Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Anyone who follows me on Instagram or Facebook will remember that yesterday I posted a teaser of spooky things to come:

Ghosts and owls and bats and spiders, oh my!

I have the joy of belonging to an art group locally where every couple months we get together and just CREATE. Tonight we meet again, and our "homework" was to alter a witch's hat and Tim Holtz clock. Tragically, the clock is barely started. I blame the fact that my boys want clean socks and spoons. Obviously they've become spoiled...my witch's hat, however, I'm bringing with me tonight to show off and I love it!

The really scary part is that messy craft table!

Oh this was a fun project! The base was a plain, kraft colored witch's hat ready for finishing. The top half of the hat I covered in 1" strips of scrapbook paper using Modge Podge. The brim was then coated in Modge Podge and topped with a glitter mixture I made myself; black, deep purple, and lime green all mixed together. I then hid my paper ends with some black grosgrain ribbon.

My little rat familiar

Once everything had dried, I added on my little rat friend here. I found him at Joann's and I love him. There's just something about rats and Halloween that just seem to go together. His little paws got glued down to the hat brim with the help of some 3-in-1.

My stylish owl familiar

Then I found my owl at Michael's. It's an owl. Wearing a top hat. Um, YES! His feet got tacked down with 3-in-1 as well, and he's so stinkin' cute. I think he and my little rat friend need names.

Boo! Meow!

Of course, since it's my hat, I had to have a Halloween kitty on it. There's little Salem, hiding behind the ghost tag ready to pounce!

Spoooooky Halloween tags

Speaking of those tags, are you loving them as much as I am? I inked up two of the freebie tags Unity loves throwing in with their orders. The large one is a mix of Concord Grape and Black Soot Distress Inks and the little one is Peeled Paint, Wild Honey, and Black Soot. The images were stamped with Black Soot as well, then when they were dried I added in liberal amounts of Rock Candy Distress Paint. I love how grungy and spooky they turned out! The ribbon I had stashed in a drawer and looks like it once came from the dollar bins at Target. Some Glue Dots holds them down nicely.

Scary spider bling

Finally, I added spiders; big, blinged out, spiders and their web. Yeah, they're pretty awesome.

I cannot wait to see what the other ladies came up with tonight! It's bound to be a good time. I'm linking up to Unity Friends With Flair.

Happy Crafting!

Distance Has No Meaning...

Hello everyone! I'm sharing one of the last cards I made up for Operation Write Home with my Unity Stamps today.

 I colored the sentiment and image using my Distress Markers and coloring the stamp itself. Especially an image like this, it's so easy! The texture is from my stamping it on a linen cardstock and I love the result.

Speaking of Operation Write Home, today was to be the day I announced the winner of the giveaway. Just one problem - there were no entries. Not a one. So, the short answer is that there is no winner. The longer answer is that I'm giving up on hosting contests for the foreseeable future. Either my promotion skills are severely lacking or I simply do not have a large enough audience or my giveaways are terrible and no one has mentioned it to me. Anyway you look at it, they are almost always a bust and I'm taking the hint.

As for Operation Write Home, I'll be sending in a nice bundle of cards to them, including many of the ones I've made for blog hops.

I'm linking up to the weekly Unity FWF today!

Enjoy the weekend! I'll be having a crafty one with my friend Rachel from Sheepish Shenanigans. :)

Happy Crafting!

DeNami Halloween Blog Hop

I love Halloween; the costumes, the candy corn, the spookables. What other day a year do we have the freedom to get dressed up and party while eating candy? So, I happily drank my pumpkin coffee and ate my candy corn while I came up with this cutie-patootie card for this month's hop.

You should have arrived here from Paulina's blog (once you were able to tear yourself away, that is...her work is amazing!). If you didn't, feel free to head back to the DeNami blog when you're done to see the full list of participants on this spooooky Halloween hop!

In case you've forgotten why you're here:

When: The blog hop starts on October 13 at 6 AM, PST. However, you have until October 14, 2013, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).
Why: To be inspired by fun DeNami Design creations and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!
Prizes: We are giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to our website! We'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then we'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

So, what did my pumpkin and candy saturated brain come up with?

Trick or treaters and batty bats, ooooo!

Here's a secret; I love Halloween bats. Love. Them. So I had to use the vampire bat stamp and have them following that cute little band of chickie trick or treaters. A little seasonal glitter paper, some ribbon and Liquid Pearls, and those chickies are ready to get some candy!

Top view in my cruddy craft room lighting...sigh...

Thanks for stopping by today! Now you're off to see what kind of Halloween treats Wendy has for you while I go celebrate my husband's birthday. Yes, there will be candy corn. :)

Happy Crafting!

Winter Songbird Card

Happy Friday everyone! I'm hopping along again with the Unity FWF crew. I decided to get a head-start on creating some cards for Operation Write Home and World Card Making Day, and came up with this sweet little winter scene:

Not that I want it to be winter just yet, but still darn cute

The sweet little birdie and her sentiment are an Itty Bitty set from Unity and, as always, are absolutely adorable. No glitter, some layers, and some pretty paper means it's perfect for Operation Write Home.

Have you caught on that I'm pushing Operation Write Home? ;) In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the 4-1-1:

If we're all making cards anyway, why not send them to people who need them the most? Let's see just how many cards we can send! Mailing address is in the giveaway post, as is the deadline of Friday, October 11th. The holiday card deadline is fast approaching, hence my chosen date.

Oh, and I had 'help' photographing my card this morning...

No Mommy, I wasn't trying to knock the card off my windowsill...

She's lucky she's so pretty and affectionate.

All right, I cannot wait to see all of  your cards! Feel free to post them to our Facebook wall or tag us on Instagram at #caffeinatedpapercuts before you pop them in the mail!

Happy Crafting!