Jack-o-Lanterns

I love Jack-o-Lanterns. For the last several years I've done scenes or pictures (a cat on a fence, a fireplace, an owl) and so this year I wanted to do something a little more abstract. I picked the prettiest of the pumpkins with some great coloring, and I gave my pumpkin stripes and polka dots :)

 

It looks a little more like a fall home decoration than a jack-o-lantern, huh? So of course it didn't win the competition. You know who did?

 

My silly brother. He won the Gingerbread House competition last year, too! Not fair :(

When he and I were kids, we always used toothpicks to give our Jack-o-Lanterns extra features like noses and ears, and my step dad even did that for his this year (pinning the broken stem in place for the nose-- it was perfect). This year most of us didn't know what we were going to do till we saw our pumpkins, and that's one of the most fun ways to do it. And even little little kids can have fun with the pumpkin goop and baking pumpkin seeds. And I've seen some super cute variations with little pumpkins decorated with paper features!

Go Crazy :)

Halloween Cookies

So one of the days I was at my Mom's for Halloween, I came home to see Halloween cookies set out to decorate! At first I thought she bought Halloween cookie cutters just for that day, but it turns out that her grocery store was selling undecorated sugar cookies to take home and decorate, and I think it's brilliant. I mean, sure, home made sugar cookies are great, but who wants to store Halloween cookie cutters all year for one day? Christmas cookie cutters make more sense, because Christmas is a season (yes, yes it is. Proven by science.) but no one wants to decorate Halloween cookies on October 17th.

Fortune Teller

Mom and I made this together for her car when we take it Trunk or Treating (for the kids at her church):

 

Hat from the dollar store halloween aisle; mop head from the dollar store cleaning aisle; cool glittery shawl from Mom's collection (maybe something similar could be found at JoAnn's?); jersey cloth from Mom's personal stash (stuffed with batting [also from her stash] and sculpted with stitches coming in through the back of the head); gloves from Mom's costume box; purple skirt and yellow top from Mom's costume box; pillow (body) tied around the middle to form a waist.

I'll be sure to take pictures of the whole car once it's put together-- Mom's made the coolest crystal ball, and she plans on putting up "curtains" using black plastic. Too bad our candles aren't secure enough to travel, huh?

Mom mentioned that this is similar to the method we used to make our own scarecrow one year (before I was old enough to remember) but using old clothes, straw, and a paper bag (for the head) instead of the above supplies. Kind of a fun fall activity :)

Mini Photo Book

I know I'm not a kid but...sometimes I like doing things the way kids would do them :p

This album was something I put together for my Dad after I got home from visiting his family in Tennessee. It's super simple and only requires some glue, paper, photos, writing utensils, and staples.

A photo is exactly the height that fits into a standard envelope, so as long as the paper is cut to that same size, the whole thing can mail with a regular stamp. The book could be assembled beforehand, and then embellished later-- and since most photos now are digital, if the photos get ruined, no big deal.

Speaking of digital photos-- I've found that facebook is one of the best ways to keep in touch with my family. We all have accounts, and that's pretty much the way we share photos. The fact is, photos rarely get printed any more, so unless there's a way to share them electronically, all those photos you take might not get shared at all. If you're not into facebook, check out flickr instead. While you can only upload 200 for free, if you rotate the photos frequently that shouldn't be a big deal.

Flowers

 

So these are some things my Mom got from Micheal's to use in my party! They're just wooden flowers on sticks, and they're meant for kids to color and then hit each other with (probably) but we thought they would be really pretty painted and stuck in flower pots!!

So what do you think? Were we right?

Easter Eggs

I love holidays. I love-love-love holidays that let me do crafty things! So here you go, Easter Eggs.

 

Easter Eggs are super simple, because most of how awesome they turn out depends on what kind of kit you buy (my Mom researched natural dyes and methods-- now I have something to try for next year!). Boiling the eggs before you start is the only thing that was harder than I thought it would be.

Here's one method, with others available online.

Put eggs in a single layer in a pot.

Bring to a boil, and immediately shut off water.

Let sit for 17-20 minutes (depending on the size of the egg)

Set in cold water/ice for 10 minutes.

Dry and dye! Ta da!

