Friday, October 31, 2014

I am the Pumpkin King!

*Any excuse to use a Nightmare before Christmas quote*

Perhaps not the king, but a runner up maybe... I am very happy with my pumpkin this year! I felt like I've learned new pumpkin carving skills over the last years and this one is actually combining many of them. This year I wanted to bring back my so far favorite pumpkin, Evil-Bob, who my long-time readers might remember from 2012.

I'm pleased to introduce to you:

Evil-Bob 2.0

Happy Halloween 2014 He's back and meaner than ever! This year's model comes with pointy teeth, carved out eyes and an exceptionally sinister vibe!

I also wanted to share with you guys my costume and pumpkin from last year. I dressed up as Pam from Archer and my pumpkin... Well, see for yourselves:

Halloween 2013
I am sharing some Halloween photos at least on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, so remember to follow me there!

Do you guys have something fun planned for tonight or for the weekend? Please share!

Monday, October 27, 2014

Monday Mail

My October has not been what I expected it to be. In the last month I have been to a bachelorette party, a wedding and a baptism. I have also driven to Montreal twice and spent a week in Finland. All the things I planned on doing didn't quite pan out, but they were replaced with other things. So I guess I still ended up on the positive.

I am enjoying the Halloween feel you get when you walk around the neighborhood. I saw glimpses of it driving back last night, and I think I might just go out for a walk with a camera today to capture some of the awesome decorations! I'll share the highlights with you this week!

To keep even a little shred of consistency, here's some mail from the last few weeks:

Outgoing

Spiderwebs This is the prize package going out to Eva. She won the Halloween giveaway last week!

blue triangles The next one is a pretty fun one! It's an order from my shop going out to Katherine. I really like the envelope! I picked it up on my travels and added some extras with the washitape decorations and a ton of vintage stamps. I really like how it turned out!

grey outgoing, halloween This is another order from the shop. A handmade envelope, washitape and a mix of new and vintage stamps. Fairly standard, but I really like seeing them come together, because the results are always different, even if the components are often the same.

I've actually sent a few more, but since it has been a crazy couple of weeks, I've had to send things out without taking photos. *Le gasp*

Incoming 

Collage, incoming
Collage, back I wanted to share this incoming letter, since I really like the decorations. It's from Susanne. Just look how awesome it is!

How are you guys doing? Getting excited for Halloween?

Thursday, October 23, 2014

And the Winner is...

Yes, it is finally time to announce the winner!

Congratulations to:

contest winner

That's right, it's EVA!

I've e-mailed you asking for your mailing details!

And, as I mentioned, I wanted to send another small Halloween surprise for the best costume story! Since I really liked two, I am sending Halloween mail for Mary and Caddi! Mary's getting mail because of that amazing Edward Scissorhands costume and Caddi for the fun story about a Colombian couples costume! Watch your e-mails ladies!

Thanks for all your stories and entries!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Mail Monday - Win a Halloween surprise!

That's right guys! Instead of sharing mail I've sent out last week, I am doing a Halloween themed mail giveaway instead!

Woohoo! Let's start with the actual prize and the instructions on how to participate are below.

Halloween stationery giveaway I've put together a large package of all sorts of Halloween goodies! Since I love sending out mail, you will get a whole bunch of Halloween themed stationery as well as some other Halloween awesomeness.

The winner will get at least the following

- Miniature Ouija board
- Roll of Halloween washi tape
- Black letter paper
- Miniature Dia de los Muertos flag
- Stickers
- Envelopes
- Candy
- Halloween themed paper cutouts 
- And a few little surprised too...

I don't want to reveal all the specifics since I think it'll be a nice surprise to receive a package in the mail... But I will basically send you a large trick or treat bag full of halloweenie goodies! (teehee, weenie)

To enter:

You can enter this giveaway in four ways, each giving you one entry!

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Leave a message to this post about a great Halloween costume! It can be something amazing you've worn or seen someone else wear. It can be something you'd like to wear if you got the chance. It can be an idea for a kids costume or a couples costume or a phenomenal group costume! It can be about any kind of a costume, but let's keep the stories positive!

Follow Brinner on Facebook

Follow Brinner on Twitter

Tweet about the Giveaway 

This giveaway is open to everyone, anywhere in the world.

