Just a little recap of our Halloween day and night.  I spent the day making everything (rush, rush, rush) and we were out on the town by 6pm–phew!  We had a great time, the kids LOVED their costumes and now we are all very tired.  I am pretty sure we had the only homemade costumes, of what we saw, and there was not one other Bionicle around. Super E is pretty proud of that.  Hope you had a wonderful night too.

~ Cat and Bird masks were made from instructions in the Oct ‘09 issue of MS Living Magazine
~ Bionicle costumes made from fun foam and staples.  Swords (or whatever they are called) made from cardboard.
~ Pumpkins & decor belong to our neighbors.

This is it for the Halloween decor. I just finished up the mantle of our fireplace with some random objects (mirrors, bookends, etc) that I had stored.  I also did some quick ink sketches on kraft paper to put in the two middle frames. Have you seen THIS!!! I really love it!

And here are my ATCs for this year. It’s a really bad picture, but you get the idea.  Very Coraline inspired.  I am almost embarrassed to say that there is more glitter on these too! I am obsessed.

I have still not made Halloween costumes for the boys. They want to be Bionicles!  Ugh!!  I’ve tried talking them into other things but my bargaining chips are no good any more.  I knew this time would eventually come.  So, I am thinking I’ll do something like THIS.  I hope it works. Maybe it’s because I’m a girl, but I just don’t like/get the whole Bionicle thing.  Super-E’s teacher has assured me that it’s is fine and nothing to worry about. After all, they only play with the toys a make really crazy and creative creatures from all the parts. Nothing wrong with that, I guess. I just have to chill out and go with the flow.

I bought all these frames at the thrift store for only five bucks!!

I had a can of black paint and… presto!!!….new black frames.

I drew a couple of pictures on fancy scrap book paper…

and then found some images in old books.

The bottom frame of course has more glittered bugs.

The glitter thing might becoming a problem. There is glitter everywhere. And, people have commented several times, that I have glitter on my face.

Bugs. They really creep me out. Even the fake kind. Is it weird to not even want to touch fake plastic bugs? Icky!! I was tempted to use tweezers, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to freak out my little guy. He was slightly hesitant. He kept asking me if they were dead. My other guy love the bugs. Fake and real. I had to hide them so I wouldn’t find any under my pillow.

Side story–When I worked as a pediatric nurse on the night shift, we would have a few wise-guy, teenage patients that would put fake cockroaches on the IV machines to freak out the nurses. Sometimes we would find a few real ones too which was even worse! Eeewww!!!

I glittered a few creepy crawlies and that really made them seem MUCH cooler. Tomorrow I’ll show you what I did with a few more glitter bugs. I also wanted to show you my very cool specimen jar that was given to me from Tom, one of the craft guys on the Martha Stewart Show. I had a lot of fun getting this through security at the airport. “Please open your bag Ma’am”. He-he, pretty funny.You can see the video on how it’s made HERE.

And finally, this is my charm tree table complete with skully, paper mache pumpkins, jars with more bugs and paper bats. I just love this time of year. Wish I would have gotten my decoration up earlier this month so I could enjoy it all longer. More Halloween stuff tomorrow.

This is our new friend Skully (you can see the directions and video here).  He was really fun to make (accidentally wrong side out–oops) and he is especially fun to fling around by the arm.  Poor guy.  He’s found a nice little spot, for now, with the paper mache pumpkins and charm tree.  I still have work to do on my little shelf above him.

See my collection of Halloween ATCs (artist trading cards)? I strung them together to make a little garland.  I thought I had more cards. I’ll have to look around. I’ll be sharing my new ATCs for this year in a few days.

I’m full force into Halloween mode.  Having a hard time doing much else.  The boys love Halloween stuff, gross stuff , bugs, slime, you name it. So, we’ve been going all out. My littlest guy has been my big time helper. He loves to paint, draw and cut.

