Halloween Banner and Mantle

I made my Halloween banner using Authentique's Glowing line. It's taken me a long time to post this though because I decided to paint the tile, mantle and mirror before I decorated it.

This is how it has looked for the last 10 years.
This is how it looked after I painted the mirror, mantle and tile with two coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint, and three coats of finishing wax. One coat of clear wax, one coat of dark brown wax and a final coat of clear wax.


Now, back to the decorations! Here are some close-ups of the banner. I cut the flag pennants and pennant shadows out on my Cricut using SCAL. The ornate ovals I scanned from some CTMH Halloween felt shapes. Then I turned them into an SVG file and enlarged them for the letters. The font is a free Halloween font I downloaded.


In between the pennants are "Margie Romeny-Aslett junk bows" from tulle, pages of an old book, and bits of ribbon.

On the mantle you will notice some Apothecary jars. These jars were made from some glass jars and vases that I scrounged up from local thrift stores. Then I painted them with a watered down mixture of black and brown paint and mod podge. Then I added some labels I purchased or downloaded for free from the internet.
Here is the final out come . Also, to get your candles to look all melty, heat the tops and cool them, heat them and cool them with a heat gun. It takes about 5-10 minutes depending on how melty you want them.
I also found the angel statue and column at a thrift store, (it reminds me of some of the gravestones at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia!) along with the ornate frame. The pictures I had to scour the internet to find. They are some of the portraits you will find along the hallways of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.
The broken handled urn I and decorative mirror I also found at two different thrift stores. I think the urn may be one of my favorite finds!! and I love that it was already broken. I only had to distress it a little.
And here it is -- the finished product. It has been a lot of fun to gather these things up, and to paint and distress all of them.

Halloween Paper Quilt

I used Authentique's "Glowing" line of paper for this project and followed an idea my friend Susan has used many times for framed paper art in her bathroom. Having just returned from the east coast and recently toured one of their amazing, old, historic graveyards, I wanted to incorporate that into this project along with a little bit of the feel of the Haunted Mansion, thus the rusty fence along the front.



The project really isn't that difficult, just cut any paper you like into 1 1/2" squares, ink them, crinkle them, then adhere them to the background paper (I used 12x12) and sew on it. I kind of went a little overboard on the sewing this time, but I wanted it to look a little crazy to add to the haunted look. I like the end effect. Although it is easy to do, it is rather time consuming to ink all the little squares, crinkle them, lay them all out the way you want them, adhere them, and then with the sewing, you have to turn the paper over and pull all the threads through onto the back to tie them. I think that takes the longest. But the outcome is just what I wanted! It is proudly displayed above the entrance table by the front door.

Altered Halloween Book

This one was so fun and it was also easy! I saw a tutorial posted on pinterest on this site. He gives a picture tutorial on how to make them and I just followed it exactly.

I used a book I got at the thrift store for a quarter, then glued some chipboard on the from to make a frame, label, the ridges on the spine, and the candelabra. The label is from a Sizzix die and the candelabra is from the new Tim Holtz Ideology release for fall. It reminded me of the candelabra in the hall of the Haunted Mansion, so I put 999 on the label and on the spine I named the book Happy Haunts (but don't worry, there's always room for one more!)

After I got the chipboard glued in place, I mod podged paper towels over the entire cover. Let it dry, then painted it black. Once that was dry, I painted the raised portions gold with my finger so it wasn't too perfect. Then I cut out the title and 999 from black cardstock. I painted the letters gold before adhering them to the spine. The last thing I did was to do an antique wash over the whole thing with a dark brownish grayish paint that I mixed from odds and ends of paint. I watered it down and washed it on, and wiped it off, then let it dry so it looks like years of dust all stuck into the over of the book.

The font is "Haunted" by Lifestyle Crafts (used to be QuicKutz.)

Book Print Pumpkins

I found this idea on pinterest and it linked me to this site, but there were no directions, so I just did my own thing.

First I took a heap pumpkin from the $ store, paint, mod podge some leftover black leaves, and an old book from the thrift store.

Paint the pumpkin cream first or the orange will show through and it looks weird. I was hoping for cool, but it wasn't, so paint first.
I tore the pages of the book. It is old, so the paper is crackly and it will tear easily. Keep that in mind when mod podging, because you need to be careful.
Mod podge the strips from the pages all over the pumpkin.
Let it dry.
Paint the stem black.
Glue gun some black leaves and some kraft colored stems from the floral section of the craft store.
That's it, you're done!

Note: If I hadn't used a really old book, I would probably have added a step where I antiqued either the paper or the whole pumpkin afterward, but the naturally yellowed paper from the old book was really cool, so I just left them the way they turned out.

Halloween Silhouette Pictures

These little Halloween decorations were very quick and easy to make!

1. I bought some 4x6 black frames from the Dollar Tree, then I bought an old book from the thrift store.
2. Tear a page out of the book and adhere it to some 4x6 paper to fit in the frame.
3. If you have SCAL for a Cricut or other cutter, download the free Silhouette SVG file that I made and cut some silhouettes out of black cardstock.
4. Adhere the die cuts to the page from the book and pop them into the frame.
5. Voila! You are ready to get decorating.

Download the free SVG file here: Silhouette SVG

It's a Small World - Before and After

It's a Small World is an iconic Disney ride. From the song to the puppets, it is Disney through and through. These two layouts celebrate this wonderful ride in its original form and in the newly restored version of 2009.

The first layout features pictures of the original ride with some of its better know puppets and scenes. I just love the vibrant colors on this ride and really, many of the scenes should have pages dedicated solely to them, but I only have so much time. ;-D

This layout was based on Sketch #4 from Sketch Savvy.
The pom pom border along the side is a free SVG file also from Sketch Savvy.


