Happy Halloween!

Here is the final round up of my random Halloween crafts - I have to say I got really into Halloween decorating this year. I think I'm just a sucker for those awesome color combos of orange, black, purple & green! So this is basically a picture post of random things around my house I've made for Halloween, I'll be sad when I have to take them down!

Witch silhouette inspired by this. This I love ... and I love how it turned out. A blank wooden plaque, scrapbook paper, exacto knife and a little Mod Podge :)

The decorated mantle complete with the garland leftover from last year's cocktail party.

I loved my Halloween Pom Pom pillow so much that I made it a partner - only this time I used pumpkin bias tape along the edges in lieu of pom poms.

Also, I had to try MADE's 10 minute spider web. The kids LOVE this ... it's their absolute favorite. And it's now full of adorable little pre-school crafts they bring home and cannot wait to put on "the web." PS: this larger web took about 20-30 minutes but well worth it!

Last but not least, I just HAD to make the girls some Halloween dresses ... I found this adorable Itsy Bitsy spider fabric at Girl Charlee and couldn't resist it. This is hands-down my fave dress to date ... it's perfect with the purple, green and orange polka dotted trim. And yes, they'll be wearing it well past Halloween! :)

Have a great day / night everyone!

Accessorize! The Submissions & Voting

It's that time again ... for Sara and Sarah to put forth the best craft for the challenge - accessorize!

We came up with:

Chiffon Flowers, for more pictures and to read more click here.

Shrinky Dink Jewelry, for more pictures and descriptions click here.

And then of course, vote for your favorite!

Chiffon Flowers - Accessories Challenge Submission

I've known for a while what I wanted to do for this challenge ... pretty, soft flowers for my hair (or my daugters), or to clip on clothes like a brooch.

Now, I've made fabric flowers before but always with a woven or knit fabric. Those are cute but a little stiff. Also, before I've never sewn them - most of the flowers (maybe all?) I've made before were made with either my hot glue gun or Fabri-Tac (best stuff ever).

So, my challenge to myself was:

make a pretty flower;

that is soft;

that does not involve glue; and

is made from something other than a wove or knit fabric! 

Enter the Chiffon Flower! Woo-hoo, it worked!

a perfect pair these two are

Way back when, Dana Made It posted this skirt (the Can Can). And, I just about died over its cuteness. I mean I loved it! I was all sorts of ready to whip out one of these bad boys; I even bought the recommended Nylon Chiffon online (hmmm, in 8 colors). You know where I'm going with this, right? Somehow or another, the beautiful chiffon arrived and I had already moved on ...and I never made the skirt! {Sidebar, maybe I should make these for Thanksgiving...the girls would love them I bet!?!? After all, I did buy two shades of brown, black and white!}

Shrinky Dink Jewelry - Challenge Submission

Arghhhhhh!  I forgot to do my post and now I'm doing it at the last second.  I should be in bed right now.  Arghhh!

Well, I busted into my stash of Shrinky Dink sheets again to make this necklace, bracelets and earring set.  I'm definitely preoccupied with Shrinky Dinks these days!

I started with this cute printable from Just Something I made:

That's a quarter on there to show you the original scale before shrinking.  This next image shows you the scale after shrinking:

They turned into tiny, adorable charms!  The key, if you are going to do this, is to punch your hole BEFORE you shrink your Shrinky Dink.  If you forget, you're kind of screwed.

Here are some close up photos:

I found the pink chain and jump rings on a clearance rank.  I wish I had bought up everything there because I absolutely love them!  So much more interesting than silver or gold.  Alas, I didn't and I've pretty much exhausted my supply now.  :-(

Well, I'm certainly not dazzling you with my writing here.  I'm pretty dang tired so I'm off to bed.  Be sure to vote for your favorite accessory!

Boo! Painted Feet Ghost Plaque {DIY}

If you're looking for a great last minute Halloween craft or, if you just want to show your kids how fun their feet can really look like ghosts, I've got the craft for you!

These Boo! plaques are cute and fast to put together. Of course, I love that it's sentimental and a reminder of just how little their feet really are ...

I didn't take picture of the steps, but it's so simple I can just tell you ...

I started with plain wooden plaques from Joann's and painted them black.

Then, I cut orange scrapbook paper into the shape of the top. Apply with Mod Podge. (Don't Mod Podge the top yet). 

 Put white paint on a plate and let your kids step in it (or if you have little babies, paint their feet).

Make a footprint on the plaque. It'll need to be filled in with more white paint, so grab a little paint brush and fill it in the ghost.

Now take the eraser end of a pencil and dip it in black paint - make Ghost Eyes!

Once the paint dries, you can embellish your plaque! I used:

Sharpie to add my kids names on their feet;

Paper Tape to frame the edges; and

Paper Tag (Martha Stewart tags leftover from this project) to write "Boo" and the year on.

After everything is in place and dry, apply Mod Podge all over.

I was good to go at this point, but at the last minute decided to add a 'hanger' in case my recipients wanted to hang it. I grabbed some white ric rac for one plaque and some ribbon for another. I just used my regular stapler to attach to the back!

Word is the recipients love their plaques and now I just need to make another one for us to keep! After all, I need a momento of just how small my kids' feet are this Halloween too!