Colored Owl

JoAnn's has these cute little shapes and animals to color in, and I found this guy in their dollar spot (which is totally addictive, and stratigically placed next to the registers). Even thought he turned out a little wonky (I accidently touched him with my marker-y fingers) I think I'll use him in some future page of one of my scrapbooks. I like incorporating funny and unusual things in scrapbooks, because I feel that it's important that the books don't look like I picked them out entirely finished from the store. If I can't put my own touches on them, what's the point of making them at all?

Valentine's Day Cards!

Happy Valentine's Day!...Ok, I know it's not February yet, but if you're going to hand make everything, you have to start early!

These cards are made with precut card and envelope  packages from Michael's, and stickers from Target's dollar spot. I made about 10 cards for about 20$, and compared to 3$ a card at Hallmark, I think that's pretty good-- Plus I had the fun of making them!

I think that this is a good thing for kids to do, too. If they feel like they have to buy the packaged Valentines cards for their classmates, at least encourage them to make some for their closest friends, relatives, or teachers. Handmade cards are very sweet, and it doesn't force a teacher or relative to store something.

I like the mix of textures and prints and colors. I have some true red, bright pink, and pale pinks, cardboard stickers, layered stickers, metallic stickers, and traditional flat stickers. It makes the whole thing just a little more interesting.

I'll be posting the gifts I make too-- so keep an eye out for those!

Bird Houses

You may think it's too early for spring crafts, but if you don't do them early enough, spring gets by before all your ideas are done, trust me! Plus, I'm already excited for sunshine and Easter and May!

So in my spring mood, we painted bird houses for the back yard. We bought the tiny ones from Micheal's and each of us painted one, and I think they would make the cutest little row hanging from the eves, or a cute centerpiece for a spring party, or a cute mantel decoration. Plus, it's an easy craft for children, because they are finished before they have time to get bored with the painting.

New Crayons!

Out of old ones :) I peeled the wrap from all my crayons, broke them in half, and dropped the pieces in a muffin tin. They went in the oven at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes (but keep a good eye on them) and came out beautiful!

They're good for adults (the multi colors make pretty backgrounds in scrapbooks) and for little kids (who don't care about coloring in the lines) but middle kids that want to color things "right" may not like this idea, and then you might have to break for the crayon melter that crayloa just put out.

It's a fun project though, so I highly recommend it!

Plaster

Every Christmas my Mom usually buys plaster ornaments for us to paint. This year, we actually did the salt ones instead, but Daddy bought me some plaster figures instead! Instead of doing the same paint routine, I decided to see what would happen if we used markers on them.

The results were pretty interesting. Because the plaster we used wasn't sealed in any way, the markers soaked really easily into the plaster and bled pretty seriously. After some trial and error, I realized that the big background could be done in marker, and then paint used to detail over it (this allowed me to skip the wait between drying paint layers). Also, marker worked really well on top of the paint, so I could have done paint for the major color (green on the tree, brown on the gingerbread house, etc) and then colored over the details, but the darker the color the more difficult it is to color or paint over it (obviously).

Anyway, these little guys came from Cost Plus World Market (silly Daddy left the price tag on! :) but you can get plaster for painting at pretty much any craft store (Michaels, Joann's, etc).

Have fun!

Snow Day

When Daddy told me we were going to the snow I got really excited despite my dislike of snow and the cold, because I thought it would be the perfect chance to make something! My original plan was to make a snow castle (a couple of turrets, a nice big wall, maybe a tiny dragon...) but it turns out the snow was way too dry to build anything with, so the best I could do was a snow angel...

But I still want to talk about snow!! There are some really cool things you can try, like loading up a spray bottle with cold water and food coloring to give a snow man clothes or adding old clothes to him. Plus, there's this really cool thing where you put a coat on a snowman and the snow under the coat melts slower than everything else because of the insulation the coat provides.

I wanted to do a castle because I love sand castles, but I always have a hard time getting sand to do what I want, and snow is a lot more malleable...when it's wetter than it was when we went. Maybe even try taking your beach toys and see what happens!

3D Puzzles

I love buying the little kits you see in stores, so my boyfriend and I picked up some Creatology Wooden Puzzles to play with. I bought a dragon with a little man riding on his back, and he bought a Tiger. To try to make them little cooler than just a straight up puzzle, we decided to color them using basic washable markers and I think they turned out pretty excellent! You'll notice mine has no little man-- because no self-respecting dragon would let someone ride on his back!

(I tried to find a link for you, but I couldn't. I found these little guys at Micheal's though, trust me!)