Make Your Own Skeleton Costume

Hunter really wanted a skeleton costume this year, but I didn't have the 20-30 bucks for buying any new costumes this year.  So I made one. I found a black shirt and black sweat pants for $4 each at Target.  Then I got 1/4 yard of white felt and 1 yard of "Wonder Under" (if you have never used it, you need to try it) for under $5.  I put the shirt and pants on Hunter and measured how big I needed all the bones.  The wonder under is great because you iron onto your fabric and it has a papery side. I drew out my bones on the paper side and cut them out.  Then you remove the paper and you can iron onto the shirt and pants.  For extra good measure, you should sew around the edges (but I'm lazy and skipped that part - I'll probably go back and sew it later so it will last for had-me-downs).  Here's how it came out:

I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm much happier about the $10 I spent versus the $20-30 I would have spent for the costume.  The shirt and pants will hold up much better than the thin material on most costumes anyways.  They make those things so cheap.  I can't wait for him to try it out for reals.

Love This Flower!

The first time I saw this flower, I knew I needed to have one -but they were selling for $5 a pop - YIKES!

Turns out that it was super easy to make on my own!  All you have to do is cut out some circles. I took some white felt.  I used about 7 circles (all the same size).  I started in the middle and scrunched and folded until I had what I wanted.  Here's a tutorial if anyone wants it

Start with 7 circles:

Thread a needle (with any color thread because it won't show).  Start with the middle circle and fold it and scrunch it how you like.  Here is what mine looked like:

Put one or two stitches in the bottom to keep the folds in place.  Now add another folded circle and put a couple of stitches in the bottom as well.  Keep adding your folded circles around the first - stitching as you go.

Keep adding until you have your desired fullness. As you near the bottom, just keep in mind that you want it to be flatter at the bottom so you can glue it on whatever you want. The last couple of fold should be simple or even just in half.

Tie off your thread.  Then you can either leave it there or I like to take a pair of scissors and trim off any edges that seem too long or out of place.  There is no exact science to this.  Just fix it how you like it.

Then you will have your finished product. I like to hot glue mine to an alligator clip covered in ribbon.

These flowers wold make a cute addition to any craft.  You could also make it out of knit or any other material that will not fray.

Eek! Bats!

Saw this idea on blog and I knew it would be a perfect way to fill my big wall in my living room.

There is still room for more decorations (as you can well see) but I love the bats flying through my living room.  And the kids helped, too. It was a super fun project and so easy and cheap. I just used some black construction paper and scotch tape. For the tutorial and pattern to make your own click here.

 I think I can see a witch flying with them on her broomstick coming in the near future.

Monster Brownies

We found a new treat to make - MoNsTeR  BrOwNiEs.  They sure were a lot of fun.  You can turn your brownies into monsters, too. It was super easy.  I loved how they turned out and the kids had a blast creating them. 

Note: there are only three of the four because little T ate his before we got the camera.  He's no dummy, they were yummy.

It's Official!

We have our first cub scout:

Orange Snickerdoodles

I saw this cute idea online and couldn't resist.  They are regular snickerdoodles rolled in orange sprinkles and cinnamon (instead of plain white sugar).  I thought they were cute and it was a big hit for the kids.  You can use any snickerdoodle recipe, but here's mine if you want:

1 c. softened butter (not melted, no substitutes)
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 c. flour
2 t. cream of tartar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

Preheat oven at 400 degrees.  Cream butter, sugar and eggs.  Sift in dry ingredients.  For thicker cookies, chill dough for at least 2 hours (also will be easier to work with).  For thinner cookies, you don't need to chill.  Form 1 inch balls and roll in cinnamon and sugar.  Bake for 8-10 minutes. Make sure you don't overbake or leave on the pan too long, they taste better soft.  If you want to add the candycorn pumpkins on top (like in my picture) place them on top after you get them out of the oven.  If you bake them in the cookies, they are just a big sugary mess (not that I'd know from experience or anything ;)

Enjoy!  I just love festive treats!

Hair

What is it about a new haircut that makes you feel so good?  Every couple of years I seem to "start over" with a short hair style.  It's like having a new me.  Just like every once in a while you feel like moving all your furniture around a room to make it feel "new" again.  Your hair is such an easy change - like moving furniture - done in an hour or two and back to your day.  Here is my before:

And here are my after pics:

I knew it was time to cut it off when I found myself wanting to put it back in a pony tail every single day.  Love the new change.

Spooky Banner and Halloween Cans

Made a couple more Halloween crafts for the season.  Thought I would share the ideas:

 Spooky Banner

 For this project, I used 3 Halloween designed 12x12 papers, 1 sheet of gray 12x12, 1 sheet of black 12x12 and some letter stamps, string or ribbon, paper cutter with scoring tool, and a hole punch.  I cut the Halloween papers into 6x6 squares.  Then I used my scoring tool to score lines on the paper every 1/2 inch.  I folded it like a fan, then folded my fan in half. I used tape to secure.  This makes one half of your circle.  Do the same for the other side and staple or tape together.  Continue this step until you have all 6 circles.  Now take your black paper and cut 6 circles for the letters - I made 3 1/2 inch circles, but you can do any size you like.  Then I cut 6 - 3 inch circles out of the gray. I glued the gray circles on the black and then stamped my letters on.  Finally, take your letters and glue them onto your fanned circles (hot glue works well).  I punched two holes in the top and threaded some string through to it.  You can use ribbon to be more fancy, but I had this string on hand.  Whatever works.  If you want a bigger banner, you could certainly keep your paper in the 12x12 size and score every inch instead. I liked the little one so that I'd have more room to put more things up on my wall as we make more projects.

