Glampire Bride and Day of the Dead

Well, it's October and you know what that means...Halloween! I love Halloween and dressing up, going to parties and of course, pretending to be something else for a day. I used to even sew my own costumes back in the day before we had the kiddos but now I mainly focus on getting their costumes ready which still puts a big smile on my face because they are so darn cute!

So, I was super excited to partner with a few very talented friends and stage a little glamour Halloween photo shoot. I'm loving how our Glampire Bride and Day of the Dead look came together!

Lynda (Lynda Jackson Beauty) was the mastermind behind the Glampire Bride make-up and it was stunning and eerie all at the same time. We are both fans of vampire pop culture (yes, that means Twilight and Vampire Diaries) and wanted our bride to have that mysterious, supernatural look yet mesmerizingly beautiful all at the same time.  It's the red lining of the eyes and those lashes that extend out like wings that really does the trick and push the look from "everyday" to Glampire!

I snapped a few photos with and without the veil and flower accent and just love these two shots of our Glampire Bride (the lovely Anissa from House Seven). Way to get into character, Anissa!

Once the birdcage veil and flower was added, our Glampire Bride look was complete! 

I had decided that I wanted to do Day of the Dead for my own Halloween costume this year and what better way to get ready for it than to practice applying the costume make-up myself. Day of the Dead make-up can traditionally be very intricate and detailed but I had wanted to approach it with a more simplified design. I'm pretty excited about how it turned out and can't wait to try it on myself! 

Vanessa was also the perfect person for this role, too.  She had the perfect features for this style and I love, love her long hair. So striking!

Sarah Smith was our hairstylist for the day and did a fabulous job on both our models. I was super impressed how quickly she whipped up the hairstyles and to top it off, she was a lot of fun to work with. I'm looking forward to the next project with both Sarah and Lynda!

The paper flowers were created from a textured stock that I found at Michaels. I singed the edges of each petal with a lighter to achieve the dark outline which also gave the petals a more organic shape. Watch out though as a couple of them started to really catch on fire. Safety first!

If you are wanting to recreate these flowers, here are a couple of great tutorial links for Dahlia and Ranunculus flowers. I didn't follow them exactly but referenced them more for general shape and structure. 

The entire photo shoot was a lot of fun and really got me excited for Halloween. We will be in Disney next week and have tickets to the Halloween party so it should be tons of fun! Can't wait to share pics with you all of my own Day of the Dead recreation. J

DIY Chevron Arrows

Hello! I've been working on a new look for our entryway and was in need of a little DIY wall art. I knew I wanted something wooden and something geometrical and I really love the chevron arrow trend I see popping up everywhere (even on my blog, haha). Just the perfect design to finish off the entryway wall!

The finished size of the arrows needed to be small so I started thinking through what materials I might have laying around that could be used to create them and luckily, I had some jumbo craft sticks leftover from another project that would work beautifully. 

Here's a list of the materials I used:

• Jumbo craft sticks
• Self-healing cutting mat (with a 45 degree guideline)
• Xacto Knife and additional blades
• Ruler (or a triangle if you do not have a cutting mat with the 45 degree guideline)
• Hot glue gun
• Minwax Wood Finish in Classic Gray
• Foam brush
• Krylon Dual Superbond Paint + Primer in Copper Metallic
• Painter's tape
• Command Picture Hanging Strips in small

I cut the craft sticks in half at a 45 degree angle as well as both ends to make two chevron pieces. Each piece measured 2.75" from the longest points. Once assembled together, the arrow was slightly longer than 4" and just a bit taller than 3".

I cut a support piece that was 2" in length and secured it (using a hot glue gun) to the backside of the chevron pieces to hold the arrow together. With the arrow being small in size, the one center support seems to hold these together pretty well but any larger I would suggest adding addition supports to the backside.

I wanted these to have a weathered look so I stained them with Minwax in Classic Gray and to add a bit of extra charm, I taped off the middle of the arrow with 2" wide painter's tape and then spray painted the top and bottom exposed edges with copper metallic paint. I'm kind of a fan of copper and rose gold right now and love using it as accents throughout the house. Makes me smile. J

To hang them, I used Command strips. This way I didn't have to worry about nailing anything to the wall and if I didn't align them perfectly to my liking, it was an easy adjustment with the interlocking fasteners.

A super easy project! There are so many different ways to style and display these so have fun with them. J I'd love to see how your chevron arrows turn out!