Last Minute Halloween Projects

I always seem to have a stack of projects waiting to be done.  You know how it is!  You see something cute, a project, a pattern or a kit that just calls your name . . . and you know "it will only take a few minutes" so you buy it and add it to the ever-growing stack.  Well I finally finished a couple of items in the Halloween project stack this week.  Even if the project is completed on the day of the holiday, it still counts doesn't it? 
Sharing time:

1 - I love creative people who think up all these cute wood projects.  And even more, I love going to a craft store/specialty shop and being able to purchase ALL the things I need to do those cute wood projects all at one time.  It really does make the project quick and easy!  There are certain icons of every holiday that I seem to be attracted to - one of those icons for Halloween are cute little bottles of unknown, dangerous potions.  These wooden bottles just called my name.  I need a piece of cute  ribbon to go around the taller one - it's final addition - that will happen next year!

2 - This little bat was sweet and super quick.  Enough said!

 3 - I saw these adorable spooky crystal balls over at Flamingo Toes.  I HAD to make them!  I gathered all my supplies and brought them home.  The first thing to do is to put some smoke inside the clear GLASS balls.  Well - the key word here is g.l.a.s.s.  Somehow (I think it was the cheap in me) I ended up with plastic balls.  After melting a bit of the opening to one of the balls, I realized I either needed to run out and spend the money on the glass ones or figure out a different way to put some "smoke" in the balls.  Husband suggested some tempura paint and it worked as well as I could have hoped.  Not quite the smoke Flamingo Toes created, but good enough.  And some days, I'm ok with "good enough". 

 Each one of these crystal balls still needs some spooky ribbon around the joint between the candlestick and the ball, but again . . . next year!

We choose the skull . . . .

and the bat. 

And as we were putting away Halloween decorations yesterday I saw one of my favorite decorations sitting on the table.  Who can resist a cute Frankenstein.  But even better - one with a bowl full of eyeballs.  Eyeballs are another of those icons of Halloween I just love!  I painted each one of these many years ago.  Love them!

And finally - I got to go help at son #1's class Halloween party at school on Thursday.  He wanted me to do a craft.  So we got looking online and came across this cute idea for some Frankenstein Stained Glass Window Art at Mrs. T's First Grade Class Blog.  I had to do all the prep work myself ahead of time since I only had a few minutes with each group, but we worked fast and they each got their Franky done and ready to go home. 

 


I do love Halloween decorations!  I don't love dressing up, but I love the decorations and always will!


 

Happy Birthday Wood Decorations

It is coming up to Birthday season at my house - my boys' have birthdays in May and June. Last spring I came across this cute Happy Birthday felt banner HERE from a local crafter's ETSY shop. Love it! I had seen these fun wood balloons and presents on other blogs and noticed that they were from a local wood craft shop. I finally had a chance recently to stop in and pick them up. A little bit of paint, some scrapbook paper, and some glitter and now I have some great additions to my Birthday decorations.

Here is a close up of each present - three sizes. Here is the small:

The medium:

And the large:

I might go back and tie on some ribbons with the colored wire (which I loved to work with - so easy and colorful!). And here are the two balloons (there were three, but I thought two was plenty for me).

And the polka dot one - can't go wrong with polka dots!

So the plan is to put these out on the mantle along with the banner for our birthdays - very festive and fun - - and easy!

A Growth Chart

I've been looking around for "the perfect" growth chart for our boys for a long time. My friend had a really cute one that was a full 6 feet tall that she found at a local craft store a few years ago. It was simple and just right. But . . . I couldn't find anything like it. So we spent hours and hours looking through ideas and samples on the internet and finally decided to go with something simple and full-sized.

We went to Home Depot and bought a 6 foot MDF board already primed white. After a very lengthy debate in the paint isle about just the right color, my husband finally gave in and let me get this Rustoleum satin spray in Nutmeg. So glad - I love the color! He kindly painted it for me.

I ordered some vinyl from a cute little Etsy shop - Abbie's House. It was super easy to put on. And wa-la . . . we have our perfect growth chart.We'll be going back through all of our medical records and recording the boy's heights at various times throughout the past years. And we'll start marking their heights this week on son #2's third birthday. The boy's are so excited!