I will draw the winner of the prize at random, but please put some effort into your answer. I will reward at least one great costume-related story with an additional small Halloween snailmail surprise!

Entries to this giveaway will close on midnight on Sunday October 19th.

Halloween stationery giveaway Good luck everyone! I'm really looking forward to hearing your costume stories!

Friday, October 10, 2014

3 years - Is that even a toddler anymore?

I got this nagging feeling at the back of my head that today is somehow important. I don't think it's anyone's birthday (ok, anyone I know. I assume a lot of people have birthdays today. Happy birthday!) and I didn't have any kinds of deadlines approaching...

I'm glad I checked! As of today, I've been blogging for 3 years! Holy crap. That's a long while. I mean, I did take a few breaks, but still... So many things have happened...

The blog name changed. I stopped using a nickname and started blogging with my own name and face too. (I should probably change that photo soon. It's been the same one for a while now. I've moved to a new city. I began and stopped working. I got tattoos (3 of them). I was happy and I was sad... So many things! I mean, I have (sort of) had (tried) to be a (somewhat) responsible adult. Because, you know, a kid.

I challenge you to think over the last three years! What has happened? Please share some of your experiences, I'd love to hear about them!

I feel like we should celebrate somehow... Any ideas?

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Halloween DIY - Simple foldable Bat Cards 2.0

Since I already saw the Halloween sign, it's time to get a move on with the preparations!

I've been busy dying paper for some brand new tutorials and assembling some really nifty Halloween goodies for a giveaway! I'm also experimenting with some Halloween mail, which, of course, has put me in the snailmailing mood!

Over the last year or so, the readership of this blog has been steadily increasing, so I wanted to share a few improved tutorials from the Brinner past...It's time to fix some past wrongs that have been bugging me!

First up:

Halloween Bat cards
...Halloween bat cards!

I still love these! One of my all-time favorite Brinner tutorials!

This was the first one that was pinned multiple times on Pinterest and I actually got some feedback on. It was the one that kind of proved I was on the right track.

It was, however, way too complicated. I tracked my own process step-by-step but it didn't really translate into simple instructions. Now I feel like I am much better at this, so I re-wrote (and photographed) a new, much simpler way to make these!

(If you want to see the original CLICK HERE)

Bat card Tutorial You'll need

- Pen or pencil
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Two rectangle or square shaped items, one a bit smaller than the other. I used two postcards, but anything in that shape works, books, coasters, notepads, etc.
- Cardboard. I used a cereal box, like I often do. Any sturdier paper/cardboard works.

The above are for a template (you know how I like those, right?)

For the cards you'll also need

- Black card or paper (I used poster board which is a really nice, sturdy cardboard. Also, very cheap!)
- White (or other light/bright colored) pen (I like using a gel pen for this)

Bat card Tutorial Start by placing the larger rectangle in the middle of your cardboard, leaving enough space on both sides to fit the smaller rectangle.

Bat card Tutorial

Trace the large rectangle in the middle and the smaller one on both sides. Make sure the larger and the smaller rectangles are connected from one side. 

Bat card Tutorial

I traced them with a black pen so you can see exactly what I mean. 

Bat card Tutorial Use the ruler to draw a line across all three rectangles about a half inch (or one centimeter) below the top of the smaller rectangles. Do this on the top and bottom. Check the photo below how your rectangles should look now.

Bat card TutorialThe reason for the line is to help draw the extremities of the bat and keep everything in an easily foldable and manageable size. Don't draw anything outside the newly drawn lines, except for the bats ears and feet. Those are coming up next.

Now for some simple freehand drawing.

Bat card Tutorial On the top of the middle rectangle, draw two pointy ears and a small dip from both ears to the side of the rectangle (this will be the bats head).

Bat card Tutorial At the bottom of the middle rectangle, draw two feet. As you can see, this is not an exact science. I screwed up the first one, so I just made the foot bigger. I felt my bat needed cankles.

Bat card Tutorial To draw the wings, round out the tops of the smaller rectangles.

Bat card Tutorial This is what your template should look like right now. If it doesn't, don't worry, just go back and adjust anything you feel like doesn't look right. Remember, this is your template, you can redraw bat-canckles until the cows come home if you feel like it and your cards will still look super-impressive!

