Ghastly Ghouls - Halloween Gift Box Challenge

Hey there, you ghouls!  Getting ready for Halloween yet?  In need for spooky ideas for gift boxes??

As you may know, my awesome uber talented friend Tamara (Happy Life, Crafty Wife) has teamed up with one of my favorite designers, Lori Whitlock.  She's the one that has designed the whimsical and modern papers for Echo Park - which I pretty much have purchased every single one of them!  She also has a FB page, so if you haven't been there yet, go say hello!

Anyway, they are holding their first ever challenge ever together on Tamara's blog, and of course, I wanted to show my support as she's been a great friend of mine. (Well, their prize is quite appealing as well.. :) )

I was supposed to work on my hubby's store's Holiday Gala tickets today...  I always make it for him twice a year - tickets, bag stuffers, store posters.... but had to put that aside for a little bit, 'cause this project was my priority! LOL!

For the challenge, you have a choice of either a Spider or a Ghost Window Box, and you should've seen what Tamara made as an inspiration project! These projects are WOW - you've just gotta go see them!  So...  after contemplating on which one I should tackle on,  I chose a ghost one.  You can download the files here.

I wanted to do something cute and I was so inspired by Tamara's Christmas Ornaments that she did, I had to use this technique to do a 3D ghost!  I used Echo Paper Apothecary Papers, and used lace (I inked it) and crinkled ribbons to embellish it.    I also used various stamps sitting around my area, so please don't ask me which set these are from...  The only one that I know is the "Ghastly Ghouls" is from the Inkadinkado stamps from Michaels this year. 

So, you wanna see my box?



You like??? Here's my little 3D ghost:



I stamped a little "BOoo" sentiment and attached it with an inked clothespin.



I love this 'stamp' stamp, but ahhh! can't remember which company makes this! I also have a burlap ribbon underneath it.



I stamped this sentiment onto two papers, cut out "ghouls" from one and used foam tape to adhere to the original - it added dimension, which is always good!

Ready to see the inside??? Yes, I also did something to it!



You open up the box... and there's treats! I added 'eyes' to the marshmallows for a treat! Don't cha think it's cute???



...and just for the fun of it, I attached the other half of the ghost to the back of the lid, to make it look like it's coming out through the box.... oooohhh.... spookyyy!



Anyway, here's my entry - wish me luck!

For anyone that's interested - the deadline is the end of this Wednesday! Good luck everyone!

FANG-tastic blog hop: Fright Night Movie Night

Welcome to the last stop of the wonderful blog hop!  Hope that you enjoyed this as much as I did - and got some good inspiration for Halloween projects!

So, yes, if you happened to just stumble across my blog, you are technically in the place where I want you to be, but it's not fair is it to keep you all to myself! Muwahahaha!!!  There's lots of talented girls in this hop, so please go back to Alyssa's blog - My Thoughts Exactly, and start your little haunted journey from there.

Make sure that you come back though - as I've got 4 PRIZES that I'm giving away! Will discuss the details later!

Alyssa - My Thoughts Exactly
Becki - The Happy Card Factory
Bee - Dare to bee Creative
BeeLinda - Bee's Hive O' Drama
Cher - Cher's Studio
Jennifer - Our Change of Art
Jessica - Crafty Rocket Science
Kim - Kimberly's Craft Spot
Lenae - Sugar Gem

Okay, let's get to my spooky project for today.  I've decided to take a little break from my favorite Echo Park Apothecary papers, and decided to play with K&Co Ghostly Greetings.  These papers are soo cute, and just caught my eye when I walked into Michaels, along with million other items!

For my project, I've decided to take the SVG Cuts Summer Blockbuster SVG Kit and make it into a Halloween Fright Night Movie Night.  You've got everything that you need in this one collection - from popcorn boxes, to a treat tub, to a DVD/Blu-ray case to the invites.  There's even those movie clappers that you can make and customize to your theme!  (... and there's other fun embellishments, too!)

Summer Blockbuster SVG Kit

Pretty cool kit, isn't it?

So along with this cool kit, I decided to collaborate my project with another great online SVG store, The Digi Bistro.  I used Pick Your Poison and Halloween Town to embellish my kit.

Pick Your Poison SVG Collection

Halloween Town SVG Collection

Total cuteness, right here!

Along with these great sets, I also used several stamp sets to bring out my project!

