week was and thought, okay, something like that! Well, of course by the time I got back over there the paper I wanted was gone. But the kit was adorable! And stress free :)

So here's my adaption (okay, all I did was add my photos). But it's still mine ;-)

Trunk or Treat, pt 1

Our church hosts Trunk or Treat every year on the Sunday before Halloween. The past few years it's been in our church parking lot. I thought it was crazy, but hey, any mob when you're the one with toddlers is crazy!

This year they moved it back to the Roseville Speedway. It has been there before, but before we were at Bayside & had kids. Personally, I think it was less chaotic at church. At least in the parking lot people seemed to move in one direction only. Tonight everyone came in both directions, so you had to squeeze in to get anything. Fine if you're an older kid. Not so much when your 3 or 4.

But hey, the kids had a great time! And there was lots of fun music from the KidStuf band. By the time we got to go see them, our kids were pooped! Well, except Abbie...she'd loaded up on her first suckers so she was full of energy! I forgot how sticky babies got on Halloween.

Pt 2 to follow when I get my layout done :)

Black cat baby!

Here's Abbie's super cute costume! Lots of work, but I think worth it. My only regret? Not having a thimble! I've only ever stitched on cross-stitch fabric (where you can see the needle) or on paper (where you pre-punch). If I had had to do much more, I would've gone to my mom's & gotten one. And since this was black, I didn't have to worry about a blood stain :)