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

Pumpkin Owl

This week it's all about easy crafts for Halloween decor - yesterday was the cute sharpie ghost on canvas, today it's this fun little owl. I made him out of a small fake pumpkin, you can certainly use real if you want. Depending on the size of the pumpkin you need 2 white cupcake liners and one brown one (I used a small pumpkin so did mini cupcake liners); then out of scrapbook paper (or construction paper, or whatever you have on hand) cut a beak triangle, 2 round circles that fit into the bottom of the liner, and 2 small black circles. Glue the black circles onto the larger round circles for eyes, then glue them into the white liners. Cut the brown liner in half, glue one to each outer edge of a white liner for eyelashes. Hot glue the whole thing to the pumpkin, then hot glue the beak triangle on. Done, and super cute :)

  got the idea from a magazine years ago (it's been in my idea file), have no idea which one!

Halloween Canvas

This is a super super easy fast inexpensive Halloween craft - I lightly sketched on a face with pencil, traced the outline and filled it in with a giant black sharpie. That's it! Took me maybe 2 minutes tops. I love how this turned out. For the seasonal display table at Ronda's studio I stood it up on a pretty scrolly easel but I'm sure you can think of lots of ways to display it. I'm not into "scary" Halloween decorating (obviously - go back and see all the things I made last October and the goriest thing is probably the dripping "blood" candle. click here for that post),  I like cute and mildly creepy so this is perfect for me! Try it - easy and cute!

Ghost Garland Lights

Start saving your k-cups!! I saw this idea on Pinterest (along with tons of other cute things to make with used k-cups - I'm sure I'll be making more things with them in the future) and immediately started saving the cups every morning. (In case you don't know, K-cups are the coffee pod things that go inside a Keurig one cup coffee maker.) They are just little white plastic cups, with a filter attached inside holding coffee grounds - after you've made your coffee just peel of the foil top and remove the filter and grounds, then rinse and dry the cup. After you've saved up a few of them you'll be able to make this super cute ghost garland in time for Halloween.

So easy - I just drew faces on the cups using a fat sharpie marker. Cut a few little slits around the hole that gets poked into the bottom of the k-cup when you make your coffee and stick a mini light strand bulb inside - continue for as long as your light strand is, or however long you want it. I did every other light bulb and it looks great... how cute is this idea?

Jack O'Lantern Gift Enclosure

I was invited to a Stampin Up meeting to check it out and see if I'd like to be a Demonstrator for them (yes, I am going to do this - so fun and I was VERY inspired after listening to all of the ideas and projects!), and my friend Ronda who ran the meeting was nice enough to send me home with four easy "make and take" projects. I didn't have time to make them while there but I was sure I would remember how to do them...have I told you what a terrible memory I have?! Well it's bad, so when I finally sat down this morning to put the jack o'lantern gift enclosure together and am faced with a little baggie full of bits, I wasn't sure what I was meant to do - I might not have done it exactly right but I guess that's what being creative is all about...do it however you want! Turned out great - don't know what I'll use it for but I'm thinking a little bag of candy inside would be cute. This was made with 2 pieces of cardstock, 3 black triangles, 1 half round circle, 3 punched out shapes for the stem, and thin twine. I will definitely be making more of these - it will be a good project for when my niece comes to craft day! Wish me luck putting the other projects together from "memory" ;)

Halloween Tree

 I had a thought recently about why we decorate trees for Christmas but not other holidays? Or do people decorate trees for other holidays and I've just never noticed? I'm not sure...but that led me to remember that I actually own a miniature orange artificial tree (why I own an artificial orange tree I can't remember...I know it was as meant as a Spongebob Christmas tree but that doesn't explain why I bought it!!) But what better tree to decorate for Halloween :)

Hobby Lobby is full of Christmas decorations right now and they're on sale (yay) so I picked up some small black and purple ball ornaments and black bead garland in the Christmas section - along with some glittery spiders, black flowers, black ribbon, and a couple pumpkin picks from the Halloween/Fall section. I put a short strand of mini lights on it, decorated like I would a Christmas tree with the black flowers as the topper - and it is SO cute!! I'm very happy with it - there, an actual reason to own an orange colored tree.

I get that you probably aren't as odd as me and don't happen to own an orange tree (or can't find an orange tree) I think a silver, white, or black tree would be just as cute. I've never tried to spray paint an artificial tree but maybe that is an option to make one orange...

Creepy and Cute Pumpkin

(Ok, maybe not very creepy but since I like fun halloween and not scary halloween this is about as creepy as it gets!)

For this pumpkin make a hole in the bottom and scoop out all of the seeds from there. Using a marker, draw out  2" circle for the eyes with a 3/4" circle in the center, then carve the outer part of eye leaving enough flesh to hold the inner circles in but thin enough you will be able to see thru them when it is lit. I just keep scraping with a small knife until the outer eye is smooth and thin. Next cut  a 5" x 2" rectangle in the pumpkin for the mouth. I found some small soft twigs in the yard and broke them into same sized pieces, made small holes above and below the mouth and inserted the twigs in bending them to curve into the holes. For the ears cut pieces out of the sides, carve them a little bit to look like ears and then insert them back into the same hole they came from (use a small skewer or toothpick to help hold them in place if they won't stay there). Insert a candle and check out how cool this looks glowing in the dark!