Halloween, Already!

Hi Everyone,
Its August 4th! Summer is winding down for us here at the homestead. I know school does not start for another 5 weeks.  Truth be told Rory's new lunch box and backpack are sitting in the kitchen ready to go.  How scary is that? So that scary leads me to . . .  Halloween! yeah my favorite crafty holiday! I have started to see a few things popping up here and there on the blogs and boards I follow.  I have been thinking on a few things for this years treats.  I try to come up with a treat for Rory to take to school and something for Sam and I to take to work. I also try for a little home decor piece to add to my vast collection.  So it seems simple enough when I get started but there is so much crafty goodness floating around that I keep re-focusing on something else.  So this year I am going to simplify! So the first thing is I am NOT going to buy more themed paper. Sitting on my work table is pad after pad, sheet after sheet of Halloween themed paper. True I love it all, and I even saw more that I loved via this years CHA summer previews.  But I am taking a stand.  I will NOT buy anymore Halloween paper no matter how much I love it!! One can clearly see I have issues with Halloween themed paper. Here is a picture of my Halloween stash.

And this does not even show my Halloween scraps!
The second stand I am taking is I will NOT buy any Halloween themed embellies! Nope I am done there too! No more brads, punches, scullys, stamps or stickers.  Here is a picture of my Halloween embellie draw. Which I must tell you does not include my Halloween fabric bin or my Halloween rubber stamps. Yup, this picture does not even show my magnet board that is filled with containers of plastic spiders and brads etc.

 People, you do realize I can duplicate these 2 pictures for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, 4th of July, Baby, Wedding, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Birthday . . . The list goes on and on. I think I need a crafting intervention!  Is there shelving in padded rooms?
OK, back on topic, So this year I thought to simplify I would use 1 color scheme to cross the 3 projects I want to make. So looking at the stash I notice I have a good supply of green (Stampin' up Lucky Limeaid) black and white.  I see a lot of black and white stripes again this year so I am thinking this will be my colors for Halloween 2012. For the work favors I will use Ghirardelli chocolates. Last year Rory and I did pencils for her class.  There were simple, cute and candy free.  I loved them and I am thinking of using them again this year because the kids just get so much candy when they "trick or treat".  So this week end I hope to clear the "cobwebs" and get started on design my work favors.  Last years theme was bats. The tag line was "It's Halloween, Let's all go a little batty" Here a picture from last years post:

I am working on this years.  I had seen the phase "You say wicked like it's a bad thing" I liked it so much I wrote it down in my Halloween Smash book. I think I am headed in that direction.
So off I go to get started and here is a .png of a digi paper I made using my DSA2.  My inspiration came from the new Carta Bella paper line.  I figured since I have committed to not buy any paper I might as well make my own. The image is a Stampin' Up spider from their dark and dreary stamp set. Hope you like it.

Have a great week end everyone!
Lysa