Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween my fellow readers.  I woke up this morning with sleepy eyes and a numb thumb and forefinger which makes for interesting typing.  Yesterday was pumpkin carving day at our house.  We love to carve and usually end up buying way too many pumpkins each year.  I thought you'd enjoy our selection for this year.


Having 2 young kiddos, we are big on the Dreamworks/Pixar/Disney deal here.  So a montage of this year's character winners in our house.


Current favorite movie: How to Train Your Dragon.  Toothless is just plain adorable and how could you not like Hiccup.

Next up: Monsters vs. Aliens   It's such a hard choice between the characters because we love them all but B.O.B. is highlarious.  Next year, we may have to do Dr. Cockroach...because his Mwah ha ha cackle is just perfect for Halloween.

But so far, our all time house favorite is Ice Age 3 and the one oft most quoted.  It was the original intention of this carver to do Buck, but he was too many shades of white to work well in Pumpkin Carving...at least for my current set of skills.  So we have our second favorite...Scrat aka Crazy Squirrel.

Next up, my dear daughters' pumpkins.  They got to pick their pattern choice this year and this is what they came up with.


Conversation with my youngest:
Me: So, you're picking a Spooooky Ghost.
Youngest: No Mom, he's a friendly ghost.  See, he's smiling!

Oldest: Not quite sure yet why she picked a skull but it's the one she wanted.  So here it is.

And finally, I was going to attempt another Twilight themed pumpkin this year.  But my plans were thwarted when one of my friends was trying to guess what my How To Train Your Dragon pumpkin was and she guessed, in jest I hope, Jon Bon Jovi.  LOL  Um....No.  So I decided in honor of her to do one JBJ just for her.  Enjoy!!

Hopefully, I'll get some Halloween layouts up soon!!  Be safe tonight and please watch out for the kiddos!!

Same Song...Different Dance

As promised, I finished a layout using the subdued flip sides of the Fancy Pants Trick or Treat line. I love double sided paper. The whimisical sides can be seen below in my Heebie Jeebies layout. The paper was featured in the Fancy Pants Halloween Deluxe Scrapbook Kit from Lil' Lambs Boutique.

I decided this year to be smart and take pictures this past week, on a sunny, warmer day of my two daughters in their Halloween costumes. My oldest is avidly searching high and low for her Prince Charming and insisted on being a "wedding girl." My youngest wanted to be a Dragon and for lack of finding a cute Dragon costume, she opted for the Mermaid. And boy is she working that Mermaid Costume. The wigs were completely my choice and I love them...my oldest not so much, my youngest, well, she's like her Momma.

This kit was chock full of goodies but my favorite was the Rock Candy Crackle Paint and the Basic Grey Bling It pack. I decided to use the Crackle Paint (Rock Candy is clear) on my photo mats and the folded flowers. The Bling It jewels made perfect bases for my flowers.

I also had some fun with the extra bling I didn't use on the flowers and made this little butterfly.

I added some Liquid Pearl (Ranger) dots to accent the flourishes and photo mats. I think they give a nice softening effect.

Since, we're quite North of the Equator, it's a pretty good possibility that I'll have to winterize these costumes (booo!) and my oldest refuses to wear the wig for Trick or Treating, so I'm really glad I got these pictures.

Happy Trick or Treating this Saturday!!!

A Cut Above

So, we as family, ventured outside of our comfort zone this year and decided to carve pumpkins. Not being a huge fan of typical jack-o-lantern faces, we always painted faces on, in the past. I have to say, it may have been 20 years since I've carved a pumpkin. What got into me this year, who knows. But we had a delightful time last night with the girls making "special" pumpkins.

Each of our girls got to pick what they wanted on their pumpkin. My oldest picked a bat, which was nice, because it was easier for me to draw the picture onto the pumpkin. We had patterns but didn't think of that when buying our pumpkins which were too small for the pattern. The youngest picked the witch, which she really liked....on paper. As soon as Daddy finished carving them both and lighting them up, she no longer liked her witch. Now it was a scary witch. Ha ha. That's okay, we like her witch and think Daddy did a tremendous job carving them out. Now he's hooked on patterns and I think if I let him, he'd go out and buy 3 or 4 more pumpkins.

I wanted to try the layered carving. It seemed like a nice creative challenge. So I searched the web for pumpkin patterns and found The Pumpkin Wizard. It's a great site with lots of free patterns. The family voted and since we are big Madagascar fans here, chose the Penguins for Mommy's pumpkin. 4 hours later....and here is the result. I don't think it was to bad for my first foray into decorative pumpkin carving.

What do you do to your pumpkins for Halloween? Any unusual decorations? Leave a comment and let me know.