Wednesday 31 October 2012

October instagram

I know I basically say this every month, but I CANNOT believe it is almost November. Where has this year gone?! This was such a good month - impromptu holidays, a trip to London & loads of Halloween fun!


1. Winter is coming, which means it's dark and cold by the time I get home & I can't be bothered making anything fancy for tea. This is my new favourite (and very easy!) tea - chuck loads of vegetables in a dish, drizzle in olive oil, squeeze a lemon over & put in the oven for about half an hour. Yum!

2. Old bottles filled with flowers from my garden. We bought the bottles from Drum Farm - a huge antiques barn that's absolutely packed with cool stuff.

3. Stuff that looks a bit like this! The barn was full of everything you can imagine - a suit of armour, furniture, books, suitcases, curios, everything! Well worth a trip if you are anywhere near Edinburgh.

4. Riley being a sook. Look at those paws. Super cute.

5. Craig & I in Portugal, which was lovely! There's more photos here if you fancy a look. It feels like such a long time ago - come back sunshine!

6. Riley chilling out in our library. It's been brilliant having the room all done, it's such a peaceful space.

7. Travelling down to London. I love getting the train down - it's only four and a half hours from Edinburgh, and you get free tea the whole way (which is enough to keep me happy).

8. I couldn't resist getting a photo of Platform 9 3/4 when I was in King's Cross Station! I was hoping that a nice tourist would offer to take my photo (cause I was by myself) but no-one did, and I was too shy to ask. Boo! I'll need to drag Craig there next time we're down.

9. I popped into WAH Nails and got mix & match nail art. I love the skull, it's so cute!

10. Hanging out with my big sisters at my dad's retirement party. I know they read this - hi Dust, hi Tepi! (Hope you don't mind me putting our photo up, ha!).

11. A sign from the old books shop on Victoria Street.

12. Craig & I dressed up for our (early) Halloween party. I was a doll, he was Sheriff Rick from the Walking Dead (talking of which, has anyone else been watching the new series? SO GOOD).

Fun fun fun!

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Nanowrimo - my top tips!

Hello! So it's almost November, which means it's time for one of my favourite things in the year - National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo)!

You can read more on how nanowrimo works here, but it's pretty simple. You (the budding author) write a 50,000 word novel over 30 days. If you win, you get to feel great about yourself, and you have a first draft to do with as you will. If you lose, then you have still written something (and can feel good for giving it a shot).

I'm taking part for the fourth year in a row, so I thought it would be fun to film a video with my top tips for getting to 50,000 words (and enjoying the process!).


The challenge starts on November 1st so you have two days to prepare yourself, think of an idea and get ready to write. Let me know if you're taking part & we'll be nano pals. 

Monday 29 October 2012

Scary doll makeup (& Halloween party photos)

I've been writing Halloween posts every Monday for the last five (!) weeks, and it has been so much fun. It's been great getting to play about with make up and do crafty things, so thanks for reading!

Today I just wanted to share a few photos from this weekend - Craig & I held our annual Halloween party and it was so much fun! It was a little bit unorganised this year as I had a horrible cold & didn't make any plans until the very last minute, but it was still ace. 


I dressed up as a scary doll, which was actually a really cheap costume to put together! I wore a cream dress that I already owned, and bought black ribbon to tie around my dress & in my hair.


For my make up I used a white pencil to line under my eyes so they looked big and doll-like! Then I wore two pairs of false eyelashes, placing the lower set underneath my eye (which felt weird, but looked good!). I bought some fake scar putty and liquid latex from the joke shop, and created cuts on my face & throat, which I then "stitched" with thin ribbon (stuck on with liquid latex).


Food is one of my favourite parts of Halloween, but because I hadn't been well I didn't actually make anything. Instead I just bought cakes from the shop and customised them - the eyeball cake is a white chocolate sponge from tesco, and I piped spiders onto bakewell tarts!


A few years ago we used to go a bit mental in house decoration, but this year we kept things simple (mainly because the house still feels so new and shiny, I don't want to pin anything on the walls!). So we had loads of pumpkins around the house and put candles and fairy lights everywhere.

We commissioned the diner painting a few months ago for the kitchen from a roller derby pal and I love it! It's perfect for this time of year too.


& my lovely pals all dressed up! I'm still not quite sure what Murray was meant to be (bottom row, middle photo), but it was LOADS of fun. Hooray!

Saturday 27 October 2012

I heart Autumn!