Bat card Tutorial Finally, the last step of your bat-drawing adventures is at hand. Finish off the bottoms of the wings with some arches. These can be as steep or shallow as you like. I felt like making a slightly meaner looking bat with some pointier wings. Totally up to you.

Honestly, if you're not sure about this step, you can just leave the bottoms of the wings totally straight. Anyone seeing the shape will know it's a bat, no matter how pointy or flat the wings are!

(Seriously! Don't give in on the "real bats have curves" hype! Your bats are perfect the way they are!)

Bat card Tutorial And, you have a bat! Now, cut out that sucker!

(Get it? Bat? Sucker? Man, I'm so hilarious*!)

Bat card Tutorial Here's your bat template! You can obviously round out some edges or fine-tune your bat still if you want. I actually quite like this guy...

Once your template is finished, it's pretty simple from this point onwards. Even the old tutorial got this part right...

Halloween Bat Card Place the template on your black paper and trace the outline of the bat. Repeat as many times as needed or as fits on your paper.

Halloween Bat cards Cut out your bats and fold the wings towards the middle. Fold them along the line where the larger and smaller rectangles meet.

And you're done! Just write away!

If you make these cards, I would love to see them! Please link your versions to this post!

As always, any comments are welcome! Did you feel this tutorial is better than the old one? Would you like more photos? More great jokes? Please let me know!

*) Ok, I'm sleep-deprived

Monday, October 6, 2014

Mail Monday

It feels like I've been gone for a long time... I know it's only been since last Wednesday, but it has been a busy few days. I actually went to Montreal for a few days. It was a quick visit, but very much needed.

I attended a dear friend's bachelorette party, including some quality time with some lovely ladies and karaoke (I don't sing, but I jam along). I got to finally meet my niece, 

...

[stunned silence]

GUYS! I have to interrupt the regular post-writing for this important announcement: A BAT just flew by the window. I shit you not. A bat. I was writing the previous sentence, paused to think, looked up and all casually, like it's no big deal, a bat.

It's a sign! HALLOWEEN IS PRACTICALLY HERE!

I was already thinking of halloween, since I am working on a decoration tutorial. I've been playing around with black ink and my project is looking very promising.

You know what? Let's just look at last week's mail and I go back into crafting things as black as my soul... MuahahahaaHAAAA!

Outgoing

flowers and pumpkins
Flowers and spiderwebs I finally took a little time last week and made some larger envelopes. I've been meaning to do that for a while, I even had the materials just waiting, but I constantly had about fifteen other things to do. As I mentioned in the last Monday Mail post, I had a super stressful few days, so one day I just sat down and made some envelopes. It wasn't the most important thing on my to-do list, but I needed a break from everything.

Even though the decorations are similar, thin washitape and simple address labels, these two envelopes still look distinctly different(-ish). 

I'm also exceptionally happy about the stamps. I recently managed to find a fairly large lot of vintage stamps and have been mixing them with some of the newer ones from my collections. I love the multiple stamps look and I'm really excited to fully sort through the pile (ok, a ziploc bag. But it's at least a medium-sized one!) I just purchased.

So guys, please share: any cool bat-sightings or awesome mail in your life right now?

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Beautiful October

I love October!

It's one of the best months! It's the one true Autumn month, the one which shows you the leaves turning, darker nights and, if you're lucky, those Silent Hill-ish foggy evenings. I don't even particularly care for all the pumpkin-flavored things that are everywhere, but once they start popping up on the coffee shop menus, you know things are about to get good.

Fall is my favorite season (Duh! Obviously, I'm pretty sure you could tell already), but you know what the absolute best part of October is, right?

That's right, kids*, it's Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving Halloween kicks all the other holidays ass. (Well, Christmas is up there too)

To celebrate this awesomemest of holidays, I am doing my first ever Halloween theme month here at Brinner! There will be a few Halloween tutorials, some Halloween related posts, there will be an opportunity to get some Halloween mail from me... Oh yes, it'll be glorious!

I'm working on some of the plans as we speak, but now you have an opportunity as well to ask for any Halloween related posts, tutorials or ideas. Please let me know if there's anything you'd like to read about, history of Halloween, costume ideas, how to carve a pumpkin, decorations, etc, etc...

The floor is yours, please leave any and all comments below. (Even if it's just saying how awesome Halloween is!)

*) Did you say that in a Ted Mosby voice? 'Cuz I totally did.