True Becoming

Fab Finds Monday: Halloween Edition

Today is the day! Happy Halloween!

I hope you have a day full of mostly treats (and only the good kind of tricks!)

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10: My Mama all dressed up for Halloween (the love of Halloween clearly runs in the family:)

Feeling Spookish: Outfit Post

Only two days to go before the big day! Believe it or not I didn't dress-up in a costume to go to work today (I'm shocked... I ALWAYS dress-up). However, I did sport some black lace, pinstriped tights and a Pumpkin Belt (oh, and my Troll Earrings:)!

Outfit Details:

Lace Dress: My Shop

Pinstriped Tights: Calvin Klein

Pumpkin Shoes: Thrifted (find of the year)

Pumpkin Belt: Handmade by moi (I'll show you how)

I hope you have a GHOULISHLY Great Night!!

Troll Earrings: I've had them since I was about eight :)

Nails You'll Want to Bite (Tutorial)

Most days it's chipped nailpolish for me, but every once in awhile I like to make my nails look extra purdy, and Halloween is one of those times. Last year I did cat and pumpkin designs (no blog then:), and this year I'm sporting the Candy Corn-Tipped Nail Look. French-tipped is so over friends...

There's a few different ways of doing this and i've heard you can use tape... but I would prefer to just do it freehand, even if it means a more of a lumpy variety of candy corn.

Supplies:

- A base colour (I chose a slate grey, but i showed a lime green as an alternative. Another good colour would be purple).

- Toothpicks (not shown in picture above)

1. Decide on your base colour and paint 1-2 coats. Let dry.

2. Paint the tips of your nails yellow. Remember, this is the widest part of candy corn, so you want to do a nice sized strip.

3. After you have given some time for your yellow strip of paint to dry, paint a smaller strip of orange above each yellow strip.

4. Now comes the last part of the candy corn: the white tips. I used a French-tip wand for this, making it very easy to paint steadily (small paint wand).

5. This is where you'll need some toothpicks: to outline the candy corn. I suggest putting a dab on a plastic lid or paint tray and getting a small amount on your toothpick. Then, slowly drag the toothpick along the entire candy corn design for a nice outlined look. You might even want to have a friend with steady hands do this part.

With two more days until Halloween, my Countdown lives on!!!

Happy Sweet Tooth

to you,

 

Pumpkin Makeover

At this time of year I love having a bunch of pumpkins around the house and shop (the ones at the shop just died, and by that I mean I noticed them yesterday caving in with mold; not exactly an enticing vision for encouraging people to come into the shop:) Since I do not like the actual part of carving a pumpkin, more designing one pumpkin and then getting Ry to carve it, I like to get creative with how the pumpkins look.

Here’s a few Makeover Ideas for you to try on your pumpkins:

Pumpkin #1: Into the Covered Forrest

I like mossy green colours and creature-like items as Halloween. I use a lot of fake mice, rats and other small plastic items in my Halloween décor, so I wanted a pumpkin that looked like something you would stumble upon in an enchanted, albeit a bit haunted, forrest.

Supplies:

1. Paint colour of your choice (I suggest hues of green or grey) and a good sized paint brush.

2. Glue gun

3. Fake moss, greenery and fake rocks (anything you want to make your pumpkin forrest-like)

4. Foam florist ring (I wished I had used a slightly small size, but you can decide)

5. Plastic creatures

Step 1: Paint your pumpkin. As I mentioned above, I love mossy tones paired with black so I went with a mixture of two greens. I suggest giving your pumpkin 2-3 coats of paint to give it a solid base. Since I chose to paint two of my three pumpkins in the same colour, I painted two at once, I suggest doing the same.

Step 2: While your pumpkin is drying, you can move onto your pumpkin topper. Using your foam ring, gather the various greenery items you picked. I started with the long green, foam pieces and stuck them all along the outer edge of the foam ring.

Step 3: Using a glue gun, wrap the greenery around the ring and glue down. This will give it a maiden’s crown type look.

Step 4: Add fake moss rocks (or other greenery embellishments you have), again, using a glue gun to secure.

Step 5: Add your desired creepy-crawly items to the top of the rocks. You can glue them down, or leave them to move around (they will tend to hold on and stick a bit to the rough, moss rocks).

Finished look: I added some moss to the bottom of the pumpkin to tie it all together and really make it look like it was embedded in the forest floor.

Pumpkin #2: All Laced Up

Have some old lace stockings you aren’t using? How about a shirt? This is a super easy way to dress up a pumpkin and give it a really classic look.

Supplies:

1: Brooch or vintage pin

2. Lace stocking or sleeve

3. Ribbon

 Step 1: Using a lace stocking or sleeve (a lace footed tight or sock would be ideal – I happened to have a lace sleeve from a shirt), wrap around pumpkin by placing pumpkin inside.

Step 2: Gather the lace at the top of the pumpkin and secure lace by tying a bow around the pumpkin stem.

Step 3: For a finished even more glamourous look, add a fun pin.

Finished look: Elegant!

 

Pumpkin #3:   A Present for Sally (from The Nightmare Before Christmas)

Supplies:

1. Paint (same colour used as with Pumpkin #1)

2. Ribbon

3. Pins (I usually use pincushion pins, but others will do)

4. Embellishments (I used white sequins)

 
Step 1: Same as Pumpkin #1: Paint pumpkin desired colour

Step 2: Measure out desired amount of ribbon to cover your pumpkin.

Step 3: Start by pinning the tops of the ribbon pieces all along the top part of the pumpkin where the stem is. Once all the top parts of the ribbon are secure, pin at the bottom.

Step 4: Using your desired embellishments (I used white sequins). Design the spaces between the ribbon stripes to finish it all off.

 

Finished look: I love the finished look of this because it helps tie in some of the features of Pumpkin #1, which is great if you are grouping them together

I hope you enjoyed this fun alternative to the carved pumpkin (those are classic and important too).

Join me again as I countdown to Halloween!

Read another fun Halloween Do-it-Yourself Activity HERE

Halloween Countdown

eek.

Join me for the next five days (including today) as i countdown the days until Halloween.

I'll be back later with a Pumpkin Makeover :)