Fall Wreath...by Mickey

Mickey:  okay I got a lame blog for you. So went to Michaels today and their wreaths are $59.99. Yah, hell no. And I'm not crafty. Sooooo we bought this plain brown wreath for like 10 bucks and this strand of leaves, wrapped it around. And boom. Wreath. For like 15 bucks cuz we had a coupon.

Me: that's not lame and it turned out great! And I'm using your exact words for the post :)

So - it's not hard to do, is pretty inexpensive, and looks great. Well 

done Mick!

Zombie Brains Cheese Ball

I have very nice friends who don't seem to mind that every time I bring food to a party I'm going to make something that I want to blog hahaha. So even though it was NOT a Halloween party I brought this zombie brains cheese ball to Ronda's party so I could try it out...and no one even blinked.

This is quite easy to do and tastes yummy (once you get past the way it looks that is!). It's a pesto flavored cheese ball topped with squiggly "brains" made from feta and cream cheese, surrounded by sun-dried tomato sauce. Even if you don't want it "zombie" themed this is a very good combo, just spread the topping on instead of making it look brain- like!

Ingredients:

• 2 pkgs (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• 1 pkg (3.5 oz.) crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup Classico Traditional Basil Pesto Sauce
• 2 T. toasted pine nuts
• 1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 T. balsamic vinegar
• crackers for serving

Directions  - see my note after about the feta mixture:

1. In a food processor, blend 1 pkg. of cream cheese and the feta until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Spoon into a plastic baggie and refrigerate. 
2. Add the remaining 1 pkg. cream cheese, parmesan, and pesto sauce to the food processor and process until well blended. Add the toasted pine nuts and pulse several times to mix. Place the mixture into a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a ball, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, water, olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the food processor and process until smooth. Set aside.
4. Unwrap the pesto ball and turn onto a plate. Gently shape into an oval. Cut the tip off one corner of the feta mixture baggie and pipe onto the pesto ball in a twisting brain-like pattern. Spoon the sun-dried tomato sauce around the cheese ball and serve with crackers. 

note: I put the feta mixture in a baggie and into the fridge like they said but two things - 1) it was too firm after chilling it to squeeze out of the baggie and 2) I couldn't control the squiggles like I wanted to using the plastic bag. So I let the mixture set out to warm up a bit and then put it into a decorator bag with a big circle tip so I could make the "brains" look better.

original recipe found here. 



one year ago: baked crab cakes
two years ago: Halloween spider soap

Heart You To (Reese's) Pieces!

Here is another cute Ronda project that I helped assemble - between the things I've made for her seasonal display table and the projects I help her with, it's shaping up to be a Ronda month! This is such a fun easy idea I had to share.

The tag is just a small oval cut or punched out of white cardstock; she has a heart and words stamp from Stampin' Up that I used but you could easily just color on a heart and print the words by hand so don't let that stop you from making these! Add a short length of matching ribbon to the tag. Then fill these little plastic test tubes with Reeses Pieces, put the cork stopper in, attach the ribbon and tag by a pushpin in the top. Done. What fun little gifts.

Today is our anniversary - married 23 years! What?! I'd love to give him one of these but the poor guy can't have Reese's (nut allergy stops him from eating all kinds of yummy things - dang, so sad!), I'd substitute m&m's but then the tag wouldn't make any sense hahaha!! Adorable little anniversary gift tho...or party favors, place setting decoration, etc.

note: I don't know where she got the 4" test tubes but I see that Amazon sells 50/$7 plus shipping, so they aren't hard to find.



two years ago: creepy cute pumpkin

Framed Bats

Check out this inexpensive simple Halloween decor project that took me about 5 minutes to make! Another nice and easy thing for me to add to Ronda's October display table.

Supplies:
-dollar store frame
-cardstock to fit inside the frame
-a piece of newspaper, burned around the edges
-3 bat silhouettes
-gluestick


Directions:
-carefully burn the edges of a piece of newspaper. This was the hardest part (and it's easy). Obviously use caution when doing this, you'll be amazed how fast the paper burns! I did it with a lighter over our big kitchen sink, burn a small portion at a time and be ready to blow it out quickly - watch for the little embers that fly away so they don't land outside of the sink.
-glue the paper to the cardstock.
-punch or cut out bat silhouettes from black cardstock and glue on top of the paper.
-put in dollar store frame.
-display!

Found this cute idea here. 


one year ago today: funky pumpkin decorating by Brooke
two years ago today: BOO painted mug

Halloween Treat Box by: Ronda Wade

Hi, Everyone! I’m so excited to be a guest stamper on Jill’s Make my Day Camp blog! I get the pleasure of working with her each week, and I know she is one very talented lady, and we’re lucky she shares that with us every day.

My specialty is papercrafting, and today I want to share with you my favorite box ever. Because it’s SO EASY! You’ll need to start out with a simple 8 ½ X 11 piece of cardstock. I colored mine to look like an adorable Candy Corn, but you can choose to use any color you want!

