Spooky Spider Candleholders

OK, the last Halloween craft of the year from me, and it's a quickie.  I'm pretty sure you have all of the supplies in your house already.

 

 Ready?  You will need a pretty glass bottle (I love empty Patron bottles!) or a nice looking empty jar.  (If you use a jar, you will want the mouth of the jar to be wide enough to accommodate a flared votive cup.  Play around with it... there are lots of options and combinations you can do.)

Drop a few plastic spiders into the bottles, then fill with some bright green dish washing liquid and swirl in a little bit of water. Top with taper candles.  That's it.

Easy!


about Vivienne Wagner

What's your perfect ratio of cream to coffee?

I know I'm going to sound just like The Most Interesting Man In the World, but here goes:  "I don't always take cream in my coffee... but when I do, it's International Delight Hazelnut flavor."

 
Like most people, coffee is my morning ritual... but it is Coffee I Make At Home.
Unlike most people, I don't need or really even want a latte or specialty coffee house drink.  I just want a nice, hot cuppa joe.

However, on occasion I want a little treat, so I will put just a splash of International Delight's Hazelnut flavor in my coffee.  Just a splash... just enough so I get a touch of sweet, creamy hazelnut goodness.  I usually eyeball the amount and I base it on what color the coffee is.  If it's too light that means there's too much cream in it.  Too dark?  Then what's the point?

International Delight has a Pinterest board with 50 Shades of I.D. so that you can see what shade just the right amount of cream is for you.  It's like little paint chips, but for coffee.

I went over and checked it out and decided that my shade is No. 6  "Don't Forget The Safe Word". 

(I think it's such a warm and pretty color that I actually repinned it to my Color Inspiration board too!)

Which shade are you? Go to Fifty Shades of International Delight on Pinterest and find and share your shade of I.D.!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

about Vivienne Wagner

How to make an easy Halloween photo garland.

Yesterday I shared photos from our big Halloween party.  Today I wanted to show you how to make this easy photo garland.

 

I thought it would be fun to create a garland using photos from our previous Halloween parties, but you could easily do this for any holiday or special occasion.  (Or you could even do it for a random Tuesday, it's that easy.)

Obviously, the first order of business is to gather your photos.  My personal preference (for Halloween or otherwise) would be to turn them all either black and white or sepia toned.  It creates a cohesive look no matter what the photo or when it was taken.

I turned all of mine into black & white photos and printed them at a 4 x 6 size.  I got some black card-stock and cut it to 5 x 7 pieces.  I simply adhered the photos using double-sided tape.  I totally eyeballed the placement (you know that's may favorite unit of measurement) then I punched a hole in the top and looped a ribbon through it.

 No photos for this part for some reason, but it's simple:  To make the garland, I grabbed a stack of coffee filters, fanned them slightly, then lightly spray painted them black along the edges.  When dry, they peel right apart.  I cut a tiny slit in the middle of them, then I scrunched them slightly.  I slid them onto a length of black grosgrain ribbon and alternated them with white filters.   Once the filters are on, just tie the photos in between them.  I actually put up the ribbon with the coffee filters then I tied on the photos.  It was easier that way.

My friends enjoyed looking at the photos, and at the end of the evening they were able to untie the photos of themselves and take them home.  One thing I did not do, but should have, was to put up a little sign letting people know that they can take their photos.  The first few people that took them were very hesitant to do so, even after I told them that was why the garland was there in the first place.

A great source for photos and photo inspiration is Shutterfly.com.  You can order prints, photo books and all sorts of personalized photo products through their site.  We often have so many digital images stockpiled that we forget how wonderful it is to have the physical photos to share.

One of the fun things that Shutterfly is doing is a Howl-O-Ween Photo Contest that will be running through November 7.

   

You can get a lot of ideas from these short videos:

 

If you go to Shutterfly's Facebook Page and become a fan, you can enter their Howl-O-Ween Photo Contest.  Share your best images and fondest moments and you can win some pretty nice prizes...
Grand Prize: A free 2night stay for a family of 4 at any Great Wolf Lodge, $500 value + $200 Shutterfly Gift Certificate
First Place: (1) Shutterfly Gift Certificate for $250
Second Place: (1) Shutterfly Gift Certificate for $150
Third Place: (1) Shutterfly Gift Certificate for $100

Pretty nice, yes? Those are the fab prizes for entering their contest... but wait!  There's more!

If you like them on Facebook you can get a cool app to Halloween-ify your own Facebook cover photo.   How fun is this?