Punkin' Patch Stamps - Trick or Treat



Punkin' Patch Stamps - The Witching Hour



My Thoughts Exactly Stamps - Fright Night Phrases






















My Thoughts Exactly Stamps - Ghostly Greetings

 

...and to tie in all my elements together was the great Halloween Twine from Trendy Twine (Annie's Paper Boutique)! It added soo much to my project! Twine is so fun - it's easy to add it anywhere, and there's so much that you can do with them!

...also, I was just a little tight on time this week, so I had a help from my already made embellishments - K&Co Glitter word art stickers and some matching embellishments to go with paper.

So... putting this all together - here is my project!



So fun, right? My kids were so excited to see this! All the containers are filled with brain bits, that actually resemble somewhat close to popcorn... (is what my hubby wanted me to write!) To take my pic - I had to pop 3 bags of popcorn, so we were eating popcorn all night! (and this is after I stuffed the boxes with containers, so I wouldn't have to make as much!) It's a fun party size, but for a smaller movie night, maybe resizing it a tad smaller may save you some popcorn!

Here's a movie clapper to set the right tone for the party:



The clapper arm actually moves up and down and I twisted some Halloween Twine around it.

I also made a DVD box for the movie! (I actually have this movie, and in my mind, I was SURE that I had the DVD for it, but it was actually VHS! Shows how ancient I am! LOL! So, this image that you see inside the box was actually an image that I just printed off from the internet!)





Here are LOTS of pictures of the popcorn boxes:



























I just love the touch of eyeballs in this cauldron!

... and lastly, but not least, is the big tub!









(This is about the extent of my Copics right now - just coloring in space! I actually was trying to learn it the other day, spent a little while coloring in stamps, but realized that I needed more colors to be able to blend like what I had imagined...)







Okay, so you've seen enough pics. Now we can get onto what you're interested in... the GIVEAWAY!

I've got 4 great sponsors to give away products that I've used in my project!

Leo & Mary from SVG Cuts/Punkin' Patch Stamps have generously offered me 2 prizes!!!

The first prize is for $15 gift card to SVG Cuts. Who doesn't like SVG Cuts? I think that anyone would be excited to get this! This amount would get you 2 collections and a free gift - which is the newest released collection of the week! (Hey - did you see the newest Caramel Apple Pie SVG Kit? Sooo cute! I so wanna try making that crate!) Here's their FB page - I'm sure you all are followers by now!

The 2nd prize is for the Trick or Treat Stamp set from Punkin' Patch Stamps! You liked the stamps that I used in my project? Well, I used most of the stamps from this set in the pictures that you saw above! It's a great set of Halloween stamps that you can use on cards, layouts, or any 3D projects! If you haven't become a part of the FB group, here's the link - and let Leo know I sent you!

For the 3rd winner, Cher from The Digi Bistro has generously donated $12 gift card to her store - that is enough to purchase the two Halloween collections that I used in my project! (or, you can get something else, if that's what your heart desires!) She's got a FB page, and if you haven't joined there yet, what are you waiting for??? Let her know I sent you!

... and lastly but not least, what would I do without twine? My project wouldn't have been the same! Lesley from Trendy Twine has donated 50 yds of this amazing Halloween Twine to the 4th winner! In order to win her twine, please go and 'like' her on FB if you haven't yet (and tell her I sent ya)!

That's right - there's 4 WINNERS from my hop this time! Make sure that you leave me some love here for your chance to win! You have until Monday, Oct 10th 11:00PM PST.  I will be announcing the winners on Wednesday.

Make sure that you have left comments on other blogs, as there are other fantastic sponsors in this hop: My Thoughts Exactly, SVGs by Bee and Pumpkin Spice online craft store.

I hope that you enjoyed this hop, and have fun craftin'!

...and the winner of the My Thoughts Exactly Oct Stamp Release is...

Thanks to everyone for joining me celebrate the October release! It is always so much fun to be able to share projects using newly launched products!

Here is the winner of the $5 gift card to My Thoughts Exactly!

Congratulations, nurturedheartgal, who said,



Thienly, I'm loving this! Even my DIL is excited about your adaptation! As soon as I get home, I get to make two of them and ship one of them back to her - she's looking forward to hers as much as I'm looking forward to mine! It'll be my gift to her - and I'll add a couple of owls since she loves them - one of those little things she shared during a conversation yesterday.

Please contact me at thienly dot azim at gmail dot com to claim your prize!

