Archive for September 2012

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Spooky Halloween Mantel

So happy that it's finally Halloween time! Today I am sharing my attempt at a spooky mantel. I don't think it's too bad for a first try!


I normally never decorate the mantel for Halloween. My decorations usually clash with the picture that is hanging above it and it ends up looking sad. Here's the non-spooky picture: 


So...I came up with an idea to cover it up. It was super quick and did not cost a thing. Here's how!

I found an old crumply piece of packing paper in an old box. I smoothed it out as best as I could and cut it to the size of the picture hanging above my mantel.


I knew I was going for a landscape and that I wanted a moon, so I drew one on a scrap of paper, cut it out, and...


taped it where I wanted it on the paper.


Then I took it outside and spray painted the paper with paint that I already had on hand. 

   

I used light sprays, moving my arm at all times. I wanted it to be darker on the bottom and lighter on the top so I slowly kept adding paint until I was happy with it. 


After drying, remove the taped paper to reveal the moon. 


I used clear tape to attach the piece of paper right onto the glass of the framed picture. 

Viola! Much spookier than the cheerful flowers. 


Next up was to start adding the spooky stuff! Trees! 


Then it spiraled from there. Candles, torn fabric, pumpkins, birds, and spooky books that I made quickly made. I kept playing around with the placement of everything until it drove me nuts and I called it quits!  


Close-up of the books:


I used brown wrapping paper and packing paper to cover normal, hard cover books. I used ink from a stamp pad to make them look old, then used a Sharpie to write names on the spine. 





There you go, my Spooky Halloween Mantel. Hope you enjoyed it and that it will give you a bit of inspiration for yours!


I'm linking up with the following parties this week:


Becolorful














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Thirty Handmade Days

Friday, September 28, 2012

Friday 5: No More Stinkin' Babies

Last week my kids were babies. This week? They both have beards. You know what I mean. 

They've started doing big kid type stuff and it became apparent over the past few days that there's no more stinkin' babies around here anymore.

So here's to my Big Kids - It's been a full week and we have lots worth toasting to tonight. (Especially that the traveling husband returns tonight.) 

 1. Vance ran his first mile. 


2. Vaughn learned how to ride a bike. 


3. And how to pump her legs to push herself on the swing.



4. In the mornings they sit next to each other and do their work.    Vance makes math and writing worksheets for Vaughn and Vaughn tries to return the favor as best she can. I love it that they're buddies. (That will last forever, right? Right!)


5. Halloween decorations inside are up! We'll wait to do the outside decorations but Vance has drawn up sketches and has many ideas that involve skeletons and other spooky stuff. No more happy pumpkins and scarecrows around here! 


Cheers! 
What are you toasting to tonight?





Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Mizrahi Dreams & Feedburner Issues

Last night I dreamt about Isaac Mizrahi and this morning I get an email about his newest shoe line. 

Fate? I think so. 


I used to watch his show on Oxygen years and years ago. (2003?) He used to wear Adidas flip flops with everything and interview guests on an all white background. Anyone else remember that?

...............

For those of you who Follow by Email...

Feedburner (the source responsible for sending you my posts) has not been working correctly for about a week. I think it is up and running now, but would someone let me know if you are in fact receiving this in your email? Leave a comment or email me. Thanks so much! 

That being said - I am starting to look for another service to use. Hopefully I would be able to transfer easily, which means there wouldn't be any work on your part, but I'll keep you updated if you will need to subscribe again. 

Have a great Tuesday! 








Sunday, September 23, 2012

X-Ray Vision



Halloween is the perfect time for kids to learn about skeletons!

I first saw this project at my daughter's pre-school and thought it was so clever I had to try it myself and share it.

PS: There are a few different ways to do this project. I'll discuss the method that worked best for me and at the end I'll troubleshoot some of the other ways that didn't work out so well.

Here we go! X-ray Vision!   

Materials needed: 
Black construction paper
Q-Tips
Glue
Spray bottle
White paint - mixed with water
Scrap paper - for template
Pen - for tracing arm
Scissors

1. Discuss Skeletons and X-rays and include pictures. There's so many fun skeleton books out there for kids!

2. Trace their arm on a piece of scrap paper, then cut it out. 
(If your child is younger and has smaller arms/fingers you may want to use your arm as the template. Why? Because the Q-Tip bones fit easier in bigger fingers.)


3. Mix white paint and water into a spray bottle. No recipe,   you just want the paint watered down so it will go through the spray bottle and thin enough to give a transparent, x-ray look. Spray bottles that mist rather than squirt will work best. 

4. Have the kids position the template onto the black construction paper. 


5. Squirt away!


6. While the paint is drying discuss where the bones will go in our X-ray hands. Go ahead and glue the Q-tips when everything is dry.


Viola! X-ray skeleton hands! So much fun!


Troubleshooting:

Sometimes projects go off without a hitch and other times not so much. Here's a few of the problems I ran into with this project. Hopefully this will help you out too!

1. The first spray bottle that I used didn't "mist" it just squirted. Not the result that I was wanting. Oops.  


2. For the next attempt I had a better spray bottle but still ran into issues. I thought it would be fun to use the kid's arms instead of paper templates. Sadly, the paint ended up running down in between their fingers and down around their arms which puddled onto the paper and seeped underneath. Oops again.


Again, for me, the best method was using the paper template. We enjoyed this project and hope you do too! 

I'm sharing this project at the following parties this week!














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