Neighborhood Halloween Traditions

Our neighborhood is small (just 31 houses) and this makes it easy to keep lots of nice traditions going.  When we moved here 12 years ago, there were quite a few "middle-aged" children.  Most of them have graduated and gone to college and beyond and quite a few of the families have moved away.  New families have arrived and we now have a big group of young children on our street.

One family hosts a pizza dinner with games before the trick-or-treat parade around the circle.  Most of the adults also dress up (I wore my witch hat but that's about as creative as I got this year).  This Medusa head was one of my favorite adult costumes.

It's a lot of fun to see all of the little ones in their costumes.  Egyptian princess was a popular choice this year.

I particularly like to see the tiniest children in their costumes like this sweet bumblebee...

...and an adorable little penguin!

This banner was made by a couple of talented neighbors - can you spot the Cricut cuts that were used?

The older children try to eat donuts that are hanging from strings.  Here one of the Dads demonstrates the trick for the younger children.  They start with the donut on their forehead and then have to pick it up with their pinkies and eat it using nothing but their pinkies to hold the donut!

After dinner and the games, it's time for a group photo in the driveway.  The hill makes it easier to see everyone in the "serious" photo...

...and the silly one!

One of the most unique aspects of the celebration is the parade that is led by another talented neighbor who plays the bagpipes!

Everyone is moving pretty quickly - because the kids know that after the parade they can start trick-or-treating.

The banner needs a little bit of adult supervision to keep it off the ground and prevent tripping.

Everyone marches around the circle - right past the gardens and mailbox house that we fixed up last summer.

It's hard to believe that two days ago we were in the midst of a hurricane.  It's sad to realize that lots of kids are not having a "normal" Halloween this year due to the damage and power loss caused by the storm.

Back at home, I have the "candy buffet" set up because there will be little ones at the door right away after the parade.

With so many younger children, we keep the decorations pretty friendly - only happy pumpkins and not-very-scary ghosts!

I did manage to cut out the Trick-or-Treat sign and add it to the leafy wreath on the front door.  I'll do a separate post to show you how it turned out.

I hope you had fun for Halloween - now we can start thinking about Thanksgiving, with Christmas soon to follow!

Since I am a little off schedule - comments on this post will still be included for the October giveaway.  I'll post the name of the winner on Friday to give you time to comment on this last post for the month.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the rest of the month, everyone who leaves a comment on my blog will have a chance to win this Sizzix "Scrap Pink" set.  You can see more photos and details at THIS POST.  For more chances, you can leave a comment everyday for the rest of the month - but just one comment per day please.



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After the Storm

Thanks to everyone who sent messages to see how we fared in Hurricane Sandy.  I posted on Facebook a couple of times from my phone but I know a lot of you aren't on Facebook. 

We did end up losing power but for less than a day.  It was difficult to read by candlelight so we just tried to sleep even though the wind was very loud.

The propane stove (which I have often thought of changing to a flat electric cooktop) enabled us to cook chili for dinner and boil water for tea and coffee.  I think maybe we should keep it!

Most of the remaining leaves came down in the winds.  The wind speeds were clocked at 67 miles per hour in the neighboring town of Bedford.  This deck was clear on Sunday after we stowed the deck furniture below.

We had a fair number of small branches that fell along with the leaves.  Several of our neighbors lost larger trees, including a beautiful blue spruce next door - it was over 20 feet tall.  We were wondering if it would be possible to save the top so they could use it for their Christmas tree - after all, they cut the trees to ship them to sell far before Christmas.

Here's another view of the side yard - just little limbs and leaves on the ground.

These are the large trees right beside our house - we are so thankful that they didn't come down!

It looks like the winds separated the bark from our river birch tree - it has peeling bark in normal conditions but it looks a bit worse for the wear.

By afternoon we actually saw some blue sky.  The cleanup will take a while but we were so lucky.  When I see the situation in other areas and states I realize how fortunate we were.

I hope that those of you who were affected by the storm will be able to return to normal as quickly as possible.  The terrible images of floods and fires on the news reports are hard to watch and my heart goes out to the people who lost their homes.  If you are without power, I hope it is restored very soon.

You'll probably be reading this on Halloween - we expect to have trick-or-treating as normal here.  I didn't even go to my craftroom today but I am still going to try to put together the sign I adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens pumpkin carving stencils (see the original post HERE).


Unfortunately, my Dad is back in the hospital.  They have been watching him closely and doing tests.  At this point we can just wait and see if there is anything that can be done to help him.  Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the rest of the month, everyone who leaves a comment on my blog will have a chance to win this Sizzix "Scrap Pink" set.  You can see more photos and details at THIS POST.  For more chances, you can leave a comment everyday for the rest of the month - but just one comment per day please.


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Stormy Weather

It's been a very hectic few days.  I was able to have a nice visit with my Dad last week.  He is in the rehab area now and working on the physical therapy to get strong enough to go back to his regular apartment.  I wasn't able to get time on the computer to put up some of the posts I had planned for the weekend.  

The drive back and forth to Pennsylvania is always tiring and I needed to regroup.  We had lots to catch up on around the house and to top it off there is a "Frankenstorm" (aka Hurricane Sandy) headed our way!  I went back and added the posts last night so you can scroll back a few days and catch up if you'd like.  There is one tip that I think you'll find particularly helpful if you struggle with choosing fonts.

