The Homemade year ; Halloween

So the clocks have gone back and we're all enjoying our extra hour in bed, which can only mean one thing. Yup autumn is here and its Halloween. Time for our Halloween Party!!

As usual there was much to be done and as usual there was much running around at the last minute..lol. At least I didn't have tonsillitis this year though. So without further ado lets have a mooch at the pics....

 

clockwise from left;

 Party bags. Yay I actually managed to remember to photograph them this year! Handmade by myself using my craft programme and some ace printables from gwynn wasson designs. Hop on over to her blog to have a look at the Halloween party on there. Its seriously awesome and puts mine to shame!

Skull shot glasses

Eye ball cupcakes, again made by me. Vanilla and chocolate marble cakes, orange butter icing and a jelly eye ball.

 

 

Boo Sign ; I wish I could take the credit for making this but I bought I from Asda for £1.00 and seriously you can't make it that cheap so you may as well buy it.

Glass pumpkin votive from Waitrose.

 

 

Dual iced witchy cupcakes.

 

 

Jacks beware sign which he bought with his pocket money to help me. bless him.

 

 

Rogues gallery; I intended to do this last year but due to being ill never managed it so I'm pleased I was able to do it this year. This is a wall of Halloweens past, there's pictures of jack in his costumes from each Halloween and pictures of past party guests. I made these myself by printing out some Halloween backgrounds found on google and gluing them to black card. I messed about with the pics a bit to give them an old, dark halloweeny look, printed them out and stuck them onto bright card. I plan to add to it every year.

 

 

Top; Pumpkins of course, and luminaries. I love those they look fab at night when the tea lights are lit.

Bottom left; Tree scene setter from party delights, made an otherwise empty wall look ace.

 

 

Graveyard cup cakes. these again were chocolate and vanilla marble cakes with green butter icing and had such residents as Eileen Dover, Claire Voyant, Uma goner, and Hugo First.

 

 

left; Aaargh there's a monster at the window. We also had one of these in the shower lol.

Right; bat votive.

 

 

 

Now these are as close to selfies as your ever gonna get from me, but I had four Halloween functions to attend this year and yes I know I could have had one costume for all four but wheres to fun in that???

So clockwise from top left; Witches cat for my own party.

Top right; Toil and trouble witches for the school spooktacular with the lovely Stacey.

Bottom right; Sugar skull for my dads party on 2 November which is actually Dia de los muertos (Mexican day of the dead) so it seemed a bit more appropriate and secondly because I'm a little bit obsessed with sugar skulls.

Bottom left; broken dolly

 

but of course no Halloween is complete without the pumpkin king himself.. the one and only jack Skellington.......

 

 

and here he is my very own Jack Skellington, with his ghost dog zero.

 

So what now? Well I'll be enjoying some fire works in our back garden this evening and I've already started to plan for Christmas so I'll be showing you some of the things I always make at Christmas and some new things too.

 

Thanks for stopping by

 Vicky Xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sew Sunday ; Easy Halloween blindfold and FREE pattern

Every year at our annual Halloween party we play a 'pin the something on the something' sort of game. Last year was pin the nose on the witch, the year before pin the bow tie on Mr bones, you get the idea, but every year we end up using a black woollen scarf as a blind fold, and as much as this works it looks a bit rubbish. so this year I set about putting that right...

here's how. I decided that I wanted to make the blindfold a cat face copying a design I drew for a brooch. So firstly I changed a pattern for a regular sleep mask by adding some ears and making it more cat like. You can download the pattern below. Just right click on the image and save then print off as A4.

Not the most professional pattern I know, but still, it works!

Cut out two cat shapes in black felt. One would probably be sufficient seeing as your adding eyes but I cut out two just to be sure the little monsters really cant see!!

cut out your eyes and nose shapes and pin into place on one piece of the black felt. Stitch over the eyes in straight lines. I used a straight stitch in black cotton but you can use any colour or stitch, I think a zig zag stitch would look cool, or you could hand sew it. I used a zig zag stitch to sew around the nose which was a bit fiddly so in hindsight it might be better to hand sew this bit.

 

Next you need to stitch your elastic onto the back of your black felt. I recommend doing this bit with a machine as you want the elastic to be secure when using the blindfold.

Then stitch the spare piece of felt to the back using a zig zag stitch around the edge. If your hand stitching I think a blanket stitch would be nice, and voila there you have it an easy peasy blindfold to play all your Halloween games.

 Seriously this took less than an hour and in my opinion looks way better than a woollen scarf tied around your head!! Don't forget to check to back for my home made year post to see what pin it game we are playing this year!

Xxx

Craft Show haul

Thank God I chose to go to the craft show at the NEC on Thursday before we had all this snow!!! Now I love a good dollop of snow, but not in March! I mean honestly we should be packing away our thermals not pulling them on again.
But luckily the weather wasn't too bad on Thursday so I made it to the show, and thought I would share with  you some of the bits I got.

 

Halloween theme Fat Quarters.

 

I bought a lot of Fat quarters as the sewing bit there is great, with loads of different fabrics you don't really see anywhere else. I've also come to the conclusion that I could spend a fortune on fabric. Seriously I had to drag myself away from the pirate themed ones, and I still went and found them on eBay when I got home.

