day 133: EYE appreciate you :)

gory eye goody bags!

day 133 and i am making yet more treats for the halloween party :)  today's inspiration comes from michelle paige's blog.  she made eye filled goody bags that made me laugh and i thought they would be lots of fun for the kids at the party!

i went to the store and found some eye candy, chocolates, and some bouncy balls.  then it was home to fill some cellophane bags, close them with a ribbon and print out some cute tags that are completed with googly eyes :)

the eyes

the googly eye tag

the completed treat bags!

outcome: really cute and i love the details on the tags with the googly eyes.  these little treat bags epitomise halloween to me, a bit of fun with something you use everyday but for one day you can have gory fun with it and nobody is insulted!

my sincere thanks to michelle and the wonderful 'eye' post she did!  i did stay a while at her blog and there is so much to see from crafts to gorgeous photography, she is one lucky lady to live only 40 minutes away from a hobby lobby :)

day 132: halloween punked clock :)

much more halloweeny :)

day 132 and i saw this clock on pinterest and knew i had to punk out one of my own clocks!  the clock is part of sadie's halloween decor from 2009 on her blog sadie olive.  it's such a great idea and something i never would have dreamed of decorating at any festive season let alone halloween!~

i decided to use dark brown bats on mine as it would fit into the colour scheme in our bedroom.  i printed out the silhouette bats from no biggie, cut them out and used them as templates for the brown felt.  these templates are the same ones i used for the pillows on day 117.

before bats

the very plain clock

templates ready for action

the bats ready to be applied!

the clock after bats 

outcome: this is such a cool idea to update your clock with embellishments for the season :) it totally makes me smile every time i walk past it ... again one of those ideas that is so simple but one i never would have thought to do.  the other nice thing about this creation was it didn't take a lot of time to cut the bats out and they looked so good on their own i didn't want to add anything else.

my thanks to sadie at sadie olive for this wonderful inspiraton, her blog is full of amazing home decor ideas and photos (incredibly inspiring) and is well worth a visit.  and also thanks to no biggie AGAIN for those handy dandy FREE halloween silhouettes :)

day 131: halloween garland

halloween garland :)

day 131 and i am making a halloween banner today thanks to a free printable template from paper crave and also thanks to the free printable party pack from krysten at clickable party.   both are pinned to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.

i am using the sheet of patterned paper that comes in krysten's printable party pack to print off and then reprint the templates off on the freshly patterned paper.

printed out the patterned paper then feed it back through
the printer to print the templates out on it :)

once ALL that cutting was finished i threaded the four characters together with embroidery floss.

ready to connect together with embroidery floss

the finished garland

you can see why it took so long to cut
them out aye!

outcome:  this took HEAPS of cutting but it is really cute and it had to be for that amount of knife work! yikes, my hand is still sore but when i threaded it together i saw why it was worth it because they will look so cute along the window for the party ... hopefully they will last and i will be able to use them again in the future as i don't think i will do them again :)  love the finished product though, maybe i could give this job to the kids in the future!~

my thanks once again to krysten at clickable party for the well used  free printable party pack and also to paper crave for their wonderful free halloween templates ... totally love them just not the cutting!

day 130: count the jelly beans if you dare!

count the jelly beans

day 130 and it's another quicky ;)  my brother-in-law arrived for a surprise visit today and the day got away on me!  today's creative idea comes from bhg and their halloween game ideas.  i pinned their halloween party games to my holiday goodness board.  bhg have kids counting candy corn which we don't have in nz so i went with black jelly beans :)

i counted out two packets of black jelly beans filled an empty jam jar.  i then dressed the jar with the same free party printables design i used for the banner on day 125.

fill a jar of jelly beans :)

add some decoration and wait for the
guessing to begin :)

outcome: this is one of those cool passive games that can go on during the party and have a winner at the end.  i am really excited for this party idea as the kids can go and make a 'guess' when they are not involved in other games and its an extra special little something that doesn't need to be managed but EVERYONE can participate in!

day 129: spider straws

halloween straws :)

day 129 and it's a BIG day for new zealander's today ... the all blacks play in the semi finals of the rugby world cup against australia!  as such, my focus was not so much on pinterest but more focused on rugby and getting ready for tonights game :)  so today's creation is a really simple one, but one i never would have thought to do.

