Fun and Mental Changes

Okay... BACK to Halloween gifting this week!  We're makin more goody boxes using The Cutest Halloween Bundle again this week, we are also featuring the tags and labels dies from the July - December 2021 Mini Catalog (lovingly dubbed "the holiday mini").  I've got to admit, this bundle really is the cutest and I'm having SOOOO much fun playing with it simply because of how easy it is to work with.  The fact that the punch ALSO punches out the images from the DSP makes this one a super-huge winner for me.  I mean.... three goody projects in under an hour!?!  That's right!  This week's Freebie Friday On A Monday was actually recorded in under 40 minutes!  SO DOABLE to get ready for Halloween gifting!  As always, the link to the free PDF with supplies used and measurements is below the last pic and if you place a $35 or more from my online store (click "Shop With Me" in the banner at the top of this blog) using this week's Host/Hostess code  GHRG...

Tis The Season... I mean Stampin Up Holiday Mini Catalog release time AND CHECK THIS OUT! Really you guys... the holiday catalog this year is EVERYTHING!!!! Today I'm featuring a double Z Fold card that I made using the Poinsettia Petals bundle along with the Hallows Night Magic Halloween bundle..... ACK!!!!  Christmas meets Halloween here. The designer series paper goes from ghoulish to formal in a snap! I couldn't resist sneaking in the Itty Bitty Greeting "Tis The Season" for a little funny... LOL! And this paper....OMGosh, the paper!!!!  The Stampin Up Holiday Mini releases in 6 days, to place an order CLICK HERE and use hostess code GPVASDJB... you won't be sorry! 

Guess what I got in the mail!!!  The Stampin Up 2014 Holiday Catalog!!!!  And to celebrate the pre-holiday ordering season, my demonstrator gave me some stamped images to play with.  Of all of them, the Happy Hanukkah stamp JUMPED OUT AT ME!   I'll give you three guesses why.... isn't this SPOOKILY DELICIOUS?!? I IMMEDIATELY thought of Halloween when I saw this GORGEOUS candelabra and requested it be stamped without the "Happy Hanukkah" sentiment as it is all one stamp.  The Hanukkah example in the catalog is really very beautiful, but this sort of SCREAMS Halloween to me.  I'll give you two more guesses what will be on my next Stampin Up order.... LOL! And so it begins!  This is my first Halloween project this year and my blood is boiling with excitement for the upcoming Halloween season. Gonna have to brew some coffee.... I'm gonna be inking up some more Halloween fun!  MAN!  I need to get...

Just a quick one today.  And I'm not off my rocker (well not anymore than usual).  This post is because my craft room was in storage for the bulk of last year and I'm becoming reacquainted with everything, so when my friend Cindy came over yesterday with all her Stampin Up goodies and a box of Halloween stuff.... well I couldn't resist.  COME ON.... HALLOWEEN?!?  You KNOW I couldn't!!!! So have you guys seen the Stampin Up Chalk Talk die set?  Isn't it INCREDIBLE????  I jumped on Pinterest to see what people were doing with that set and here's what I came up with (see how I took complete credit for someone else's design ideas.... just kidding, you can check out the designer's creation HERE , this is just my interpretation): Click on the link above to see how to make Nicole's little Halloween goodie box.  For mine I used Cindy's pre-embossed web card that she challenged me to do something with (I hope she wasn't expecting a complet...

Check out what I featured for my Spectrum Noir design team post today!!!  I figured, what could be better than a tutorial on coloring the creases and folds in a witch's hat???  After all, it IS the day before Halloween!!!  So once I had her colored, I KNEW exactly what I was going to do with her!!!  A coffin treat box of course!!! Isn't that coffin treat box CU-UTE???  I'll go ahead and list the Spectrum Noir colors I used to color this gorgeous little Saturated Canary witch from the Witchkeys digi (click HERE to get the digi) and then I'll post the tutorial pics for creating hat creases.   Witch's Hat, Dress and Shoes:  IG9, IG4, IG1 Accessories:  PL1, PL4, OR1, TN3 Skin:  EB1, EB2, IG3 Hair and Book of Spells:  TN7, TN3, TN1 "Best Witches" outlined with CG1 Ok, here's the tutorial: Ok, that does it!  Be sure to check the Spectrum Noir blog for MORE projects, tips and tricks from th...

