I still cannot believe that it's October already. Time to start getting out the Halloween decorations and making our houses spookingly cute! I try and make a few handmade decorations every year, for each holiday. Over the years, they'll add up quickly and your collection will grow and grow. Handmade decorations don't have to take a lot of time. I keep my ideas simple and easy, using materials that I have on hand. Here's two projects that I created last year, and each took only 15 minutes.
 
The first project is a Halloween coaster. I started with just a simple 4 inch chipboard coaster, from my scrapbooking stash. I adhered a piece of pattern paper to the top of the coaster, and then painted the edges with black paint. I tied a few pieces of ribbon around the bottom part of the coaster, and then adhered some fun glitter chipboard letters to spell "BOO". I added a "Halloween" sticker to the top corner of the coaster, added a metal clip, and a few fun stick pins to the ribbon to finish it off. Super cute, and took no more than 15 minutes to make.
 
The second project is an altered 8 inch chipboard letter. I choose an "H", to stand for Halloween. I traced the chipboard letter onto the back of my pattern paper, and then cut it out with some scissors. I adhered it to the "H", and then sanded down the edges. I used some puffy alphabet stickers to spell out "Halloween" on the right side of my "H". I adhered a "Trick or Treat" sticker to the left side of my "H", and added a metal clip to the side. To finish it off, I tied a piece of black lace ribbon on the left side and stuck a few cute stick pins in, and added a few gems to the center of the spider webs. Another cute and simple project, that took no time at all.
 
My challenge to you, is to look at your scrapbook supplies and material, and see what you can pull together to create your own fun Halloween decorations. We'd love to see what you come up with!

Leave a link in the comments to a photo of your handmade Halloween decor and we'll choose our favorite to feature on the blog and in the next newsletter!

Brads, buttons, epoxy shapes. We all have them in our scrapbook stash. They are considered some of the basic supplies in my creative process, and I use them on just about every project I create. But that usually consists of a few buttons here or there, and maybe a few brads to hold something down. I decided it would be a fun challenge to take a variety of these items, and create a really fun border across my layout.

I randomly pulled buttons, brads, felt shapes, and some epoxy shapes from my stash of supplies. And then I started layering them together, and arranging them across the layout. I added some silver mini brads to the center holes in my buttons. I used some string to thread together my felt shapes and epoxy stars. I added some glitter star brads to a felt circle button. And the large brown button had a large round hole in the center, so I just added the felt star brad to cover it. I think the border gives the layout so much added texture and interest.

I challenge you to pull some of these basic supplies from your scrapbook stash, and have fun creating an interesting and unique border. Whether on a layout, a card, or even a fun home decor project. And please come back and share it with us, if you participate. Just leave a link to your blog in the comments of this post! We would love to see what you come up with!