Home from London!

"No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, 
he is tired of life;

for there is in London all that life can afford."

-Samuel Johnson

I didn't get tired of London--but my feet were tired, I missed my kids and my husband and my suitcase was full, so I had to come home. :)

I got home Sunday at around 5 pm (midnight London time) and lasted until about 8:30 p.m. before I crashed, then I woke up at 2 a.m. (9 a.m. London time), bright-eyed and ready to go. Fortunately there were about 1000 items in my Google Reader so I whiled away the dark hours by catching up on what you all have been doing while I've been gone. I had to have a few short naps to get through the rest of the day but I managed to go to bed at a normal time and only woke up a little early this morning, so I think I've shaken my jet lag and I'm back to normal now.

I downloaded my photos this morning so I have a few favorites to share with you:

One of the reasons I wanted to go back to London so badly was because I spent a semester there in college in 1998, studying at the BYU London Centre. That was probably the most FUN four months of my entire life! I made lovely friends, saw amazing sights, learned lots, and didn't have to worry about a darn thing. It was wonderful, and I have so many fond memories of my time there that I still, 12 years later, have dreams that I'm in London. I was eager to revisit this happy place and curious to see how accurate my memories really were. In this photo I'm standing on the steps of the Centre, just before we rang the bell and went inside for a quick look around and to find my photo in the album of past group pictures. I was also tickled to find that my memories of the neighborhood are quite accurate and it looks very much the same as it did then.

On Tuesday night, my mom and I went to see Billy Elliot. We'd both seen the movie and liked it, and I liked the show more than I even expected. The boy who played Billy was excellent--it's got to be a lot of work to basically carry an entire stage musical at the age of only 12 or 13!

I'd really hoped to get some thrifting in on our trip--I was on the lookout for charity shops but I only found a few and we only went in one. I did find a great vintage store near the Notting Hill Gate tube station, up the road towards Portobello Road, and I purchased this little green pottery basket. It's by a Scottish maker I've never heard of--Govancroft--but it fits in perfectly with my other green vintage pottery pieces!

On Wednesday we took the train out to Windsor and spent the day in the castle. It was very interesting and we learned all about the Knights of the Garter. This is St. George's chapel at the castle, where the knights are all installed. This was the only clear, sunny (also FREEZING COLD) day we had the whole week and the afternoon light was so pretty on the chapel.

The other highlight of Windsor--my first visit to Cath Kidston. Linda, I thought of you the whole time I was there! It was hard to decide what treasures to bring home but I ended up with this adorable oilcloth Christmas apron and this set of tea towels in a perfect jadeite green. My mom bought a darling purse and I may regret not buying one too.

We loved Cath so much that we visited her store in Chelsea on Saturday, where we found this darling chandelier made of teacups and souvenir spoons.

On Thursday morning the weather was especially terrible, with pouring rain and gale-force winds. Then after a bit it cleared off, so we set out to the Tate Modern Museum and swung by St. Paul's Cathedral since we were in the neighborhood. Although the sun was out, another storm was on its way and the skies behind the cathedral were dark. Coupled with the bright sunlight on the dome, the effect was absolutely striking! We couldn't take enough pictures and I don't think I even captured the magic with my camera. It was breathtaking.

On Friday we visited the Museum of London, but I purposely planned our route to take us to King's Cross station just so we could visit Platform 9 3/4. We searched but couldn't find it (it's actually between 8 and 9, rather than 9 and 10) but my mom was brave enough to ask someone who directed us to it. We met another American Harry Potter fan there and took turns posing with each other's cameras. Thursday night was the big Harry Potter 7 part 1 movie premiere in Leicester Square, and we were within just blocks of it but didn't know! Too bad--we might have braved the crowds to see if we could have caught a glimpse of the movie's stars!

 

For this trip, we did something different--we rented a flat rather than staying in a hotel. Lodging in London is notoriously expensive and the one we found was more expensive than we'd hoped, but it turned out to be really wonderful and I think it was really worth the expense. It was right on Pall Mall, about a four-minute walk to the Piccadilly Circus tube station, a slightly longer walk to Trafalgar Square and just down the block from St. James's Palace. Across the street from our building were some of the most exclusive and hoity-toity men's clubs in London, including the Athenaeum. On the ground floor of our building was a business that sells superyachts, for the uber-wealthy for whom a regular yacht is just too dinky, I suppose.

