Something wicked this way comes

"Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Double, double, toil and trouble;

Something wicked this way comes!"

Halloween is on its way.  I think the lines above are from a Harry Potter movie but I can say that I have heard different versions of this my entire life.  I do really enjoy Halloween.  I don't mean the evil, scary Halloween.  I mean the fun, cute costume, cool decorations type of Halloween.  

Each year when my children were smaller I made their costumes.  Thoroughly enjoyed doing it too!  Princesses, pumpkins, Buzz Lightyear, Simba, more princesses, various saints, Woody, anything Star Wars, ...........  And of course the costumes were passed down to the younger ones.  I remember the year of the capes - there was a huge argument over who got to wear the brown Star Wars cape I made.  Well, everyone got one that year.  Each one of them had a costume with a cape!  And I love that we still have those capes and the kids (even the adult ones) still wear them!  We had not 1 , but 2 costume bins in our house.  I guess with 5 children there was a need for a lot of costumes!  Just recently we purged the costume boxes.  Very sad to see some of those leave my house.  I kept a few just because I couldn't let them go (like the Simba head that I hand made! and the St Nicholas costume.   Oh, and the St Michael costume).  I do wish I had taken a picture of each and every one of them.  I guess I do have them in  a way - I am sure I have a picture of the children wearing them and that is better.

Each year I make a Halloween mini album.  Of course when all of the kids were home I had lots of pictures.  Not so much this year.  But I made the album anyway :)

I chose to use the new Tim Holtz Regions Beyond paper stash and all the goodies that go with it.  I love the papers but as I made the album I felt it needed "more".  So I added some Gecko Galz images to it.  Perfect.  The vintage nature of the paper and the vintage images I chose perfectly complimented each other.  I used Gecko Galz Wicked Words 1 and 2 and Halloween Kids 1 and 2.  Visit Gecko Galz to see these sheets and so much more (the papers for October are fabulous!)

So, I thought I would show you some of the pages:

 This is the spine of the mini.....I used canvas that I painted with Spiced Marmalade distress paint and then distressed it further with Black Soot distress ink.  The Tim Holtz Halloween line also has these cool plastic words (Alpha Words) - the 31 and the spider were part of those.  I also added some of the charms from the collection and a mini wishbone from earlier releases.

 Inside cover.  You can see I have used Gecko Galz images here.  Just a mixture of the papers and GG images.  I also pulled out all of my Halloween die cuts to use (the 31 on this page).  Each of the mini album pages have pockets flip out pages, and extra large side pockets.  Loads of room.

 I love this page.  It is a simple flip top.  You can also see that one of the tags for the side pocket hangs over onto the page.  I love this page because of the "boo".  It is an older die but still available from Sizzix. It is rather fragile when cut so I cut it from chipboard, painted it with black soot distress paint and then topped it with glossy accents.  I was in a hurry when I added the glossy accents so not all of it got covered.  I think the spotty texture adds to the effects of it.

 These are 2 of the tags from the album.  Again I used the Alpha Words to add to the tags.  I also made many of the tags "cards".  I think it adds some interest when they hang out of a pocket and then you can pull them out all together.  GG images....perfect addition.

 Another fav page....it has a mini gatefold.   Like Christmas.....you just keep opening it!  You can see more of the GG images here as well.

 A few more tags.....another card fold tag.  Don't you just love those chalkboard images?

 And this.  The coffin tag.  I have made coffin tags before but this one is larger, almost 6 inches, and has a bit more detail.  I used the Washi tape, the brads and an image from the paper stash for the front.  I like using Washi tape but sometimes find that it wants to peel off.  Frustrating.  So I usually add a light coat of Ranger Matte Medium over it (dries super fast) or depending on where it will be I may add some adhesive underneath it.  I used Washi around the edges on the tag and then coated the front with the matte medium when I was done adding my image.  It dries clear and matte so you don't even notice it.

 Inside of the coffin tag....another GG image (to cover the back of the brad at the top).  I also added a tiny pocket on the right bottom.....perfect to hold a tiny tag with a GG image on it!

And the back.  What a perfect way to end the mini than with a GG chalkboard tag.  Again, I used the matte medium to attach the tag.  It seals it down so that it will not lift off.  You can also see the black lace I added to the covers.  It is some of my vintage stash.  I found a huge roll of it years ago for $10!  Score!  It is not all that old, from the 50's.  But I love using it!

Well,  I hope you enjoyed a little wickedness!  Stop by again....I can hardly wait to share my projects for the GG Blog Hop (last week of October).  I had soo much fun making them!  And there will be some freebies too!  Enjoy your day.