Day 1- 31 Days of Halloween

Yay! I'm SO EXCITED to bring you my very first 31 Days project! In case you missed my earlier post, check out all of the rules and regs for 31 Days of Halloween on S&S in the post below this one; it tells you all about prizes, rules, and really what it's all about!

This year, I am not only challenging myself to complete 31 Days, I am also challenging myself to only use supplies that I already have in my stash. That's right! I am not allowing myself to go and splurge on all the latest and greatest Halloween goodness at the stores...if I don't already own it or can't find it for free, I won't be using it! The only exception I am giving myself is adhesive. Lucky for me I have a pretty big stash, but I know this will still be a task for me. I LOVE all the goodness that can be bought each year!

This year you will also find me making alot of stuff that is more of a decoration, rather than just cards. I plan on using most of the items I make to display as decorations. Even if I do make cards, they will either be specifically for someone or made to display. So, for my first project I busted out all my little paper scraps and found some that I love. I decided since it's the absolute begining of the countdown, well, I would make a deco inspired by those little countdown calendars that you usually find around Christmas. You know, the ones where you open a window each day and find a piece of candy. Here's what I came up with...I have tons of photos, so just bear with me.

*click any image to make it larger


I started with two wooden frames and distressed them using various inks. The insert with doors was made using chipboard, patterned paper, and stamps from Smeared Ink. I used inks to color my chipboard, and then used the papers on the door flaps.


You can see that some of the doors are patterned paper, some are stamped with the hatch stamp in our Quoth The Raven set, and the orange ones were made using The Patch digi set.


Here are some close-ups of the images behind the doors. I used stamps from our As Death and Lonely Boy and Puff stamp sets, as well as various pictures that I liked from old Halloween magazines I've collected over the years. All of the images were aged using distress ink to make them more cohesive.


Gotta love the upside down witch!


My fave As Death image...and you can barely see a raven peeking from the door underneath it.


Aaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!


Poor Lonely Boy missing Puff...


Ok, so here is a slightly angled view so you can see what I meant by two frames. They are hinged together on the other side using some book binding material. In case you were wondering, there are 30 door flaps on the front, one for each day of the month, until you get to Halloween. Then you open up the frames to reveal the Halloween surprise!

My favorite Halloween picture from last year! I will probably add in a new pic every year to replace the old one. I haven't yet decided if I would like to decorate the inside front cover, or leave black as is...hmmm.......

By the way, did you catch the cute little skull heads hanging from the ribbon? I received those in a RAK, but unfortunately I don't remember from who, so if it was you, THANK YOU!!!! Oh yes, and the flower at the top is a dried center that came out of my yard this year. You'll see another one in a few days.

So, I hope you like it; this fits prefectly with my decor for Halloween, a little bit vintage feeling but still pretty creepy!! I think alot of my stuff will be that way this year, or at least until I go into full creep mode.

Before you move on to the other projects, I have some great news about the Smeared Ink Design Team. Yep, that's right, today is the first day of our new term! I'd like to welcome back all of the returning members, and a big fat welcome to our new members! All of the applications were awesome this time aroud, and it was a tough decision, but we narrowed it down and these are the ladies that will be Rocking the Smeared and Smudged Forum from October through March!

Alison
Kelli
Black Dragon
Lady Brayton
Danielle
Meredith
Kapree
Lisa

You can see all of these fabulous ladies today; they are all participating as Wicked Blogs. Congratulations ladies!!!!

Now, I'm going to "run" to the other Wicked Blogs and see what they have up their sleeves for the first of 31 Days...I hope you'll join me!