Book review and giveaway: Artful Halloween

Please don't hate me, but I'm not particularly a fan of Halloween.  I know that puts me in the minority, because according to recent statistics, Halloween has become the second biggest retail sales holiday in the US.  But I don't do anything for it other than to put together a costume and pass out candy.

However, I know a lot of you like to go all out, and if I were going to make a big deal out of Halloween, Artful Halloween is the book I'd use for my ideas!  Author Susan Wasinger writes:

[Halloween]...had become so frightfully commercialized, overwrought with cringe-worthy plastic decorations, tart-y getups, and high-fructose junk foods.  Halloween had begun to lose me, and I suspect was becoming uncomfortably tawdry for many of us.  Americans will spend billions (yes, with a "b") on Halloween this year alone, and both the pragmatic and the creative sides of me think we deserve a whole lot more aesthetic whiz bang for all those big bucks.

So Susan proposes to help us to go after that aesthetic whiz bang, with 31 beautiful projects, using readily available craft materials and easy-to-use tools.  There are over ten unique and beautiful pumpkin decorating ideas included that don't require scooping out the guts.  Gotta like that!  There are also projects for inside and outside your home, and a few for your own costuming.

***Free Stuff Alert!!!*** 

If you'd like to win my copy of Artful Halloween, just leave me a comment below and you'll automatically be entered to win.  If you tweet or post on Facebook or other social spots about the contest, you can leave a second comment and be entered twice!

Please make sure that your link will lead me to an email address, or else I won't be able to contact you.  No contact, no win, and I simply have to go on to the next person.  Deadline: September 19, 2012

Technorati Tags:mixed media,collage,assemblage,digital art,photography,altered books,art journals