Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  I had all intentions of posting the kids in their costumes, but I haven't been able to capture a good picture of them yet. Hopefully, I'll get one today before we head out to trick or treat. So, instead you will have to make do with more Halloween decorations. First up, a cat and owl decoration that I found on the Martha Stewart website.  Here's the link.

The bats are made from black cardstock and sewed all together in a strand. It was much faster to run it through my sewing machine rather than tie each bat to each other.

Last, is the Halloween tree that I found at JoAnns in their paint it yourself section.  I got it at a bargain price and I think it turned out pretty cute. 

Spider Webs

Here is an easy way to dress up your windows or mirrors for Halloween.  I bought white and black puff paint and drew spiderwebs and spiders with the puff paint.  Then once Halloween is over I can just peel it off. Easy, right? I took the pictures at night so you can't really see the black spiders.

Pumpkin Day

My daughter's class celebrates Pumpkin Day.  One of the mom's had an idea to make shirts for the class since they couldn't wear their costumes this year.  It also gave me a reason to use my screen printing kit that my sister gave me for my birthday.  The graphic was courtesy of my sister inlaw.  Thank you! It's so cute!  I will have to post the process of making a screen at some point because it is really a cool process.  It worked perfectly to make the shirts for the class.

Mini Cupcake Birthday Cake

Here's a recent cupcake cake that I made for the teacher's birthday.  It's for kindergarten so I went with the mini cupcakes since the kids never seem to eat an entire cupcake.  The kids are all about the frosting at least that's all my daughter eats of a cupcake.  I found this cupcake cake on Pinterest and thought it would be cute for the teacher's birthday so I made one like it.

Sequin Pumpkin

I was recently over at a friend's house and they had an awesome glittery pumpkin on display.  I really wanted to make one of my own and since funkin pumpkins are on sale at almost every craft store right now it was a perfect time to try it out.  What makes it even easier is that you can pick up sequins on a roll.  They are already strung together and look really nice glued down.  It didn't take me anytime to finish this project up.  All you need to complete this project is a funkin pumpkin, sequins on a roll and glue.  I think the total cost was around $10 for the sequins and pumpkin.

Improvising

Today I had to bring a hot dish with me and unfortunately I don't have a fancy casserole carrier.  I did think about making one at some point, but that's pretty far down the list of things to do. Although, I did pin a few on pinterest today so I won't forget. I do have to say that my method for a "makeshift" casserole carrier works just fine in the meantime. Today I used two cloth napkins to transport my casserole. I just tied the ends together on both sides of the dish and slipped a second cloth napkin through and tied a knot to use as a handle.  Worked perfectly!  Just remember to double check your knots and make sure they are secure.  

I made a delicious and low-fat breakfast casserole.  I was a bit nervous since I haven't ever made it before, but it was yummy and gone by the time I went to go pick up my dish. I'll have to post the recipe soon so you can all give it a try. 

Patriotic Lamp

Remember the class project that was making me a little nuts? Well, it's finally finished.  To give you some background information, each class had to make a lamp.  A lamp is a very challenging project to have it look unique and not become some sort of fire hazard.  I found this lamp as inspiration.

 

Not only did the project need to be a lamp, but it also had to follow a "patriotic theme".  Phew, this was going to be more difficult than I anticipated. Here is what I came up with for the lamp.

So, in place of sand dollars I had each child paint their own star red or blue.  The stars are made out of Sculpey.  I used a star cookie cutter and punched a hole in the middle as well before I put them in the oven to harden. Once that was done the kids could paint them.  Then I added a few finishing touches and sealed them with epoxy to give it that shiny glass look. Next, I needed to thread the stars on the base, but I didn't want them to stack right on top of each other so I used PVC pipe sections as spacers.  All it took was a couple coats of silver spray paint to make it blend in with the base of the lamp. Once the stars were stacked I finished the lampshade off with a blue grosgrain ribbon. 

Princess Painting

I was able to finish the princess painting this week.  Yay!  It feels great to get a project completed. I really enjoyed working on this painting. I typically like to paint people, so it took me less time to paint it.  These little princesses are going into a "Princess basket" at my daughter's school and will be raffled off. Of course after I finished the painting my daughter asks if I can make her one like that for her room.

Too many projects at once

Well, I don't have a "finished" project to show you today.  I have a hundred things going on at once and it seems it will be another week before I can get something finished.  I am going to post the mess I'm making in my craft room aka dining room with the projects I'm working on.

Here's my mess. 

Princess painting in progress for the school's princess basket.  I might actually get this finished this week. 

Here is the class project.  Each classroom is supposed to make a lamp with the kids and then it will be auctioned off.  It was pretty difficult to find something that kindergarteners could do.  Each child painted a star and I'm in the process of assembling the lamp and putting the finishing touches on it. 

Fabric for the Woody costume for my little guy for Halloween.  Hopefully, I will get a chance to work on this after some of the other projects are finished. Then there is a project going on in my garage, but as of right now I'm not going to show you what's in there yet.