Spooky Sweets II Revisited

Halloween will be here before you know it. It's one of my favorite holidays to make cards and treats for....plus it's always fun to throw in a costume party here and there. This month the Papertrey Senior Design Team is kicking off the celebration with Halloween ideas using Spooky Sweets II. Each year I love to scatter out a mess of orange and black goodies on my desk.....
My first creation today is a Halloween card featuring an embellished button card. I used Button Boutique stamps + the button card die to create the base of my button card.
From Spooky Sweets II I used the spider, the scroll image and the 10-31 sentiment to embellish the button card. I used Smokey Shadow, True Black and Terracotta Tile inks. Vintage Buttons were placed about to look like layered eyeballs tied with Rustic Cream Button Twine.
On the side of my card I used the halloween wishes sentiment from Spooky Sweets II along with Label Basics + coordinating die and Mini Scrapbook Series: Library Ledger for the orange ledger lines. A little snippet of Washi tape behind the label and some machine stitching attaches the embellishment securely. This will be a fun card to send out this year....definitely will be using a bubble mailer since I've got some bulky, dimensional layers here.

Ohhhh and the smokey part......I used some vintage book paper under my button card. I splattered on some gray spray mists and wanted it to dry quickly. I got out my heat tool to dry the splatters faster. It wasn't long before my somewhat brittle paper went up in smoke. These vintage papers are really dry and then so it doesn't take long for the heat to get to them. Once the smoke cleared I like the look...so I continued to smolder the paper a bit long so the edges looked nice and toasty. Now some of you might be cringing. Please don't blame me if you try this and burn your house down, okay? You might be better off using the Tea Dye Ink Duos. ;)
Next up I have a fun treat item that the girls and I are going to make for a Halloween bash for their girlfriends. We are putting the finishing touches on their new Lounge room and I'm sure they'll be itching to have a party soon. A little online inspiration + a great idea from Josey's art teacher and we have a plan. I gathered up some ribbon...some from the Papertrey Perfect Match collection and some ric rac + lace from my vintage stash.
We have an ongoing tradition that each Halloween party should have orange soda. I really love the look of Jones soda bottles but couldn't find any at my local grocery store. So we went with Orange Crush bottles. Josey's art teacher has a class fundraiser each year around Valentine's Day where they sell Crush bottles with an attached note and ribbon. The note says something about *I've got a crush on you* or something of that nature and the bottles are delivered to the classrooms. Fun stuff.

We adapted that look for our Halloween sweet treats. Simply wrap an office brand rubber band around the neck of the bottle twice. Tie 5-6 pieces of ribbon around the rubber band using a simple knot.
Make a cute tag like I did here using the Tag Sale #2 die and tie it to the rubber band with more Rustic Cream Twine. Our school mascot is the wildcat so I thought the black cat + cute sentiment would be perfect for these crazy girls. I used a portion of a Label Basics die for the sentiment and another layered button eye. The date stamp is from my office supply stash.
At our parties the orange soda always goes fast because it's kind of a novelty item. Just one for each party girl. But after the bottles have been emptied they're just too cute to throw away (or please recycle) so soon. So this year I'm going to purchase some orange flowers from the grocery store (I got a huge bouquet for $5 bucks at Walmart)....rinse out the bottles and insert a few fresh flowers. These will make great little centerpieces for the rest of the party and then each party girl can take a bouquet home with them. Girls love to take home little party favors.
So what if you're not having a party? Maybe you're having a quiet little evening at home this Halloween....or perhaps you like to do the *You've been Boo'd* thing that sounds so fun. How about take the entire 6 pack....sipping one bottle for yourself...adding the ribbons and tag + flowers.....and leave it on someone's door step. Ring that door bell then run for cover. The little squirts would love this!
I'm all in the mood to create more Halloween goodies now. I think I'll make up the rest of the tags for our party girls and maybe a few cards to send out. If you're getting excited about Halloween too, be sure to check out the other PTI Senior DT blogs for more inspiration using Spooky Sweets II. Thanks for stopping by today.....and be sure to let me know what your plans are for your Halloween creations this year in the comments section. :)

• Nichole Heady
• Heather Nichols
• Dawn McVey
• Lisa Johnson
• Betsy Veldman