More BOO Day Treat Holders

 Wanted to use the My-Creative-Time.com  dies that arrived this week for the last of my BOO Day treat holders for this year. One of the dies was on back order and I was able to order it just in time for Halloween. It is the Witch Hat Treat Bag Topper die:

I used a stripe from a holiday paper pad from last year. I added black glittered tulle to the bottom edge of the witch hat using tear and tape on the inside of the hat. To cover all of this I also cut out a witch hat using black card stock and I glued that to the inside of the holder  - here is a photo (blurred) of the inside of the bag topper open and flat to show the black lining piece:

and here is a photo of the outside of this Witch hat bag topper:

I added glittered card stock stars and plastic spider scatters by the bow which I made using a bow die from my stash. The large spider is the spider that comes with the Witch hat topper set. Very easy to put together for a bag topper. 

Next is the "girls" -- I used a second die from MCT for a Tootsie Pop Holder:

First I cut out the ghost body/bag piece using white #110 weight card stock:

Even with using a heavier weight card stock the dies easily cut through the card stock with one pass in the die cutting machine and the stitching the die cuts also shows up on the white glittered card stock I used for the ghost face. When I cut the front piece out for the ghost I also used one of the eyes/mouth dies from the set for my face piece:

Using black shiny card stock I cut out the eyes/mouth die I used:

Here are the ghosts all assembled and decorated with the Tootsie Pops inside:

Here is a photo to show the glittery ghost face and the shiny black eyes/mouth pieces:

Cut a black and orange straw (Walmart) to cover the lollipop stick and added a small black pom pom to the top of the straw to give it a more finished look. Bows for the ghosts were made using scrap card stock prints and a small bow die from the stash. These were easy to put together and they are free standing. Using the white glittered card stock on the ghost face only saves the card stock for winter cards ahead - - plus I do not have a lot of this left as is... so will be needing to restock that soon. 

As for these holiday dies - the eyes and mouth pieces for the ghost are spaced evenly and all on one die piece so you do not have to worry about trying to line up the eyes with the mouth for the face. Plus with two different eyes/mouth dies you have options as to how your ghost face will look. 

Also - decided to pull out the Bow-It-All and make black gingham bows to add to the fronts of the BOO Bags I had made and I am happy I added those - 

The bows help to frame the crepe paper trim at the tops of the bags. Used hot glue to add the bows to the bags.  Happy Halloween!

BOO Day Treat Holders

 Wanted to make different treat holders for BOO Day this year - Halloween. Decided to "think out of the box" and dig out some supplies . . .  As usual for Halloween I make a treat holder for a Tootsie Pop lollipops but did not want to make ones I have made in the past. Looked through the die stash and came across the Rectangle Box die from Lifestyle Crafts/QuicKutz:

This die makes a small rectangle box but if you cut it out and add a hole to the top flap it will be a free standing Tootsie Pop holder -  here are photos of the ones I made:

I used scrap printed card stocks for the front of the holders and added crystal gems to them. Wanted to add the black and white bows to the top of the boxes by the lollipop stick but the bows wanted nothing to do with the glue dots I was using - so I added Glossy Accents to the bows and that did the trick:

For the pumpkins on the fronts I used scrap pumpkin card stock and two punches to make them:

To make the pumpkins I punched the orange Marvy pumpkin face out on the card stock. Then I centered the M Stewart solid pumpkin over the punched face and punched out the pumpkin. Using scrap black card stock I punched out a solid black pumpkin and glued it behind the pumpkin face piece using liquid glue. Sponged the edges of the pumpkin and used a light brown marker over the stem part. The Marvy punch is an old one and a must for Halloween projects in this craft room. 

Next I wanted to include a black cat this Halloween. I used solid card stock and cut out my pieces for the matchbook holders I made:

Once the holder was cut out I cut out a panel of printed card stock for the front and I used a cat punch for the glittered card stock cat and added a small bow using a bow punch from Hobby Lobby. In the center of the bow is a holographic orange crystal from Queen & Company:

The matchbook holders can hold fun sized candies - M&M bags, Skittles bags, and Brach's Candy Corn bags. Once I had my candy inside I used a stapler to attach the candy bag to the holder. I did not want to see the staple on the front of the holder so I covered the staple with tear n tape and then put holiday washi tape over that:

Nugget candy holders - wanted to include the Hershey Nuggets so decided to wrap the candies with holiday prints and put them on a 'tray' in a clear bag. I punched out a white tag and added "BOO" that is a die cut piece. Here are the holders:

The "BOO" die was a free gift with a recent order from Taylored Expressions. They usually send a "thanks" die with my orders - I have that in script, small letters, capitalized letters, and so it goes. Those are dies that do not get much use . . .  This last order FINALLY they included a free die I will use - this BOO has a place on the die for small wiggle eyes so I added those from my stash. Tied the clear bags closed using holiday twine. The 'trays' are solid card stocks cut and scored to hold the Hershey Nuggets. Easy treat holder to put together! 

Will finish the rest of the treat holders this week and add photos when I am done. TFL

BOO Treat Bags

 Just finished working on the BOO Treat Bags for this year. As usual I still used the black, white, and orange paper gift bags for Halloween. This year I used all items in my stash and did not have to buy anything to complete them. Used dies and punches to decorate the bag fronts and on some bags I added flocked spiders from a sticker pack from Hobby Lobby. Here is one of the bags:

For this bag I used orange glittered card stock for the letters I die cut out. I also die cut out these letters from #110 weight white card stock to adhere the glittered letters to to make the letters more sturdy. The printed card stock on all the bag fronts is from a paper pad from last Halloween that I had picked up on clearance after the holiday was over. The spider ribbon is from the stash and the silver gem strips on the sides of the bag front is from the Dollar Tree. The white ghosts are die cut out using an old Sizzix yellow steel ruled die. On some of the bags the ghosts are facing the other direction and I cut some ghosts out with the shiny side of the card stock against the die and for the other direction I just die cut the ghosts from the back side of the card stock. The ghosts are all cut out of the white shiny card stock that ACMoore used to sell. When they had their closing sales I bought a good stash of this card stock for ghosts and snowmen future projects. 

