Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

I love Halloween. I remember every costume my mom made me, and I LOVED our Halloween parties at school. And yes, I grew up in the olden times when we were allowed to have Halloween parties and not genericfallfestivalsorsciencefairsthatjusthappentotakeplaceonOctober31.

We didn't go far on Halloween. My friend David and I would trick or treat with our plastic pumpkins until we couldn't lift them - which didn't take long. A few blocks maybe. We were at home sorting our candy no later than 8 I'm quite sure. In those days you didn't need to drive across town to have outstanding trick or treat hauls.

I remember one house on our street - if you want to talk about spooky - that handed out those red chewable things you chew and then you see where there's plaque on your teeth. I'm not even kidding. Yes, maybe he was a dentist, but I am 100% certain he could have benefited by just having a beer and maybe riding a rollercoaster and pulling the stick out of his butt for just one day a year. Just one day.

He might actually have been the Patient Zero of our current funsquashing epidemic in the 2000s.

In the olden days, it was a magical night.

It brought our neighborhood together, and told us, as kids, who the really fun adults were. The ones that would take a night to just focus on providing a joyful experience for perfect strangers' little brats.

I walk a lot, and I love that my current neighborhood is very gung ho about Halloween. There are so many elaborate scenes set up on people's yards. I passed one the other day that made me shriek involuntarily at 8 AM. They have my complete admiration! Don't worry - there were no clowns.

Unfortunately, I am not organized enough to do all that, but what I can tell you is that the very best candy is purchased for my little visitors. It's what I can do. Kit Kats, Snickers, Reese's, Butterfingers - we are not messing around with value bags on this one night - we are blessing these little kids with every delightful candy bar there is. You do what you can. Especially to fight the dentist funsquashers.

In Texas, we get the added fun of Dia de los Muertos, which brings its own beautiful imagery and treats. The beautiful sugar skulls, (calaveras) and celebration of lives past, makes it an especially happy time of year. It's OUR fall, since we don't really get one, and it's exciting and fun and sweet in so many ways.

So I wanted to wish you a very, very happy Halloween, happy Dia de los Muertos, happy All Saints' Day. Happy Please-For-The-Love-Of-God-Don't-Give-Dental-Products-To-Trick-or-Treaters-Day.

And I had to do that with an ADORABLE skelly. And a fun little texture technique for Lori's Falliday Fest challenge with Rainbow Tape. Please, if you are afraid of mixed media, watch my video and see how I do "clean" mixed media. But first, please know that you are GRRRRREAT.




Isn't he the cutest? And I guess I'm on a retro technique kick because the way I did that texture reminded me of the old rubberband on your brayer technique. Just a little updated and more textury. :)

So here's a quick video, mistakes included, of the whole process in real time.



I like doing real time videos every now and then just to remind myself how much fun you can have in 6, 8 or 10 minutes.

Happy Halloween.

Loveyameanitbye.

13 comments:

  1. I love Halloween also - it's my favorite holiday. But bah humbug to the dentist giving out those awful tables. Plus - no matter how well you brush your teeth, those darn tablets leave you looking like you at 25 cherry popsicles. Love your card, as always.

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  2. Love the post! You always make me smile. Thanks.

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  3. Ah, I love skelly card, and love your recollection of the magical neighborhood Halloweens of days gone by. It was all so innocent, and safe, and fun. And there were full-size candy bars, none of this snack-size stuff one sees today!

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  4. We're with you. At our house, we purchase the yummiest full-sized candy bars we can find and pray they're all gone by the end of the night lest they call to use from the cabinet in the days that follow.

    One of my fondest memories of trick-or-treating in my neighborhood is one house required us to earn our treats by singing or dancing or some other display of our "talents". It took forever, but we all loved it. Today, I don't think that would be possible for a homeowner to do that without criticism and the possibility of a call to the authorities for suspicion of wrong-doing. Never thought I would turn into my parents and lament the loss of "the good old days".

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  5. SO EXCITED to be a MIXED MEDIA PEEP now after retreat!!!!! YOU MAKE ALL THINGS AWESOME!!!!

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  6. Agree! Happy "book character day." Sheesh.

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  7. My dad is a dentist. Sadly, as a child, our house gave out toothbrushes. There were Halloween themed cardboard sleeves that fit over them but that didn't make them any more fun. Parents made sure their kids stopped by our house every year. I think I'm still a little traumatized by this.

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  8. My Mom always made us trick-or-treat at our dentist's house to get our annual toothbrush :)

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  9. You'll like this. When we were kids we started trick or treating at 6pm and had to be home at 11pm. We used pillow cases and came home to dump the full pillowcase so we could head out again. The local dairy gave everyone a small ice cream cone. A couple streets away one kind family set a grill on the porch and cooked everyone a hot dog! One family gave everyone a Carmel apple and there were plenty popcorn balls. Our parents had no idea where we were, no one worried and we had an absolute blast! When our kids were teens we set up a big driveway with a coffin, a head on a platter (one of the kids was sitting under a table with their head above it). One of my boys dressed as the devil and stirred a big cauldron of dry ice smoke. We had bowls of slimy grapes and other gooey things for the kids to stick their hands into. It was great fun and we had over 400 kids. The kids came and then went home to get their parents and brothers and sisters! So much fun!!!

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  10. Your card reminds me of the tahirt my chiropractor was wearing yesterday... Two skeletons with one holding a spine in his hand. It said, " I've got your back." LOL

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  11. So cute! I love that you make mixed media so accessible, even to people that like a clean card style! You really make me realize that these techniques are for everyone! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  12. This is adorable... I love how versatile that set is ... so many uses with one punch... thanks for sharing

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  13. This is brilliant! Love the crisscross pattern. If you wanted to do stripes I bet foam tape would work great for this. :D Thanks again

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