So you may or may not know that I have a fledgling youtube channel which I've put a couple of tutorial videos up on, but have not really done much with. Well, that's going to change! I love chatting and I love watching chatty video bloggers, so I'm going to give it more of a go.


For my first chatty video I am copying Lauren from Laurenella & have filmed the I heart Autumn tag, where I answer some questions about how lovely and fun Autumn is. I tried to explain the concept of video-blogging and tags to Craig before doing this and he gave me SUCH a weird look. I promise this isn't weird.


I'm giving myself the challenge to post a new video at least every fortnight... we shall see how well it goes! If anyone has a suggestion on fun topics to film OR a tutorial you'd like to see, let me know. Also, if you'd like to subscribe to my youtube (and join a group of, ahem, four amazing people) then you can do so here.

Thanks for watching! (please don't laugh at me).

Friday 26 October 2012

The Bloggers Breast Cancer Awareness Raffle

Hello! I just wanted to draw your attention to something different that's running today - the Bloggers Breast Cancer Awareness Raffle. It's an annual online raffle which raises money for Breast Cancer Campaign (the clue's in the name) as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month.


On Friday 26th October (that's today pals), you can head on over to the TBBCAR justgiving page and donate money. For every £2 you donate, you get a raffle ticket, and can be in with a chance to win one of these amazing prizes. AND you get to feel good because you've given money to a brilliant campaign. Last year TBBCAR made £851 & this year they've got their eye on the £1000 mark - which I reckon is totally doable! 

You don't have to be a blogger to enter the raffle, but you DO have to be a UK resident (sorry), although you are more than welcome to just donate money if you are overseas (and don't mind not getting a raffle ticket). Please note that you CAN'T claim gift aid as you are buying a ticket, so remember to untick this box! 

Have a wee nosy at Sarah's blog if you'd like to find out more. Cancer is really rubbish, so raising money to beat it is really good. 

Thursday 25 October 2012

Autumn boots wishlist

It has suddenly turned absolutely FREEZING (I've already had to start defrosting the car regularly, ugh!) and I'm realising that most of my wardrobe (t-shirts, cardigans, flats) isn't really cutting it for keeping me warm! I've been pretty much living in my Dr Martens since I got them, but I need a bit of variety!

So I have put together a wishlist of shoes I've got my eye on...

Boots from Spartoo

1. Moony Mood - Glarcelle I have a few pairs of black ankle boots, but no brown ones (yet!). I'm picturing these boots with thick black tights, a floral dress & a thick grey cardigan. Perfect! 

2. Buffalo - Deny I can't help it, but I am a sucker for studs & I love the mix of brass and silver.

3. Clarks - Norley cedar Look at how cosy they look! I haven't shopped in Clarks since I was wee and used to get magic step shoes (the ones with the keys - anyone else remember these?), but you know that their shoes will last forever. Nothing worst than having soggy feet in January when you are skint and your boots are leaking! 

4. Levis - Yale Love these. LOVE THEM. Such a good colour and they look so cosy. The best thing about high boots is that you can wear knee high socks under them too - perfect to see you into the freeeezing winter months.

Hooray for cosy feet! 

Monday 22 October 2012

Halloween how to: severed finger make up

Next up in my halloween how to series is my most gruesome tutorial yet: how to look like you've got a severed finger!

The nice folk over at Team Pixie suggested this tutorial & sent over some pictures for me to use - which has been super handy as I've been in London all week and haven't had time to make anything myself! I love this tutorial so much though - it's making me rethink my costume, with only a week to go - ahh! Anyway, here's how you do it.


You need:
  • prosthetics wax
  • bruise make up palette (red, brown, green, black and yellow colours)
  • fake blood
  • tissue paper
  • cotton wool

1. First pick which finger you'd like to sever! Then start by rolling your prosthetics wax into a sausage and join the ends to make a ring of wax. Make sure your finger is clean and dry, and press the ring of wax on top of your knuckle. 

2. Use a little bit of moisturiser to blend the outside edges of the ring of wax into your finger (the moisturiser will stop the wax sticking to your finger). Don't make it too precise or smooth - the rougher the edges, the more realistic it'll be!

3. Create bruises around the wound by using a bruise wheel and a make up brush. Layer the colours bit by bit, and add bruises across the fingers and nails across your whole hand. 


4. Add cotton wool to the centre of the wound. 

5. And add lots of fake blood to the cotton wool - look how disgusting it is! Splatter a bit of tissue paper (or a rag) with fake blood and hold it to hide your folded finger.


