My Halloween UFO sighting

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I was painting a little project tonight and poured some of my paint out. When I looked down, I saw this crazy UFO formation in the paint! Isn’t it sooo weird? I thought it was actually appropriate for my project…a Halloween curio! Here’s my painting in progress.

I can’t wait till it is finished. I’m not a big fan of painting. Spray painting is pretty much out of the question, cause my space is WAY to small to do big projects in. When it’s done, I’m pretty sure it will look pretty swell!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Halloween This & That

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DSC_0482
Check out a few fun finds and gifts in my world! My friend Pattiewack bought me 2 cute candy corn candy dishes. I decided to glitz and glam it with some ornament accents!

halloween chips
I couldn’t resist these Mission Halloween Chips that I picked up at the supermarket. I’m can’t resist cool spooky foods like this! I’m a Halloween marketer’s dream! Oh and don’t you just love my polka dot $1 plate that I got a few years back!

mini pumpkins
Here’s 3 more pumpkins for me to decorate! I have a few exciting ideas up my sleeve still to come so stay tuned!

Anything new in your Halloween world?

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

12 SWELL ways to decorate a pumpkin

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I guess I’ve been at this blogging thing for several years now. Sometimes it is weird cause you don’t realize the vast amount of blogging you do until you start to compile it. Tonight I share with you 12 of my past and present pumpkin designs! They are all super easy to make. I don’t do complicated!

Typographic Pumpkin

Rainbow Glitter Pumpkin

Simple Sparkle Button Pumpkins

Doodle Pumpkin

Thankful Word Pumpkin

Blackbird Swirl Pumpkin

Pumpkin Man Box

Polaroid Pumpkin

Breast Cancer Awareness Pumpkins

Simple Sparkly Pumpkin

Snooki Pumpkin

Pumpkin Jewels (Stem Accents)

My favorites to make were the Pumpkin man and Simple Sparkly Pumpkins. I loved giving the little guy life and doing a modern take on a vintage project. For the sparkly pumpkin, I loved how much of a big impact it made for very little effort!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

How to make a Rainbow Glitter Pumpkin!

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rainbow-glitter-pumpkin

rainbow-glitter-pumpkin

I am a big COLOR girl, I love everything bright, colorful, and fun. Just because the traditional Halloween pumpkin may be orange, doesn’t mean it has to be! I whipped out my glitter, paint, and paintbrushes and decided to transform my pumpkin into a Rainbow glitter pumpkin!

rainbow-pumpkin-from-top

Rainbow Glitter Pumpkin

What you need:
–Pumpkin (mine was a medium-sized one)
– Tulip 3D Paints or Scribble 3D paints in ROYGBIV colors (7 in all)
– rainbow glitter (I used Tulip® Fashion Glitter)
– paintbrush
– foam brushes
– water bin
– paper towels
– box top or surface for catching glitter
– paper plate or palette

What you do:
paint-pumpkin-in-strips
1. Squeeze out your paints onto palette. Use foam brush to form first stripe on pumpkin. Paint from top to bottom of pumpkin. I even painted the stem! If you feel uncomfortable about making your rainbow rays even, mark off 7 sections with a pencil.

sprinkle-on-glitter
2. Immediately sprinkle on corresponding glitter color. Shake off excess into your box top.

brush-off-excess-glitter
3. Brush off excess glitter with clean paintbrush. That way you can move onto your next paint basecoat and glitter color.

4. Let dry. Spray with acrylic sealer if desired!

Here’s another fun shot! If you paired two pumpkins together, you’d have Double Rainbow pumpkins!

rainbow-pumpkin

Hope you liked this bright and cheery project. Check out some of my other fun Halloween crafts in my sidebar features!

Please check out some of my other pumpkin creations. Click a pic below to be taken to the projects + instructions.

rainbow-glitter-pumpkin

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Cool, Creative & Crafty Halloween Blogs!