The bats are cut out using a triple bat punch and I used black glittered card stock for those. I also punched out bats using #110 weight black card to adhere the glittered black bats to. Problem is the black glittered card stock has a white core so once the bats were punched out you could see the white on the edges. To fix that I just used a black Sharpie marker on all the edges and you can not see the white core anymore. Here is another bag:

Again using the black glittered card stock for my letters and again used the Sharpie marker to cover the white core of the card stock. On this bag I used silver glittered card stock for the bats. Also for all the ghosts I used black plastic spider webs I had in the stash from last year. I put those webs on the ghosts using Glossy Accents and added gems from the stash to those. Added a flocked spider to the "YOU" using liquid glue and the pop dot he came with. 

Some of the bags have the "BOO TO YOU" angled and other bags I used the larger ghost die I have so I had to be sure to keep the letters together to take up less space on the bag front to give me more space for the larger ghost. Here is one of those bags:

With the one ghost being so big I used two of the plastic spider webs and put those on the large ghost. Then used one web for the upper right ghost and for the smallest ghost on the bottom right I just trimmed off a row of the web with scissors so it would fit better on the ghost. For all the bags I added the pipe cleaner/crepe paper trim to the top and bottom of the bag. I had used this idea from decor items I made for last Halloween:

I had seen how to make these on YouTube from Ginny at Polly's Paper Studio on one of her videos. I thought they would be cute for the bag fronts for these treat bags. Here is a photo to show the smooth finish of the white foil card stock for the ghosts:

and the shine from the glittered card stock letters and bats:

and the orange letters:

IRL these bag fronts have a lot of sparkle and shine with the glittered card stocks, the gems, and the shiny card stock used for the ghosts. Fun bags to assemble....  now to fill them up! TFL

Splotchy is not good . . .

 So the problem began last fall when I bought a couple of sets of clear stamps by Jaded Blossom..... no matter what card stock I used or what brand of ink I used I could not get a clear stamped image. I used an acrylic block and stamped my card stock using a foam stamping mat as a cushion for the stamp. . . I used the MISTI and tried stamping with that . . .  Splotchy was all I ended up with. . .   so did not use the stamp sets for my cards/projects last year but I have thought about what to do with these stamp sets over the year. . .  and then . . .

Recently saw a video on YouTube "Coffin Treats" by Lee-Ann.  In her video she is taking you through her projects step by step as she puts things together... once she stamped her tag and shared the tip for a good image I knew I would have to give this a try. In many videos you see stampers using their MISTI tools to stamp their projects and they either use a cloth or their sleeve to press on the MISTI to put pressure on the MISTI door to help get their inked stamp image to stamp evenly. I have tried both a cloth and a sleeve but this does not work with these stamp sets I was having problems with. I have used my MISTI to stamp with other clear stamps as well as cling stamps and I have always had success using it. In her video she suggests using a dry erase board eraser to run across the top of the MISTI tool to give you a good stamp impression....

Off to the nearest office supply store for me and I bought their brand of the dry erase board eraser:

Brought this home and put it to use right away. Here are samples of one of the stamps from one of  the stamp sets using white/GP card stock and also using #110 weight white card stock from Mikes. I used two brands of inks and I used two types of ink pads - Catherine Pooler ink is a foam pad (CP on the samples) and a linen ink pad from Close To My Heart (CT on the samples). At the top of the sample cards I used an acrylic block and foam stamping mat to stamp the image. On the bottom of the sample cards I used the MISTI tool and the dry erase board eraser from Staples to stamp my samples. 

Here is the white/GP sample using the acrylic block for stamping:

this sample I used the #110 weight card stock with the acrylic block:

Now for the samples using the MISTI and eraser:

the above card stock is the white/GP. Here is a photo of the image stamped with the MISTI and eraser on #110 card stock:

Happy to say the stamps worked better in the MISTI using the dry erase board eraser for pressure and also much better images using the linen ink pad from Close To My Heart. Happy I had come across Lee-Ann's video and a big thanks to her for sharing this tip - now I can get some serious use from these two stamp sets with clear results! 

Saturday Sale

DH drove me to a Stampin Up Demo's stamping sale this morning. She usually has her yearly sale in June but with everything this year she decided to wait until Fall. Her neighborhood was having a Neighborhood Garage Sale today so she decided to also have her stamp sale today. Was not really looking for anything in particular but did manage to find a few new to me goodies:

Paper Pumpkin new kit marked $15 but I paid $12 and this is what is inside the box:

Also bought a new Hero Arts background stamp for $1.00:

Also the older Santa Post stamp set from SU that sells new on Ebay for $25.00 - I paid $2.00:

Also a container of square eyelets and a holiday punch:

Always try hard not to buy more card stock at any of the sales but I really like this colour and it is a new sealed package of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock from SU:

Finally a holiday background stamp that looked new:

While I was shopping at the stamp sale DH drove through the neighborhood to scope out the other sales being held and he was happy he was able to buy a new to him Craftsman Belt Sander that works and was $10.00 - he also bought a small gas can for $1.00 so he was happy.  Glad I went to this sale today and was able to find a few goodies for the craft room!!