Ok, so this cat was copied (mostly) from the OH-SO-TALENTED YouTuber Becxstar123, you can check out her tutorial HERE .  I used Diamond FX in Black, White, Yellow and Orange.  I finished my eyes using Ben Nye Black shadow.  As I've been saying for weeks, the right brushes and the right products makes creating looks like this surprisingly easy.  My contacts are from Colorlens4less.com and are SUPPOSED to be yellow cat eyes, unfortunately the yellow is so light that my blue eyes show through making those cat eyes look like a dingy green.  I really was hoping for yellow. Every pair of contacts I own have been purchased from Colorlens4less.com and MOST of my contacts are perfect.  The only problems I've had are with the yellow pairs.  For whatever reason the yellow just isn't quite opaque enough and end up looking green. Also, a quick note about cat eye contacts as opposed to other contacts that have a round center.... the black slit in the eyes DO N...

Ok, so my friend Bailey requested a Zombie look.... this one's for you Bailey!!!  This look is PERFECT for my blood red contacts ( ColorLens4Less.com )!  It makes this look seem a bit more "diseased"!!!  For this one I started with a white base and then layered purple, red and grey to create the zombie-like shadows.  I drew on the scratches on the eyes using my black eye liner.  SO SIMPLE!!!  I'm so hoping I get to redo this look on Bailey.... hopefully I can get her to model too! ;) 6 DAYS LEFT!!! UPDATE:  Since Bailey's request.... I also received a zombie request from my friend Krista. Maybe I can get them BOTH to model for us!?!  Fingers crossed!

Ok, so a couple of days ago I featured a dark fairy.... well, on special request, here's my "light" fairy!!! Scroll to the bottom for complete instructions on how to fix a cheap wig or keep reading on how I did this fun Halloween makeup on a budget. So my makeup was done in purples and blues (Yeah baby... that's blue mascara!!!!  Hello, 1980's!) using colors from my new Day, Night, Play Palette Purse I just got from Ulta.  This thing is AWESOME and quite a find.  It's on sale right now, buy one get one half off.... just in time for Halloween dress up!!!  I actually used a coupon and got it for around $20, so it fit my quickly dwindling Halloween budget but made for quick work of putting this light fairy look together.  Check it out: The purple you see on my lips is actually the same purple I used for the crease of my eye.  To create those purple lips, I simply scraped some of the purple shadow onto my counter top using a clean bobby pin, wet a l...

This one calls for a red and gold kimono.... don't you think!?!  If only I could get my hands on one this close to Halloween.... EVERYONE IS SOLD OUT IN MY SIZE!!!  Crap! I don't have a lot to say about this look other than to say that I used a mesh cap to create the scales.  The makeup was simply black, red and white eyeshadow!!!  Yep, another SUPER easy one for someone on a budget.  The eyes were lined using a Revlon liquid eyeliner pen and the lips are just my red OPI lipstick.  That's it.  The contacts were featured a few weeks ago (see that look HERE ).... so you see..... absolutely no bells and whistles.  Honestly, the right kimono would be all the bells and whistles you'd need to make this look stand out.  TRICK-OR-TREAT!  Seriously! Hang in there gang.... 9 more days!!! YAY!

This one is a FAVORITE!!!  When I got the white manson contacts from ColorLens4Less.com I also got this pink pair (cuz they were havin a sale for two!!!) and I'm thinking that I love these THE MOST!!!  For this fun Halloween look I used all the same colors that I used for my Hatless Hatter look (call me lazy.... everything was still out and on my bathroom counter) except I muted all the eye colors and gave myself a deep lip color so that all the attention would be drawn to those A-MA-ZING pink contacts.  The one addition for this look is that I went around the entire perimeter of my face with grey eyeshadow.  I then used the grey to add very light shadows under my eyes, although, those rockin pink contacts are really the only thing I see when I look at this pic!!!  All that's left is to add a little glitter around the eyes and some fairy wings on my back and I'm ready to go trick-or-treatin!!!  10 DAYS LEFT!!!