Access to our flat was via five flights of stairs or the tiniest elevator I've ever seen. I think I've been in bigger phone booths! My mom and I barely fit at the same time, and whenever we rode I had a mini-panic attack from envisioning getting stuck in there, as most times we were entering or leaving the building in the morning or evening when nobody else was around. When we left with our suitcases we had to go one at a time and I had to send our bag of trash down by itself, because I would have had to carry it on my head to fit it into the lift with me and my suitcase and carry-on!

I didn't take as many photos as I had intended, a fact which I may regret later. Honestly, the weather was pretty yucky and gray and frequently windy and rainy--not exactly ideal photographic conditions, not to mention that it's hard to hold an umbrella and work a dSLR camera at the same time! I'll just have to be happy with the photos I took and hope that my memory holds up.

And couldn't Prince William and Kate have announced their engagement a week earlier? Viewing the aftermath of that would have been fun!

I'm off to London to see the Queen

This little blog has been quiet for a few days because I've been making lists like crazy and packing to get ready for my big trip to London! I leave for the airport in a few hours and my tummy is doing flip-flops--a combination of excitement and nerves.

My flight leaves around 5 pm and arrives in London at 9 am local time, which translates to 2 am my time. I'm hoping to get some sleep on the plane thanks to my little friend Ambien so I that I'm not a total wreck tomorrow--I'm only there for 6 days so I can't afford to lose any precious time to jet lag.

I'm taking my iPod touch with me so hopefully we can find some free wi-fi and maybe I can even post once or twice. When I get back I know I'll have plenty of photos to share and I'm determined to find some good English junk to bring home--wish me luck!

Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today

My hair's still green. Three days straight of going to bed with green hair will do that to bleached blonde highlights I guess, even if you use lots of shampoo. Wanna know why my hair was green for four days?

I'm finally living out my fantasy of having group Halloween costumes! It helps to have a husband who's willing to go along with just about anything and kids who are still young enough that I can talk them into dressing up the way I want. :) We decided a few months ago that for Halloween this year, we would dress up as characters from our family's favorite TV show, Phineas and Ferb.

The Mister was evil genius Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz

complete with a Nerf gun  "-inator"

I was Ferb

with green hair courtesy of a can of green hair spray paint (I looked forever for a wig but never could find one)

Maren was Isabella

in a dress made from one of my tank tops, a spray-painted vintage buckle, a wig and a homemade pink bow headband

And Porter was Perry the Platypus

in a costume that I conjured from thin air! Well, not so much thin air as polar fleece, felt, and a ping pong ball.

I actually made Porter's costume all by myself with no pattern and I don't mind telling you that I'm a little bit proud of it. I used an existing shirt and pants of his to get the size and drew my own pattern. I sewed a matching hood and attached two halves of a painted ping pong ball with painted eyeballs that pointed in opposite directions for authenticity. I used tan felt to make his tail and sewed across it in a crosshatch pattern with brown thread and pinned it to the back of his pants. The bill and feet were made from yellow felt and the bill was stuffed with batting. It was pretty darn hilarious and anyone who has seen the show knew exactly who he was supposed to be!

We got good mileage out of our costumes, wearing them for what felt like three days straight but was actually five separate occasions over four days. The only things we had to buy were my green hair spray, The Mister's lab coat (something we can probably use again or resell), a $6 Wal Mart wig and $5 white turtleneck for Maren (which she can wear this winter), the Phineas doll (since we ran out of family members) and the materials for Porter's costume (the hood & tail are detachable so he can wear the fleece suit this winter). It all turned out just exactly like I pictured it in my head and we got so many fun comments from people who knew who we were supposed to be!

Maren already told me who she wants to be next year, so I have a whole year to keep an eye out for the right pieces at the thrift stores--it should be fun!

Halloween 2009
Halloween 2008

Technical difficulties

I'm dying to show you all our Halloween costumes and tell you why my hair is STILL green, but darn it if I didn't run out of photo space on Blogger at the most inopportune time! I've purchased more photo storage space but it hasn't updated yet, so I still can't upload any photos. Don't give up on me--I'll be back as soon as I can!

House of 3 Halloween banner

I know we're in the final stretch toward Halloween, but I still have things to show you that I've made--this October has been almost unmatched on the level of crafting I've managed to squeeze in. One of my favorite projects was this cute Happy Haunting banner.

