Happy Halloween 2012!

I've never been into the "scary" or superstitious part of Halloween, but I've always LOVED dressing up! (and the candy was always just a bonus!)  This year, I reused my costume from last year and was a Woodland Faerie Queen.  I've got nothing special to do an no parties to go to...I'm just handing out candy at home this year.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2011

Hello loyal blog readers! Sorry I have not been such a loyal blogger lately! I've had a lot going on and focusing on getting ready for the November edition of Mayday Underground, my biggest craft show of the year! (And it's in only 5 days! Yikes!) Anyway, I'm taking a break to blog about my Halloween fun...

My favorite part about Halloween is the costumes. This photo was taken when I was "playing" around with makeup a few weeks ago, trying to get ideas for my woodland faerie queen costume.

Here is the first incarnation of the costume at a party I went to on Friday night. My costume consisted of a black bridesmaid dress (thanks Kasey!), my reversible corset, and my green velvet Renaissance Faire cloak. But on Saturday morning, I went to JoAnn Fabrics with my Mom and got some faerie wings and foliage in order to make my costume a bit more impressive and more "woodland faerie" like.

The foliage changed my color palate a bit and made it a little warmer and less monochromatic, but I think it turned out nicely...although my makeup when I was "playing around" was a lot more defined than my makeup was last night. But it was fun to do nonetheless! I love having an excuse to do crazy makeup!

We spent Halloween night at my parents' house, since last year at our house, we got maybe a grand total of 5 trick-or-treaters. It may have been because last year's Halloween fell on a Sunday though. We may try staying home next year. I'd like to try hosting a costume party for our friends!

I originally bought the fall leaves garland to make the headpiece, but I ended up liking the berry garland better and pinned the leafy garland to the back of the cloak so that the leaves looked like they were cascading down the back. But then, CJ and Mom suggested I bring the ends of the leafy garland around my shoulders and pin them in the front. I think that detail really made the costume! Almost every mother that came with trick-or-treaters commented that they liked my costume!

Luna was my little faerie buddy! (she only tolerated the wings for so long though. But whenever she would shake, it made the wings flutter! She looked adorable!)

(I like how the motion-blur makes it look like her wings are fluttering!)

CJ put on a skeleton mask and pretended to be a dummy sitting in the chair. He scared a group of kids really good!

Mom's tiki-torches with colored flames! (blue, green, and red)

Mom & CJ hanging out on the deck.

Treasury Tuesday: Festively Fall

I got on a treasury-making kick this week. Sometimes, when you make one, you've got to make more!

This first treasury was the last one I made, but is my favorite one. I was inspired by those grey fall days (it was quite grey and rainy the latter part of last week and the weekend), but with a splash of color...

Cozy Festive Fall

The next one was inspired by my itch to go apple-picking (I'm hoping to finally go this weekend!). I live in apple country and it's become something of a fall tradition since we moved out here.

Itchin' To Go Apple Pickin'

The final treasury (which was the first one I made this week) is all about...you guessed it...MONSTERS! I find it interesting that the word "monster" no longer conjures up images of grotesque, scary creatures...but of funny, friendly, and sometimes furry creatures instead. I think this is thanks to Jim Henson, as well as the Disney/Pixar movie "Monsters Inc." The color scheme was inspired by a Halloween decoration aisle at a store. While shopping with my husband a few weeks ago, I noticed that turquoise seems to be the newest "Halloween color". At one time there was just orange and black. Then green was added. Then at some point purple joined in. Now it seems that turquoise has been added to the mix. You won't find me complaining though...turquoise is my favorite color! And I love pairing it with orange! So that's the back-story for this treasury.

Cute & Creepy Halloween Monsters

Oh yes...as usual, please check out the Treasury Tuesday post I do over on the RNEST blog!

Treasury Tuesday: Purple, Orange, and Black

I was featured in a Halloween-esque treasury this week, created by my friend and fellow RNESTer, Jackbear.

Purple, Orange, and Black

Check out the Treasury Tuesday post on the RNEST Blog for some links to more Etsy Treasuries!

October Treasuries (by Me)

After being featured in 3 different Etsy Treasuries this week, I've made some Treasuries myself.

