Pumpkin Art Page - October Mini Projeect

So this is my second page share from my little October/Halloween Mini Project! (If you want to see the first one I did, you can have a read here) I made the booklet using the Halloween Dividers from the Mrs Brimbles Shop. You can find out a bit more about how I put it together and my initial plans for this booklet, here.

But today I'm going to be showing you a bit of a mixed media art page I did for one of the pages.

A lot of the dividers have patterns and cute Halloween themed things on them already and as I'm using this more like a Smash Book, there's going to be things I don't want to just cover up completely. This was the case for this cute little 'Jack O' Lantern' song, there was an image below the song but I decided to cover that section up and put my own there.

I chose to paint a little pumpkin, I hadn't draw or painted anything free hand in well over a year and that's not really been for any specific reason, I've just been doing other things and I simply forgot that I can actually draw haha.

I sketched out this pumpkin, (if you follow me on Twitter you would have seen the progress shots, here & here) and then painted it with Acrylic paints. I've always been quite fond of using them, I used them throughout school when I was doing my Art GCSE etc. So they are just the type of paint that I'm most comfortable using.

I drew and painted it onto some scrap paper which had a grid pattern in the background, this helped to make it not look 'perfect' I prefer it when things are mis-matched a little and it's not a 'pure' background.

Eventually I watered down some browns and blacks and washed them over the song page, so you could still see what was on it. I also picked out a Journaling card from the Halloween pack I'd got in my October Brimbles Box to go behind the pumpkin, I narrowed it down to three and then had my followers on Twitter choose the one I eventually used. You can see the other options here.

I added a couple of different Washi Tapes to the page, which are both from Cloudy Cow, and also punched out some Stars from the same scrap card I used to paint my pumpkin on.

Lastly I stuck down some of the wood veneer stars, and that's it!

I love how it turned out, my pumpkin is a little wonky and I could probably do better, but I'm pretty proud of my attempt seeing as I hadn't drawn freehand in SO long!

Thanks so much for reading!

- Daisy X

October Mini Project - Films to watch!

As you guys may have seen, either on my Blog or my Instagram, I've been adding to my little Halloween project booklet this month! If you want to see a little more about where I got the things to put it together, then have a nosey here as I did a whole separate blogpost on it.

In this blog post I am going to share a couple of the pages I've done! 

So I decided to document a couple of pages on Halloween films I wanted to watch. I chose two that I've not see in a while, and two that I've never seen before.

As always I had a rough idea of how I wanted it to look, but it did turn slightly different. I focused on layering a mixture of papers, journaling cards and washi tape, then once I'd done that I went back in with odd stickers to fill in extra spaces.

The little monster stickers were sent to me as a gift, the pumpkin sticker I got in a set from my local craft store, and the alphabet stickers were from Amazon and Hobbycraft.

I used some typewriter style stamps I had to stamp out the film titles, and then I hand drew the squares to use as tick boxes.

The two films in the above photo, I received from my friend for my Birthday and I've just not had the time to watch them. I do love a good scary film, but I definitely have to be in the right mood for them. Of course October is the perfect time to watch scary films, so I'm glad I got to do this, this month!

I left space next to the check boxes to stamp the date I watched each film and also give it a star rating out of five. After watching a couple on my list I realised that I naturally forget about just how good some of the plot lines are. Insidious I hadn't seen for a few months, but I'd completely forgotten just how creepy the plot is haha.

So yes! They are the first two pages I completed in my little Halloween project! I love how they turned out and it was the perfect way to 'break the ice' with this project. It's a simple little prompt to go with, and it makes it less intimidating to carry on.

I will be sharing some more pages during November, so keep an eye out for that!

I'll then share a full flip through over on my YouTube channel once I've completed it.

Thank you for reading, and Happy Halloween!

- Daisy X

Halloween/October Mini project!