The banner pieces are actually a printable purchased from House of 3. The printable pdf file is only $4.00 and you get the images for both the small banner (seen here, the letters are about 2.5" tall) and the large banner (letters a bit larger than a playing card). And the bonus is that you can print as many of them as your little heart desires--use them for gifts, send them in swap packages (that's what I did), so it's really an economical little project.

To make my banner, I printed the letters on white cardstock and cut them out (I think this banner would look really neat printed on fabric too!). The original letters had a bit of brown shading around the edges but I wanted them to be a bit darker, so I used brown craft chalk around each letter. I hauled out my sewing machine and stitched them together along the tops, spacing them evenly. When they were all done I thought it needed a something more, so I sprayed the whole thing with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl. The moisture did make my letters curl a bit but I don't mind and I like how it's a bit blotchy. You can see a bit of the shimmer at the top of the N in this photo; it's subtle, but really pretty. If you wanted more sparkle, you could use glass glitter or Stickles glitter glue to accent each letter.

I punched holes in the end letters and hung them with black seam binding lace on the mirror in my entryway. I like how the colors of the banner match the colors on my antique oyster plates, silhouette coaster plates and the vintage group photo. It was a fun, easy project and this definitely won't be the last printable I purchase from House of 3!

Gummy Candy Kabobs

Dear friends, there are a few things you should know about me.
I love:
1. Candy
2. Festively colored candy that matches the upcoming holiday
3. Gummy candy
4. Food on a stick

So when I opened up the October Better Homes & Gardens magazine and saw this page, I about passed out. (I can't save the photo to show here and my scanner's on the blink, so click the link and go check it our for yourself. I'll wait!)

See what I mean? The gummy candy kabobs checked every box on my list up there, so I knew I had to make some for myself.

The best part for a candy freak like me was shopping for the candy, of course.

Sources: Wal-Mart for the orange slices, caterpillars, and peach rings, Target for all other candy. Blackberries and sour jelly pumpkins from bulk bins in Target candy aisle. Lollies and pretzel bags from Michael's. Not shown: Peeps ghosts, also from Target. (I tried to stay away from black licorice-flavored candies which made finding black treats a lot trickier.)

Some tips:

• If you use the pretzel bags, keep in mind how low you can push the bottom candy and still have it fit in the bag.
• Spray the skewers with non-stick cooking spray first; it helps the candy slide a bit easier
• Gummies with a layer of white marshmallow on the bottom (rings, frogs, caterpillars) are tougher to poke through. The worms were easier.
• The licorice I used was the Australian-style, which comes in all kinds of flavors (and hence, colors)
• For the top gummy, only poke the skewer halfway through so the pointy end doesn't come out the top.
• Peeps ghosts were darling on the skewers but just a smidge too wide for the pretzel bags to fit over easily, so it was a struggle to get them bagged neatly.

Aren't they cute? The bright colors and shapes are so fun and festive. Maren helped me pick out the candy for each skewer but she was a bit too young to make the kabobs herself. I would recommend this project for kids a bit older who a) have stronger hands and b) won't stab themselves accidentally with the skewer. Maren did help in checking the candies for freshness and quality by sampling them liberally.

When I was waiting in the checkout line to buy the pretzel bags at Michael's, I noticed these lollipops with long skinny plastic sticks and thought perhaps I could make candy kabobs on those as well. They were only 39¢ each so I grabbed three to give it a try. They actually worked really well because the candy slid easily over the slick plastic stick, and they already have the cute lollipop at the top. The ends aren't sharp, so for some of the tougher candies I poked a starter hole with a skewer.

Gummy candy kabobs would make a cute centerpiece for a party! For my photos I poked mine into a piece of floral foam in a crock that totally doesn't match--I was in a hurry and it already had the foam inside, so I grabbed it--but if I were doing it for a real party, I'd use a cuter container and hide the top of the floral foam under a layer of something like crinkled shredded paper. The BHG article suggests using a vase with jelly beans to anchor the skewers. The lollipop kabobs didn't work well for this application because after a little while the plastic sticks bent and they splayed out to the sides of the arrangement.

I'm kind of obsessed with this idea now and I want to make gummy candy kabobs for every occasion! Gummy and chewy candies are available in all sorts of colors, flavors and shapes and they make those Peeps for just about every holiday now. I'm having visions of an arrangement of skewers made solely of those great big gumdrops (last year's gumdrop craft) and I'm obsessed with the idea of making rainbow kabobs with a giant marshmallow at the bottom to act as the cloud. I have no occasion to make them for but I just think they'd be so pretty!

