day 126: chocolate covered witches warts

witch wart treats

day 126 and we are packaging up some chocolate covered witches warts ... don't these sound oh so delicious!  one things for sure i will never look at chocolate covered raisins the same way again :)  this great idea comes from can't stop making things.  this is a great website for all sorts of creative ideas for the home, holidays, and there are plenty of free printables too!

this is one of those wonderfully easy creations which involves assembling as opposed to making!  i did decide to make my own bag tags as i needed six of the same type. apart from some tags you need some cellophane bags, ribbon, and some chocolate covered warts ... i mean raisins. then its a case of filling the bags with the raisins attaching some ribbon to the tag and tying the treat bag closed. sweet!

bags are filled and need a tag!

finished treat bags :)

outcome: these will make the perfect party favours, especially for my little food allergens! i love it when something from everyday life becomes just a little bit more fun and special simply by changing its name!

special thanks to can't stop making things for this great but simple idea that i NEVER would have thought of ... its the little things that make things memorable and special as i keep saying and this is one of those little things :)

day 125: halloween paper bunting

halloween bunting banner ... finished and ready to hang!

day 125 and i am using a free pirntable i found on pinterest to make a halloween paper bunting today.  the bunting is downloadable on catch my party and is provided free by krysten at clickable party.  i pinned krysten's halloween party download to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.


i really love the colours of krysten's halloween pack and plan to use lots of her printables for different parts of the halloween party.  i started off by printing out the banner pages and cutting them.  to make them a little more sturdy i decided to matte them in yellow cardstock as well.

the printed bunting flags

to finish the flags off ready for hanging i punched a hole in each corner (but not too close to avoid ripping) and then threaded them together using ribbon. 

the bunting flags ready for ribbon

outcome: so cute and much nicer than the plastic ones i have seen for sale!  i really love the colours, they are perfect for our springtime halloween! the bunting flags printed out beautifully and i adore all the different faces on each one.  now all i need is to match a bunch of balloon colours to the bunting and find the perfect place to hang it!


i am so grateful to krysten at clickable party for providing this halloween pack for nada, it makes living on a fixed single income budget that much easier, especially at festive times of the year when money goes out the door faster than it comes in!

day 124: halloween treat bags

the finished treat bag for halloween

day 121 and its a REALLY busy creating day today.  i have a stack of kids coming to our halloween party and they are all going to need a treat bag for their goodies! given the number i need to make i wanted a simple, quick bag that i could personalise for each child.

found the simple, quick bag on pinterest from the purl bee ... love this website it has the best tutorials and they come with brilliant pictures that demonstrate every step as well :)  the bag is also pinned to my party ideas board.  i couldn't find any cute unisex halloween material so i have opted for calico and some home-made decorating!

so my bags look as good inside as outside, i am using french seams ... honestly where was my life without these beautiful seams!  and to make things even easier i am using one piece of fabric as i don't need to worry about the pattern orientation.  for the decorations i used my other favourite thing, fabric printing, and printed out a whole lot of free halloween printables i found on my biggest favourite ... pinterest!  all the free printables i used come from the twinery, southern accent, over the big moon, and catch my party.  how nice is it that so many people offer up their incredible talents for free, totally awesome i'd say and i am incredibly grateful :)

i also stamped each persons name onto some calico so each person would know their treat bag.  the names and fabric printables will be attached using heat'n'bond ... yip another favourite of mine!  i thought about sewing all these bits on but with so many to make the heat'n'bond was too enticing!

cut, stamped, printed, and ready to sew!

the finished bag without embellishments

the fully decked out bag!

outcome:  awesome, love my little creations, love that they are personalised for each little peep, and love that the bags themselves took no time to make but look so very cool!  the tutorial from purl bee was (as usual) brilliant, clear, and so easy to follow ... and the best part was these little beauties didn't even take the 20 minutes suggested once i got into the swing of things!  love the fabric printables, they add a really nice touch of colour on what would otherwise be a fairly plain treat bag :)

my sincerest thanks as always to the purl bee, its fast becoming one of those websites i visit daily!  and for all the wonderful people who provide freely downloadable graphics THANK YOU from my heart to yours.

day 123: ghost pillowcase dress

boo!

day 123 and it's time to say hello to my sewing machine so i can make a ghost pillowcase dress for pollyanna.  i adore the pillowcase dresses by sugar bee crafts.  mandy has some amazing design ideas and i really enjoy reading her blog for inspiring ideas and tutorials.  i pinned the ghost dress to my holiday goodness board and hope pollyanna will enjoy wearing it during october.