Well.... so this in my LOOSE interpretation of Tim Burton's Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.  My pinks were more on the purple side, and I didn't have white mascara but..... didn't I rock those eyebrows!!!  LOL!  And honestly, my eyelashes are so blonde, I really didn't need the white mascara anyway.  I think, in the movie, the hatter had an orange-ish brown color lining his water line on ONE of his eyes and white lining the water line of the other, then white mascara on his lashes.  I didn't have the mascara or the orange-ish liner so I lined my water lines with white pencil.  Lucky for me I already have the orange hair, but unlucky for me my hatter is missing her hat!  I really dug this one even though I was missing quite a bit.... but this look still pulled together!!! This look features Illamasqua white foundation mixed with Mac NW15 Studio Fix Foundation.  I then used various pink, purple and red eyeshadows around the eyes and ch...

Ok, so this one is just a quick one.  I got my yellow cat eye contacts the other day and couldn't wait to put them in and play.  I originally was going to do a cat face for my next Halloween look in my Halloween series, but when I put the contacts in they turned green up against my blue eyes.  That's ok, I kind of dig the green hue, I just wish the color was more intense!!!  And a little thing I JUST learned with contacts.... THEY MOVE!!!  It was SO HARD keeping the vertical pupils vertical!!! But they were in and so this abstract dragon emerged. As before, this look features Ben Nye and Diamond FX makeup.  I used #2 and #4 round brushes along with a 3/4" flat brush... but no wig this time, so nobody laugh at my hair!  LOL!  The yellow cat eye contacts came from Colorlens4less.com (my blue eyes show through the yellow making them more of a greenish yellow cat eye). I'm thinking I need a little more practice.  The left side of my face ...

Ok, THIS is AWESOME!!! I am absolutely gaga and over the moon for this Great Pumpkin cake!!!  So BECAUSE of this awesome cake (that by the way, gets a MILLION high fives from me), I decided to host a Pampered Chef show ONLINE!!!  I NEED that fluted cake pan...don't you???  So no matter where you live in the United States, you can join the party... your stuff will ship to you.   Here's all you need to do: Simply go to http://pamperedchef.biz/alisonheikkila Click on "Shop" Choose "Pick a host" Type "Danielle" in the first host name box And "Johnson" in the second Then shop till your heart's content!!! How easy is THAT?!?  What a perfect way to celebrate the fall season.  Personally, I think this cake would look fabulous on EVERYONE'S table, and I'm working on a GLUTEN FREE Pumpkin Spice cake recipe JUST for this awesome pan and just in time for my Halloween festivities. I'm sorry, did I say one million high fi...

So it has been a long week and a half since my good friend Trish passed away and THANKFULLY another dear friend came in to town to make me feel WORLDS better.  She even allowed me to use her as a guinea pig model for my Halloween series here on my blog: Now THAT is friendship!!!  Check her out!!! I'm telling you.... the right makeup and brushes makes the WORLD of difference when putting together a look for Halloween.  This was my first attempt at doing someone else's makeup, but I'm thinking that I'll keep practicing.  Maybe I'll offer to do Halloween makeup for ALL of my friends!  Anyone brave enough?  LOL!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So for those who might be wondering what I used for this look... Diamond FX White applied with a lightly dampened makeup sponge for the white base Ben Nye Pressed Shadows in Brownberry, Black, White and Soleil Red Black details were done with Ben Nye Cake Liner mixed with a couple of drops of Ben Nye LiquiSet The fin...

Ok, so here's my ultra quick homage to the Scream franchise (serious Halloween fun)... and a fun, creepy image for my black Halloween mani!!! Shown here is CND Shellac in black pool with the fauxnad image I got from Beautiful Scratchers , image plate T29.  Word of warning with these fauxnad plates:  the images are much larger than other image plates so in order to actually wear this image, I had to grow my nails out.  Only my ring finger was long and wide enough for this image, which is completely fine since it's quite popular and fashionable to have nail art on only one nail.  And this one sure does look cool!!!  That black looks like glass!  Yep.... I'm heartin Shellac again!!! And more on the image plates from Beautiful Scratchers .... while large, the images are UNIQUE AND AMAZING!!!  I'm going to be getting a few more of these image plates in the future.  You'll definitely want to check them out.  I give Beautiful Scratchers 10 Hi...

