Halloween Decor

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so now that we have a home, I was super excited to decorate it for it! I have had this up since about mid September, butI figured it was about time to blog about it, now that Halloween is just 6(!) days away! 

Here is a shot of the mantel, below you can see a "play-by-play" of my items. 

 

1. Bat cut outs. I image those lucky enough to have a Silhouette could use it to it these out, but Ihave access to an old school die cutter, that I used. Dana at made cut hers out by hand.

2. A vintage window that I picked up for $10 at a local antique shop.

3. Scrap paper bunting - I just free handed shapes, then sewed them together, putting about 3-5 stitches between each piece.

4. Halloween Photo Banner -  I printed photos at Walgreen's, then cut them into squares. I wanted to print them in black and white, but I forgot. I still like them though! I used mini clothes pins from Michael's to hang them on a Halloween ribbon, also from Michael's.

5. Happy Halloween Banner - I had a Halloween sticker pack from the dollar section of Target a few years ago. I used the letters and put them onto old book pages, that I cut into squares. Then I used craft glue to attach it to more Halloween ribbon from Michael's. 

6. I bought these vases at a local antique store, to spray paint black, but then changed my mind once the mantel started coming together. The purple flowers and glitter accents are from Michael's. .89 cents each, can't beat it, for a little glitz! 

7. Black Feather Boa - I draped it across the back, in front of the window base, to give a spook factor. There are also purple Halloween lights behind the window. I got then for about $5 from Michael's, but Christmas Tree Shops had them for about $4.

8. Miniature Bird Cage - from Michael's summer clearance section, for just 1 cent! Win!

9. Paper Mâché Skull - I had every intention of covering it in white tissue paper, but I never got to it. But there is always next year! 

10. Jar of Buttons - I wanted to pull my purple, black, green, and orange color scheme to really pull together so I threw some buttons in those color into a jar to add to the effect.

11. Saranac Jug - Joe bring it home, drank it, and I rescued it from the recycling bin!

12. Jar of [googly] eye balls - I bought a pack of Halloween/monster googly eyes at Michael's.

13. Owl - from Pier 1's 75% off section! after Easter. I keep him out all year, but thought he fit in on the Halloween mantel. He is one of my favorites!

14. Candle - large purple sparkle pilar candle from Michael's Halloween section. 

We also have some pumpkins on the front porch, and of course, holiday kitchen towels. 

I love coming home to all the decorations! 

This is my first try at a holiday mantel, but I love it, and that all that counts right?! 

Do you decorate for Halloween? Share your links below so I can check them out! I love getting new ideas from seeing what everyone else is up to.  

MIA...

I have been MIA for a while now, sorry about that. I switched jobs, so I've had much less time for sewing and crafting. I used to work overnights, which left lots of time, but now that I work the 9-6 grind, there is not much.

I had made a few things, here are the highlights.

I made this monogram towel for a friend's wedding gift. I gifted them three microfiber towels that I bought at bed, bath, and beyond and personalized with appliquéd Ps. Each out of a different fabric, one fall themed (they married in October), one Christmas themed, and one snow themed (high hopes on here on the eastern shore of md!). Along with the towels, I cut up their wedding invitation, into strips, curled the strips, and put them into a clear Christmas ornament.

I also made a tutu for my niece for her halloween costume. Her dad is a huge Superman fan, so we made her supergirl for halloween. I made the tutu using a a headband and tulle on spools. The t-shirt was bought at Gap and we added glitter glue to spruce it up.

Another halloween craft I did was a tutu, for my pup. She was the cowardly lion to my (hipster) Dorothy. The thing I did differently was I tied the tulle to both the top and bottom of the headband, instead of just one side.

Hopefully I can start keeping better track of what I am up to. Definitely look for more photography based posts. My amazing fiancé bought me a totally awesome Sony NEX-f3 for Christmas, and I am psyched to put it to work!



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Slip on Bandanas

I love how my golden retriever/chow mix looks when she is wearing a bandana. It just gives her a little additional cute factor, something unique. And that becomes even more unique when the bandanas are something that I hand selected fabrics for and handmade myself.


The reason I don't just cut the fabric into a square with pinking sheers and tie it on is simple. My dog is constantly going in and out of the house, she gets put on a run/line and a regular bandana often gets in the way. Also wears a training collar for walks and traditional bandanas gets in the way of that too because it makes her have 3 items go all the way around her neck. These slip on (to any collar) bandanas stay in place (on the back of her neck) because of the balance of her buckle and ID tags. They make putting on a leash. line, or training collar much easier. They work great for us I hope they will for you as well!

The measurments I used for this bandana are for my 80lb golden/chow mix, but this can easily be made for whatever size dog you need just follow my directions for the correct measurments. 

First thing you need to do is measure you dogs collar. I measured the space between where her ID tags hang, all the way around until the buckle, this was 15 inches. Then I measured that her collar has a 1 inch width.

So depending on if you want your bandana reversible, and if your fabric has an orientation to it you need to start with either a square of fabric or 2 triangles (that you sew into a suqare). On my first one I cut the corners then just folded a lip to cover the raw edge, since then I've found it easier to just fold them (the red areas in the left graphic) in instead of cutting, less work same result. Just make sure that the straight line is more than double your collar thickness.

Sew down these corners. I used a zigzag stich to help with fraying.

Fold with right sides together. Find the center. Sew from the bottom of the collar width area (1 1/2 inches  down in my case)  to the midpoint and back up making sure to stop before the other side of the collar area. I've marked it here with a red dotted line. Make sure to backstitch at the edges so that its nice an strong for turning.

You should be able to turn the triangle right side out throught one of the hole that have been left for the collar. Once you've done this you should topstich across right below the openings. I've shown it here in red dotted line. This just helps it keep its shape and makes it fit the collar better.

Now you should be able to slip your collar through the open ends and buckle it on to your pup!

Here are some pictures of my dog's Halloween, Thanksgiving/fall, and Christmas slip on bandanas.