i didn't have a thick white pillowcase so i used some white drill material to whip one up and added some black and white polka dots to the bottom of it.  i loved the contrast at the bottom of mandy's ghost dress and wanted to add this same element into pollyanna's.

the pillowcase i made with the contrast bottom

cut out the armholes

i used bias binding on this one around the armholes instead
of ribbon.

i tried out a couple of different ghost faces before ...

eek ... this one looked sleepy!

then settled on this design and cut out the really ghost
eyes and mouth out of black fabric and ironed in place
with heat'n'bond :)

outcome: really cute, unfortunately it is quite late here and pollyanna is in bed otherwise i would have got her to model it ... will post a couple of pic's tomorrow of her in the dress.  really, really happy with how this turned out and hopefully she will be too when she sees it in the morning :)

my thanks to mandy at sugar bee crafts for this wonderful tutorial, i will definitely be making more of these dresses for different holiday seasons, especially with the contrast bottom of the dress.

day 122: spiders legs, rats eyeballs, and ghost poop treat bags

halloween treat bags :)

day 122 and it's time to start organising the treats for the party.  i am making a start on this by recreating the wonderful rats eyeballs, spiders legs, and ghost poop treat bags put together by glory on her glorious treats blog.  i absolutely LOVED this idea when i saw it and thought all the kids would enjoy the contents even more given their hilarious names :)  the idea is also pinned to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.

the wonderful thing about this creation is glory has also posted a free topper for the goodie bags, which you can link to here .... yeehaa!  once you have printed out her cool treat toppers all you need is rats eyeballs (i used jaffa's), spider legs (mini stick pretzels), and ghost poop (mini marshmallows).  i couldn't find just white mini marshmallows so i have gone with a colourful poop combo!

the bits and pieces required 

start with a treat bag and add ghost poop ...

... then spider legs ...

... and then finally rat eyeballs :)

add glory's treat topper and you are finished!

outcome: the actual treat bags look fantastic and while the outcome is pending with regards to what the kids think, i am REALLY happy with them ... visually they look awesome and are so cute :)

my sincere thanks to glory for sharing this wonderful idea on her blog glorious treats, i think it will be a real winner with the peeps at our halloween party, maybe they will even think twice about what they are actually eating!

day 121: BOO

the finished altered BOO

day 121 and it's been a busy day getting ready for our open home tomorrow!  i am exhausted so today's creation is one i can sit down and do while watching the rugby quarter finals :)  i am going to alter some chipboard letters like the ones done on pete and kerry's altered crafts website.  this cool idea is also pinned to my holiday goodness board.

i have seen lots of altered chipboard letters done with scrapbook paper and halloween seemed like a good festive season to try this craft :)  i chose BOO because it's cute and not too long!

the materials i used for this creation :)

i first painted the letters black and then covered the front of them in scrapbook paper.  then decided to distress the edges to give them a less crisp finish.  finally i added some spider embellishments and they were done!

the painted letters

ready to distress the edges

added the embellishments and these were good to display!

outcome:  it's a really simple idea but one that is really effective.  i chose not to over do these ones as they are going in a bookcase which is already cluttered!  for future ones i would like to try adding more embellishments and ribbons to the letters but love these ones just as they are :)

my thanks to pete and kerry's altered crafts website for their inspiration i used to get started on this altered craft ... definitely want to do more of these for other festive seasons :)

day 120: halloween soap

halloween hand wash

day 120 and i am halloweening (that's clearly not a word but you get my drift) the bathroom with some fun home-made halloween bathroom decor.  this lovely idea came from alison at oopsey daisy and is pinned to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.

all this creation requires is some liquid hand soap in orange, some sticky back felt, and some ribbon.  the original was done using a silhouette machine and vinyl decals, so some improvising was required as i don't yet have that splendid tool.  i settled on the felt because the water didn't absorb into it (much like when you get wool wet!) and dripped off.  the ones done by the eighteen 25 girls were also destined as gifts (hence the ribbon) and i still may do some for others but this one i wanted for us!

supplies required

the sticky back felt cut out and ready to stick!

the finished hand wash :)

outcome: so cute and it really makes you smile when you walk into the bathroom and see it! and again for those of you who don't have a vinyl cutter this is still achievable as the sticky back felt hasn't been damaged throughout this afternoons use :)  happy days!

my thanks to the lovely alison at oopsey daisy, her blog is really inspirational and well worth a look.  i am her newest follower so i can keep up-to-date with all her oopsey daisies :)