Mmm... Candy Wrappers. Sweet.

I was inspired by these fantastic chocolate wrappers I found: http://vintageglamblog.com/2009/01/freebie-fridays-printable-hershey-candy-wrap/

-- how sweet! They are a free download from Celeste Rockwood-Jones.

Tutorial on how to what to do to put together your own custom-labeled box of chocolates after printing out these templates is found above.

They are a lovely and sweet way to customize the little mini candy bars you can buy so many of around Halloween. Time consuming, but possibly worth it if you want to make a really personalized gift.

Except... I don't like pink unless it comes padded with lots of black. So I remade them with my own touch. Download some black and orange versions Hershey's mini wrappers below:

Halloween Mini Hershey Wraps by ~phantomPoe on deviantART

While the wrapper template came from Ms. Rockwood-Jones, the pretty wallpaper backgrounds I used I obtained here:


Victorian grunge texture pack
by *freaky665 on deviantART

Icky Pictures

It's a lot harder than you would think to find a picture of me not grinning like an idiot (and/or sticking my tongue out at the camera). Seriously, check this out... this is the kind of awful, happy face I keep finding:

What am I smiling so hard for? I hate having my picture taken and I'm wearing a wedding dress for goodness sakes (a damn fine wedding dress, might I add)!

Anyway, I'm using my own image to start work on a series of family and friend photographs to use on the walls in my house for next Halloween. The 'technique' (there is no technique yet, I'm just fiddling about) involves using the 'burn' tool to darken the eyes, duplicating a layer with just the skin and lightening it by increasing the brightness, then doing a Watercolor filter on the whole shebang to make it look -- I don't know, melty and ghostly.

Now, if I could just wipe that stupid smile off my face:

That Brush Pack I was Telling You About

When I posted about the casket-inspired bridesmaid gift boxes the other day, someone asked about the shape(s) I used on the boxes.

Well, it took me awhile to find where I downloaded them originally, but here's the skinny: it's from a photoshop brush pack available free on deviantArt thank you to the very talented creator behind MouritsaDA-stock:

Click here to see for yourself

Also, mad props to the one and only Johnny Love for selflessly pointing the ravenous Love Manor fans (um... well, me at least. I freely admit to drooling over the Love Manor photosets on a regular basis; really whenever I need inspiration... so, just about all the time) to such a wonderful photoshopping resource.

Halloween Photoshop Brushes to Share

Time be short, but I wanted to post some cuteness I ran across while researching for a 'wedding assignment'...


Unleash the bats by ~love-metal on deviantART


MDS Halloween PS Brushes by =MorfineDoll-stock on deviantART


Halloween Two: Banners by *therealShelob on deviantART

Art on the Darkside Challenge: Puppeteer

This week's Art on the Darkside Challenge: Puppeteer.

I am more of an automatonophobe than you can possibly imagine. I even got a little spooked watching the dragon/demon/thing in a recent post of ShellHawk's.

So I had to sweeten the challenge with a little bit of a beautiful icon. Something I could make dark, without scaring myself. Also... I just couldn't bring myself to keep making her look like a deaddoll/puppet. Partly because it was hard, and mostly because of how much dolls weird me out.

Meh. Not my best photoshopping work, but she does look kind of cute like that.

Save the Dates: Opinions, please?

I thought I had out Save the Dates all done, and then I decided I didn't like them.

Well, not that I didn't like them, but that they didn't fit the spirit of the wedding. So I'm trying something a little different... Husband-to-Be likes it (he says), but his excitement level is inscrutable -- his high pitch is flat as Florida.

I don't really have a lot of faith in my abilities, so I need to know -- are these awful for an outdoor Halloweeny wedding where the bride will be wearing a bustle gown and the ceremony music will be old-fashiony?

They'll be sent out as postcards, because I like the informality of it (and love getting postcards). The back will still look something like this, but with details about the wedding in the "for correspondence" section:

UPDATE: My Mom has already written to say she doesn't really like the pictures. :) Ugg. I hate my accursed need for doing something personal, and not just pre-fab.