So as I'm sure you are aware I am on the Mrs Brimbles Design Team, and this month I was sent a few Halloween craft goodies from Anna to have a play around with. At first I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. As I've said many times before, the bit I struggle with the most when it comes to any sort of crafting/arty project, is getting started. But I finally figured out what I wanted to do!

So the main thing I'm going to be sharing in this blogpost is what I did with the Halloween Dividers.

The initial thought was to turn them into planner dividers. But I've already got my dividers sorted for this month, so I tried to think about what else I could do with them.

I ended up using the whole set to make into a Halloween/October mini journal/booklet!

It's simply going to be a place for me to document everything I get up to this month, and also a place where I can go wild with anything to do with Halloween. Whether it's art, photos, scrapbooking, .... Just anything I end up doing that's based around Halloween, I will put in here.

To put it together I bought these Silver Rings from eBay, they work similar to planner rings, but they are singular and a little more fiddly! They don't sit straight, instead they wobble about a bit, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest. They keep everything together and that's all I needed them for!

I decorated the front of this little booklet with lots multiple different Halloween stickers, die cuts, washi and twine!

I'll leave some links below to some of the things used:

Halloween Dividers

Halloween/Witch Hazel Stickers

Cute/Vintage Halloween Ephemera/Die Cuts

Silver Rings

Puffy Stickers (From the October Brimbles Box)

Gold Foil Halloween Pumpkin Washi Tape

Pumpkin Sticker (From my local craft store)

Spider Die Cut (From my local craft store)

Black Heart Lace Washi Tape

(Not everything has a link, as it either wasn't bought online or I can't find a link)

I was really happy with how the cover turned out. I do sometimes get a bit carried away with little projects like this and fill every little gap I can see, but I managed to hold back haha! 

The tabs going down the side were already on the dividers, but the tabs along the top I added from the Cute/Vintage Halloween Ephemera/Die Cuts pack. The text on all of the tabs isn't there to organise them, they simply have little Halloween phrases on, and are just there for decoration.

Inside I have started to attach things I've received that are Halloween themed. Above is the adorable Ghost postcard that came in my October Brimbles Box!

I have a few ideas of things I want to add in here, and ideas of the activities I want to get up to this month. Like pumpkin carving, baking, watching scary films, all of which can be photographed and stuck in. I know we are half way through October now, but fingers crossed I'll be able to get most of these pages full!

If I don't then I can always take pages out and keep them until next year. That's the good thing about attaching them all with the little silver rings, compared to something like twine! Things can be taken in and out whenever I want.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the little project I've got on the go this October. Make sure you check Mrs Brimbles' shop to find most of the products used to create this bundle of Halloween fun!

I will be sharing some of the pages I've completed on my blog, so keep an eye out if you want to see how I end up filling this booklet with Halloween goodness.

I will also do a full flip through over on my YouTube channel once I complete it.

Have you got any projects on the go this October?

- Daisy X

*Please note, even though some of these products were sent to me free of charge, this does not sway my views and opinions. I will always share my honest views on the product and company.

My Halloween/October Planner Setup!

So October is flying by! Bitter sweet for me, the quicker the days go, the closer I come to moving out. But also a bummer because I feel like I've hardly had a chance to enjoy the Halloween festivities! I'm very glad I got my planner setup for October though, as that's put a smile on my face everytime I open it up.

I went with the purple and green Springboard planner from Filofax. If you saw my most recent haul video (here), you will have seen that I picked this planner up for a bargain price in Homesense. I love the Saffiano Filofaxes, definitely one of my favourite kinds, and this is basically a Saffiano, but it's a charity version.
I made the dashboard for it, I did a whole separate blogpost on that, so if you are interested you can have a read here.

So the charms I went with on my planner are from, yep you guess it! Kawaii Studios! When Ruth released her Halloween collection, I just could not miss out. On the left is her little acrylic Mean Ghost, which she designed herself. Then on the right is the Polymer Clay Stabbed Bleedy Cupcake, which she handmakes! I will always recommend Ruth's shop for cute planner charms, because the quality is amazing and know a lot of hard work goes into the designing and creating of all of her charms.