The title block is the large QuicKutz/Lifestyle Crafts tag, and embossed with the QK/LC embossing plate. The font is Storybook.

Here is a video of the original ride.

This layout features some of the changes made after the rennovations made in 2008. The ride reopened in February of 2009 to mixed review. Many people didn't like the addition of Disney characters into the ride that was already so iconically Disney.

This layout was based on the one-page Sketch #29 from Sketch Savvy. I stretched it into a two pager.


Some of the characters added were Peter Pan and Tink, Alice and the White Rabbit, Pinocchio and Jiminey Cricket, the Three Caballeros, Cinderella, Gus and Jacque, Woody, Jessie and Bullseye, Aladdin, Jasmine and Abu, Mulan and Mushu, Lilo and Stitch, Dori, Crush, and Nemo, and Ariel.
Here is my review on my Disneyland blog - Disneyland Diva "It's a Smal World: New and Improved?"

And this is a video of the rennovated ride with the new characters:

A Couple of Classic Claras

For the Disney Fan Club, D23, we went to their 1st Anniversary party in Fantasyland at Disneyland. They had lots of characters that were rare, including these two classic Disney characters, Clarabelle Cow and Clara Cluck. Both are from early Disney shorts and are almost never seen around the park. I was thrilled to be able to get a picture with both of these fellow Disney Divas.
The chicken was from a template that my friend Susan drew and challenged us to use on a layout a couple of years ago. So you can see, I am still true to form in that I started this layout way back then, worked on it a little at a crop a year ago, and am just getting it finished now. In fact, this is so old, the forum where she posted the template and challenge is no longer in existence. Hopefully one of these days I will finish layouts sooner than later.

Here are a few shorts featuring the lovely Clarabelle Cow and Clara Cluck.

Here is Clarabelle's first appearance in Plane Crazy (she looks much different, as do Mickey, Minnie and Pluto!)

Symphony Hour has both Clarabelle Cow as a violinist and Clara Cluck as a cellist. It even has Clarabelle's sometimes beau Horace Horsecollar in it.

Symphony Hour by MistyIsland1

Orphans' Benefit also has both characters:

and one more with all of them!
Mickey's Birthday Party (1942)

Disney Dog

Continuing with the fun October Afternoon papers (with a little Pink Paislee thrown in) I thought these colors went well with some unconventional Disney pictures. I love these! In May of 2007, my sister had just adopted a puppy and if you have ever had a puppy, you know that you can't leave them home along all day and night. Our younger cousin decided to come down and go to DLR with us for the day, and we didn't know what to do with Lizzie. I called down and checked at DLR and they said they had a kennel. We could leave the puppy, then come in anytime to take her potty and for a little walk in their fenced yard. Sounded good to us!

So, we loaded Lizzie into the car with her puppy diaper bag and off we went. She was a little apprehensive, but as you can see, she was a big hit with the little guests who were standing in line with us for the tram.


We got her onto the tram and headed right for the Disneyland Kennel Club. The lady inside was so nice, that you can see Lizzie giving my sister a little kiss on her cheek, and then she was happy as a clam with the kennel lady. In fact, both times that we went back to take her out when the lady was there, she actually came out with us and played with Lizzie, which she just thought was wonderful.

All in all, it was a great way to solve the puppy problem, and we ended up using it at least one other time that summer.

Beautiful Friendship

This layout uses some October Afternoon Report Card and some papers from Pink Paislee as well. I was inspired by a one page layout I saw in the Jan- June 2012 Close to My Heart catalog. So I took the basic layout and finagled it to fit my needs.

I have to admit that when I first saw this paper I was in a bit of dispair, but as I started to work with it I really fell in love with it!

What a perfect backdrop for some pictures of a meet-up with a long-time online friend. We met on 2Peas and since she is a Disney geek, scrapbooker and a Disney Travel agent, we were destined to be great friends! Disney was having their "EarMarked Conference" at the Disneyland Resort, and since DF is a Disney Travel Agent, of course, she was there. So, DH and I Met up with her the evening before the conference started and we had a great time!

This picture is a little nostalgic, because the San Francisco Bridge in the background was disassembled last month and is no more.
For the title I used a quote from the Disney movie, The Fox and the Hound, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Along with the title, I have a flower made out of Maya Road zipper trim, that is on a Cosmo Cricket Gluber, and the center is held down with a brad made using the Imaginisce iTop Tool.

The tickets are from the Tim Holtz 100th Stamp Set, with another zipper trim flower. The four leaf motif is an SVG cut from Creatively Savvy.

Thanks October Afternoon for forcing me out of my color comfort zone! I had a lot of fun!

Stars and Stripes Mini Book

Last Friday night I took this absolutely adorable patriotic mini book class from Nicole Lysse. She used My Mind's Eye American Made papers and she just packed it full of really fun things, from rosettes to fire crackers. I worked diligently to finish it this weekend so I could share it with you here.
*Note - the picture mats were odd sizes so I had to print them at home and of course, I ran out of ink half-way through, so keep that in mind as you look at some of the pages, and don't let my poor photo quality deter you from admiring Nicole's creative genius.

The front pages open to reveal the backsides of the cover and the first full page. Here are some close-ups.


Then the back of the first page and the front of the second are displayed here with some close-ups below.

This back of the third page and the front of two half pages are then revealed.

We cut a little pocket from this paper to hold journaling and additional photos.

I LOVE this firework page!

The two half pages open to reveal pockets on the back sides and another full page.

The back of the last full page and the front of the back cover are so fun
and colorful with all the rosettes and pinwheels!

And she even included a Hidden Mickey for my patriotic Disneyland 4th of July pictures!

As you can see, we made so many fun embellishments for this album. Thanks Nicole for a fun class and a delightful mini book!