Bats & Broomstick Frame

(Carly's birthday post is always a long one, I apologize in advance!)

As my daughter Carly's birthday is on Halloween, October 31st is pretty important at the Weber house.  Not only did my kids love decorating the house with all things scary, we also added in some birthday decor to go along with it.

I didn't become "crafty" until my kids were grown, so I was a little late to the game when it comes to making my own decorations, but the last several years I have made some type of Halloween project with Carly and her past birthdays in mind.  Two years ago I made this:

Witches Wardrobe

This was actually a card, but we saved it and will set it out every year.

Last year I made a birthday frame:

Halloween Birthday

This was Carly's first Halloween

This year, Carly turns 22 years old.  I know!  How old does that make me?  Way too old, but at least I have a lot more time to play with all of my crafty goodies than I did when Carly was 8 years old as she was in the picture below.  As I looked back at Halloween pictures, I realized Carly was a witch for Halloween at least 4 times...so this year I focused on one of her "wicked" birthdays for my project. 

 Here is my 2013 tribute to Carly's Halloween Birthday:

I just received my new Lil' Inker September release stamps and dies and used them to make a dimensional frame.  I took out the hologram image that came with the 10 x 12" frame and created a scene of my own.  First I cut a frame border on my silhouette.  I scaled it so that the three boxes were the right sized to match a Lil' Inker Stitched Mat Square die (detailed picture of Lil' Inker's trademark stitching below).
For the largest square, I used Lil' Inkers new Bats and Broomsticks stamp set as well as the matching die.  Isn't the lined pattern on the stamp a great touch for the witch silhouette?

The bats also have that great lined pattern too.  

I also used a great sentiment from Bat's and Broomsticks.  All of the sentiments from this set a so different from the typical "kiddy" type Halloween sentiments and are perfect for us "older" witches.  I also added a scary looking tree using the Memory Box Grand Willow Tree die which I embossed with a woodgrain texture and used black ink to shade it up a bit.  The moon is die cut from cream glittered cardstock using Lil' Inker Stitched Mat Circles and the tombstones are also from Memory Box (Graveyard Landscape).  Several of these dies are popped up with dimensional foam and adhered to cardstock from MME (Wicked collection).

For the decorated squares along the side, in addition to Carly's picture, I used Lil' Inker's Rainbows and Clouds die to make a Halloween type rainbow cut from glittery cardstock.  

You can see the great stitched detail on the Stitched Mat Squares and cloud in this one.  I also added a few more bats.

For the last square, I had to add a spiderweb and black widow spider.  That story is much too long to tell, but Carly was bitten by one when she was 9 months old and it was a very scary time for us.  I always add something spider-related to her birthday projects.  

I even cut out Carly's picture with the Stitched Mat Square die...adds a little extra something to such an old photo.

That's it for this year...the frame is all ready to display when I drag out all of my Halloween decorations for the month of October.  Yes, even at 22, the entire month of October is still birthday month for Carly.  One of these days that will change and she will dread adding that extra year, but for now, her Halloween birthday is something we all look forward to.  Thanks for sticking with this very long birthday post.