What occasion would you make gummy candy kabobs for? What kind of gummy or chewy candy is your favorite? Would it be wrong of me to plan an entire party around my rainbow gummy kabob idea? ;)

Good Junk: Silver Ice Bucket saga

I found the cutest set of faux vintage flashcards at a scrapbook store recently:

They're by a company called October Afternoon and they were from a line called "The Thrift Shop" that has all sorts of other paper crafting stuff that is just perfect for lovers of both papercrafting and old stuff like me. You can't buy directly from OA's website but you could search for an online scrapbook shop that sells the line.

The cards are punched on one side and come with rings and matching chipboard covers so you could actually turn them into an album--wouldn't they be darling with some photos of your very favorite finds? I especially like the one that says "Good Junk" so I thought I'd make that into a feature on my blog, rather than saving my finds for Thrift Thursday--because sometimes, they're too good to wait until then!

Today's Good Junk is fresh--I just bought it yesterday and I could hardly wait until it was light this morning so I could take photos and tell you my story.

On Wednesday afternoon I took the kids to my favorite thrift store to look for components for my Halloween costume. I've been staying away from the thrifts and estate sales lately because I'm trying to save my spending money for my upcoming trip to London, but since I was already in the store I had to take a look around, right? ;)

I didn't find much but just before we walked out the door something caught my eye. It was an ice bucket, black with tarnish but even though it was behind the counter on a shelf I could make out engraving: somethingsomethingsomething...1950. ~gulp!~ I had the cashier get it for me so I could have a look and read the engraving more clearly:

And I knew then that spending freeze be darned, it would be going home with me! Except for one problem: it wasn't priced, and this thrift has a policy that they won't sell an item if it isn't priced (too many nogoodniks trying to cheat and get lower prices, apparently.) It was obvious that I didn't remove the price because the item had been behind the counter, but even the manager wouldn't help me because the pricers were already gone for the day. What? Noooo!

The clerk said that she'd put the bucket in the back room with the other unpriced items so that the pricers would see it first thing in the morning when they came in at 8:00. Then she advised me to be there when the store opened at 10:00, but she couldn't guarantee that they'd be sure to put it back behind the counter again rather than out on one of the normal shelves.

I drove home, defeated, and plotting what I would do in the morning. Thursday at that thrift store is a day that VIP members can get 25% off, so there are always people waiting to go in when the store opens. I couldn't stand the thought of watching someone get there steps ahead of me and get MY ice bucket, so I made sure that we left the house early so that we could be first in the door. I even briefed Maren on the plan so she'd stay with me and not slow us down by going for a shopping cart first. I was ready to go, but when we arrived a few minutes before 10:00, people were already going in the door

We hurried into the store and went around to where the ice bucket had been the day before, but there was a conspicuously empty spot on the shelf where it should have been. My heart just sank, because I thought someone must have gotten in the door right before me and had snapped it up and worse yet, I'd see them walking around the store with MY ice bucket in their arms (I've had this experience at an estate sale more than once. It stinks.) I asked the clerk if she knew anything about the bucket, and she directed me to her supervisor. I repeated my story, and the supervisor pushed me off to another employee to go ask the pricers in the back room if they had seen it. The pricers said they hadn't seen the bucket that morning, and she apologized and said she didn't know where it could be.

I decided that as a last-ditch effort, I'd walk around the store and look for it on the regular shelves, and told Maren what to look out for so she could help. This thrift is in a space once occupied by a supermarket, so it's HUGE. There are probably 12 long aisles that are jam-packed--and that's just the kitchen and home decor-type items. The ice bucket could have been put down anywhere; it wouldn't necessarily be with the kitchen stuff. And I was still in competition with all of the rest of the shoppers in the store--it was a bit like a junking video game, now that I think about it. New for the XBox and Wii: THRIFT STORE SHOPPER! Navigate the aisles full of people looking for treasures. Obstacles are carts from the employees putting out new merchandise, slow shoppers, a 5-year-old who has to look at everything and a baby who refuses to stay buckled in the cart! Hurry to gather up your vintage goodies before other shoppers snatch them up or before the time limit is up, which is signified by your 5-year-old complaining loudly and your baby screaming!

We looked quickly through all the items but came up empty-handed. I was so disappointed and wished that I'd never even seen the darn thing in the first place and then, but lo--what did I see on a bottom shelf in the kitchen section? It was MY BELOVED BUCKET! I grabbed it up and Maren and I did the Snoopy Dance right there in the middle of the aisle. Our antics were summarily cut short when I realized that the bucket still had not been priced, which meant there was a possibility that the manager would invoke the No-Price-No-Sale rule and refuse to sell it to me AGAIN. And I almost cried.