In other crafting news . . . I'm having a love - hate relationship with a baby quilt I've been working on. I found a cute pattern while blog stalking awhile back and decided to whip one up. The pattern used two charm packs - I just happened to find a clearance sale on a couple of cute packs and picked them up. Well - no wonder they were on clearance. I don't know who cut them, but none of the squares were the same size and piecing them together has been a mess. I finally have the rows done and need to sew the rows together. I've almost given it up a few times - and I'm not a novice quilt maker. We'll see how it turns out.

Loving the 2x4's

What is wrong with me this year? My annual goal is to pretty much be done with all my Christmas shopping by Thanksgiving. Ask me what I've accomplished this year - - - zero, zilch, nada! Ok, I pick up stuff for my boys all year long when I find good sales - then I stash it away and hope that I remember that I have it. But that's it! Really. I usually make some handmade gifts along the way too and have those ready to go for Christmas gifts - but again, this year, nothing. I've wandered down to my craft room a few times in the last few days and searched around for a project that calls to me. Once again - nothing.

However - just so I don't feel too badly about myself, I have been crafting with my boys this week -some really fun Thanksgiving kids crafts. I'll post those in the next few days when we put the finishing touches on them.

So, as usual, when I get busy . . . or lazy . . . I do a little blog stalking and look at other people's great ideas. So I present for my viewing pleasure . . . crafty things I liked this week.

First up - there's something about 2 by 4's. There are some talented crafters out there that can take a piece (pieces) of wood and turn them in to the simplest, yet cutest crafts. Take for example this 2x4 Turkey - just in time for Thanksgiving. Craft Goodies posted its tutorial over at Ucreate.

Next I stalked across a new favorite craft blogger - Under My Umbrella. Talk about taking 2x4's to a new level. Here is her 2x4 Snowman. Easy and yet so fun.UMU's 2x4 Christmas Tree was the first of her projects that caught my eye. She has a couple of different versions of this tree all using the same wood pieces. This tree is my personal favorite.Then she came up with this 2x4 Santa. Love him!And if 2x4's aren't the easiest crafts you can undertake - how about this absolutely adorable Rock Snowman at Not Just a Housewife. I know 2 little boys who are going to love this one as a craft project in the next few weeks.
Now - I'm off to clean house and cook Thanksgiving Dinner with all our favorites. Oh - and I will try to stay warm in the "Blizzard of 2010". And - - I have a few craft projects floating around my brain that are beginning to call to me. Let's see how motivated I get.

Halloween Count Down Blocks

My sister has the great fortune of having an October birthday - I won't say how old she'll be this month (41) but I will admit that I am older, at least the calendar says so. The reason this is a fortunate thing (the October birthday, not the age) is that October is usually right around the time that I get seriously crafty after a nice long summer spent mostly outdoors. She often ends up with some fun, handmade birthday presents.

She sent me an email a week or so ago which consisted of two lines - I want this! And a link to this over at How Does She? So since it was really cute . . . I promptly ordered a kit and son #2 and I spent a fun evening making it for her. I love my power sander . . . but it tore a nice big chunk of paper off the top corner of the bottom block - let's call that "character". Happy Birthday "J"!By the way . . . I found a great new "tool". I wanted to stain the blocks but I was dreading pulling out a can of stain and a brush to get the look I wanted. I was smart enough to wander through the paint isle at one of my local craft stores and came upon this wonderful little thing . . . a stain pen. It worked like a charm!

Knock on Wood

I love it when I take time to finish up projects that have been waiting in the wings for who-remembers-how-long. I know that I bought this Witch's boot at least a year ago and took a cell phone picture of the sample in the store so I would remember how cute it was. A few strokes of paint and an electric hand sander later (why do power tools make me happy?) and I have my first new Halloween decoration of the season.

I ran by the same little store that I purchased the witch's boot at a few weeks ago and picked up these F A L L letters for part of my Fall Favorites Gift Exchange. Talk about an easy and quick project. Hope my gift exchange partner likes them.