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Halloween balls

I love Halloween so, so much and if you follow my blog often, I’m betting you do too. I thought I’d share the craft Halloween love and tell you about some other great creative Halloween blogs and sites that I think you’ll love checking out too! They share all things Halloween, decorations, recipes, inspiration, and more this time of year!


Nancy Dorsner’s Dabbled blog has some of the most clever costumes, cocktails, general crafts food ideas on the net. She just launched her exclusive Dabbled Halloween section loaded with hundreds of ideas. If you are looking for something creative and unique for the season, this is the spot.


I met Amy Locurto of Living Locurto and iHeartFaces fame about 4 years ago, when she linked up to my Terrorific Tuesday Halloween blog roundup. We definitely share a kindred spirit for all things Halloween and she always comes up with the best free printables, food crafts, costumes, and décor (my fave has to be her pretty Halloween table décor).


Blogger Creepy Cupcakes shares her décor, recipes, craft projects, and fun finds around the web. She features all things Halloween and serves up a whole lotta Harry Potter fun!


The Skull-A-Day Blog by artist and author Noah Scalin is, if you haven’t guessed it already, all about SKULLS! I love it cause it contains everything from cool face painting to found objects in everyday life to cool crafts and illustrations! It’s a must if you need your spooky fix and he’s been featuring a Skull-a-Day since 2007, so there’s a LOT to see.


Since I do social media part-time by day and my own blog by night, I honestly, don’t get to scout out blogs and really read them like you might think. The one that I do visit religiously for the best of craft on the web is CraftZine! Craftzine compiles and features the best crafts from the web. If it’s hip, unusual, or just plain cool, you’ll find it on Craft, and their Halloween Crafts are no exception. Check out their picks, you’ll be glad you did 🙂


Are you throwing a Halloween party? Then the Hostess with the Mostess blog will be right up your alley! There are so many bewitching ideas to be found on this site. All the little details that makes a Halloween party so much fun! I love their unique take on Halloween, including decorating in pink and black for a Ghouls Night Out and throwing a “Monsterfest” for Kids. The photography is a real treat too!


A Nostalgic Halloween is a feast for the eyes! Kris Dickinson shares her beautiful artist trading cards, vintage illustrations, Halloween pinups and retro finds. I can get inspired for hours there!

Here’s some others I think you might like too:

My Busy Craft Life If you love detailed sewn costumes, Halloween faires, you’ll love seeing the wonderful creations featured here!

Langes Fädchen, faules Mädchen blog Lena at the Langes Fädchen, faules Mädchen blog, shares some up some fun Halloween treats, inspiration, and photos. Her photos (I love this one) and projects are perfectly spooky for Halloween.

Spooky Vegan offers up gothic goodness and shares a lot of cool finds she spots out and about!

Dollar Store Crafts has so many projects all for a fistful of cash. Check out Heather’s great costume roundups and fun (and cheap) food ideas!

Craft Gossip also brings the Halloween goods this time of year. I’m in love with this Edgar Allen Poe Red Velvet Cake that they featured!

Pumpkin Rot shares some super scary ideas, art, fun finds and inspiration and inspiration on their blog.

Is there any I missed? Please share and I’ll add them to the list! I may just not know about them!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Vintage Halloween photos make me happy

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Photo by Shane Woodall via Flickr

Everytime I see a little kid wearing a plastic costumee or an uncomfortable plastic mask, I get a little giddy. I guess part of it is because it was a much simpler time where people didn’t spend boatloads of money. A plastic costume from the local department store was like gold and would make you feel super special!

I think why I love this time is the imperfection. I love that the photos were blurry, off center and posed. We are so about getting the “perfect” photo these days with our digital camera. I love that these are awkward. You know Mom or Dad only took a couple of photos that night and didn’t process the photos till after Christmas!

Here’s some super cutes ones I found that I think you’ll like too!

