halloween

August 31, 2010 3 Comments

BHG tricks & treats issue

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I’m a huge fan of Better Homes and Gardens magazine and I simply can’t wait each year until they publish their special issues, particularly their “tricks & treats” issue each fall. And the 2010 issue does not disappoint! It’s full of wonderful ideas for a multitude of parties ranging from adult only to bright and whimsy for all ages to a monster for preschoolers!

And that’s not all! It offers some adorable homemade costume ideas too. My favorite is the “feathered friend!” And in true BHG style it also offers a TON of decorating ideas (the one next to the cover is part of the “Dead & Breakfast Inn” article).

If you love this season and you love to throw a party, you simply must pick up a copy!

spooky Halloween printables

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In the past few weeks we’ve announced our new Candy Corn Halloween collection, full of trick-or-treating ghosts and screech owls, and showed you glimpses of our new Harvest collection, with a colorful scarecrow and pumpkin that will be perfect for a fall festival or even to decorate the kid’s Thanksgiving table. This morning I want to share our spookier side with some new printables we created to complement our Spooked Pumpkin and Martinis & Mayhem collections.

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Meet the sinister sisters. They are totally up to no good! But with a pumpkin spice cupcake topped with cream cheese icing my boys and a few wanders by can testify that they taste super yummy! {wink} You’ll notice that these are not your typical cupcake picks. I wanted to do something a little different so we created the head and the hat separately to give the sisters a real 3-D effect when you use a adhesive square to attach the hat. (There are four designs. Two purple/orange witches, one smiling and one frowning, and two green/black witches doing the same.) I really, really love these!

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In addition to the witches, we also created these coordinating tags “Try one if you dare…” and

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“Have a sweet, my pretty!” {witch cackling}

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We also created this hilarious mat that would be perfect on your treat table next to uniced cupcakes for the kids to decorate themselves.

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Or next to the sisters! Doesn’t the little pumpkin look afraid of her?! Eeekkkk!

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And here are the two green/black sisters together. Like my crow? Well you’re lucky to be seeing him. I had a few things stashed for the shoot and my little ones decided to have a mini-war with the crows. Needless to say, there were casualties…

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And here’s the purple/orange sister with the “Have a sweet, my pretty!” as a cupcake pick.

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Last, but not least, here’s our cello topper. These would be perfect for pre-packaged little favors for party guests or even trick-or-treaters. I’ll be filling mine with gummy worms as those are one of my youngest son’s favorites!

All these will be added to the Spooked Pumpkin and Martinis & Mayhem collections the week of Sept. 13. And as always, I hope you’re inspired!

DIY dish towel child apron

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I often hang out in the craft room with my mom on the weekends. (Believe it or not, hers is even more elaborate than mine!) It’s my way to relax and get the creative juices flowing. A few weekends ago while we were planning all of the Halloween crafts that I’ve recently posted about (DIY fabric Halloween masks, DIY fabric Halloween and/or birthday hat, DIY ruffle cake plate), we got the boys involved and whipped up these easy dish towel child aprons.

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My mom just got some new fall designs for her fabric die cutting machine so she let the boys crank out the designs they wanted to use to embellish their aprons. But a template and a pair of scissors works great too!

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The boys chose pumpkins, leaves and acorns for a Halloween/fall theme. We attached Wonder Under (self-adhesive for fabric) to each design and let the boys place the die cuts anywhere they wanted… note the lack of symmetry… oh well, they were super happy. Once the designs were in place, we peeled off the backs and ironed them on.

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Next we selected our ribbon, a 3/4″ grograin, folded in each side of the towel and sewed a pocket for the ribbon. Then we inserted our ribbon, making sure it had enough room to lay flat and move up and down. I love this because the aprons are adjustable to height and make it super easy to get them on and off!

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Here’s how the back looked when finished! Oh, and of course my mom had to monogram their names on with a dripping Halloween font!

As always, I hope you’re inspired!

sneak peek: harvest collection

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As those who stop in often know, we’ve been working hard over the past few weeks to bring you some exciting new Halloween collections and ideas. Well, a spooky twist is still to come and I can’t wait to show you (update: Spooked Pumpkin Collection printables)! But in the meantime, I just had to share a sneak peek of our new Harvest collection. It’s really somewhat of a sister to our semi-sophisticated Candy Corn collection, but for this one we wanted to leave off the scary and just focus on the beautiful season.

This collection will be perfect for those who love pumpkin patches, apple orchards, kettle corn and hayrides. And it could even be perfect to help you decorate the kid’s table at Thanksgiving this year. I know that I’ve decided I will personally be using it!

The invitation is in the shoppe now and the photo shoot of the new orange and white polka dot table decor and printables will take place next week. Much to come everyone!

And as always, I hope you’re inspired!

DIY Halloween witch hat

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I just love this little witch hat we made for our Candy Corn Halloween collection photo shoot. It was truly easy and with another fabric choice, could be fun for more than just Halloween!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1/2 yard fabric
Wonder Under self adhesive
Stretch rite elastic
Scissors
Fabric glue
Tulle
Optional: Interfacing for stiffness

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And here are the simple steps (apologies for the quality of the images from the craft room, they were taken with my iPhone):

Make an 18″ diameter circle template out of paper (I use wax paper so that they keep better), find the center point and cut the sheet in half. Using the crown of your child’s head as a guide, overlap the paper and determine what amount you should trim away (leaving you with a shape that resembles the above)
Cut out two pieces of fabric using your template (you can use an alternate coordinating fabric for the inside of the hat if you like)
Cut out one piece of Wonder Under using the template (Optional: If your fabric is flimsy, cut out one piece of interfacing, for stiffness, too)
Iron Wonder Under to the “wrong” or non-pattern side of one piece of fabric
Iron interfacing to the other fabric, again on the wrong side so that the patterned/good side shows when constructed
Peel paper backing from Wonder Under and iron two fabrics, wrong sides together, matching the edges up exactly
Cut 2″ strips of tulle
Gather tulle and sew (or glue) to curved edge
Form a cone, pipe the edge with fabric glue, overlap slightly and allow to adhere (TIP: Use a large paper clip to hold the fabric in place until glue dries)
Punch holes in sides of cone for elastic band
Insert elastic in one side and knot. Using your child as a model, place the hat on her head and measure needed length of elastic, trim, insert and tie

And did you notice that she is also wearing a matching pumpkin t-shirt (and that both the hat and t-shirt match the fabric from the Candy Corn collection dessert table)? Using a little Wonder Under we made a quick t-shirt too (or there are iron-on kits available at any craft store). And since my mom has every sewing gadget imaginable, she outlined the pumpkin in orange for that little extra touch.

As always, I hope you’re inspired!