There are several different versions you can get.  How fun to be able to change your cover photo for a holiday!?

In addition to the Howl-O-Ween contest and the great prizes, and the cool Facebook app, Shutterfly is also giving one of my readers a $75 gift card to use on Shutterfly.com!
a Rafflecopter giveaway  


Good luck!

Disclaimer: I am part of the Mom It Forward blogger network.  
Mom It Forward and Shutterfly partnered in support of this campaign. 
Shutterfly compensated me for participation in this campaign. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.   

about Vivienne Wagner

The Great Halloween Party Wrap Up! (2012 edition)

Saturday night we had our third annual Halloween Party.

Medusa & Perseus (except it wasn't Perseus' night...Medusa turned him to stone.)

We invite friends to come in costume and ask them to BYOB and to bring a dish of some kind to share on the buffet table.  I used to try to do everything myself (including the food) but I am much more willing to let that go and instead, focus on the part I really love... The decor.  Ready for photo overload?  Good.

Click here to see how I made the faux hammered tin planters.  Tutorial for the hanging jar lanterns inside the topiaries coming soon.

I love my candlelight and tried to have it everywhere.  Oh, and little white lights.... little white lights make everything better.

My sister took photos for me while I was turning myself into Medusa.  It's not easy to get clear shots without a flash.  I did not give her any specific instructions what to shoot, and I completely forgot to get a shot of the house from the street.  We put two white EZ-Ups in the front and draped them with black panels to make Halloween "cabanas" and I am kicking myself for not getting a photo.

The best party of any party, though?  Friends.  In costume.

We had a contest for best costume and although there were some great ones there, our friends Brett & Laurie took the prize... we didn't recognize them at all until they spoke.

The Boobs were very popular...

Serious photo overload...

Lots of funny...

I was thrilled that my friend Jeff was able to come by.  (He's the bee in the upper right photo.)  I haven't seen him in about 4 years, and it made my night to see him.

Of course it's important to have music and dancing too, right?

 

Seriously a fun party.

I'll be sharing some of the details and how-to's this coming week.

Most everything was easily put together for pennies on the dollar.  I will show you how, starting tomorrow with the Photo Garland.

Click to see Halloween Party Wrap-Ups from 2010 and 2011.

It's a good thing that we were able to put this party together for cheap... If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that our seemingly healthy refrigerator up and suddenly died, three days before this party.  Um, not good.  I was freaking out!  Not only because we hadn't planned on making a big ticket purchase of any kind, but also because we need a new fridge immediately and had zero time to research and comparison shop.

Lowe's to the rescue.  Seriously.  A very quick look online showed us that they had a great selection and super competitive prices, but also that they have free delivery and haul away the old appliance.

Out with the old fridge and in with the new!!

It is no exaggeration: I could not be any happier with our new fridge and the quick turn around time from Lowe's.  I also am not suffering from any buyer's remorse, or worrying that in our haste to replace the old fridge we did not get a good deal.  Yaaaay all around.  Whew.

At any rate, I am going to go print up party photos and proudly display them on our shiny new fridge.  See you tomorrow!


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Disclosure: I received compensation for this post.  All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

In case you missed it: Weekly Wrap Up

It's been a wacky week around here.  The SoCal  Social was great (wrap up post coming soon) but I immediately went from that into full blown party planning.  And while trying to do that had camera problems, laptop problems and our trusty and beloved refrigerator suffered from an undiagnosed illness and died suddenly.

Monday:  I love this freestanding floor candelabra.
Tuesday: No post... I was sitting in a corner, crying and rocking back and forth like an idiot all day.
Wednesday: Shared about the Beckstrand Cancer Foundation and the amazing charity event we recently attended.
Thursday: Saved a pumpkin fail with some scrap craft supplies with Mod Podge
Friday: Showed you the chewed up planters I turned into faux hammered tin planters with spiderweb topiaries.

Have a great weekend!  I'll be back on Monday to tell you about our party! :)

about Vivienne Wagner

Upcycle: easy DIY faux hammered tin planters (with spider web topiaries.)

I needed something tall to flank each side of our front door.  Since I'm a symmetry girl, I wanted them to match.  This is what I came up with:

 

I made a faux hammered tin planter, using aluminum foil, Mod Podge and black paint.  Oh, and I did it on planters that the dog chewed up as a puppy.
We will discuss my hoarding tendencies and inability to part with anything (chewed or not) at a later time.

