no tricks...just treats!

October is offically here, which means Halloween is just around the corner! Halloween treats are always fun to pass out to your kids, teachers, co-workers and friends & family.

I thought I would share some ideas on decorating yummy treats with your own creation of spooky papers. I found some great Halloween stamps at Michaels for only $1 each, but you could use whatever you have on-hand or even use some Halloween clip-art.

Instead of buying new papers, I used some older papers I had in my stash and made them into spooky, new ones! It was really easy to do and I bet you even have the supplies on-hand already. Here are the Halloween colored papers from my supplies that I used. These are from Karen Foster, but any colors that you like to use for this holiday would work.


You can do the following to either a whole sheet, smaller pieces (great way to use up scraps) or pieces you die-cut first. I tried all three ways and I found working with smaller pieces a bit easier. For this example, I pre-cut what I wanted to use for my treats.

Once you have chosen your papers, ink them up with black, brown or a combo of the two. I used a bit of both for mine this time. I used my Ranger blending tool to apply the ink, but you could use a make-up sponge or whatever you like. It doesn't really matter what ink you use, but I used a mix of Ranger Distress & Versafine. Apply as much or as little as you want until you like how it looks.

Next I misted the inked papers with water. You could probably skip this step if you want, but I think it helps to kind of "blend" the inks together with the paper and softens the ink too. Again, its personal preference...do it how YOU like it! You can also add more ink while your papers are wet.

You can let them dry now or you can move to the next step. I'm not very patient, so I didn't wait for them to dry before moving on. I think this is the fun part...now add some watercolor splats! All you do is use a lot of water and load up your brush with black watercolor paint.

Then shake & tap your very wet brush over your papers. This can be messy (or maybe it's just me?) but I used a tall box to put my papers in and then did this. You could also take it outside on the grass too. Here's what you'll have when your done.

Now let them dry.

Here is a photo of what the papers looked like before and after. See how spooky & fun they are!

Now for the decorating part. While going through my older papers, I also found these by Daisy D's and thought they would add an old, distressed touch.

Here are the treat bags I came up with, using the $1 stamps, my "new" old spooky papers and the distressed papers. To get a softer, stamped image, simply "kiss off" your stamp onto scrap paper first and then stamp your image. I think the softer images add to the oldness and look great with the spooky papers we just made. Look at the skeleton...you can see the crackled paper through...creepy!

Instead of tying my tag to the bag, I used a binder clip. I just tied my tag to the clip first and then clipped it to the bag. Simple & easy!

On the second one, I first stapled the rectangle over the top of the bag and then added my ghost tag on top. You guessed it...simple & easy!


Here are a few more that I did with some bulk candy, $1 treat bags I found at Target and more of the $1 stamps from Michaels.

I also did some candy bar wraps. The Spellbinders Nestabilities, large rectangle is the perfect size to wrap around a regular sized candy bar. No measuring or fancy folds...just a simple & easy die-cut! Then I just layered more of the $1 stamped images on top.

supplies used:
Pattern Papers: Karen Foster Lemon Chiffon, Kiwi Splash, Tangerine Swirl & Purple Swirl; Daisy D's Antique Dot, Antique Stripe & Antique Harlequin; Cut-it-Up Brushed Black
Stamps: Studio G Halloween (Michaels $1)
Ink: Ranger Distress; Versafine
Stickers: Making Memories Halloween Word Fetti
Die-Cut: Spellbinders Scallop Circle, scallop rectangle Nestabilities
Other: Provocraft Cuttlebug Machine
Ribbon: assorted scraps
Halloween bags: Michaels, Target

I hope I've given you some fun ideas to dress up your Halloween treats along with making those old papers into something new! If you create some of your own, make sure you link to it here so that we can check out what you did. I would love to see how you made some of your old papers into something spooky & new!