Blocks from the Past, Month Three

I can' believe my friends and I have been doing our little quilt challenge for three months already.  Our stack of quilt blocks is starting to grow!  This month, I finished my blocks right off the bat.

The applique block for the month is called Indiana Rose.  It was the most complicated block this month.  The rest of them, as you will see, were pretty straight forward.

This one is called Flock of Geese.  It was the easiest block so far.

This is a Duck and Ducklings block. 

This last one is called Jack in the Pulpit. 

I was so relieved that there were no paper pieced blocks this month!  It was like a vacation!

The Big "4" and a Freezer Paper Pictoral {DIY}

Somehow or another my baby has turned 4. I like having a number shirt for each birthday ...I didn't make a good one last year and was bummed about it! This year I wanted to make something simple (and fast and easy). I opted for the easiest thing I can think of: freezer paper stenciling!

I put a lavendar "4" on a brown tank and it was cute, but needed more. So I made a rolled flower with a little tuft of tulle sticking out. She loved it ...

There are thousands of tutorials on freezer paper stenciling (this one from Made is very thorough) but in a pictoral, here is the simplicity of it!

Draw or print design onto dull side of freezer paper and cut out with exacto blade (or scissors if you can).

Determine placement of your design on garment. If you're weird like me, measure to make sure it's centered. Once it's in the perfect spot, press into place. The freezer paper will adhere to the fabric and create a stencil!

Lightly paint in the design the FABRIC paint. I like Tulip's Matte brand. You may need to do a couple layers ... I did 3.

After the paint has dried (go overnight if possible), peel off the paper and heat set the paint in place (with a pressing cloth to protect your iron).

 

That's it! :) My girl's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but we are having her "friend" party this weekend. She is ALL ABOUT scooby doo, so we'll be serving up some Scooby Snacks and I'm hoping to find time to make a Daphne dress for her! Wish me luck :)

What's up next

Why is there a picture of Garcia from Criminal Minds on here? Well our next challenge is:

ACCESSORIZE!

When I think accessories, I always think Garcia! She has a CRAZY over the top sense of style!  While watching the new episode last night (can I just say this season is sooo good; so glad JJ and Prentiss are back) I thought ... Hmmm, I'm gonna use Garcia as the image for this challenge :)

Our projects are due in a week! Stay tuned :)

-Sara for Sara & Sarah

 

The Winner of the Hat Challenge is...

Sarah!

Sarah, who is writing this post, is tired of looking at herself in the tiara and is refusing to post that picture again!  Instead, let's take a look at the back of her head in the winning project.

Sarah's Felted Wool Hat came  in with nearly two thirds of the vote.

Tune in tomorrow and see what we'll be up to next!

Casserole Carrier - A Present

My uncle had asked me last Thanksgiving if I would make him a casserole carrier (or "hot dish" carrier, as we Minnesotans might say).  His birthday finally rolled around so I went to work.

I found this tutorial at 2 Little Hooligans.  Great tute and easy to follow.  It fits a 9 x 13 casserole dish.  If you are interested in making one of these, I highly recommend it.

I don't own a 9 x 13 casserole dish so I had to use my cake pan for this picture.  You get the idea how it works.   One of the nice things about this carrier is that it's lined with Insul-Brite, not batting so there is an insulating factor to it.  That dish should arrive piping hot.

And how cute is this fabric?

It's an Alexander Henry fabric that I bought several years ago because I fell hard for it.  I loved the graphics because they looked like the illustrations in old cookbooks.  I had no idea what I would do with it when I bought it.  It was perfect for this project.  This is why it's necessary to have a stash; so you're ready to go when inspiration strikes!

Typical me, I didn't start this until the day of the party and I couldn't get it finished in time.  I had to give it to my uncle unfinished then take it home with me to finish up later.  I think my family just expects this of me I do it so often. 

At the birthday party, my mom suggested that she would find one of these useful.  Christmas?  Maybe, but I better get started now and not wait until Christmas Eve!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Ted!

Halloween Tree Ornaments (DIY)

I saw this black grittery tree at Joann's a couple weeks back and really wanted it ...but not for $20. NOW, it's on sale for $8 so it's mine! It makes a great addition to my mantle :)

The garland is from last year's cocktail party - I still love it.

During my stint at Joann's wherein I picked up the tree for $8 ... I "saved" $67 but still managed to spend $82. I don't know what to say, but the sales and, my goodness the Martha Stewart Halloween stuff just roped me in! With no plan whatsoever,  I just started adding things to my cart: paper, tags, paper tape, stickers, fake "carvable" pumpkins, pumpkin transfers. I went nuts. And it was fun!

these little tags are a-dorable!

Back home, I started looking at all my goodies and decided to make 'ornaments' for a black glittery tree that I ALSO purchased on said day. Here's how it all came together ...

The center of these beautiful tags just *happens* to be 1.5 inches. I own ONE circle punch and it's that size! SO ... I punched circles from the scrapbook paper...  

Matched up ther pairs (circles to tags), and used a gluestick (not mod podge) to glue them down!

Then, I matched up the tags (back to back) so that when hanging (and twirling) there would be no front and back, but pretty from both sides!

I used sewing thread to make a loop through the top to hang on my tree.

I love how this turned out and it adds a lot of festivity to my mantle!

Oh, and I have seveal more Halloween crafts to finish or photo or just write about ... I cannot get enough of this FUN holiday!