 As some people might know were big on Halloween in our house so I plan to make bunting with this (yes I'm big on bunting too). I'm thinking I might go for a different shape with this instead of traditional triangles but we'll see.

 

 

More fat quarters...

 

No idea what I'm going to make with these, but they all went together so well. I love the stripy one it reminds me of a stick of rock!

 

 

Easter fat quarters.

 

I think these are Easter themed and at least that what I thought of when I saw them but everyone I've shown them to thinks they look more baby themed. Either way I'll be using it in an Easter related way.

 

 

Alphabet stamp and clock stencil thingy

 

Its not often I buy stamps, I normally use digital, but I was looking for something to use in a project I'm working on at the moment. I got this one one as I love typewriter font and will probably use it in a lot of tings, the clock thingy is a thingy because I just can't remember the companies name but I'm hoping to use it the same project.

 

and last but not least

 

 

bits and pieces from the crafts a pound shop.

 

This is the best shop, loads of stuff all for a pound. You can pick up loads of bits for your stash, the only draw is that its the busiest shop at the show. Honestly they need to operate a one way system! its just a massive free for all, how they keep a track on who's paid and who hasn't, and don't even get me started on women with trolleys. Those things should be banned..lol

 

So I'm off to moan about the snow a bit more, and put my Easter decorations up.

 

Vicky Xxx

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Monsterville...

So our annual Halloween party was a bit of a wash out this year due to me coming down with Tonsillitis two days before. I had to stay in bed the whole week, and at one point couldn't actually speak! I did think about cancelling, but I didn't want to disappoint the children. So I forced myself out of bed and put on my happy face. Because of this a lot of the things I had planned to do had to be put on hold so this post is a mix n match of this year and last year.

 

First up invitations to Monsterville

 

 

 My handmade skull chocolates, which I totally forgot to put on the table for everyone! Jacks Frankenstein decoration, and the party bags. For the second year running I forgot to take proper pics of them so this is the only one I've got, and these parties have definitely taught me that kids really don't care what the bags look like, its the toys and sweets inside that count!

 

 

Jacks hand print spider picture, we saw these on good old pinterest so had to have a go ourselves. I love it and will keep it forever. My BOO wreath made with scraps of net.

 

 

I can't take credit for the sugar skull cookies as they were made by a friend, I can however take credit for eating some of them and they were lovely! My Ghosty cupcakes from 2011 which were a bit of a hit on pinterest, and you'll have to ask the guests about the witches brew.

 

 

The picture wall was supposed to have more pictures this year of last years guests but I ran out of time due to being poorly.

 

 

Jacks footprint ghost picture, this is even cuter than the spider, Love it. And my bargains that I got in the sales after Halloween last year. I love the glitter haunted house, but have to wonder how long the glitter will stay on.

 

 

Last years cookies, which were also a pinterest hit, and party bag tags which I downloaded from somewhere but can't remember where.

 

 

BOO ghost welcoming our visitors, and the little Witch waiting for some little monsters to play a game of pin the nose on the witch. Which was great fun!

 

Sorry if there's not as much homemade stuff as you were expecting, but I was truly ill. Anything I didn't manage to do this year will be done for next years party, and more. I already have the theme now all I need to do is not get ill.

Xxx

 

 

 

 

 

Homemade Halloween - Cakes and Cookies

Cakes and cookies, my favourite. Its clear to see I will never be thin! First up dual iced cupcakes. These are generally smaller than I would normally make, seeing as they were for the kids. However it didnt stop the adults tucking in to a few either, lol. Purple and Orange dual iced butter cream and edible glitter. What more could you ask for?? 'Cookies'  I hear you cry? Oh ok then...hand painted spider web cookies with more edible glitter. These were for the kids party bags so the grown didn't get any of these, unless they stole it from their child when they got home. lol  :)

Next time...tags for bags Xxx

Homemade Halloween - banners and bunting

My sons school had a table top sale in the summer, while I was there I robbed a baby grow from a friends stall. Now before anyone gets any ideas it was merely for the material, and I swiftly made it into this bunting. I only used the front two panels and still have the back for another project. the black and white material is an old top, the green a pillow case and the Orange a cushion cover from the pound shop. I wasn't convinced it would look Halloween enough until I hung it up, and then I was hooked, I love it.

The banner is something that I saw on etsy and loved, but as usual rather than buy it I knew I could probably make it cheaper. And I did, the mount card I had left over and I drew the letters and spiders by hand. the only thing I did pay for is the ribbon to hang it! I might make another of these for Christmas but I think I will invest in some large alphabet stamps as I can see me making more for other occasions such as Birthdays, Easter etc.
up next Cakes and cookies, yum................So until next time xxx

                                                   

Homemade Halloween - Wreaths

So its ages since my last post and I was hoping to post most of this stuff before Halloween actually arrived but what a suprise I've been to busy, but here they are better late than never. The first in this series of posts is the two wreaths I made, to decorate the house ready for Jacks Halloween party.

To be honest I think I'm slightly addicted to making these now, after making one for a friends little girl. I definately plan to make a christmas one

Thanks for stopping by

Happy Halloween Xxx