Halloween 2011 - documented...

In case you wondered where I have been since Halloween...

I have been scrapbooking! I am happy to say that all of my Halloween pics (pumpkin carving & trick or treat) from 2011 are scrapped. Go me!

I pulled out my neglected October 2010 kit from Noel Mignon. (For the life of me, I can't remember why I didn't use it last fall.) Armed with this kit, extra black cardstock & alphas, and my stack of Halloween pics, I worked over the weekend and completed ten layouts.

Crazy Kev shocked me when I noticed he was wearing a mask to carve his pumpkin. He was a bit scary! I broke out my new Martha Stewart border punch for "Carving Time" for Blake's album. I guess he was inspired to don his 'fro wig after seeing Kevin in his mask? I loved the My Mind's Eye pumpkin paper for this page.

Next, I FINALLY got to use my WRMK stitched cardstock for Blake's trunk or treat layout. He refused to dress up and said he was "casual Friday." Teenagers!Thankfully, Kevin dressed up. Everyone loved his Edward Scissorhands costume. I used a sketch from Sketches for Scrapbooking Volume 8 for this 2-pager.

Thankfully, Blake asked me to put make up on him before he sat out and passed out candy on Halloween!

I ended up with a lot of good "Bloody Blake" photos on Halloween. Crammed them all into a 2-pager. I liked my bat jack-o-lantern so much that I made a scrapbook page about it. (The title makes me smile. I love movie quotes.)

Kevin looked a bit spooky with his jack-o-lanterns on Halloween. (Although here he looks more like the joker with black hair than Edward Scissorhands!)

Speaking of Edward Scissorhands... This layout and the next both use sketches from Sketches for Scrapbooking Volume 8.

We really enjoyed trick-or-treating in our own subdivision. On a school night, it was great to stay home.

Now that Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

Where has 2011 gone???

Happy Halloween!!!

We had a great time celebrating Halloween over the past couple of days.

Tom and Blake were camping all weekend with Scouts, so we waited until they got home yesterday to carve our pumpkins. Mine was the coolest. I made a bat pupkin. I even added "blood" around the mouth.
As I was completing my pumpkin, I turned around to see quite a scary site going to work behind me. (Have you heard me say that this kid just isn't right???) But, in the end, he had a pretty happy, smiling pumpkin.

Blake had to put on his "thinking 'fro" to do his carving. (And Crazy Kev had to jump in the background of this shot!)I love the wicked grin on his jack-o-lantern.Sunday night we went to trunk or treat at our church. Everyone loved Kevin's Edward Scissorhands costume. Blake said he dressed up as "Casual Friday." Teenagers...For Kevin's scissorhands, I traced scissors on glitter foam, then attached them to black gloves using brads. That's Kevin real hair painted black. Too bad it wasn't longer...We only had one trick-or-treater this year. It was a bit sad.Tom and I walked around our subdivision with Kevin. Blake sat out on our porch and scared the trick-or-treaters. I have to admit, he did look a bit gruesome!It was a very nice Halloween. I am blessed to have these two boys. They are already thinking ahead to next year for costume (and makeup) ideas. Oh, I have one more photo to share...

While uploading my pics, I noticed a couple that I did't take. Kevin just might turn out to be a great photographer some day. Don't you love the angle he used to capture his newest lego set?

Happy Halloween!

I'm running in circles...

I am not complaining, but I've been very busy this week. I've had something every night and haven't even scrapped. Gasp!

I still owe Halloween photos. So I'll share one for now...

Bet you are just dying to know who is wearing that hot pink wig!

This week I got some really cool news in my email box. I'm waiting on some more details, but I'll share that as soon as I can. (It's pretty neat! Just ask Mel...)

I received an order in the mail today from A Million Little Things. Very, very cool goodies I can't wait to use.

I have a 160+ print order in transit from York Photo. (Check out their deal - free shipping with order of 100+ prints. Only $.08/print.) I haven't used them since my days of sending film in an envelope through the mail! I'll let you know what I think of the quality.

Oh, and I also received my design team package from Scrappin' {Sports} Stuff earlier in the week.

