Cricut Halloween Decoration

It is almost Halloween and that means trick-or-treating, costumes, parties and decorations.

While surfing the web for some inspiration for Halloween decorations that I could make with my Cricut I came across a the artist, Lciaccio31, at scrapbook.com.  She made a beautiful centerpiece using her Cricut and I fell in love with it.  I totally "scraplifted" this idea and it is so cute.  It was time consuming but worth it.

I used the cartridge Paper Doll Dress Up for the entire project.  I've included a materials list as well as measurements for each element.  I had to eyeball it from a photo and there was a lot of trial and error so I thought I would share the information to make it easier to make yourself.

MATERIALS:

Paper Doll Dress Up Cricut Cartridge
1 terra cotta pot
1 piece of styrofoam
15 skewers
black paint to paint skewers
coordinating ribbon
cardstock
tape
glue dots
fine tip pens for detailing
colored pencils for detailing

CUT-OUTS:
(page numbers are from Paper Doll Dress Up)
2 bats at 8" (page 50)
1 tree at 11" (page 52)
1 spider at 12" (page 49)
1 spider at 9" (page 49)
1 spiderweb at 5-1/2" (page 49)
2 tombstones at 8" (page 53)
3 ghosts at 5" (page 49)
1 ghost at 7" (page 49)
2 skeletons at 5" (page 53)
1 cat  at 6" (page 49)
1 cat sitting at 8" (page 52)
2 pumpkins at 8" (page 52)
2 pumpkins at 6" (page 52)

Family History

On our most recent trip to Michigan, The Queen Mum, gave me 3 boxes full of old family photographs.  Over the last couple of days I have been going through them.  I have found some amazing photos.  I absolutely cannot wait to start a project using these photos.  Here are just a few of the great ones.


This is a photo of my grandmother (Dorothy) and my great-aunt Sophie.  Dorothy and Sophie were sisters-in-law.  The resemblance that their daughters, Dorothy and Judy, have to them is uncanny.







This photo was taken 6 days before my grandparents, Dorothy and Eddie, got married.  So in love!!








This was taken 2 months after their wedding.  Still newlyweds I love how they are kissing while the other two girls just look at the camera.










I was so excited when I found this military portrait of my grandfather.  I is signed, "To my loving wife, Eddie"  and I can only imagine that he sent this photo to my grandmother while he was in the war.








Another great find was this wartime photo of my grandfather that had a handwritten note to my grandmother, "It's not good, but I hope you like it.  I love you dear."

Halloween Decorations

I love Halloween and it seems like Bug-a-Boo is going to be a Halloween fan as well.  We decorated our house last week and we had so much fun doing it.  A lot of the stuff was given to me by my mom.  Thanks mom!!

Cork Collection

Prince Charming and I love it when for a special occasion or while on vacation we can enjoy a great meal paired with great wine.  Over the seven years we have been married we have enjoyed many of these meals.  Being the scrapbooker that I am I always keep the cork's from the bottles.  You know, to use as memorabilia.

After we would finish a bottle I would write the place, date and occasion (if it would all fit) on the cork and  put it in a ziploc bag in my memorabilia box.

I have corks from anniversary dinners, our Italy trip, our honeymoon and many more.  These corks had been sitting in that bag for years just waiting for me to figure out a way to use them.


Recently, when we decorated our family room I finally got an idea on how to display them.  I had a decorative dish that had been a gift years before from a good friend that had never been unpacked when we moved into our house.   I also had a three wick orange candle that would look perfect on the dish.  I found both in a box in the crawl space and set them on a table in the family room.  Then I grabbed my bag of corks and... VIOLA!

Just another idea on how to "scrapbook" and share your memories in an untraditional way.

Shutterfly Photo Books

You know how at Christmas we get out the camera and we snap one or two pictures of every gift our kids, nieces and nephews open.  When we look back at them and are ready to get them developed we have about a hundred of the same photo.  Packages wrapped, packages in various stages of unwrap and packages unwrapped and tossed aside.

As I starred at all of these photos from the last three Christmases we have had Bug-A-Boo, I agonized over how to scrapbook them in a creative yet simple way.  I realized that it would be difficult and that I would end up with several pages per year and that they most likely would be boring (both to make and look at).

Then one day I was checking my email and I received a message from Shutterfly, the digital photo printing service I use.  It was a coupon code for a free 8 x 8 photo book.  I had an epiphany.  What a perfect way to showcase all of these Christmas photos.

I started the project and it was so easy and fun to do.  I have now decided that this is the way that I will "scrapbook" all of the Christmas present photos.

 The books are high quality, glossy, hard cover, books.  I was extremely impressed by them.  The books have 20 pages that you can either customize or automatically have filled in.

You are able to choose color schemes, fonts (size, type and color) or you can choose a pre-designed theme for your book.


You are also able to choose how many photos you want on a page, as well as adding captions.   I liked the fact that you could also choose to have all text on a page, for journaling, or a full 8 x 8 photo if you wanted.   The flexibility was amazing.  Shutterfly offers several different sizing options for books as well.  You can choose from 5 x 7 , 7 x 9, 8 x 8, 8-1/2 x 11, or 12 x 12.  Regular pricing ranges from $12.99 for a 5 x7 book, $15.99 for 7 x 9, $19.99 for 8 x 8, $29.99 for 8-1/2 x 11 and $54.99 for 12 x 12.  The great thing is that Shutterfly is always having sales on these books.  Right now they are offering 20% off on all photo books.

I still have a lot of photos from Christmas, leaving goodies for Santa, reading the Night Before Christmas, scattering Reindeer food on the front lawn and more.  Because of the stories and feelings that go along with these photos I plan to scrapbook them in a more "traditional" way.

I have to say thought that by using the Shutterfly Photo Books for the "present opening" photos there is such a feeling of relief and accomplishment.  I have preserved some precious and fun memories with out all the stress.

 I love Shutterfly!!