 & that's it! Ewwwww. Thanks to Team Pixie for letting me use their gruesome photos. I want to try this out myself!

Disclaimer: Team Pixie supplied the photos for this post, but I didn't receive anything for posting this tutorial. I just thought it was really cool & liked their stuff!

Friday 19 October 2012

Cuckoo's Bakery

Mmm! I just wanted to share (aka show off) some amazing cakes that I had the other day! Last Sunday my sister was coming round to visit & as I didn't have time to make anything, I popped into the lovely Cuckoo's Bakery for some supplies.


Cuckoo's are a cupcake bakery based down on Dundas Street in Edinburgh. As well as having cakes to take away, they also deliver (and sometimes offer free delivery - keep an eye on their twitter!), and also have a tea room so you can sit in and have lunch.

There's a few different tearooms in Edinburgh (I love Mimi's Bakehouse & Loopy Lorna's Tea House), but I think the town is definitely big enough for all of them!


The cakes are about £2 each so they aren't the cheapest to buy for a big group, but are absolutely worth it for a special occasion! Cuckoo's make seasonal cakes too (look how cute their halloween cupcakes are!)  and every cake is made fresh each day. Definitely worth a visit!

They are based at 150 Dundas Street & you can browse their cake menu here.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

My library

As long as I can remember, I've always wanted a library. I reckon it started when I was very little & obsessed with Disney's Beauty & the Beast - I was in awe of the castle library. And now, twenty-something years later, I have one of my very own!

It's taken us months to get it together, but all of the boxes are now finally unpacked and it looks a little something like this...

Bookcases - Ikea
Rainbow bookshelves! It's hard to explain the level of satisfaction you get by sorting books by colour, but it's brilliant. I hadn't originally planned to organise the library like this but am so glad I did - it just looks so pretty and makes me so happy! & it is surprisingly easy to find the book you are looking for. 


We've got a lot of books. The bookcases go the full length of one wall and curve round the corner, and are almost all full (more so than in the photo above!). Both Craig & I are massive bookworms so it's nice to finally have all of our books in one place. In the old flat they were just spread around in every spare corner, and it was a nightmare trying to find a specific one. 

Leather armchair -Thrifted
The armchairs (we have two) are my best ever thrifty find. I wanted a pair of classic library armchairs but didn't think it was likely to happen, given the ridiculous prices they go for. So I couldn't believe my luck when we popped into Four Square (a 2nd hand furniture shop) and found a matching pair for £45 EACH. 


Here's a wee snapshot of what's on our shelves. I studied English Literature at uni, so my course books make up a big part of the collection, and we're both into sci-fi and fantasy. I also collect old books, which makes for an interesting mix of book spines!

Vintage Philips radio - Thrifted | Bookcase lights & ceiling light - Ikea | Murdoch piano - Free (!!) from Gumtree
At the other end of the library there's my piano (which amazingly I got for free a couple of years ago), and our new (old) valve radio in the corner. We picked this up for £8 at a car boot sale last week and, apart from missing one button, it's in perfect working order!

The lights are all from Ikea (god bless you ikea, lords of cheap furniture), and I'm really chuffed with them, I think they help make it feel much more like a library, than just a couple of bookshelves popped together. 

The next stage is to decorate the walls - we've got a vintage map of Europe & some old play bills, which are pretty cool. It's all coming together!   http://test.skimlinks.com

Monday 15 October 2012

Halloween how to: bake a haunted gingerbread house

Every year for halloween I bake a "scary" gingerbread house. I know that gingerbread makes people think of Christmas, but it is SO MUCH fun making a haunted house you can eat. If you are having a party this is a great centrepiece & goes really well with a halloween spread.

Here's how you do it.


First of all, make your gingerbread! You will need the following ingredients:
  • 250g unsalted butter 
  • 200g dark muscovado sugar 
  • 7 tbsp golden syrup 
  • 600g plain flour
  •  2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 
  • 4 tsp ground ginger
  • 500g royal icing (for construction & decoration)

To start, heat your oven to 180 degrees. Now get your butter, sugar and syrup in a pan and melt them all together. This is really fun to do, but obviously be careful as it is super hot!

Mix your dry ingredients (the flour, bicarbonate of soda & ginger) in a large bowl, then stir in the buttery sugar mixture to make a dough. It'll quickly get stiff, so use your hands to knead the dough & add a splash of water if things aren't mixing together too easily. 


