Pumpkin Carving

My favorite fall activity is pumpkin carving. This year, my daughters were very excited to create their masterpieces. I, on the other hand, was just very pleased that they wanted to do something crafty, like me.

The hardest part of this is picking your pumpkin. Always try to get one that has a surface area good enough for your intended design. 

First we carved the top off at an angle, to make sure it would stay when put it back on.

And gutted the insides.

We printed stencils we found online and cut the negative shape with an exacto knife. Then we traced the stencils onto the pumpkins with a Sharpee, that way we could see exactly where we wanted to cut.

One of my daughters made a Jack Skellington stencil from this website:

For the Jack Skellington stencil, click here.

My other daughter is obsessed with Hello Kitty, so she used this stencil.

For the Hello Kitty stencil, click here.

Here's how the first one came out:

And the second one:

Right now they're on display in my foyer along with a light-up witch that I bought years ago. 

I like to keep it dark there so you can see the contrast.

I still can't decide which one is my favorite.

This project is really easy, and very customizable. There's so many cool, free stencils downloadable from the internet. Really, this project can go as far as you want to take it!

Thanks for reading. And please leave your comments!

Haunted House Halloween decor

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love to decorate the house, look for costumes and prepare candy for those trick-or-treaters that dare to knock on my door.

This year I'm going for the haunted mansion look. It is incredible how much inspiration you can get by searching online and then transforming the ideas into your own.

Here are some of my favorites inspirational pictures:

This sign is adorable:

Love this house entrance idea:

Oh so spooky!

I like to spend as little as possible, so my imagination and thrift or dollar stores are my best friends. Here are some of my own house pictures:

This witch is one of my favorite decor items because it lights up making her more frightful at night.

For your table decorations you can use inexpensive items from the dollar store, like napkins and paper plates in matching Halloween colors. Some creepy creatures finish the look.

 Don't forget unusual spaces, like the garage door, it creates a good opportunity to continue your haunted theme.

Use natural elements like Eucalyptus and branches from your backyard,then add some black roses to create a daring floral decor.

Thank you for reading and happy haunting!

Halloween scrapbook mini album

This Halloween season has inspired me to work on a scrapbook mini-album to store all my pictures for this year. Mini Albums are all the rave now in the scrapbooking world because they are quick, and most of all fun to make. I was inspired when creating mine by the haunted house themed decor that my house had at the time that I designed my pages.

For the cover look I used cardstock. I painted it black to create the frame, and used clear acetate to rsemble the look of windows for my haunted mansion. I used spider-web paper as the background. As decoration an old vintage-looking key secured by black ribbon and lace.

 For the inside pages I used a mixed collection of scrapbook paper including: Tim Holtz (idea-ology seasonal collection), K&Company, and Paper House.

Some of the embellishments are from the Martha Stewart Halloween collection (love that line!), K&Company, and Recollections.

 For the titles I used my Cricut basic font cartridge.

 The following page is one of my favorites because I drew the background myself, except for the bird stamp.

I can't wait to get all my Halloween pictures displayed.

Hope this post inspires you all to create your own mini album. Have a wonderful Halloween and most of all have lots of fun!

Vintage frames wall decor

My daughter is obsessed with textures and everything vintage. Her bedroom wall was looking a little plain, so we bought a mix of different vintage-looking frames and lined the insides with simple scrapbooking paper. 

  

The key to pulling off this look is using a variety of polished and raw woods, high gloss metals, and both shiny and flat ceramic frames. Also, keep the same theme inside the frames by choosing paper with different textures, like burlap, cork, brick, and jean fabric. The different mediums really keep the eclectic vibe together.

Spain Travel Scrapbook Pages: Barcelona

Scrapbooking has been one of my biggest passions, one that I have been endulging in for years. It all started more than ten years ago when my sister was given a scrapbook magazine, along with an album for her baby shower and instantly I was hooked. For years I completed several albums for my special moments and milestones.  But mainly I have gravitated more towards focusing on creating travel pages for my vacation pictures.

As soon as I plan a vacation to a new and exciting spot, my mind starts to wonder what beautiful pages I would be able to create on my return.

Here are some of my favorite pages from a recent trip to Barcelona, Spain:

While visiting a city I like to include the history and culture of the place. That inspired me in the creation of the following page:

 In this page I used a lot of distress inks to create the old world look:

Page dedicated to Casa Batllo one of Barcelona's most famous landmarks. Once again I used stamping and distress inks to aged the papers.

One of Spain's most famous Architects,  his work is found all through the city.

And this one to Barcelona's Royal Palace. Some pictures are blocked with black to maintain privacy.

This page is all about the food!

This is a page made for my visit to one of Barcelona's most famous markets "La Boqueria". Using background paper with fruits to match the theme of the page.

Thanks for reading and I'm always happy to get your comments.

Art Store visit

This week for the first time I accompanied my daughter to her art supply store. I was amazed at how many ideas and inspirations came to mind just from looking at their fabulous displays.

I'm more of a crafter/scrapbooker/sewing person, she is more into painting and computer design. But this trip made me realize all artists have something in common: We like beautiful and inspirational displays. Here are some of my favorites:

love all the boxes in this display.

The most fabulous collection of paper:

These are mannequins with dresses made out of paper. So original!

I was awed with their collection of  markers.

And other supplies.

I was very pleased to find the most incredible Tim Holtz scrapbooking supplies collection, which happens to be one of my favorites.

Even the outside of the store caught my eye, with this marvelous art display:

Thanks for reading and your comments!