Halloween mini

Happy Sunday everyone!  It's been a slow craft month around my house because we have all been so very busy.  From Mom and Dad all the way down to the toddler in the house.  We barely have time to eat at the dining room table, much less belly up to the craft table.  That is one reason why I love applying for DT spots.  It keeps your mojo flowing even when you don't have time to go looking for it.  :)  

This week at Anything But a Card our theme is Halloween or Fall.  So if you aren't a big fan of Halloween, you can create anything (as long as it's not a card!!!) that uses beautiful shades of fall.  As for our house, with three little monsters running around, we LOVE spook day!  I had the idea of creating a mini that will let us look back on each year's adorable costumes!  I can't share the inside pages just yet, because I was experiencing photo print fails all over my office, but stay tuned.....

As always, I want to share this with the challenges that helped inspire my project.  So make sure you click on over to Divas by Design to play along with their 'Spooky' theme challenge! :)

Thanks for visiting!

♥Christy

The secret to hairbows....

The reason I say the 'secret' to hairbows in the title is because it truly has been the best kept secret that these things are so easy, so cheap, and so FUN to create all on your own.  You can walk into a super store and pay $3-$5 for a set of these... and if you go into a boutique-type store you will likely pay $3-$5 a piece.

If you are just jumping into crafting you will have to investment in a glue gun, alligator clips, ribbon and fun embellishments.  I found decorative buttons work best (not the kind with the 2-4 holes, but the bulky ones with the shank on the back) and if you walk into a craft store there are literally THOUSANDS to choose from.  If you are like me and have an entire Hobby Lobby's worth of scrapbooking supplies, you will only need to purchase alligator clips.  My local Hobby Lobby and Joann's were both out of stock, but they did sell them and they were slightly cheaper (and had multiple size selections) than Walmart if you used one of their handy-dandy 40% off coupons.  I found the ones I use in the tutorial below at Walmart for $2 for 6.  All of my ribbon is from my stash and a great way to use up pieces that are too small for a scrapbook page.  Every single embellishment I used above is from my scrappy stash as well.  I raid my buttons (you may need to cut the shank off most), my brads (these also require you to snip off the posts), my 'silk' flowers (don't use the paper kind), gems, and felt embellishments that are left over from pages I've created.

Watch my the video tutorial below, but before you get started check out my trouble shooting tips list below it.  If you give it a try and run into any problems, leave a comment and I'll figure out a solution and add it to the list.  If you have any smart tips I've missed, please share that in the comments as well and I'll gladly add that too!!!!  :)

• You will need to seal the ends of your ribbon with either a fray stop product or carefully with a flame. 
• You can experiment with any ribbon, but the very best results I've gotten have all been with grossgrain.
• If you make a mistake, you can pull up an embellishment, but then you need to pick off as much dried glue as possible and what is left behind can be remelted by touching the metal tip of your glue gun to it.
• The thinner your hair, the smaller the alligator clip you will want to use.  
• ***IMPORTANT*** Make note of where you part your hair, some embellishments have a definitely top or bottom to them and if you place the clip to the side of your hair, you'll want to make sure you attach the top embellishment facing the correct direction so that it's not upside down when you wear it.  
• This is a great project for any store-bought clips you may have that have gotten dingy, ruined or lost a piece.  Just pull off everything down to the clip and clean it up smoothly as best you can, and rebuild with pieces from your supplies.  
• When using these hairbows for smaller kiddos, try to to be cautious of what embellishments you use.  Find things that don't look like they will pose a choking hazard.  My youngest daughter is only 2, but with all of her sensory and texture issues, we can barely get her to put food in her mouth, much less choking hazards!  hahaha
• Keep an eye out at garage sales and thrift stores.  You will pay on average $3 a package for a set of buttons at a craft store, but can walk out with a selection of them second hand for pennies a piece.
• *STOP* Before you throw out that cute outfit your child stained beyond recognition, check to see if it has any cute buttons or sewn on embellishment that can be removed to decorate a hairbow.  I JUST cut a glittery embroidered heart off of a t-shirt my daughter put a hole in and it's about to become a super-duper cute clip!  

I created these for my contribution to this week's BLING challenge at Anything but a Card, so I dug out the sparkliest embellishments I could find (that and because my older daughter is the very definitely of a princess and all her things MUST sparkle) , but you put together the ribbon and embellishments that will match what you are trying to create and give the video another play while trying to make one of your very own!  

Thanks for visiting!

♥Christy