Kitten Miniature Pumpkin

Awwww look at this cute mini kitten pumpkin :)

Got the idea from All You Magazine, they made 5 of these and had them peeking out of a large decorated pumpkin - very cute but I only wanted one of them so....

I got a foam mini pumpkin at Hobby Lobby, downloaded the ear pattern from All You (click for their instructions and template), replaced their suggested black eye thumbtacks with googly eye pushpins. Cute.

Bats!

I found something to do with that extra pumpkin from the too tall pumpkin tower - I had ripped out a magazine page from Better Homes and Gardens in 2005 and stuck it in my idea file and of course forgot about it...till now. I modified their example slightly by using a package of foam bats already cut out, glued on orange paper eyes that I hole punched out of scrap cardstock, hot glued them to 20 gauge wire that I found in the floral section at craft store, stuck them into holes in the top of the pumpkin and hot glued them in place, then covered the holes with some natural excelsior moss. You can bend the wire any which way to place the bats where you want them. This would be cute with any Halloween or Fall shape you want - leaves, pumpkins, turkeys, whatever!

Sarge and his Halloween Scarf

I saw a reversible rectangle scarf with a pin closure in a store the other day and at first thought it was meant for a dog -  the storeowner informed me no, it's for a person...oops. Well that got me thinking that Sarge "needs" a reversible Halloween scarf!

I found Halloween fabrics that I thought would look nice on him, bought 1/2 yard each and have lots left over. I bought diaper pins for the closure, the scarf in the store had a kilt pin but I didn't want to chance it opening up on Sarge and poking him - the diaper pins have a safety catch.

Cut out 2 rectangles 27"x6"  from 2 different Halloween fabrics, pin right sides together and sew - leaving a 2" opening in one end. 

Of course what should have been a very simple quick sew job turned into the bobbin messing up and my having to rip some of the seam out...if this happens to you don't get frustrated! I'm pretty sure sewing machines have temperaments and if it senses you are upset it will only mess up more!! ;)

Once sewn, pull the right sides thru the opening to invert the scarf to the correct side out - I put a knitting needle or something pointy into the corners to get them nice and crisp - then either hand sew or topstitch the 2" opening closed (I topstitched very close to the edge). Iron out the wrinkles and pin it on crossing the ends over each other.

he's comfortable enough in his new scarf to take a
nap in it - that's a good sign!

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...

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Meatloaf

My friend gave me this idea yesterday and I couldn't wait long to try it, it sounded so good! You might question how this falls under my "31 Spook-tacular Days" theme - so did I haha - I guess since we have to eat in October and this seems like the perfect fall dish, I'm including it :)
My husband says it looks like a dragon's eye and I should have named it that, although I think it looks more like a sunflower...he said that's because I have a sunny disposition and see flowers, he sees dragons. HA! Made me laugh...

I cut off both ends of 2 acorn squash and scooped out the seeds; filled each half with about 1 cup of meatloaf (click there for my recipe) mixture and baked at 350' - normally I bake meatloaf for an hour or so but I didn't research baking a stuffed squash and this took almost 2 hours to get the squash cooked until it was soft... I should have pre-baked the squash to give it a head start. My meatloaf recipe makes 2 pans so I had lots left over that I didn't stuff into  the squash - I put that into a baking dish, leaving a channel all around the edges for any grease to run off, and baked it at the same time (for one hour),  I'll freeze that one for later. Really good, I will definitely be making this again.

Halloween Layered Candle

I made this layered candle using colored granulated wax (purple, orange, black, white - good halloween colors obviously) - it's a simple project that is good to do with kids. It can be a little messy but I've found these things help combat that:

• lay down newspaper
• I like to work on top of old cookie sheets - helps catch wax that doesn't make it into the container
• transfer the granulated wax (it almost has the consistency of sticky sand) into plastic containers - I use old cool whip containers
• use a different plastic spoon or scoop for each color so you aren't transferring colors into each other

Find a clear glass container that you can burn wax in, I usually use mason jars (any size, even little small ones work). Stick a wick to the inside bottom of jar, making sure it's at least as tall as the container you are using, in these photos I have wound the wick around a skewer to help keep it straight up the middle of the jar.  Then layer in the different colors making whatever pattern you like - it's a lot like making sand art, did you do that as a kid? You can tilt the jar so the wax stays on one side then tip the other way for another color, or just do straight layers, or take a long skewer and run down the sides when you're done for a v shaped pattern...whatever you want. Trim the wick to just a little above the wax before burning. Oh, and don't tip the candle over - the wax stays loose until you start to burn it. Yeah, I learned that lesson the hard way...;)

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

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!

BOO painted mug

Super easy quick (love those words!) project that anyone can do...

I found a plain white coffee mug (this one is from Walmart) and put stickers on it spelling "boo"; then made little dots all around the stickers with paint markers (I've read you can use sharpies but I've only done it with these paint markers - they are easy to use and come in lots of colors), I started with black and then added silver and orange on top radiating out from the words so it's thicker in the center of the design and then fades out. Then carefully remove the stickers - I used a pin to lift up an edge and then peeled them off. Up to this point you can wash off the design if you goofed or just changed your mind - if you like your finished project and want to "set" your design so it won't wash off, put the painted mug in a low oven (I did 300') for 30 minutes, turn oven off and let the mug cool down in the oven before taking it out.

You can obviously change your words and colors to whatever you want, or paint on other things (vase, bowl, plate, etc.). Have fun!

Spooky Terrarium

look how cute this spooky terrarium is!
 love it :)

• Put some sheet moss in the bottom of a clear lidded jar.
• Cut out the shape of a creepy house (I used black foam board, you just need to make it out of something that will stand up on its own) and draw lines on it with a paint marker (they said white but I used silver).
• Make a ghost from a tissue tied around a small round thing with clear line or cord, suspend from the lid. They called for a small styrofoam ball but that was too big and black cut out shapes for eyes - I used a small ball of play dough and made the eyes with a black sharpie. 
• Add a piece of fencing, a stick for a dead tree, and some reindeer moss for additional texture.

I had a hard time getting a good picture of it, trust me it's super cute! I saw this idea on HGTV, check there for other photos and detailed instructions if you need them.