Now roll the dough out on baking paper to just under 1cm thick. You can download a template to cut out, or draw your own. I tend to just draw my own on plain paper & use this to cut out the shape of a house (and  cut the leftover dough into gravestones). 

Very carefully move the gingerbread shapes onto a baking sheet (move them on the paper) and bake for about 12 - 15 minutes. If you roll it too thin it'll burn, so be careful! Once baked, move (carefully!) to a wire rack to cool and leave it to harden. 

Once it's cooled, make up your royal icing (I just use a packet from Sainsburys) and make sure it is THICK. This is your gingerbread house cement. Get a helper to hold things for you, and start to join the walls together with icing. Prop the walls up with cans and leave to dry. Then (hours later) use more icing to put on the roof panels. I tend to wedge books underneath the roof so it has support while it dries. Leave for AGES (overnight at least) to let your icing set properly before you start decorating. 


Now the most fun bit! Go wild with sweets & make shapes out of icing to decorate your house. Last year I went for giant spiders, ghosts, orange gobstoppers with faces piped on to make pumpkins, & jelly snakes. I covered the roof with a dark purple icing & drizzled red food colouring down the front to look like blood. 

Saturday 13 October 2012

Win tickets to Edinburgh's RBS Museum Lates!

Last year Edinburgh's very lovely National Museum of Scotland reopened after a HUGE (and pretty expensive) renovation. One of the best things about the new-look museum (apart from how beautiful and fun it is, obv) is that they now let you party. At night. In the museum. Woah!

The beautiful main hall
 I've blogged about Museum Lates a couple of times before (and should probably point out that I'm involved from a work point of view, so am horrendously biased) but it is bloody brilliant.

There's something very magical about being in the museum at night with no noisy groups of children in sight, getting to explore everything with a glass of wine in hand. They have live music, dj's, a silent disco (under a Chinese dragon, amazing!), lots of interactive things & opportunities to dress up and get your photo taken. Each event is themed, and tends to tie in with their current exhibition (which you can buy tickets to as part of a Lates package & visit on the night).

Cheeky giraffes | Face painting! | Silent disco 
The next event in the series is Behind the Masque, which will be on October 19th. The theme this time round is a contemporary take on a Masquerade - glamour, glitz and sparkle, tying in with the final days of their exhibition, Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress. You are encouraged to wear masks. I might wear the most glamorous dress I own. It sounds amazing!.

 Tickets are on sale here & cost £10 for the night (or £18 for the event & an exhibition ticket). & because I am good to you, I have a pair to giveaway! Just follow the instructions below...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll announce the winner on Thursday 18th October. Please only enter if you are able to attend on Friday night!

Friday 12 October 2012

Blogging tips (& an exciting milestone!)

So this week was a bit exciting, in terms of this wee blog, as I hit a milestone I've been building up to for a quite a while. I've been using google analytics to keep track of how many readers I have and where you all come from (which sounds shifty, ha!), and this month I hit 5,000 unique users per month! Yay!

It's a weird one - it feels like there's a bit of an unwritten rule amongst bloggers not to mention numbers or stats, for fear of sounding like you are showing off (or getting too caught up in numbers rather than content). But I work in advertising where we talk about readership ALL the time.. so I'm pretty pleased with this one. I know this is a drop in the ocean compared to other bloggers, but I'm just so chuffed that you lovely lot are out there! Blogging is bloody brilliant, but it's tough work & it's nice to see that I'm not just rambling to myself (although I did have a happy few months at the start where it was just me!).


So I thought it might be fun to put together a list of ten bits of blogging advice I've learned so far. I know a lot of this is common sense, and I am faaaar from being an expert, but I love it when people do features like this.. hopefully it'll be useful!

1. Mix up your content
This tip (which I originally read on Gem's blog) is probably the most helpful bit of blog advice I've read. Mix up what you write about so that when someone visits your blog for the first time they'll get a snapshot of what they can expect. I write about nail art, beauty, baking, cat, tutorials, home/lifestyle stuff & shopping, so I try and stagger these subjects. That way if a potential reader is into lifestyle posts and baking, but hates nail art, they'll still want to stick around as they know I'm not a one trick pony.

It also works wonders for inspiration too - if I'm stuck on what to post next I just look at what subject I haven't covered in a while and write about that!

2. Post regularly
I didn't start to see a growth in readers until I started posting three times a week (I post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Posting regularly is good because it encourages readers to come back to see your new content. I love a deadline, so it helps keep me on track too.

If you've got a really busy week coming up then don't stress - take advantage of the schedule button so you can write posts when you've got some free time, then set them to go live when you want.

