Happy Halloween!!! It's the BEST day of the year!!!!!!
We already have been celebrating with lots of creative activities around here, and Trick-or-Treat will be a great topper tonight. For us, it isn't even about the candy, but a way to face and celebrate the shadow side of life. Plus, all those trick-or-treaters are pretty darn cute! Even before we had Angelo, we have always loved Trick-or-Treat. It's a great way to be a part of community if only for a short bit of time. Our plans for the candy (since we eat such low sugar food and candy is so rare in this house) is to let Angelo have a few pieces tonight and give him the option to trade the rest for a super special toy. Yes, it is bribery, and it's not a regular feature here, but today is an extraordinary day!
This was for the
Altered Alice challenge- the Mad Hatter at his tea party with Twinkles. So, Twinkle Twinkle little bat it is! The background (on a plain index card) is a couple of stamps plus some sprayed mica ink (twinkly). The image is colored with colored pencils and the polka dots have added Stickles (twinkly). The bats are punched from a book page I sprayed with Tulip fabric paint/dye over cheese cloth. The border and outlines are made with a Sharpie micro tip pen.
I didn't actually finish this in time to enter the challenge with all the other projects I had going on, especially sewing our costumes. That's OK, though, since I really like doing challenges for the "challenge" aspect. Sure, winning is great, but going by someone else's guidelines while still having artistic freedom is a great way to stretch your creative wings. :)
Here are a few more projects I've worked on lately. I'll keep the descriptions short. :)
 |
| A with Sparky the Fire Dog at the Halloween parade, wearing the spider costume, but not the cute Trick-or-Treat bag. Oops! |
 |
| One of A's Halloween decorations. He cut out this, the skeleton and wolf man (because those are the only ones that actually link) from *Kaboose. He stapled them together- easy and fun! They're hanging in the living room. :) He's currently working on some of these coloring pages. *Warning, the video ads are very annoying! |
 |
| A having fun cleaning out the pumpkin. |
 |
| A carved one of the eyes and drew the nose on this 1st one. |
 |
| I absolutely LOVE this one!! A carved it with only the teeniest bit of help from Mama (holding the pumpkin and encouraging). Love how children have such natural creativity and it looks extra creepy cool! |
 |
| A Haunted house I painted, stamped and glued images to. House form from Art Chix. |
 |
| A Halloween bunting made from material I bought a few years ago. It dons our entry-way. |
I need to take a moment and mention my self-control. In past years, I bought every Halloween magazine I saw, OD'd on Halloween art supplies, over-stocked on costume material and generally went nuts buying Halloween stuff. This year, not a single magazine or decoration was bought, only material and art supplies in our stash were used, with this exception: I only bought a few paintable forms for A and I to use (and some styrofoam balls for an art doll witch). And we actually used them (except for the styrofoam... by the time I was into the sewing mode it was costume time. But, we are a few steps closer to having her done.)! BTW, the total for all the new purchases was about $15 or less. See below:
 |
| Couldn't resist this paper mache witch hat- I'd _just_ been looking in Bethany Lowe's Folk Art Halloween book and the supply list included "paper mache witch hat". I thought, "yeah, right. Because all stores carry that sort of thing." I guess in the Bethel Park, PA Michael's they do!! Also couldn't resist the antique photo finish here. :) |
 |
| A picked out all of these himself and chose when and what colors to paint them. |
I know this was a long post! (Aren't you glad I didn't add the "how to make a ghost costume in about 3 hours" tutorial?) Hope it adds festiveness to your Halloween mood!!!
Posts