Turquoise & Red Owls

Look At The BONES!

Black Cat Nubbins

Here's some more Halloween-y Nubbins. The classic black cat...in both blue and green eyed versions.

These are both up in the shop.

Skele-Nubbins 2010

These guys got featured today as Friday's "Jack's Pick" on the RNEST blog. I didn't realize I hadn't blogged about them yet.

I made one Skele-Nubbin last year. This year I decided to use embroidery floss for the bones instead of felt. I can't decide which I like better though, the embroidery floss or the felt.

One of these has already been snapped up, but one of them (the one on the right) is still left in my Etsy shop. Originally those spots on the side of the skull was a mistake, but luckily they look like the indents you see on the temples of a skull...so it was a happy mistake.

Trick or Treat Scavenger Hunt!

Hey!

I'm giving away an Orange and black Halloween Nubbin as a prize of RNEST's Trick or Treat Scavenger Hunt!

All you need to do is follow the RNEST blog, then go to the participating shops in RNEST and look for shop listings that have a picture of candy as the last photo. So for example, if you go to my shop and start clicking on some of the items, you will see one of them has a picture of some candy bars hiding in the photos.

Then you post what you find in the blog comments (comments will be hidden until the contest is over), and you have a chance to win one or more great handmade items.

* Speaking of give-aways, I am seriously considering doing a give-away if my KiraArts Facebook page breaks 100 fans. I am currently at 95 fans (or "likes" or whatever). If you haven't already, come on over and click that "like" button and suggest my page to your friends! *

Handmade Costumes ROCK!

I saw this commercial while I was shopping at Target the other night, and it kind of annoyed me...

UGH! I feel like it's kind of a slam at handmade. I thought the homemade Iron Man costume was great! (well, until the light fell off, but some hot glue can fix that!) I think it was a brilliant idea to use a touch light for the Iron Man's reactor thingy. If I had been that little boy, I would have thought "Wow, my mom is so awesome for making this for me!" It takes more creativity to lovingly make a costume than to just go buy a plastic one! My mom always made our costumes growing up, and I liked it that way. I never even had a desire to go get any cheap storebought character costumes.

Case in point...

The year was 1999. Star Wars: Episode I had just come out. I was 17 and had gotten some comments from some people that they thought I looked like Natalie Portman, the actress who played Queen Amidala. I think she's prettier than me, but anyway, those compliments got the wheels turning and I decided that I wanted to dress up as Queen Amidala for Halloween...

I told my mom about it, and my wonderfully crafty mother (a woman who insists that she "can't sew") gleefully took on the challenge and MADE me this costume! And it was (and is) so much better than any cheap, overpriced thing we could have bought at the costume store!

One of the biggest challenges of the costume was the elaborate headdress. Mom bought a pool noodle, stuck the ends onto a wooden dowel, and pinned/glued hair extensions onto it. She then built the rest of the headdress out of gold fabric, red lace, cardboard and...lamp parts for the very top.

A cool little "secret" about the costume is the gold filigree design on the front of the costume. Mom used gold fabric paint, and wrote my full name in cursive, then mirrored it, so that to the untrained eye, it just looks like a scrolly design. Oh...and the little balls around the bottom?...clear Christmas ornaments stuffed with colored cellophane. And on the nights I wore it, we would put glowsticks in the balls so they would glow (the little balls light up in the movie if you look closely).

And I ended up winning every costume contest I entered that year. :)

So, whatever Target...don't tell me handmade costumes aren't cool. Handmade costumes ROCK!

Happy Halloween!

These are some Nubbins I've had planned out, but have put on the back burner to work on other projects. Too bad I didn't have them done and listed in my Etsy shop before Halloween! Oh well. The funny thing is that I had two unofficial requests for a bat Nubbin before I even had this one done!

I made this one a vampire bat (the blood droplet is very reminiscent of this monster I made for my husband awhile back). Don't worry, Nubbin Vampire Bats are "vegetarian vampires" (sorry, Twilight reference!)...they don't drink human blood, only the blood of animals!...stuffed animals!...and even then it's only red felt they prefer to snack on! Okay I'm being really silly now!...moving on...