I am GIDDY with excitement this year and am ALL OVER Halloween party design ideas!!!  So for my feature today on Spectrum Noir's blog, I featured THIS little guy: ISN'T HE GREAT!?!  He's actually an old image I bought from The Octopode Factory , but for some reason never used (silly me).  He is PERFECT for this treat bag place holder!!!  Here's a little tip for those who might want to give this one a try for an upcoming Halloween party.... color the image, scan it and then print multiple copies.  It is a WHOLE lot easier than coloring a ton of them for each and every guest.  Well, of course, unless you really love your guests and want to give each of them something you personalized for them.  But depending on your guest list, that might be A LOT of coloring!!! hehehehe! Here is a list of all the Spectrum Noir markers I used: Rabbit, Trousers and Shoes:  GG1, GG2, GG3, GG4, GG5, GG7 Ears and Nose:  BP6, BP1 and PP2 Hat and Shirt:...

OK, so I keep posting my Halloween makeup pics on Facebook and I keep getting comments about how weird I am.  Please let me assure you that while I certainly AM weird as all get out, the Halloween faces are NOT part of my weirdness.  Actually, it's really quite normal!  It's all because I ordered theatrical makeup this year for Halloween and ever since it arrived I've been compelled to play.... WOULDN'T YOU?!?  I mean, it's like getting a new toy.... it would be weird if I DIDN'T play with it!  Right?  And I suspect, like all new toys, this makeup will get "played out" and will eventually get old and I won't play with it as much (but let's hope not).  So until it does get old, how about we just say that I'm doing a "Halloween Series"?  That makes this whole "playin in the makeup" a little less weird.  Yes?  Alright!  Next up in the series: This makeup reminds me of some sort of voodoo tribal makeup.... I feel like I...

A few weeks ago I placed an order for theatrical makeup and just received it a short while ago.  I CANNOT believe how much easier it is to put a look like this together with the right makeup!!!  My last Halloween makeup post was all about keeping Halloween inexpensive, but this post is about what can happen when you invest a little!!! I literally completed this look (with hair) in under a half hour!!!  Halloween makeup has NEVER taken me less than an hour.  Oh, and that time included the contacts!  Hard to believe I know.... but I've been practicing.  See, my last Halloween makeup post included a link for a sale on Halloween contacts and I just COULDN'T pass up the great deal (click HERE for deets on the "great deal").  So when both pairs of contacts arrived, I quickly stored them in solution and have been popping them in once a day.  My poor husband!  He has NO CLUE what color his wife's eye's will be at any given time when he looks at ...

Oh how I missed you!  This is a mani I haven't done in quite some time and I JUST realized that it NEVER got posted on my blog the first time I did it.  I can't believe it!  It's one of my favorites... and NOT just because it's a Halloween mani (mostly, but not entirely).  I like it because of all the Konad image plates I get to use to create this wonderful Halloween collage on my nails!  So here it is for the first time here on FunandmentalChanges.com!!!  And check out my thumb.... My thumb is sort of an exception to the rest of the manicure because the scary jack-o-lantern is off of a "fauxnad" plate, but the rest of the Konad images plates are M3, M17, M18, C01, C04 and C05.  Wow.... that really IS a lot of plates!!! So my base coat is Nail Aid's Pink Growth Therapy, then one coat of Orly's Mirror Mirror and then the various images stamped in Konad's special black and white polishes.  I LOVE THIS ONE!!!  The inspiration for this ...

Alright.... just a quick one today since I'm in the Halloween spirit, I thought I'd do my nails using one of my favorite past Konadicures.  Some of you may remember this one from a couple of Halloween's ago and it just so happened to be my first run at a Halloween manicure!!!  So to recap, I just simply used a base coat of Nail Aid's Instant Wrap so that my nails had a nice strong base.  Then I polished just the tips using OPI's Tangerine Scene and topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite Quick dry top coat for a fast dry.  Once dry, I stamped the lace image from Konad image plate M69 using the Konad gold-black special polish.  Finally, I stamped the spider from image plate M1 using Konad's special polish in black and applied another top coat of Seche Vite.  That was it... couldn't have been easier.  This is probably one of the easiest manicures, but sure does pack a creepy yet gorgeous punch!!!  This was the perfect mani to keep me from miss...