Making Monster Cookies

Love these adorable Monster Cookie Sticks! I can already see this becoming a little food craft project for the evening. My youngest daughter and I love baking together and this looks like a fun project.

After we get done playing with our food :) we can enjoy munching on a few of the cookies. Then we can look for creative ways to package some up for the neighborhood kids when they come trick-or-treating tomorrow (I always like to do something a little special for the kids who live on our block.

These would also be a great alternative to a goody bag or cake for a monster birthday party. The kids will love ’em and they can even be used as part of your table decorations. Too cute!

P.S. If you don’t want to buy decorating bags for the icing, I’ve used Ziploc bags as an alternative. Just snip off enough of one bottom corner to fit your decorating tip through, spoon in the icing and you’re good to go.

P.P.S. If you are vegan or bake for one, she shared a vegan cut-out sugar cookie recipe you can use for this too.

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Halloween Craft – make a trick-or-treat bag

If your little ones (or your big ones:) are making you crazy as they anticipate trick-or-treating, maybe it’s time to engage them in a craft. This is a great time to make a trick-or-treat bag.

This is a fun project because you can make it as simple or as involved as you like. You can pull out all of your craft supplies or just grab some paper, glue, and markers. You can spend an hour or an afternoon. It’s totally up to you and your little goblins how much you put into this project.

Here are a few possibilities:

• The paper bag: If you have a handled paper bag from the grocery store you can let your child decorate it. Anything goes! They can draw on it with markers or crayons, paint on it with brushes or fingers, embellish it with stickers, yarn or ribbon, or make paper creations that they glue on. Whatever their imaginations can conceive of is fair game.
• The pillow case: We all have an old pillow case or two lying about the house and they make great trick-or-treat bags. Again, kids can create their own designs. This time they can use fabric markers, appliques, buttons, ribbon or even tie-dye. They can design it so it matches their costume or go for a whole new theme.
• Fabric bags: All the stores seem to have them, those rectangular bags made out of plastics and recycled bottles. These are a little bit different because they will melt if you try to iron on a patch but they are still great for pinning or gluing on all sorts of embellishment from buttons to ribbon to shapes and designs. They can even add a little bling with rhinestones or beads. And they’re easy for kids to carry and open up to accept their treats.

It’s is a fun way to pass the time and you’ll be going green too.

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Handmade Valentine Cards with Thumbprints

I was doing a little surfing and I discovered these Thumbprint Valentines on brown paper packages blog. I adore these little handmade Valentines cards, in fact they’re so cute that I’d call them little homemade Valentine’s gifts! If I received one of these with my kids thumb-prints it would melt my heart. That little item would head straight to my “special box” where I keep all those mementos that make me smile or tear up.

Taking the idea even further I can see creating one of these darlings and framing it for the grandparents. You could also create them in miniature to use as refrigerator magnets. Your local office supply store probably sells boxes of business card magnets. Simply design the Valentine the size of a business card, stick it to the magnet and Voila!, one little treasure completed. Or use some sturdy cardstock when you make it and attach any button magnet or cut the business card magnet to fit. They’d also make terrific covers for “brag book” photo albums. The possibilities are endless – and adorable.

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A Very Tiny Little Homemade Gift

I’ve heard people say they would like to give handmade Christmas cards but they just don’t have time. I’ve thought about doing this myself but have stopped because it just feels so overwhelming to make a huge stack of cards. Well, this year I thought I’d do something new and just make one or two cards for special friends. Like you, I have special people in my life who I don’t see as often as I’d like and who I don’t usually see during the holidays. We don’t exchange gifts and when I send them a card I feel like I’m missing something.

So this year I’m thinking about creating homemade Christmas cards for them. I enjoy playing with paper-crafting; I’m not all that talented but I still enjoy messing around with it and I have lots of great Christmas paper and embellishments. It would be a fun way for me to relax for a while on the week-end and I would be making a little gift for someone I care about. They’ll know I was thinking about them and that I put some of “me” into the card. Perhaps they’ll feel a little more loved when they open it and that, after all, is the point of giving a card.

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Pumpkins ~ in all shapes, sizes and sexes

Okay, with Halloween around the corner and no decorations in my house or on my porch I have pumpkins on the brain.

First I heard rumors that pumpkins will be scarce this year. Apparently that’s not true around here (phew! cuz if I don’t get some pumpkins I’m going to be in deep trouble with my family). A trip to the pumpkin patch is definitely in my future.

Then, of course, there’s ‘Punkin Chunkin’ where people shoot pumpkins out of air guns or fling them out of trebuchets. Who comes up with this stuff? watch here

Then there are yummy recipes like these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

There are pumpkin carvings and here are some funny, fascinating, and even gross carvings along with everything you might ever want to know about pumpkins. Check out the photos of the annual contests for some great ideas.

And pumpkin games like pin-the-stem-on-the-pumpkin or pass the pumpkin where you hold a miniature pumpkin under your chin and try to pass it to the next person without using your hands.

And pumpkin crafts like the Fabric Pumpkin Craft, the Egg Carton Pumpkin Craft, the super simple Mason Jar Jack-O-Lantern craft. And if you’re feeling really crafty you can make Stacked Pumpkin Topiaries.