Don't take things too seriously: have fun & be a bit daft. Super serious faces are for robots, blogs are for real people.

3. Be friendly & stress-free!
It's easy to compare yourself to others, especially when you are just starting out & you have a blank page that's refusing to cooperative. But don't worry about it! There will ALWAYS be someone who has a prettier blog/takes better photos/gets cool free things/has better hair (grr!) than you, but that's cool. There's space for them and there's space for you. Nothing good comes from feeling insecure or beating yourself up pointlessly!

4. Use labels
I label every post with the category it falls into, so if a reader liked that type of post they could just click one of the words at the bottom to see more of the same - e.g. Edinburghhow to, shopping, & home sweet home. It makes it much easier to navigate and read the things you like, and helps me too when I want to see what my last post in that category was.

5. You have to love it!
Blogging is fun but it is HARD work. Some days I just want to flop on the sofa after a mental day at work, but then remember that I'd planned to take photos/write a post/blog an event/do a nail art design. I put a ridiculous amount of time into writing, researching, taking photos, thinking of ideas & doing basic bloggy stuff.. for barely any material rewards. But it doesn't matter cause I LOVE IT. I love writing and I feel so much more inspired to try new things, as I know I have a platform to share them on.

So write about what you love and make blogging easy for yourself.

Old Ever So Juliet designs: it can take a while to get your image right. 

6. Comment
Everyone says this, but reading & commenting on other blogs is such an important  part of blogging & a good way to reach new people! Getting comments on a post is brilliant, and I always check out whoever leaves me a comment, it's a nice way to interact with readers.

Resist the temptation to just promote yourself - that just comes across as spam. Instead just be a pal, say what you like about the post/blog/whatever & get a conversation going.

7. Include yourself
You don't need to constantly post photos of yourself, but help your readers get to know you. Set up an "about me" section so people can learn a little more about you, use twitter & instagram to share thoughts & photos from your life & be chatty.

8. Take big clear photos
Everyone loves photos. A visual post is a pretty post, and you don't need a fancy camera to do this. I use my iphone a lot (here and here for example) - just make sure you are taking photos in natural light where possible for clear photos.

I love blogs with big photos - no point in making them tiny and having to squint to make out the details!

Blogger clichés: Scones | Starbucks | Top knot

9. Write unique content
Make your blog stand out by writing things that are interesting and unique to you. Share your favourite recipe, make up a tutorial, write about what you've been up to, try a new make up brand, invent a weekly feature, whatever you like!

Obviously you're going to cover some things that are pretty common (I think every blogger in the world has a leopard nail art tutorial!) but it pays off if you do something new. Ages ago I wrote a tutorial on how to use a hair doughnut cause I couldn't find a clear one when I wanted to try it, and it is my best performing post by far. It's had over 28,000 views and ranks really highly in google, which is brilliant for bringing new visitors to my blog!

10. Don't be shy
I know it can be quite strange promoting yourself, but put it out there! A blog is there to be read, and getting your friends and family to share it is a great way to start. I promote every post on my personal facebook (as well as the ESJ facebook & twitter) and loads of people click through.

But just remember that once you've put something out there ANYONE can see it. That means your parents, potential employers, old school pals, anyone. If there's something you'd rather only your friends knew then don't blog about it. Also it's polite to ask your friends/partner/family if you are going to put up photos of them.


Obviously all of these tips are things I find helpful, so if you don't agree then don't worry! The best thing about blogging is that it's YOUR space to do exactly what you want with. Aw, isn't blogging nice.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Portugal!


Hello! So I'm back from the laziest week ever in Portugal (suffering mild post-holiday blues, wah) and wanted to share some photos of our trip. I'd never been to Portugal before but highly recommend it - we stayed in Villamoura, which is a pretty fancy town aimed at golfers & posh people with boats. Craig & I are neither, but we wanted somewhere that was super chilled & quiet, and this ticked all the boxes! 


I found an amazing last minute deal through James Villas & we got a HUGE villa (this one, in fact) with a private pool for £350 for the week (it costs almost £1700 to rent in peak time, ouch!). It was so so so perfect. Super quiet, loads and loads of space, an orange tree in our front garden & our own pool for splashing about in.


We spent most of the week just lounging in the sunshine - it was hitting 30 degrees pretty much every day (I didn't burn though, hooray!), and reading books. I'm a pretty speedy reader so I powered through quite a lot - maybe almost ten books in a week? My favourite was the Chaos Walking books by Patrick Ness - they are aimed at young adults, but are AMAZING. Read them.

