Neon colors have been so popular this year, and while I don’t miss many of the trends that were popular in the ’80s (zigzag crimping irons, anyone?), I am embracing neon like a long-lost, very brightly-colored friend.

Needless to say, my new neon glitters are some of my current favorite craft supplies, and I had much fun creating these festive holiday gift tags. You can check out the original feature (video tutorial included) over at k.becca, and you can find the Holiday Wishes gift tag die cuts in the k.becca shop.

Warning : If regular glitter is addictive (and it is), then neon glitter is doubly so. I find myself wanting to give everything a glittery, neon glow.

Is it really almost Halloween? I haven’t even had my yearly viewing of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” yet.

I also recently realized that I haven’t yet told you about my new site, k.becca, which launched back in September. The new site is part portfolio, part paper crafts blog, and part shop. Yep, I finally opened my own shop!

I’m working hard on finishing up my Christmas and winter holiday collections, but in the meantime, if you’re looking for some fun Halloween goodies, head on over and check out the printable Halloween paper designs and die-cutting templates that are in the shop right now. And have a gander at the blog, where you’ll find some very quick and easy Halloween treat bag video tutorials. I never thought I’d ever voluntarily do a video tutorial, but I stepped outside my comfort zone and went for it, and I’m actually really enjoying making them. Look for some Christmas and winter paper craft tutorials very soon.

I’ve been working on a pretty ambitious felt tree skirt project this year, and it’s left me with a bunch of leftover ivory felt, so I’ve been trying to come up with some small projects that make use of the felt leftovers. These little ornaments aren’t at all difficult to make, even for beginners at embroidery, and even though they make extensive use of the fancy (and intimidating, so I’ve read) French knot. Trust me, the French knot isn’t difficult at all once you get a few practice knots in, and here’s a a video that takes you through it in real time, so if you’re a visual learner like me you’ll be a French knot pro in no time and will want to use this stitch anywhere that you possibly can.

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This project started off as an advent calendar and kind of took on a life of its own. I was going to make fluted circle ornaments with the calendar numbers cut out of the middle, but then I realized that numbers like “6” and “8” were going to look a little odd because their entire interiors would be cut out. D’oh! So, I morphed the project into a riff on the polymer clay wreath ornaments that I made earlier this year.

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This craft is part of the 13 Days of Halloween project. Download number templates for the project, as well as the bug template for Day 3, in the tips and supplies post. Links to all of the crafts from this project can be found in the main 13 Days of Halloween post.

This is it, Day 13! This little owl may look menacing, but he’ll be holding Halloween treats for you when you get to the big day. Happy Halloween!

Quick Tip: If you’re pressed for time and want to speed up the process, you can cut 2″ wide x 3/4″ tall pieces of black cardstock and use decorative edging scissors (Fiskars Clouds and Scallop work very well for this) to make the feather ruffles, instead of cutting out the feather ruffle templates.

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This craft is part of the 13 Days of Halloween project. Download number templates for the project, as well as the bug template for Day 3, in the tips and supplies post. Links to all of the crafts from this project can be found in the main 13 Days of Halloween post.

This craft started as a tissue paper dahlia (you can find the original craft and template at Martha Stewart Weddings), but turn it upside down and you have a ghost! I scaled the original template to 65% to make the ghost, and though I can’t include that template here for copyright reasons (don’t want Martha and her people coming after me!), I have included a quarter circle template at the same size that you can download below. If you have pinking shears or decorative edging scissors, you can use those to create an interesting edge on the circle for your own ghost.

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