This Pumpkin Nubbin (aka: the "Jack-O-Nubbin"...or would it be "Nub-O Lantern"?) I originally wasn't going to have the stripes on when I was planning it out. I decided to do it last minute before sewing it up...and I'm glad I did it. It wouldn't look as pumpkin-y without them.

Skele-Nubbin

Just in time for Halloween...a Skele-Nubbin! I had rattley-bone sounding xylophone music playing in my head while I was making this (particularly a song from Corpse Bride).

More Halloween Nubbins are in the works...stay tuned!

Belated Halloween Post

I spent Halloween at my parents' house. We always have so much fun! Mom and I just like dressing up! Any excuse to dress up! Mom, CJ, and I were pirates, and ran with the theme while passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Dad just wore his favorite costume...his normal black pants and hoodie with a blackout face mask. He didn't grow up celebrating Halloween, so he doesn't get as into dressing up as Mom and I do, but he does have fun with it. I think his favorite part is scaring people...but not in a mean way.


It was really nice out, so Mom and I both had the idea to have a fire in the front yard and hang out there to pass out candy. Mom took it a step further with giving the kids a choice. She has a big, old trunk in her front yard garden...and she also had a ornately carved wooden jewelry box. So she put the candy in the small "loot box", and then picked up random things around her house (old toys, markers and stuff) to put in the big "treasure chest". And then when the kids came up to our "pirate camp", Mom gave them a choice which box they could choose to pick out of. "It could be a trick or it could be a treat!" Mom would tell them.

The little kids tended to choose the big box (and were quite satisfied with getting to choose a toy), while the older kids wised up and usually picked the little box. Older kids have usually learned that bigger does not always mean better. Plus I think a lot of kids thought that something was going to jump out and scare them if they opened the big trunk (no...that was another year with my brother popping out of a much larger trunk...that is now acting as an end table in my living room!)

Oh, and Mom bought Luna a Halloween shirt in the kids section of WalMart! Since King had a halloween shirt to wear (glow in the dark skeleton torso), Mom wanted Luna to have one too! The basketball has a little motion sensor and blinks with little red lights when she moves! I thought the long sleeves looked cute on her! There is a dog shirt I saw at Old Navy that is on clearance that I want to get for her for next year. This one looks like King's shirt, but has a little red heart in the ribcage. (I was hoping to find a picture on the Old Navy website, but it's not listed). I would have bought her one, but the only sizes they had were extra small and extra-extra small...and while I did debate about the extra small, I think Luna only needs a small. She's a small dog, but not a tiny, itty-bitty dog. She's not a Chihuahua or anything (despite what the dog-ignorant people in my neighborhood ask me when they see me walking her. For these city people who only know Rottweilers and Pitt Bulls, any small dog to them is a Chihuahua.) Anyway...I think I'm going to check the other Old Navy stores in the area to see if anyone else has the shirt I'm looking for.

Best...Costumes...EVER!

Anyone know who these 3 kids are supposed to be? Need a hint?...

Mahna Mahna!

Doo doooo doo doo doo...

Easily the best Muppet Show sketch ever!

I found this via Craftzine. Click here for the whole story and the video on French Toast Girl's blog. (Warning: the song will be stuck in your head for DAYS!) She says the kids will have "the video loaded onto [an] iPod (which has speakers) and will provide a soundtrack - or an explanation as needed - when we go trick or treating. And instead of "Trick or treat" they can say "Mahna mahna."

So cool!!! I want to see a video of the kids in action. I bet it's hilariously cute! The woman who did this for her kids is so on my awesome list! It's something I wish I'd thought of!...and/or had 3 kids to do it with who love "Mahna Mahna" as much as I do!

Sockeye the Halloween Sailor Monster!

Here's a sock monster just in time for Halloween! I made him a little hat too. I think it makes him look like a sailor...allong with his Popeye-esque huge fists/forearms.
"I'm Sockeye the sailor monster...
I'm Sockeye the sailor monster...
I'm strong as a barn, 'cuz I eats me yarn...
I'm Sockeye the sailor monster!"