Darth Vader and friends
Photo by GrimAlkin via Flickr

Hamburglar Part I
Photo by The Small Cat Club via Flickr

1981Doug-Steph-Julie-Gary-Halloween
Photo by Dig Doug via Flickr

Halloween 1982
Photo by Star Berry Shyne via Flickr

Were you a kid of 70’s or 80’s and totally can relate to these photos? I was! I can’t remember too many of my costumes of yesteryear, but I do remember being a ballerina wearing a green sequined tutu in first grade. In 5th grade, I remember being a mouse and wearing a grey sweatsuit with a plastic mouse snout. What were you for Halloween when you were a kid?

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Scott the Skeleton

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You never know what my friend Scott is going to do. After a long day at work, I walked in the craft studio and found him sitting there wearing the craft supplies! Faux eyeballs, paper maché skull, and all! He sure is silly and it was a photo op for sure. I like to think that Scott the Skeleton is just an average Joe like you or I. He drinks his morning coffee, takes out the trash, and watches Hoarders while eating some Wheat Thins. No bones about it, he’s one cool guy!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Sometimes I get a little creepy; My spooky photo collection

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8-legged Jesus Freak
My other passion besides Halloween is photography. To most, I’m not creepy (some people would argue this), but from time to time I see creepy things and try to capture the mood. I thought I’d share a spooky collection of images I’ve taken over the past few years that I think are pretty darn haunting and psychologically freaky. The one above I titled, “”8-legged Jesus Freak””.

Fog over Alcatraz
“Fog over Alcatraz”

facing my imminent doom
“Facing my imminent doom”

81/365
“The Carnival has come to Town” (photographed by my friend Gloria)

tears of a clown 2
“Tears of a Clown”

EXIT
“EXIT”

double exposure
“Double Exposure”

curl
“Curl”

proceed with caution
“Proceed with Caution”

So what do you think? Any one jump out at you more than others as creepy?

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Candy Corn Bottle Vases

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Today I bring to you a super sweet Candy Corn Bottle Vases project that you can create in a handful of minutes! It’s super simple and will look great for the Halloween season. As of late, I haven’t been able to resist candy corn crafts. I have ALL KINDS of ideas!

Candy Corn Bottle Vases

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You’ll need spray paint in white, orange, and yellow. Also gather old vases and glass bottles in various shapes. Mine were a vase from ikea (the dotted one above), an Izze soda bottle, and a fancy Blood orange drink bottle. Clean and scrub off any labels off with Goo-Gone or dishwashing liquid. Let dry completely before painting.

Paint a basecoat of white on the jars following can directions and let dry completely. Admission: I did a terrible job at painting the basecoat and didn’t get a photo. I pulled the white pin from the spray paint. Please don’t do this. MAJOR FAIL! Haha!

spray-orange
My boyfriend William stepped in to save the day and tried to cover up my mistakes.He then sprayed orange on the middle part leaving a faint mist at top and bottom. He did a first coat, let it dry, then went back in and did another coat. Trust me, it works better to add the orange first! Let dry completely.

spray-yellow
Now mist the yellow on the bottom until you get a solid coverage. This will take one or two coats. Let dry.

That’s it! You’re done! Display your jars with fall flowers in side or in a little grouping. It would be fun to creat an entire vignette on a table or mantle with candy corn sprinkled all around!

candy corn bottles

Check out my other Halloween Craft & Pumpkin ideas!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

 

I Love Halloween Free Printable

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Since the Halloween season started early for me, I thought you might want a jumpstart as well!! I guess my thoughts are that the season starts when the stuff shows up in stores!

Anyway, here’s a super cute printable that I whipped up for all the Halloweenies like me out there in bloglandia!

I made this Halloween printable 8×10, so it can easily be printed on your home printer and cut out for easy framing.

Here’s the link to download your copy… Free I Love Halloween Printable Download!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

P.S. I linked this up to the following linky parties:

Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming

Making the World Cuter Mondays

The DIY Showoff Project Parade