Easy Damask Pumpkin using trashed craft supplies.

Remember my first pumpkin of the season and that it was a major Craft Fail?  (The one with the orange feathers that looked like a cross between a Muppet and pumpkin...?)  Well, I hate to throw things away...
And remember my easy DIY Halloween invitations?  Well, I hate to throw scraps of cute paper away...

What's a girl to do?  Why, salvage both items, of course.

I took that sad pumpkin (which still looked like it had orange mange), my scraps of Damask print paper and some Sparkle Mod Podge  and got started.

All of the paper scraps had the same basic pattern, to starting at the top and working my way down, I did my best to line up the pattern as I Mod Podged the paper to the pumpkin.  I found that slightly damping the paper strips made them easier to smooth into the pumpkin's grooves.

Definitely a way to make sure that none of my craft supplies go to waste.  We like that!

Easy!


about Vivienne Wagner

A big evening out (for a great cause) at the Diamond and Pearl Ball.

My camera and my laptop have decided not to speak to each other at the moment.    As a result, I can't share a couple of Halloween projects I am currently working on.  So I decided to share a charity event that HH and I attended recently.

My BFF is the National Spokesperson for the Beckstrand Cancer Foundation, an organization that helps  cancer victims and their families to cope with the financial devastation cancer can bring.

If you're in chemo (or have a child who is) are you able to work?  Do you need to choose between paying for medical bills and keeping your lights on?  Do you have kids that need babysitters?  Did your income get reduced by half because you or your spouse can't work...?  Beckstrand comes in and helps pay for things like your mortgage, transportation, utilities, food... whatever people need.  They are angels.

Earlier this year I shared the loss of Devin and Conner's dad to colon cancer, and last week I shared a little about my friend Donna, who lost a 4 year battle with breast cancer.  During that 4 years she couldn't work as much, had astronomical medical bills (even with good insurance) and tried experimental treatments (that weren't covered by insurance.)  The financial hit was a big one.  My BFF, HH and I all helped with fundraisers and auctions and spaghetti dinners, trying to raise money.  I wish we had known about Beckstrand back then.  When my BFF found out about Beckstrand Cancer Foundation, she committed to the cause immediately.  (I'm super proud of her and the work she's doing.)

The Diamond and Pearl Ball is one of their biggest fundraisers of the year.  We were fortunate enough to attend as guests.  This year the theme was An Evening In Russia.  It was amazing.  There was a cocktail reception and silent auction... all white and icy.

Please excuse all of the iPhone photos.  Couldn't be helped.

After about an hour in the cocktail lounge, the curtains parted and revealed the amazing main dining room.  (I particularly thought the Vodka Fairies hanging from the ceiling were a nice touch...)

After an amazing dinner, and speeches from Alana Stewart and Ryan O'Neal (the late Farrah Fawcett was the honoree), the live auctions began.  Beckstrand raised 1.32 million dollars, which will go directly to helping out families.  Amazing. Here's a video recap.

A great evening, a fantastic organization.

By the way, the fabulous woman who makes this event happen is  Lil, the Executive Director.  She is half Wonder Woman, half Mother Theresa.

(I'll be sharing a little bit later on about the dress I am wearing and how I got it.)
Hopefully my camera and laptop will put aside their differences very soon and I'll be back with more Halloweenishness!


about Vivienne Wagner

A floor Candelabra for Halloween.

Last year, Sandra from Sawdust & Paper Scraps made a very cool Halloween candelabra, and I really, really wanted to make one too, but didn't get around to it.  (I met Sandra at The Haven Conference last June, and I must confess I have quite the Girl Crush on her... she is awesome!) 

Sandra's is a fab tutorial on how to make a tall candelabra out of a regular sized lamp.
However, when I spied this gangly looking fellow at a yard sale and knew I had to have it for our Halloween party.

First, I clipped his wires and pulled them out, removing some of the hardware.  I gave it a nice coat of glossy black Krylon spray paint.  Then I added my trusty chameleon chandelier and painted that too.

It had seen better days...

I also painted a lot of Dollar Store plastic beads and old beaded necklaces, then "pretty-pleased" HH to run a metal rod through both pieces and they just fit securely on the rod.

Pardon the "non-beauty" shots.  This baby is part of the decor for our Halloween party.  I'll take some photos of it decked out in all of its candelabra-y glory then.

Are you getting excited for Halloween?  (I am!)

Sharing this at Today's Creative Blog

 
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