So many ideas...so little time.

This weekend I think I'll lock myself in the bonus room and scrap the weekend away!

Have a great rest of the week!

22 down...

Only 15 more to make!

I saw Halloween treat boxes (pumpkin, mummy, frankenstein) in an issue of Scrapbook Trends magazine. I knew they'd be easy to make with a sheet of 12x12 cardstock and fun to do with Kevin. When I found some black pipe cleaners in with our craft supplies, I decided to add spiders to our collection. I did alter the mummy and frankenstein a bit. I didn't want to waste buttons on things that will likely be tossed after a school party. So instead, I am using punched paper circles and adhering the top layer with pop dots.

I love these! I just might make four more so I'll have a whole set to use for decoration here at home.

The best part has been working with Kevin to make them. :)

Snow outside means scrapping inside...

This year has started out to be the coldest I can ever remember. We've also experienced more snow than I can ever remember. Last week we had over 6" of snow and the boys and I had a blast building not one, but TWO snowmen. It was the perfect snowman building weather. We also had enough snow to make snow cream. Yum!!! And luckily we had plenty of hot chocolate. We ended up missing three days of school last week and after more snow this weekend, also missed school yesterday and now AGAIN today! (We were out Monday for the holiday.)

My snowmen are STILL standing in the front yard! While we've been home, I've stayed pretty busy with the boys. We watched a lot of movies together, played some checkers - just had fun! I did spend a little time in my scrap area though.

I was back in my Halloween-scrapping mode...

I am trying to finish off my supply of Basic Grey's "Eerie" line. Here I paired it up with some old Scenic Route (arrows). I thought my title "Trick ARRRR Treat" was appropriate for these Halloween photos of Pirate Blake from '05. Gosh, he's grown!

I also scrapped a LO for Blake's album using family shots from this past Halloween.

For Blake, I also scrapped shots of the boys at home before we left to go trick or treating. I was inspired by a LO on Alison Davis' blog. "We want Candy" was inspired by a sketch posted by Lisa Hidy on her blog. It was a single page sketch, but I stretched it out into a 2-pager and used American Crafts products.

I continued using the American Crafts products on Kevin's layout showcasing the family costumes on Halloween. That's my next-to-youngest sister Kaitlin in the center dressed at Tranformer's Megatron. She's 21!Today I scraplifted a LO by Roree Rumph in the February issue of Scrapbook Trends magazine. I used some Scenic Route Cape Town papers that a friend sent me. Scenic Route never goes out of style. (Have I mentioned how much I'll miss them?!?) I got crafty with my paints and glimmer mists. The tag was a BRIGHT yellow, but I used Tattered Leather glimmer mist. It was too dark, so I wiped it off and it left a wood-grain look. I thought it was pretty cool ;) The red in the chipboard stars and on the tag was from Candy Apple Red Glimmer Mist. I now have more colors on my wish list!I have one more Halloween layout to share, but I scrapped it with Valentine's Day products since Reese, my niece, was a too cute pink monster.I was actually able to visit with Reese twice over the past week. She's really grown since October, hasn't she? She's a mess!

Now, I'm trying to work in some crop time. Personal Scrapper is having a mini online crop that started last night.

I'm actually hoping we are back to school tomorrow! I think the boys are ready for it, too.

Halloween in February...???

When I reorganized my scrap space, I came across a few (too many?) Halloween themed scrapbooking papers/kits. My favorite was the Basic Grey Eerie collection from this past fall. I had purchased individual sheets and some embellishments back when it first came out, but only got so far as to "kit" them together. On a recent trip to Archiver's, I found several matching embellishments marked down 50%. I was anxious to use this line!

Last night my aunt came over for some late night scrapbooking. I was inspired by some LOs by Allison Davis (2-pagers) and my new issue of Scrapbook Trends magazine. I was able to finish four layotus last night and another one earlier this afternoon. I LOVE them all. Like I mentioned earlier, I loved Eerie to start with. It was just that much better after adding photos.