 I think this project will be best if I show you how to make it. You can click on this short video and I’ll show you where to score, how to fold it and then put it all together!

Thanks, Jill, for allowing me to share! I hope you all make time to Be Creative! It’s good for the soul! 

Stamped Blessings,

Ronda Wade

www.rondawade.com

one year ago: healthy sweet potato dog biscuits
two years ago: make a spooky terrarium

Mummy Picture

 Last year I posted about a couple cute door covers I saw at the Elementary School - I took one of those ideas and turned it into a tabletop picture for Ronda's seasonal display I just finished for October. I'll show you how it all looks together in a few days, I'm going to break down the projects first!

This is really easy:
-tape together black cardstock to make the background. I made this one 12" x 14".
-cut out 2 big yellow eyes (I used an oval shaped wood box for a pattern, you can totally wing this) and glue to the cardstock. Then glue two small black circles on the yellow ovals.
-cut strips of cheesecloth and randomly glue around the eyes until it looks right. Once everything is glued down trim the edges.
-I clipped this onto a piece of canvas board to give it strength to stand up.
-note I used a glue stick for all of this.

these are the door covers from the school - so cute! The Frankenstein one would also be easy to make tabletop size.

one year ago: m&m cookie bars
two years ago: squash ghosts

Halloween Decor...by Jenny

While I am on a roll I decided to send my sister one more. I like Halloween. I like bonfires, caramel apples, football, and most importantly I like scaring the crap out of my kids and their friends. 
It started simply enough with a fake baby eating a brain on the dining room table sitting on top of a Dollar store plastic tablecloth covered in fake blood. 

(Jill here - I hate this baby. Why does she put this on her dining room table?)

Then I progressed to dollar store bats that I have hung all over the window.

My next project is sticks on the front door. Yes I said sticks. Never thought I would and yes I'm disappointed in myself. 

Jill again - the reason she is disappointed in the sticks is that I have been
mocked profusely for YEARS about my fondness for decorating with
sticks. When she told me about this project I warned her this is the first step
in developing her own addiction to sticks. She replied something about
smacking her if that ever happens ;)

If you have been adding this all up you can see that sadly the only thing I paid real money for was the baby.. but hey- it's cheaper than adopting. 

Creepy (Donut Hole) "Eyeballs"

My sister made these and I have to say I'm pretty impressed how cute they turned out! When she described it to me I had my doubts (not gonna lie), but then she sent a picture and I love them - what an easy quick idea if you need a Halloween treat for work or school party. Good job sissy!

It's just powdered sugar donut holes drizzled with red decorating gel and topped with m&m's. Isn't this cute?

Caramel Apple Pudding Shots....by Jenny

So I dont really owe my sister for anything this time but decided to do a blog for her to be nice. (Gasp)! Actually I want her to owe me for a change so there's that. 😂 

My friend was having a "girl party". Not sure exactly what that entails but I didn't dig out my hair scrunchies or leg warmers. Decided to make pudding shots instead! 
Nope I'm not a chef but pudding shots I can handle (and didn't need to ask jill to make for me! Haha)

Ingredients:
1 box instant butterscotch pudding 3.4 oz
1 box of instant vanilla pudding
 3.4 oz
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup apple pucker
1 cup butterscotch schnapps
1/2 cup caramel sauce
8 oz cool whip 

Mix the pudding and the milk together until there is no lumps.
Add in the alcohol and the caramel sauce. Fold in the Cool Whip.

I then put it all in a giant Ziploc bag and cut the corner off. This allowed me to squeeze in some into every cup without making a total mess.
Makes 40 full cups. No one wants only half so fill them full. 

When you're all done put them in the freezer!
Could eat right away but better after an hour in the freezer. 
Actually truth be told, when you are all done, lick out the bowl while no one is looking and wash it down with the leftover alcohol. No need to waste and leftover alcohol means you didn't try hard enough to complete the job.

Spook-tacular October!

Guys! It's October already! I looooooove October (and not just 'cuz it's my birthday month!), everything about it makes me happy. Mostly because I hate to be hot and we had some smoking hot days this summer...and I'm over it...so bring on October with all its cooler days, flannel sheets, donuts - what's not to love?

My first October of blogging (2015) was a month of "spook-tacular" posts, for some reason I didn't do that last year but I'm bringing it back. October will be all about Halloween or October themed projects - since I am writing this from a picnic table while camping in Petoskey (where it just so happens to be "trick-or-treat night" at the campground and I don't have any candy to hand out, boo. I feel like the Grinch. Or whatever Grinch-y thing is in October who doesn't pass out candy! Dave said we could hand out Sarge's milkbones, 'cuz that's about the only "treat" we have on hand hahaha) I am starting the month with a couple things my sissy made (for real! she did! and I didn't beg her!! woohoo!)...watch for pudding shots, a cool donut hole hack, and check out how nice her front door looks (I'm so proud).

Happy October everyone :)