Thankfully, when I went up to the counter to rehash my story a third time, one of the pricers took pity on me and tossed off a number so I could at least buy the darned thing. I paid for it and was out the door before I could lose it again! I came home and set to work polishing the bucket and the items that were inside: a pair of silver tongs, four tiny silver cups and what I assume is the bottom of a silver cocktail shaker, also engraved.

It took two aluminum foil-baking soda-salt baths to loosen the tarnish and plenty of Wright's Silver Cream and elbow grease to do the rest, but now my pieces are nice and shiny and beautiful again! The silver plate on the cocktail shaker is pitting and it's missing its lid, but I think it will make a darling vase, don't you? I'm assuming the ice bucket once had a lid too, but I don't mind one bit that it's gone because I love the engraving so much.

So that's the Silver Ice Bucket saga. Good junk, indeed.

Halloween craftiness: Candy Corn Wreath

I don't often pay full price for magazines on principle--I either find a super-cheap subscription or I use a 40% off coupon at JoAnns, but when I saw the cover of the October Woman's Day magazine at the grocery store I threw it in my cart without a second thought and happily paid full price.

image copyright Woman's Day magazine

The cover image is of this great candy corn wreath and I thought it would make a fun project for Maren and I to do together. The step-by-step instructions are here on the Woman's Day website, so I won't go through those in detail.

I used a 16" green foam wreath from JoAnn's--it was $7.99, less my 40% off coupon. I got the kind of wreath form that has rounded edges on the front, but the back is flat. I love my Dollar Tree $1 green wreath forms but for this project I wanted a wreath that had some flat space so the candy corn didn't slide off when I laid it out. The instructions suggest to cover your wreath form in black duct tape but I didn't want to waste my good Gorilla Tape, so instead I covered the wreath form with strips of black fabric like I did for my paperback book wreath.

 I used approximately two 22-ounce bags of Brach's candy corn. It's hard to tell exactly how much I used because I let Maren eat some before I started the wreath, and then you have to pick out the wonky corns as well. I did end up opening a third bag but I was only short by about 20 corns, so I know if we hadn't eaten any beforehand two bags would have been plenty.

I did place out my candy corns before gluing like the instructions suggested, but I only did one ring at a time. I put my hot glue on the candy itself rather than the wreath so that it wouldn't show. It was really quite easy--Maren helped me lay out the corns, then I glued them down.

I had one big issue that makes my wreath look different from the one on the magazine cover. On the WD version, all of the orange middles of the candy line up, giving it a really symmetrical look, kind of like spokes radiating out from the center. The corns aren't necessarily touching head-to-toe; there are some gaps between them so that the orange middles will line up but the gaps are pretty small, which means that all the candy corns were just about the same size.

When I laid out my first ring (and I started from the center out), I put them head-to-toe. When I laid out the second ring, I put them head-to-toe going the other direction, but because of the bigger ring and the variation in the size of the corns, the oranges didn't necessarily line up. By the third ring I realized that my wreath didn't look as neat as the WD version, and I tried to do a better job of lining up the oranges rather than having the corns touch. That worked at first, but after a while it resulted in some pretty big gaps where the black showed through, and that bugged me. So then I went back to doing the head-to-toe again. In some place the oranges line up, and in some places they don't.

I do like how tidy the rows of candy corn on the WD wreath are, but I'm sure WD has editorial assistants who get paid to make sure all 435 candy corn are exactly the same size, and I'm trying to glue on candy corns in between cooking dinner and shoving snacks at my 13-month-old to keep him from screaming. So my wreath is imperfect, and that's just how it's going to have to be.

I hung my wreath with wide black satin ribbon and I think it's pretty darn cute! I like the bright festive colors but the shape itself is very unfussy; from a distance it makes a really cool pattern and almost looks like it is beaded.

On the Woman's Day website there's an additional page of instructions on how to preserve your candy corn so your wreath will last longer and not end up as insect food. Those weren't in the magazine and involve letting your candy corn dry out for several days, then spraying them on both sides with clear preserving spray. Honestly, that sounds like a giant pain in the bum so I'm glad I skipped it! I might give my wreath a coat or two of clear Krylon spray to make it shinier, but that's only if I can find my spray--I'm not going to go out any buy any specifically for this project. I live in a very dry climate so I don't have to worry about my candy becoming sticky and bugs aren't really an issue for us.