I started by pulling out my 2007 Halloween photos. This was a year where the boys costumes didn't really coordinate. Kevin really wanted to be a skeleton, so he used an old costume of Blake's. It was deja vu seeing him look much like Blake - like a yard decoration - during our photo shoot in the front yard. He was adorable when he took the mask off though. "Boo to You!" was inspired by a LO in the February issue of Scrapbook Trends by Lisa Dickinson.

The rest of Kevin's trick or treat shots from this year are used on "Trick or Treat Glendale". Each year we trick or treat in this (safe and quaint) nearby railroad town. We met up with my sisters boys this year. It was Luke's first Halloween. He was a fly trapped in a web (with the "web" on his stroller) while his big brother was a spider. I was inspired by an Allison Davis layout on her family store's blog. "Dracula" was also inspired by an Allison Davis layout. The tree I used replaces three paper Christmas tress she had on her original. 2007 was a favorite year of mine as far as Blake's costumes go. I thought he was the coolest Dracula!"Ghost Train" wraps up Halloween 2007 for Blake. (I had already scrapped a couple photos for his album a while back.) I was inspired by a Kelly Noel layout in the February issue of Scrapbook Trends.I am proud to say that "Trick Tattoos" is all original-Amy. I printed these b/w shots of Kevin and my dad sporting fake tattoo "sleeves" right after I took them in October 2008, but never scrapped them. I thought they worked great with the Eerie papers. Not sure if you noticed on the other layouts, but I did a lot of distressing with my edger and also inking (gasp!...I know!...me inking!). I took it a little further on this one and even distressed the edges of my photos with my paper edger and some little "roller thingy". Yes, I'm sure it has a name, but whatever it was left little holes in my paper. I still wanted a more distressed look, so I pulled out the never-before-used steel wool from my drawer and rubbed that around the edge of my photos. (That's what made the orange spots on the photo.) I am happy with my results. My favorite part of this page, was the creative burst that hit me when I was adding my title. I decided to place the skeleton where the two Os should have been in "tattoos." The blinged out eyes are my Os. ;)

Although I feel like I could scrap all night, I'm declaring tonight movie night with my husband. I will admit though that I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the snow they are predicting for Monday night to hit. Big. I'd enjoy a snow day filled with scrapping in between making batches of hot cocoa for my boys.

Thanks for looking!

Trick or Treat?

Every year we look forward to Halloween and I'm always happy when the boys want something creative or different for their costumes. This year, Kevin found one of those arms that they sell to hang out of a trunk as a decoration in Michael's and he was running up and down the aisle acting like his arm had been cut off. I literally saw the lightbulb come on as the idea for his costume popped into his head. Quickly, I was agreeing with him and we decided the old button up shirt that was used as Dr. Frankenstein's lab coat last year could be converted into a shirt with the arm cut off...and bloody.

A couple days before Halloween, Kevin and I were in a party store and he saw fake mustaches. Well, he had to have one. On Halloween as I was getting him dressed, I looked at my little man with the mustache and busted out laughing. He looked like Ron Burgandy (Will Ferrell's character in the movie "Anchorman")! I had to cover up "Dr. Frankenstein" that was written on the shirt already, so for an inside joke with my family, I pulled out a "Hello my name is" sticker and added "Ron." I cracked up during the night when people passing out candy would call him "Ron."

For this layout using the Fancy Pants' papers from the October Personal Scrapper add-on, I used a quote from "Anchorman" for my title: "I don't know how to put this, but I'm a pretty big deal."For those of you wondering about Blake's costume...well, he was the "guy that cut off the arm," as he liked to tell everyone. Blake loved wearing the mask this year and having a blood-stained shirt. I think the "bloody" knife was his favorite though.One of my favorite shots from Halloween was the group shot of my family's trick-or-treaters. Joining Blake and Kevin were my nephews Dane and Luke who were a pirate and a parrot; my niece, Reese, who was the cutest pink monster ever; and my sister Kaitlin. Kaitlin was dressed up as a Transformer (Megatron?). For those of you who don't know, Kate is 21. And, when I list her as a trick-or-treater it IS because she went around trick-or-treating! I think it would be an understatement to say, "A good time was had by all."

I have so many pictures from Halloween, but not enough time to scrap them!