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One of the things I (Creative Team Member, Kimberly) love most about holidays is to give little gifts. This year I decided to surprise my team at work with a little Halloween treat. We always have so much food and candy around the office though, so I wanted to stay away from that and give a non-food treat. I chose to give everyone a small anti-bacterial hand gel as their Halloween treat. Bath & Body Works had the cutest Halloween themed hand gels this year that I stocked up on while they were 5 for $6. Staying true to my crafty-self I wanted to add an element to the gift that I made, so I focused on the wrapping!  I was inspired by the magazine, A Somerset Holiday, (available at P&P) and how they wrapped holiday gifts in small muslin bags. Amazon had the most adorable small muslin bags to use for this project.
I decided to use Tim Holtz’s Halloween Stamps that I had in my stash, though it was hard to choose given that P&P has so many great Halloween stamps.
Using my MISTI (this thing has seriously made me love stamping!) I laid out the stamps and design.
In a matter of minutes I had all of the bags stamped and ready to fill with the hand sanitizers. I love the little "extra" that it adds to the gift.  To finish off the gifts I plan to make some tags using Halloween ephemera and fun patterned paper.
Do you give Halloween gifts? What are your favorite non-food treats to give?
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In the past couple of weeks I’ve shared DIY projects to decorate your home (here and here) and cards to send to loved ones (here) to celebrate Halloween, but today’s post is all about YOU! Or at least decorating yourself for Halloween. Today’s post is about making a Halloween Necklace and Bracelet using items you can find at Palette & Paper (you will be looking at the washi tape in a whole new light!).
BraceletDid you know that you can make a bracelet with a water bottle, washi tape (I used Little B's gold foil spider web washi) and gel medium? It’s pretty awesome, let’s take a look!  First up, grab a water bottle, one that has a circumference similar to your wrist and is smooth. Cut the bottle open and a strip that is slightly thinner than the washi you are using. I used my heavy paper trimmer to cut a piece of the water bottle ¾ of an inch.
Tear off a piece of washi tape longer than your strip of water bottle and lay it sticky side up on your craft mat. Liberally apply gel medium to the sticky side of the washi tape (this will help it really stick to the plastic). Place the water bottle strip on top of the washi tape, apply more gel medium to the back side of the bracelet and wrap the sides and ends with the tape.
Next up, cut a piece of washi tape to measure the exact width of your bracelet (in this case ¾ of an inch). Cutting washi tape with a paper trimmer is so easy and such a great way to make “skinny” washi for a multitude of crafts. Add more gel medium to the back side of your bracelet from edge to edge (over the part of the tape that you previously wrapped around). Adhere your skinnier piece of washi to the back of the bracelet. Hold the ends down with whatever “paper weights” you have handy and leave the bracelet to dry.
To add to the spider web theme of my bracelet I wanted to add some spiders. I had a pack of Tim Holtz spider charms (available at P&P), so I carefully, with a pair of needle nose pliers, broke off the charm eyelet and colored the spider with some alcohol ink (available at P&P individually or in packs of 3 colors).
Once your bracelet has dried, dab on a liberal amount of gel medium (P&P offers a few varieties of gel medium) where you want your spider(s) to be and glue the spider on. I added two spiders to my bracelet so they would counter balance each other weight wise. And lastly, a small piece of sticky Velcro can be added to the bracelet to keep it closed.
Viola - - a Halloween bracelet and no one will believe it is a water bottle washi tape!  NecklaceFor the necklace, I gathered my supplies – Tim Holtz Spider Charms, Tim Holtz Crypt Cameos, Tim Holtz Typed Tokens – Halloween (all available at P&P) along with some other miscellaneous Halloween charms, bezel and a necklace chain I had.
I love adding in purple and green to Halloween décor and jewelry, so I decided to cover the two Crypt Cameos I was using with Alcohol Inks to make one green and one purple. I also covered a few more spiders with alcohol ink.  For the Typed Tokens, I painted a quick coat of black gesso and once it dried (in a matter of minutes) coated it with Inka Gold in a gorgeous copper color and in platinum (this product is so versatile, you should a color or two next time you are in the Shoppe).
I wanted to make a center bezel for my necklace that tied into the bracelet, so I put some of my scrap washi tape on a piece of paper, coated the back side of the clear cabochon with gel medium and glued it to the washi tape. Once it dried, I cut the cabochon out, painted gel medium inside the silver bezel and glued the washi backed cabochon inside the bezel.