On the inside on the left, I have a little collection of paperclips. They are all there for decorative purposes! 

The Rabbit one is from Craftin Chaos, and I received it in my most recent Brimbles Box (It was exclusively made for the Brimbles Box, but she does do other adorable designs. Just keep an eye out on her social media!). The little badge ones I made from the Tin Pins I got from Mrs Brimbles' shop. They were super easy to make, and they help to fill up the empty space in my planner!

The pen I'm using this month is of course a Coleto. This one has a green and pinky purple barrel, with little black ghosties on it! I got it from the same eBay seller I always get my Coleto pens from, you can find their shop here.

Inside I've stuck with my same old Kikki-k inserts I got last year in my gold Kikki-k. I'm using Halloween washi tape to decorate the pages, the one used here is from Cloudy Cow, and you can find it here. That's one of the Halloween designs that I won't be restocking until next year, so once it's gone, it's gone! Just a heads up!

The pumpkin divider decoration I made from stickers! I simple stuck them how I wanted them, into a laminating sheet, and laminated it. It was just something a little different that I wanted to have a go at, and it turned out pretty good, it doesn't poke all the way out of the top though.

Last of all I have this ruler/divider, which is a little grumpy looking bear, also from Cloudy Cow! You can find a link to that here. It's not specifically Halloween themed, but I thought it went with everything pretty well considering! It's head pops out the top of my pages just enough to I can flick to the page it's on.

So that's my planner setup for October! I'm so sad that there's just about a week left of October :(

I feel like I've just not had enough time to sit and enjoy the month!

What have you been up to this month? Did you decorate you planner for October?

Let me know below! :)

- Daisy X

Making a Transparent Dashboard!

(Halloween Planner charms are from Kawaii Studios)

This October I'm definitely making the most of everything Halloween-ey!

I had some adorable die cuts to use from the Halloween Witch Hazel set which you can get on Mrs Brimbles' shop here.
I wanted to try something a little different with them in my planner, this is something I've been wanting to do for a while, but I've just not had the chance to. This is a transparent dashboard! 

You could use it on it's own, or change the card behind it whenever you feel like.

It may seem quite simple to make, and it is. But I'm going to show you the best techniques I found to go about it.

So I started off by laying things out on the cardboard dashboard to get an idea of how I wanted the transparent dashboard to look. Once I'd figured out where I wanted the die cuts, I put a laminating sheet underneath and marked out where the cardboard dashboard was. Then I marked out where the absolute limit I could put die cuts was, so I would avoid putting them over the holes. I marked these in pencil, so I could rub the marks off after it was all laminated and done.

I then put a dab of glue on the back of each die cut and arranged them inside the laminating pouch. This made sure that they all stayed put, it made it a lot less of a faff I can assure you. I can't stress enough that you only need a dab! It's just to hold it in place whilst you are arranging things, the laminator will permanently secure them later on, you want to avoid lumps and bumps of glue on the back.

As you can see above, this is what it looked like once I'd finished arranging the die cuts. There is enough space down the left hand side for the holes to go (don't worry I made sure the white skull went between the two sets of holes!). Before I laminated it I also added a few silver start stickers in some of the gaps, as you will see in the next photo.

Once it was laminated I cut it down using the pencil marks I made on the sheet originally, as a guide, and punched the holes.
That's it! That's all there is to it. I'm hoping to make some more of these transparent dashboards with different themes. I love how they look and love that I can swap out the backgrounds whenever I want.

I hope this has given you some ideas for your planner this October!

Make sure you check out Anna's shop for more Halloween goodies, I'm honestly in love with the Die Cuts.. They are just a must have, you get a lot in a pack too!

Click here to take a look at all the Autumnal/Halloween items Anna has available.

Are you decorating your planner this October? What planner are you using? I'd love to know, so let me know in the comments!

- Daisy X