And then, of course, there are my favorite pumpkins … and I still think they’re cute even if they don’t look like this anymore:)

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Inspiration for Homemade Gifts

I love inspiration! I was perusing the Plow and Hearth catalog while eating breakfast and found the most wonderful ideas for homemade gifts. Whether you are creating some handmade Christmas gifts or are looking for a unique birthday present, there is no limit to what you can make. In 5 minutes of looking through this catalog I saw half-a-dozen wonderful items which you could buy or that I might want to create myself to give as a home-made gift. Here are a few fun and really simple ideas.

First there were the bird treat Christmas ornaments. Well, I have lots of Christmas cookie cutters so I think if we mix up a mess of bird seed and peanut butter or suet we ought to be able to cut out shapes, or stuff the cookie cutters with the goop. Then simply poke a hole in the top, tie on a string and give them as handmade Christmas gifts.

Then there were the mason jar snow globes. They are so cute with a little scene at the bottom. I’m certain I can find a recipe on-line for the “water”, which I’m guessing is probably a mixture of water and glycerine. But this is perfect because I just adore Mason jars (they have so many amazing uses for hand-made gifts) and you can create your own customized scene that reflects the person who is receiving the gift. Can’t you just see the golfer in the bottom with all that snow swirling around? Very cute.

Then, my absolute favorite, on the back cover they have a lovely door decoration which is simply an old ice skate with greenery placed in the top. This one is perfect because we have a pair of old ice skates that I can do this with! I can’t wait for December so I can get some greenery and hang that one on the door. Then I can use the other skate to make a lovely gift.

When it comes to creative homemade gifts you don’t have to rely entirely on your own imagination, and it isn’t always difficult. Simply keep an open mind and, as you go about your days you’ll find ideas sneaking up on you when you least expect it. Inspiration is everywhere! (But write them down when you think of them. Then tuck the paper away in the same spot where you store the gifts you already purchased so you can find it later:)

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A Super Gift for Teenage Girls

Scrapbooks are a great gift for anyone, including a teenage girl. It’s a great way to showcase them, their talents and their lives. You can create a mini-book about a special event they had or adventure you had together. You can do a big book of their life, create a school days book or even give them a blank one to fill in themselves. Simply choose a book that fits their style and you’re half-way home. Teenage girls love to connect with their friends so if you’re game for making your own book this website has a unique little one you can make that any girl will adore http://www.making-mini-scrapbooks.com/explosionbook.html To get your creative juices flowing and to see a couple of examples of this book visit http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/2010/03/craft-21-mini-scrapbook.html

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A Safety-Pin Christmas Craft

Friday (September 30^th) is the anniversary of the invention of the safety-pin. I know women everywhere have great appreciation for this little wonder which has saved us from pin pricks, fallen hems, and myriad other minor catastrophes.

Well, here’s a little bit of Christmas fun you can have with safety pins. Create a beaded Christmas tree safety-pin. It’s a great craft project to make with your favorite kids; your own, your nieces and nephews, or your friend’s kids. They can make the craft with you then give them out as gifts or tokens of friendship. Either way it’ll be fun.

http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/christmastrees/l/blspchristree.htm

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Personal Puzzles

Puzzles make fun, personal gifts. It’s easy to snap a photo and send it in then sit back and wait for the puzzle to arrive. What’s not quite as easy is assembling the puzzle when the picture on it is a simple, standard, family photo. Yes, it’s cute to have a picture of the grandkids put on a puzzle for Grandma. But if you’ve ever done a puzzle you know that large areas of a single color are difficult to deal with. And what you may not know is that the puzzles that are made-to-order have pieces that are all very similar in shape. So here are a few tips and a few ideas for designing the puzzle.

Tips:

• choose a theme (hobbies & special interests make a great theme)
• create your own background with lots of different colors
• add lots of different colors or shapes

We’ve made 3 puzzles for presents. One was a photo of one of my girls riding her favorite horse. It was adorable, she loved it, but it was a little difficult to assemble.

Another had a candy theme. My daughter taped several pieces of colored paper together to make the background. Then she scattered an assortment of Halloween candy around on the paper and snapped photos of it. It was colorful and fun.

The first puzzle we created had a Detroit Red Wind theme. My daughter laid out my husband’s Steve Yzerman jersey then placed all our Red Wing paraphernalia on it and snapped her photos. It was a big hit. In fact, Tom put it together then framed it and hung it up.

This is a great way to involve kids in gift giving projects. It’s a fun activity that can get really creative and doesn’t require a lot of time-consuming help from Mom & Dad.

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Oscar the Grouch’s Birthday craft

Today is Oscar the Grouch’s birthday. What a wonderful character; so full of great lessons for our kids. I still remember one of the videos my kids watched. There was a smoke alarm just screaming away, everyone is covering their ears, and Oscar says, “Ooohhh, piercing. I love it!” LOL And I love Oscar so today I’m sharing a craft that you can do with your kids. I hope you get some warm fuzzy moments compliments of the grouch.

http://crafts.kaboose.com/grouch-in-a-can.html

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