Top: Primark
Shorts: New Look
SandalsBirkenstock leopard papillio*
As this was such a lazy holiday I just lived in shorts the whole time. I didn't pack many shoes, just flip flops and my new sandals. I have secretly wanted a pair of Birkenstocks for years, and I can see why people rave about them - they are SO comfy! 


There was a tiny bit of drama one day when poor Craig tripped over a step and almost sliced the bottom of his toe off! I thought he had just cut it a wee bit so headed off to get plasters and got the fright of my life to find him, pale white, standing in a pool of blood! Ahh. After a quick make-shift bandage and slightly stressful trip trying to find a hospital, he was bandaged up by lovely Portuguese doctors (and no stitches needed, phew!).


But apart from that little adventure, all was good and calm. We ate a lot of tasty food (there were amazing restaurants around the marina!), explored a Roman archaeological site (with original mosaic floors intact), watched the sunset on a huge quiet beach & daydreamed about what life would be like if we were rich enough to own a huge yacht.

Aw, it was awesome. I can't believe a week can fly by so quickly! I'm already planning our next big holiday... we've got big plans and it'll be quite exciting. More on this soon!

Tuesday 9 October 2012

30% off Motel Rocks


Here's a short & sweet treat for you today - for 24 hours only, you can get 30% off at Motel Rocks with the code EVERSOJULIET.

Go forth and enjoy a world of pretty dresses, patterned skirts & cat jewellery (look at it!).

Monday 8 October 2012

Halloween how to: nail art

Next up in my halloween how to series is nail art! Ten spooky designs step by step.


I used a mix of polishes (mainly Models Own) & my nail art pens. Here's how you do it.

Frankenstein

1. Paint your base coat. I used a light turquoise (Peppermint by Rimmel).
2. Add the hair and do a line with dashes (stitches!) across it.
3. Paint two white dots for eyes.
4. Lightly dot two pupils.

Dripping blood

1. Paint your base coat. It's best to use a colour that will let the red stand out clearly.
2. Use white polish to paint a guide for where the red will go.
3. Add red on top. I deliberately made it really gloopy.

Mummy

1. Pick your base colour. I was tempted to use white for this, but thought yellow would look more like decaying bandages.
2. Paint a thick line near the top (this is the gap where the eyes are going), and criss-crossing lines across the rest of the nail to look like bandages.
3. Add two white dots.
4. Dot red on top to make evil eyes!

Teeth

1. Paint a dark base coat. I had a black polishes with a very gentle gold shimmer which worked perfectly.
2. Roughly paint two strips of white - one at the top and one at the bottom of your nail. Then paint teeth, a mix of fangs and smaller teeth.
3. Go over the top and bottom of the nail with red polish.

Candy cane

1. Paint a white base coat (my white polish is on the end of its tether, but it's okay that it isn't too smooth as only a little is showing).
2. Add a yellow layer of polish, about a third of the way up.
3. Add an orange layer over the last third.

Pumpkin

1. Paint an orange base coat. I striped another shade of orange over this for a bit more depth, but it's hard to make out here (maybe it's too subtle!).
2. Paint on a pumpkin face with a black nail art pen.
3. Add a wee zig zag of green at the top of the nail to make the stalk.

Skull

1. Paint a white base coat. Again, I knew I was going to layer this polish so it doesn't matter that it was a little bit bumpy!
2. Lightly sponge on some grey across the nail.
3.  Paint on eyes, a nose and teeth.

Spider web

1. Pick your base colour. It could be anything, I used the same purple that I used for the dripping nail to tie the set together.
2. Paint lines across the nail, coming from one corner.
3. Join them up with little curved lines to make the web.

Cat

1. Pick your base colour. I used the same colour as the frankenstein nail.
2. Paint the shape in small stages - a semi-circle, then triangle ears, then a curved line for the tail.
3. Use a green nail art pen to paint two teardrop shapes. Add a black line to each to make the eyes.

Beetlejuice stripes

1.  The easiest one of the lot! I used the same shimmery black that I did with the teeth nail.
2. Paint on white stripes.

& that's it! If that's too much of a halloween overload for your nails then you could pick one design and use it as an accent nail.

Or if you do like it, but can't be bothered painting them yourself, then you can buy this set from me on etsy! I've been thinking about setting up an etsy shop for a while.. so this is a wee experiment to see if it's of interest. Fingers crossed!