Halloween Can Decorations:

I love how these little cans bring a little variety to my mantle.  And they are super easy to make!  Look through your kitchen for any foods you have packaged in cylinders to make this easy craft.  My cans were a pringle can, a soup can and a peanut jar (note: the peanut container had an indentation at the top, but you can't tell once you wrap it up anyways).  You could also use a parmesan cheese container, soda cans, etc. Be creative and upcylce!  Anyways, I took my cans and first wrapped them in white tissue paper. I secured the top with some cute ribbon and cut the tops to be straight.  Then, I took some Halloween scrapbook paper (though you could easily use wrapping paper as well)  and cut it to the height I wanted on the cans.  I wrapped it around and taped  it on.  From here you can leave the cans as is, or decorate them in any way you want. I used a "Boo" sticker on the black one.  On the candy corn one, I wrapped a ribbon around with a little tag that says "Spooky" (although its a little hard to see in the picture).  On the last one I tore a pumpkin out of orange paper, inked the edges for contrast, and drew a face on.  You can be as creative as you want with these little guys, though (buttons, ribbons, stickers, die cuts, vinyl, etc.)  Enjoy!

Baptism

It was a proud moment in my life as I watched the love of my life baptize our first son.  We're proud of you, big guy!

Projects!

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to make crafts and projects.  I swear I have about 50 projects waiting to be done. Not to mention my scrapbooking. . . Anyways, the craft juices have been flowing, especially since I started following a couple of awesome craft blogs.  Thanks to iGoogle, whenever a blog I follow is updated, it comes straight to my home page. No more clicking links to see who's updated for me. I love it and I am having so much fun creating.  Many of you may be asking, "When does she find time with 5 little kids?"  The answer : I don't know, I just do.  I love it, I need it, so I do it.  So I thought I would share with you some of my latest creations:

Meal Planner  I saw someone selling these dinner idea kits.  They send you recipe cards with meals for a month that you can put into pockets and plan for.  I loved this. I know that when I plan meals ahead of time not only do we eat better, but I shop smarter at the grocery store too.  So it saves time trying to decide what to eat each night and saves money at the store.  A win-win situation.  I used a similar template as they did seen below:

 

I created the above card on an Excel spreadsheet and made a list of the dinners I most frequently make (there were more than I thought).  Then I broke down the ingredients into the columns by meat, spices, pantry, fresh, frozen.  I randomly picked out 14 for the next two weeks meals.  I used these cards to make my grocery list adding anything I didn't already have at home.

 

 Next, I made the above pocket system to put up on my wall.  I used a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper and cut out 7 - 3 1/2 inch strips for pockets. I sewed the pockets 1 1/4 inches apart to allow me to see the titles of the meals.  Then I sewed up the middle.  I hung it up with some cute ribbon  and !voila! 2 weeks of meals planned up.  I've been using it for about 2weeks so far and I love it.  No more late dinners trying to figure out what sounds good to eat tonight.

"Spuritos"
I am a big sucker for fun holiday inspired treats and food to do with the kids.  Above is our spider burrito or "spurrito" as the kids decided to call it.  I used refried beans shaped in a circle, then made a smaller circle of beef inside. I used two dollops of sour cream for the eyes and fried tortilla strips for the legs. I let the kids design with toppings - tomato wedges or red peppers for the mouth, onion, olives and cheese to decorate.  It was a huge hit.  When they were all done decorating, we rolled them up and ate them. And the best part is that the kids ate more veggies than usual because they were having fun decorating.

 

I've also been working on my fall decorations.  Above are my new little pumpkins for my mantle. I had some felt ones I made years and years ago, but there were getting a little worn out.  I've been seeing lots of cute variations of cloth pumpkins this season and knew I wanted to do it.  Jared works for a company that sells window treatments and came home with all these cool swatches of material left over from patterns they no longer sell.  "I can use them."  I loved these fall colors. I different sized squares and carefully gathered them at the top. Instead of stuffing I used plastic grocery bags (how's that for recycling). I had more than enough on hand.  I cleaned up the top edges, snipping away the tips of my squares and tied it off with ribbon.  I found some sticks in my yard for the stem.  Love these!
 

I also created some cute wind socks for my porch.  I used an old hanger and curved it around one of my drink pitchers to hold the tops.  The kids love it.  And I feel more festive having this kind of stuff around.

Hope you enjoyed my new projects. I'm sure there are more to come.  Hopefully I'll blog more this way.