We made a couple of garlands today. A Halloween bunting and a “spooky” garland. The bunting is made from holiday fabric on sale at JoAnn’s.   The Spooky garland is made out of scrapbook paper, buttons and glitter.  Martha Stewart glitters rocks like you wouldn’t believe.  It’s the best.  I might be gliterizing a few plastic bugs tomorrow.

See the little ghosts in our fire place below? They are completely I-guy’s idea.  He thought we should have something spooky in the fireplace too, especially since we don’t use it.  He drew them and cut them out with just a teeny bit of help. I LOVE them the best so far. It never occurred to me to put something inside the fireplace.

Tomorrow, I-guy wants to make some of these. Hopefully we’ll find a few sports socks in Daddy’s drawer. Also, check out my excellent stash from Michelle’s charm swap.  I am working on displaying them on some dry tree branches.

Related posts:
Countess of Arachnidonia- Halloween wreath/wall decor
Here’s Lookin’ at you kid~ Eyeball T-shirts & video
No-mold Polymer Skull beads
Welcome October

These were made for Michelle’s Witches Cupboard charm swap. It is exactly what I needed to get in the Halloween spirit.  They are made from polymer clay balls, that I handpainted then embellished with beads.  They were sent off today.  Now I have to get started on some spooky trading cards and get the Halloween decorations out.  Fun, fun!

 
Neighbor’s Home

We had a very fun and exhausting evening.  Exhausting for us the parents, that is.  The kids could have kept going until midnight with that sugar high they had going.

    
Neighbor’s Pumpkins

We did an easy dinner, as I had to work, put on costumes and headed out.  The night was perfectly warm and breezy with hints of a lazy chill in the air. Maybe, just maybe that cooler weather is right around the corner.  93 degrees today, I might add.

The kids were Jedis, of course.  A Master Jedi and his little Padawan learner.   Basically, I made an outfit for little I-guy and a robe for Super-E to wear over his  costume from last year, at his request.

We came across many enthusiastic home-owners excited to give candy in our very quiet neighborhood saying, “grab a big handful”, almost every time.

 
Amy’s Haunted Halloween ATC Swap -Received goodies

The boys found it to be a big success and I am very happy to be taking it easy today. Hope it was great for you too!!

May I introduce the Countess of Arachnidonia.  She is visiting us for this year’s Halloween festivities.

She mostly sleeps during the day being quite bored with the mundane day to day routine.  She does, however have an afinity for keeping people away.  In fact, the poor UPS man left a parcel at the foot of our walk. He seemed all too frightened to come but an inch closer. At night she torments and plays with our cat Sloopy, while they also scout the house for creepy,crawly snacks.

She doesn’t eat much, but when she does, it consists of the most disgusting slimy, slurpy and crunchy noises.  She is not much for small talk, although I have caught her with one eye open during any political discussions, as if wanting to partake.  She seems quite facinated by it all.  She plans on leaving at end of Halloween night, spooking a few unexpected trick-or-treaters before she goes. She will be back to visit us again next year.

So, I’m looking through flickr at pages and pages of those gorgeous reverse applique skirts from the Alabama Stitch Book and I kept seeing eyes.  Yes, eyes… from the shapes.  I was tired.

That night, while trying to fall asleep, I got the idea to do reverse applique eyes on tshirts for the boys. Once that thought popped into my head, then I REALLY couldn’t sleep. That creative adrenaline was flowing through my veins at incredible strength and force (which is why you should never think of these things at bedtime).

The next day I was on a mission to make eyes, despite my list of more important things to do.   I searched through the kid’s clothing for stained and usable Ts.  Two green and one white.  I cut the white one into twelve 3×4 squares and drew eye shapes with a pencil and painted eyeballs in the center with Tulip Soft fabric paint.

Once dry, I used the reverse applique technique to sew them on.

I left more of an eyelid excess on I-guy’s shirt.  I love the creepy “look”.  And don’t forget the one eye on the back so you can see what’s behind you.  Especially important around Halloween time.

Have a fabulous  weekend!!