There are some other really cute candy corn craft ideas in that magazine that I'd love to try, like a candy corn garland and cool candy corn balls but I'm not sure if I'll get to those this year--they might have to be on the crafting list for Halloween 2011.

Wardrobe refashion: Cardigans

Last week I showed you the tank tops I did in my recent wardrobe refashioning session, and today I'd like to show you the cardigans I worked on as well.

I purchased three cardis at Target back in August when I found them on clearance. They're perfect for early fall in Colorado because they have sleeves that go to just below the elbow so they're warmer than a t-shirt but not as hot as a full sweater. The first that I worked on was the turquoise cardi:

I purchased the pretty peachy rose trim months ago from this etsy shop and I've been wanting to add it to a shirt, but just never got around to buying matching thread so I could sew it on. I loved how it looked with the turquoise sweater and I couldn't figure out how I would sew it on anyway, so I just took the easy way out and adhered it with fabric glue!

The flowers are sewn together on a strip of peachy tulle, so to add a bit more embellishment I went to my bead stash and found some bright orange seed beads and pretty fire-polished glass beads in the same turquoise as the sweater. I sewed the beads on randomly in little groups and although they're a bit hard to see amid the flowers, I think they add just a little bit of extra sparkle and interest.

Since I used fabric glue, I was a little worried about how well the flower trim would hold up in the wash, and I was careful not to let it dry all the way, but it seems to have come out just fine.

The second cardigan was easy too. For inspiration, I used this cute sweater by Jen at Tatertots and Jello. She in turn used a cardi from Anthropologie for her inspiration and when I was looking at her photos, I remembered that I had some very similar ruffled trim in my stash.

I laid it out on the sweater in a zigzag pattern and pinned it to the sweater, making my zigzags all different widths. Then I took a deep breath and gathered my courage and sewed it straight down the middle of the trim. It was easier than I thought and I love how it turned out and that I was able to utilize more ribbon from my stash.

I still have one more cardi to work on. I saw this cute sweater at White House Black Market back during the summer.

I think it retailed for around $90 and I knew that I could make a similar one for a whole lot less, so I bought a white cardigan with that project in mind. I picked out some vintage black glass buttons from my stash and I need to sew those on the next time I'm watching a movie.

The swirls on top were made from different fabrics and trims and those will be trickier to replicate, but I think I have enough stuff in my stash of fabrics and ribbons that I can come up with something similar. Hopefully I can get around to it soon so I can wear it before real sweater season in Colorado sets in!

The paper bag wreath: Halloween version

Back in August I made a paper bag wreath.

Actually, I made two. Once I got gluing those little flowers it was hard to stop! I loved how it turned out so much that I started thinking about what other kinds of paper I could use to make a wreath besides brown paper sacks, and the first thing that came to my mind was book pages.

One trip to the Dollar Store and $2 later, I came out with another wreath form and a paperback book and plans to make a black and white version of the wreath that would be perfect for Halloween!

I used the same technique as on the brown wreath, but I punched my flowers out of pages torn out of a really bad sci-fi book instead. (I read snippets of the book as I was punching out the flowers and trust me, being made into a wreath was a serious improvement. That thing was dreck.) One small difference from the brown wreath was that I covered the wreath form in strips of black fabric so the green foam wouldn't show through. You could also use black tape, but I had the fabric close at hand so that's what I used.

I liked how the black and white looked on its own, but I wanted to use it for Halloween so I drew some bat shapes with a white pencil on the back of some glittery black cardstock from my stash. I hot-glued them to the wreath and then bent and curled the wings with my fingers to give them a bit of dimension. For the second wreath, I found a package of velvety black diecut Halloween shapes at Michael's. I used the bats again but the package also contained spiders, which would be a fun addition to the wreath with a bit of that cottony fake web stuff stretched across it.

I still love this wreath technique and I wouldn't mind making another one without the shapes because I love the graphic look of the white paper and black text. I'm also thinking of other kinds of paper I could use to make this wreath--white kitchen waxed paper crossed my mind, but I think that might not produce nice clean edges on the punched shapes. What other kinds of paper do you think would make a pretty wreath?

(PS--is anyone still having problems with Blogger's 'new' uploader? Why do I have to reload my photos EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to post one? It didn't start out like this.)