I hope that we will be north of the areas with the worst impact but there have been lots of warnings about potential power outages.  If we lose power, I'll have to craft the "old fashioned" way without computers and electric die cut machines, and blog about it later.  Time to pull out the dies and hand cranked machines - or even your scissors...

To all of my friends, family and readers along the Eastern seaboard - stay safe!  I hope that the predictions will turn out to be worse than reality and that there is not a lot of damage.  If you live in an area that could flood be sure to get your photos and albums up to a higher level if possible!

I hope we can still have Halloween trick or treating.  There is entirely too much candy in the house right now and I need to give it away!

(If you are curious about the photo at the top of this post, it was taken inside a car wash.  The original post with more photos is HERE.  I thought of those photos as the deluge of water from the hurricane approaches...)

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the rest of the month, everyone who leaves a comment on my blog will have a chance to win this Sizzix "Scrap Pink" set.  You can see more photos and details at THIS POST.  For more chances, you can leave a comment everyday for the rest of the month - but just one comment per day please.



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A Quick Tip for Choosing Fonts

I recently came across a site that is very useful if you have trouble deciding on which font to use for your projects.  It is called wordmark and you'll find it HERE.

When you go to the site it may be a bit difficult to understand how to use it.  All you need to do is to type the word or phrase you want to use in the center box (where it says "wordmark" in the image above).  After you type the words you want to use, click on the box in the center that says "load fonts" and the phrase you typed will appear in all of the fonts loaded on your computer.

You can scroll through the list and select the fonts you like the best.  Then you can click on "filter selected" at the top right and see just these fonts so you can make your choice.

You can make the samples larger or smaller, change from positive to negative images and alter the capitalization by clicking on the appropriate sections of the top bar. 

Sometimes you think you know which font you want but you discover that the word you are using doesn't look as nice as you thought it would.  This site could save lots of time and help you make the best choice quickly and confidently. 

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the rest of the month, everyone who leaves a comment on my blog will have a chance to win this Sizzix "Scrap Pink" set.  You can see more photos and details at THIS POST.  For more chances, you can leave a comment everyday for the rest of the month - but just one comment per day please.


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Basket of Apples - a couple of older tutorials

While many people have moved to using the Gypsy or the Craft Room with their Cricut machines, I still get questions and requests for help with the Design Studio program.

One of the things that works better with Design Studio than the Gypsy is the ability to make color previews of design to help you choose colors for your project.  You'll find a long and detailed post about this process HERE.  You can do color preview in the Craftroom and also in the software for non-Cricut machines like the Cameo.

Once you have decided on the colors, you can cut all of them at once on your mat.  This just takes a little planning but it is a great time saver if you want to make repeat versions of the cuts.  In THIS POST you can find some more information and directions that will help you plan your cuts more efficiently.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the rest of the month, everyone who leaves a comment on my blog will have a chance to win this Sizzix "Scrap Pink" set.  You can see more photos and details at THIS POST.  For more chances, you can leave a comment everyday for the rest of the month - but just one comment per day please.




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Pumpkin Face Favor Bags

These bags were made using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations "In the Bag" die.  A few people asked about the size of the bag.  The finished size is 4 inches tall, 3 inches wide and about 3/4 inch thick (sides).

The dies is a "movers and shapers" base type of die so you could insert some of the small cuts in the tray to make openings in the bags.  I'll show some examples another time.

This is the flat cut produced by the die.  The die will work in the Cuttlebug but you will need the longer plates.  If you don't have them you can run it through and then shift the "B" cutting plates slightly to cover the last section and run the die through again.  The Sizzix regular cutting plates are the correct size to cover the entire die.

On of the things I like most about using this type of die is that it both cuts and scores the bag in one pass through the machine.  You can see all of the score lines in the photo above.

I added one of the leftover pumpkin face cuts from the candy or candle holder (see original post HERE) to the front of the bag.

The slightly ragged edge at the top of the bag is a nice detail.  I use Scor-Tape to hold these bags together.  You could use a fast drying liquid adhesive if you prefer.

When the bottom flaps of the bag are folded in, the tabs interlock and the bag should be secure.

This view down into the fully assembled bag shows the folds and interlocking tabs.  I like to reinforce the bottom if i am planning to add something heavy to the bags.

I saved the cardstock leftovers from the original cut.  The section on the right side will work to cut a strip to reinforce the bottom of the bag.

I cut the strip just under 3 inches wide and 1/2 inch tall.

I used two strips of 1/4 inch wide Scor-Tape.  I set it slightly in from the edges so I peeled off the protective backing on the first piece before adding the second strip. Then I simply stuck it to the bottom of the bag.

It helps to use the handles of your scissors or some other tool to push down from the inside of the bag and set the taped piece of cardstock.

Here is the reinforced bottom of the bag.  It is now quite sturdy and can hold lots of candy!

You can leave the bag plain or add a handle made of string, ribbon, twine, paper - whatever you like!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the rest of the month, everyone who leaves a comment on my blog will have a chance to win this Sizzix "Scrap Pink" set.  You can see more photos and details at THIS POST.  For more chances, you can leave a comment everyday for the rest of the month - but just one comment per day please.

Subscribe to Capadia Designs if you would like to have new posts delivered directly to your email.