halloween haunted gingerbread houses

Brooke and I had so much fun making these halloween gingerbread houses! It got a little silly (snacking on the building materials gave us both a sugar rush I'm sure) but in the end they turned out super cute. Watch her talking about the project...

We started with graham crackers and I thought we could just stick them together with frosting and shape our house, but that was a giant mess and it kept falling down (which made us laugh hard, seriously- there was frosting everywhere). Brooke asked if we couldn't just hot glue the crackers together and that gave us the idea to scrap the crackers and just build our houses out of cardboard and hot glue! We cut out 5 4" squares to make the walls and bottom, cut out 2 triangles for roof support and then B had the idea to use popsicle sticks for the roof. So having created sturdy houses that wouldn't fall over we continued on with frosting the entire thing in white, then stuck on lots of different candies to create our masterpieces. Of course because she is 12 it turned into a contest to see who made the better one, so on her video she is asking you to pick your favorite :) I had such a fun time doing this with her!

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" ;)

Soap with Spiders

                                                                                                                   

My niece and I made spider soap yesterday (she won't let me make soap with pieces of barbies in it anymore...fun sucker...but floating spiders are ok). We LOVE to make soap and it's an excellent way to spend lots of time together with fairly easy clean up (it's soap - easy clean up hahaha...anyway...). I buy blocks of soap from the craft store and melt it in the microwave according to directions; add scent, colors, and any items you want to float in the soap; then pour into molds. (note: I've been in charge of the microwaving and until recently the pouring into molds but I have her stir in the scent and colors - she's getting old enough now though that she can pour, I just have a bowl of ice water handy in case she gets any hot soap on her fingers!) We put them in the freezer to speed up the hardening process, especially if you are making layers of different colors. Pop them out of molds when done and put them next to a sink where you'll get the most shock value :)

this is two layers of clear soap, the bottom is colored
orange and the top we left clear

we made this just using clear glycerin soap

Squash Ghosts

I love when a project ends up being super easy and cute! Sometimes when I attempt what seems to be an easy project it ends up harder than I think haha, but this one is a winner. You could do with any kind of gourd or squash you want that has a good ghostly shape...I used butternut squash (making sure they are flat enough on the bottom to stand up). Paint them with 2 coats of white acrylic craft paint (I used a 1" foam brush); when dry paint on eyes and mouths (just free hand it, it looks good not perfectly symmetrical I think!) with black acrylic craft paint using a small rounded brush. Done.