I'm working away on several projects right now, which one being a project for the hop coming up this Friday - it's the FANG-tastic blog hop! See the button on the right? ------> 

There will be 4 prizes from SVGCuts, Punkin' Patch Stamps, The Digi Bistro and Trendy Twine - so be sure to join me back here this Friday!





 

Advent Calendar with My Thoughts Exactly - October Stamp Release!

I am soo excited to finally share my project with you all - and welcome to the My Thoughts Exactly stamp release partaaay!  Well, don't know if others are partying, but I sure feel like it - I LOVE LOVE LOVE these stamps, and I love the way my project turned out and just couldn't wait to share it!

So, as I briefly mentioned about them before when I used them for my Halloween Doorhangers project, the two new sets that were release this month was the following:

Fright Night Phrases





































Ghostly Greetings







































Aren't they the best stamps ever?!?!?!  I love how you can mix and match and you can pretty much come up with any Halloween saying with these two sets.  You can get them for $15 each or can purchase the bundle for $25!  What a great deal!  (and yes, taxes and shipping both included!)

Okay, so I wanted to get as much stamping as possible in this project - and so decided to create a Halloween advent calendar.  I have seen many different ways of doing the calendar, but so far, I've only seen one with the doors that open and is in a box, like the ones you open up the chocolate calendars for Christmas.  This file I'm referring to is from SVGCuts' Classic Christmas Advent Calendar SVG Kit.  If you know which file I'm talking about, the only problem with this is that this is a Christmas calendar, so it only counts down 25 days...  Hmmm.. that is a problem.  I contemplated on various things that I can do, including adding an extra box at the side, but then I had this A HA! moment!  I could break apart/ungroup the doors on the original file, rearrange it (replace smaller doors in the place of a bigger door) - and I was able to fit in 31 days!!!

Here's the advent calendar - isn't it gorgeous?



So, I'll show ya what I'm talking about - Here's the original file:



...and after manipulating the doors, this is what I ended up with.



(the numbers correspond to the dates on the original file)

So, in order to assemble this box, you would have to change the compartment boxes too and use the ones corresponding to the right doors you've replaced with.

Okay, so... after doing all this....  Here's my completed advent calendar project!



You like???  I used the ever so popular Echo Park Paper Apothecary papers to do this project.  This paper is just so beautiful and it worked really well with the style that I was trying to accomplish.  You'll notice that some patterns and embellishments are not from this collection, and finally came across this digital collection from Jessica Sprague called the Haunted, which has the similar feel to it. 

For the stamps, instead of just stamping it right on a plain cardstock, I printed these digital papers and stamped the sentiments on it - I think that this really helped to bring the project together.



For example, see the tag that I used for day 2? That was a digital file!

I used various embellishments to make each box unique.  I used the black/white twine from Twisted Sugar Twine, black/orange twine from Trendy Twine, crinkled ribbons from Scrapinkris, and some fibre yarns that I had sitting in my drawer for years.



I also used Epiphany Shape Studio to make some epoxy sticker embellishments, and use of foam dots/tape helped to bring out the dimension of each compartment - which makes each of them so fun to look at.



See the skull that I created with the shape tool? Isn't that awesome?







OH.... and I made a little surprise inside the 31st! Wanna see! Be scared! Open with caution!



BOO! The word pops up!  I used the Premium Pop Up Cards SVG Kit to do this!

That's pretty much about it.  I didn't plan what I was going to do in each of the boxes prior to - I just went with my inspiration, and what embellishments I had!  It was really fun!  The only cut files were to make the advent calendar, so everything else went really quick!  Of course I inked all the embellishments and the box to give it the spooky feel :)



I hope that you liked my project but I'm sure you're sick of my pics now, so you may want to go check out what all the other DTs have made with these amazing stamps!

Sooo... Alyssa from My Thoughts Exactly has sponsored all of our DT blogs to give away $5 gift cards for her store.  Please leave me some love and I'll pick the one with the loveliest comment! (Did ya actually believe that?  Of course I wouldn't do that! LOL!  I'll pick a random winner :)

Alyssa:  My Thoughts Exactly
Belinda:  Bee's Hive O' Drama
Bee:  Dare to bee creative
Lenae:  Sugar Gem
Jessica:  Crafty Rocket Science
Jennifer:  Our Change of Art

Have a crafty weekend everyone!