Once I had all of my pieces created, I laid out the chain and the charms in the order I wanted.  Then with some jump rings and a pair of needle nose pliers I attached the charms to my necklace chain.  I love the results and can’t wait to wear my new Halloween Jewels over the next couple of weeks!  Here at Palette & Paper we are big fans of cards and happy mail. With Halloween coming at the end of the month, why not make some Halloween themed cards to celebrate the fun day and mail them to friends and family?! A quick and easy card craft is to use paper with pre-printed 3x4” “journal cards”, like you can find in various collections of paper. Two Halloween collections that are great for this are Simple Stories Happy Haunting Simple Set and Carta Bella Haunted.
 Simply cut the journal cards apart and add them to an A2 card blank with some embellishments. You can use ribbon, washi tape, twine, patterned paper and adorable embellishments, like these 3-D witches hats from Little B. Take it a step further and add Glossy Accents and Nuvo Crystal Dots.  Another fun card to make, especially to send to kids (your nieces, nephews and grandkids will love it!), is a shaker card. Gone are the days of using foam tape, acetate and more to create the shake look. The Jillibean Soup Shaker Cards make it super easy and come in an array of shapes (circles, squares, star and jars).  For this card I cut a piece of Halloween patterned paper for the cover and inked the edges with Distress Ink. I filled the jar-shaped shaker window with a mix of plastic eyeballs and beads.  Lastly, gaining inspiration from The Crafters Workshop Instagram feed, I made a sugar skull card that can be mailed for Halloween, Dia de los Muertos (November 1) or any time of year given how popular sugar skulls are. For this card, I gathered my supplies including text paper from a book, distress inks, The Crafters Workshop Sugar Skull stencil (they offer a couple of designs of the sugar skull), card blank, envelope, and washi tape (this sugar skull washi is from Little B).  I centered the stencil on the book paper and used a little piece of washi tape to keep the stencil in place. Using three colors of Distress Ink (all from kit #14 - Twisted Citron, Hickory Smoke, and Blueprint Sketch) I filled in the stencil. Once done with the coloring, I decided I wanted my page to have torn edges so I did that and added a little bit more of Distress Ink to the edges.
Using a tape runner I affixed the skull to the front of the card blank and added washi tape. To build on the gold foil in the washi tape I added some gold accents to the skull using a Gelly Roll Gold Pen. Lastly, I added a strip of washi tape on envelope to tie it all together.  Speaking of cards, our Card Drive benefiting Card Care Connect concludes this Saturday. Please click here to read more about supporting this worthy card and get your cards dropped off soon. Thanks! When the Tim Holtz “Curiosities” Ephemera came into the shoppe, I just knew I had to do something with it. The pack was filled with 97 pieces of vintage and creepy ephemera for only $5! I usually use packs like this on cards that I send to friends and family or in my planner and traveler’s notebook. I knew this time though that I wanted to use the ephemera in a way that I could see it more and enjoy it this Halloween Season.  I decided to create some Halloween décor for our living room. I started by buying three 4 x 6” frames from the dollar store. The color of the frames didn’t matter because I was planning to give them a coat of my favorite Art Basics Heavy Black Gesso. I love the black, chalky finish this gesso provides. I opted to add a little metallic finish to the frames using a little Viva Décor Inka Gold in Copper and Platinum. This tied the project nicely to the mirror I showed in last week’s blog.
Next, I cut three pieces of 4 x 6” paper from the Carta Bella “Haunted Collection”. Not only does this paper pack have great designs, but the texture of the paper is wonderful. I cut the one B and two Os using my Silhouette Machine. You can use a die cut machine, hand cut, or buy large letter stickers to achieve a similar look.
Since I removed the glass from my picture frames I decided to use small 3D Foam Squares (217 for $3!) to mount the letters on the paper rectangles to give some dimension before framing them. A pair of tweezers is so helpful when removing the backing to these little dots (definitely get a pair and keep them in your craft bag, $3).
In addition to the Tim Holtz Curiosities Ephemera I grabbed a few more Tim Goodies, including a pack of bones, brooms, skeleton cameos and small apothecary jars (I filled them with a mix of sequins and beads). I used these items to decorate the outsides of the frames.  I love the finished look of these dimensional frames, and I know these will be displayed during the month of October for years to come. For more Halloween Paper Craft Inspiration be sure to check out our Pinterest Board!  This blog post was provided by Creative Team member, Kimberly Eaton.
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Palette & Paper's blog is written by creative team member, Kimberly.
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