Spray tan anyone?

Loving this Elf on the Shelf business these days!! Having so much fun topping the previous day's ideas.

Christmas Decor 2012

I decorated my house for Christmas Thanksgiving weekend. I added even more ornmanets and sparkly sprigs this year (again). Every year I decide to do a little more. Next year I want to experiment with mesh on the tree. I made an outdoor mesh garland that I will be posting soon.

 

 Added some green swirly sprigs this year to the topper. I love these things. I bought what felt like a million of them and this lady was just staring at me with an odd look on her face as I piled them high in my cart at Hobby Lobby :)

 This is the tree I used for my daughter's 5th birthday that had rainbow ornaments on it.

 I spray painted some old candle sticks for the mantle. The curly ribbon on them is actually for wrapping paper. Giant ornments are on top. I bought new "elf" stockings from Target this year. So cute! I took a bunch of tulle and tied it to my existing garland

 Filled my lanterns with ornmanets after I saw this on Pinterest. I used a bunch of batting in the bottom for "snow" or else I would have had to put in a lot more ornaments. Turned out so cute with the bows.

Christmas Card & Newsletter

I saw an adorable newsletter on Pinterest this year. It was so unique and to the point with cute little graphics to boot. I attempted to make one myself, but that was a disaster! SO, I contacted my usual gal who does my cards for everything and had her make me one. You can have her make you one by visiting http://www.etsy.com/shop/deanworks?ref=shop_sugg. She had actually never seen a Christmas letter like this, so hopefully she will start selling them in her shop along with her amazing cards.

Happy Christmas, Merry Everything!

Spooky Juice Boxes

I saw these adorable ghost/mummy juice boxes on Pinterest, but all I had was black duct tape so I figured I would make a bat!

You will need:

duct tape ($1 store has them)

 juice boxes

 scissors

 hot glue

 googly eyes.($1 store) 

 1. Wrap your juice boxes in tape. I never cut my tape until it was all the way wrapped. For the top, make sure you cut out a squarewhere the strawgoes

 2. The wings were tricky. I tried many different ways and the best way was to fold a long piece in half, cut in in the shape of the wings, then tape it on the box. Cut out some teeth, then glue on your eyes and straw on the backside.

 

 Here is my finished bat and ghost/mummy. I put these in my daughter's lunch along with a sandwich cut with a ghost cookie cutter. She loved it!

All decorated for Halloween!

Here is my 2012 Halloween entry table display. The small skull, spooky gauze, spider web filling and ribbow around the lamp shades were all from teh $1 store. The large skull from Target

 I used some plastic cups to elevate my skulls

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Yard Display

All decorated for Halloween! How about you? As I was shopping I realized that Halloween decorations have become so expensive. My daughter wanted some ghosts in the yard, so I wrapped my scarecrows in christmas lights and covered my them with an old white t-shirt and some "spooky gauze," which you can buy at the dollar store. I cut out black eyes with felt.

My finished ghosts. Cheap and easy and after Halloween I can simply "undress" them to create my Thanksgiving/fall display

Free Halloween Printable

I found this cute printable online. This would look great hanging over a mantle on on a side table. Select the largest size, save to computer, upload to walmart.com or other photo printing service and have it shipped to your home. Or you can print on card stock on an 8.5x11 paper. I bought the frame, mat, and feather boas (2 mini ones tied together) from Hobby Lobby. You can also pull in decor from around your home. I just happen to have a black and white decorated room, so I added 2 canisters from that room. I also removed my candles from my candle holders that are always there and placed some pumpkins on top.

 This piece is actually a frame from my B&W room. I made the decoration out of cardstock. Accordian fold some paper to make two discs, then glue down. Cover up the center with another piece of paper and add some sparkly letters. Tie a ribbon on the top finial and you are done.

The other framed pieces are a handprint spider from my daughter and feet ghost from my son. This is a great way to incorporate sentimental pieces.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77760688@N08/7015923645/sizes/k/in/photostream/