i loved the idea of these spider straws as soon as i saw them on pinterest and immediately pinned them to my holiday goodness board.  the inspiration comes from no biggie and her guest post by amy from a little of this and a little of that for her annual witch party. the photos of the witches are amazing and i absolutely loved all the things she did to make her party so special.  again, it was one of those really simple ideas but its the little things that make you go aww and people know you care and have put thought and love into things for them to enjoy.

all you need are some straws and plastic spiders. i have chosen to adhere the spiders with hot glue.  and that's it, that is all you need to know!

all you need

the lovely hand of my helpful 7 year old assistant!

the finished product!

outcome: can't vouch for the peeps but i definitely want my halloween drinks using one of these spooky looking straws ;)  fun things like these straws are why i LOVE the festive seasons so much ... yip total kid at heart me :)

my thanks to kami at no biggie and amy from a little of this and a little of that for this super cute idea.  i am a total believer in effort going a long way and these girls clearly put in a lot of effort into their crafts, family, and friends ... and i adore that :)

day 128: smurfette's house birthday cake

smurfette in the luscious green grass!

day 128 and we interrupt our halloween month for a very special reason ... pollyanna's birthday cake!  for the last several weeks polly has declared she would like a vanilla cake with strawberry icing on it ... SWEET, nothing hard about that!

then yesterday she decided as she was going to the smurf movie with her friends for her birthday she would actually like smurfette's house as her birthday cake ... something along these lines went through my head #$!@#*#&#&*^&* ... what came out of my mouth was "we will see how we go for time shall we".   when you are having a hard time with your children growing up too fast, sometimes it's hard to crush their confidence in your abilities, i mean honestly who wants to let their children know this early on in their lives mum's and dad's don't know everything.

so to pinterest i went today looking at the AMAZING smurf cakes, thinking #$(*@&(#^$)@ well i have no training in decorating cakes but i own a round tin and a bowl that i can at least make the shapes of smurfette's house with .... good start!  in denial i pinned a comic picture of some smurf houses to my party ideas board so at least i knew what to aim for :)  AND because i know this hot milk cake works so well from making it on day 40 i ended up with two beautiful cakes from which to construct the house.

as for the decorating, i went with the limited icing skills i have and frosted up a storm, added smurfette, some m&m's, a couple of chocolate fingers, and some lego flowers and trees; not to mention some very festive looking coconut grass.

the finished cake

outcome: well the cake was a complete success for pollyanna ... not for me because i thought it didn't look anything like a smurf house!  but for me this cake was all about my little girl and she was stoked, her face says it all!

yes, it was definitely a surprise

she was so so happy

make a wish my seven year old :)

maybe it wasn't perfect but for a seven year old it was a dream come true and thanks to pinterest i know i can at least attempt things without fear :)

happy birthday pollyanna
i am honoured to call you my daughter

day 127: pumpkin seed halloween favours

pumpkin seeds anyone?

day 127 and it's a very quick creation and post today as my sweet little baby girl pollyanna turns seven tomorrow and i have cakes to bake and gifts to wrap ... ok less baby more little girl growing too fast!  today's pinterest creation is from christy robbins blog and is pinned to my holiday goodness board :)  i love that she has turned something that my kids love (orange tic tacs) into a halloween party favour (pumpkin seeds) with a little bit of scrapbook paper and some cute tags.  i think the original idea came from can't stop making things, which is  also where yesterday's party favour (chocolate covered witches warts) also came from!

right, today all you need is orange tic tacs, some halloween paper, and some tags with a splash of ribbon.  i used the hot glue gun to adhere everything and also glued the ribbon under the paper wrap so it wouldn't slide about the place :)

the bits and bobs i used :)

the four step process i used to assemble these babies!

the cute finished product!

outcome: very cool party favour or halloween gift for the peeps to give their friends, something fun and easy to do ... gotta love that on a busy day!

my thanks to christy robbins for her use of the idea and to can't stop making things for the original concept, this is a really nice idea for something simple to gift at halloween with a bit of fun attached :)