Grab one of those paper gift bags you have and let's make a spooky ghost gift bag for Halloween! You might want to take a hostess gift to a Halloween party or maybe someone has a Halloween birthday. There are so many fun Halloween ideas out there you should use them whenever you can!

Here's how I made the Halloween gift bag.  It was a total accident!! My plan was to make one of those medallions or lollies out of Halloween paper, perhaps sticking it on a bag.  I wanted to try scoring the Halloween paper and folding up part of it to get a two-toned medallion. I was doing that and after glueing the two scored strips together and flattening it, trying to push it together in the center, I got this oval shape and thought why not do something with that?!

Here is the scored Frightful Sight Designer Series Paper #122351. I made two strips, each 12" x 2 1/2" and scored at every 1/2". ( I should have cut ONE strip 12" x 5" and cut in half later!) Then I turned the paper in my Simply Scored #122334 and scored at 3/4" to get the edge I would fold over. Love the Simply Scored!!!

After I got the two strips glued together and played around with the shape I wanted, I turned it over and used Sticky Strip #104294 to hold it in shape on the back side.  The scissors is just holding it down in place. It is not glued to the bag yet, I'm just fitting it around the ghost to get the proper shape.  The ghost I made with the Owl Punch #118074….punch out the owl, cut off its feet and turn it upside down! Make his face with punched pieces or draw them in.

Take off all the Sticky Strip red covering and stick to the bag centering the ghost, which is already glued down on a black piece of card stock.

There's still plenty of time to order paper and stamping supplies for Halloween projects!  Just go to my website at www.karenfontinelle.stampinup.net and click the "Shop Now" button!

I told you I had fun making the Halloween ornament the other day out of the coaster and that I would make more!  Here is another one I made today with a coaster covered with Frightful Sight Designer Series Paper.  I added a Circle Treat Cup to the front, covering a piece of the designer paper with a spider web on it, and filled with my own handmade confetti, glitter and the new Mica Flakes.

Here's how I made my Halloween confetti.  I simply punched pieces from the Frightful Sight Designer Series Paper with the little circle punch in the Itty Bitty Punch Pack (you get three Itty Bitty punches!). If you look at the designer paper, you'll see some pages are filled with little ghosts, spiders, bats, etc. and they just about fit in the itty bitty punch.  I also just punched some colors from the paper, added the new Mica Flakes and some Silver Glass Glitter.

Have fun making some Halloween decorations for your family!  If you need some supplies, Stampin' Up! has plenty of them!  Just click HERE to do Online Ordering or email me at Karen@KarenStamps.com.

As I mentioned last time, after the fun kitchen remodeling, I was in need of some stamping therapy!  No better way to relax than getting out your stamping supplies and creating something!

First thing I did was pull out my new Simply Scored Scoring Tool #122334 from Stampin' Up!  This was introduced at the Stampin' Up! Convention and is available in the Holiday Mini Catalog.  Even though I had tried it at Convention, to actually use it now on my own was just a fabulous experience! It is so easy to use and makes doing this much scoring such an easy experience.  It comes with the stylus and also some "markers" to place at the top so you don't have to guess every time at what measurement you want to score.  You can even buy extras.  

But for this medallion I used a strip 12" x 1 1/2" and scored at every 1/4". This is our new Pick Your Poison Designer Series Paper #124001 in the Holiday Mini. (Since I made this, I've read a tip about scoring for example only every 1/2" and then turning the paper over and scoring the 1/4"….I'll have to try that and see if that makes for better folds.)

Do an accordion fold of the strip along each scored line.  I added Sticky Strip to each end for extra staying power! And punch a circle of any size for the backing of the medallion.  I used Tombow Multi-Purpose Adhesive.  I let that glue sit while I did the folding so it would get a little tacky.

A little blurry but just adhere the ends of the strip together.

Press it down flat (easy to do) and adhere to your gluey circle on the back.  I even added a bit of glue to the center of the medallion since it would eventually be covered.

Here you can see my stamping mess where I tried out various punched circles of different colors.  The skull comes from the Pick Your Poison DSP….although I hated to cut into that new paper, it had to be done! The paper is great, as is, by the way for scrapbooking Halloween pages…just add a mat to your photo and adhere….the paper is already printed to suit!  No designing necessary!

And the finished product!

 Silver Glass Stampin' Glitter #120995 around the edges.

Rhinestone Jewels #119246 bling for the skeleton eyes.

Sponged the medallion with a little Early Espresso Classic Ink.

Always Artichoke Seam Binding Ribbon #121000 ruffled around the center.

Sentiment from part of a stamp in Grateful Greetings #116511 cut by hand into a small banner and sponged on the edges with Early Espresso and a little Pumpkin Pie ink in the middle.

Adhered to a wooden skewer with lots of Stampin' Dimensionals #104430 and tied with some 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon in Basic Black #115615.

You can shop anytime so you'll be ready when you need stamping therapy!

Go to my Online Store HERE.