Spooky Eyes

My 7 year old nephew has a paper towel cardboard tube collection.  Every time my sister finishes a roll of paper towels he insists that the cardboard tube MUST be saved for his collection. Luckily my nephew's quirks are my gain. He is generous enough to share his collection with me so that I can come up with some fun crafts. Awesome kid!


I came up with an idea to make spooky light up eyes with these materials:
    paper towel tubes
    white paper 
    markers
    black paint
   Christmas/Halloween lights or glow sticks.

 This is a simple craft for kids.

1) Cut the paper towel tubes in half and cut the eyes out of tube. This part should probably be performed by an adult or a child with solid cutting skills.

2) Paint the tube with black paint and let it try.

3) Cut the white paper into 8 strips and slide these strips of paper into the dry tubes.

4) Create Eyeballs with marker

5) Slide lights through the rolls and you have spooky glow in the dark eyes!

Grade: B
Skill Level: Low
Difficulty Level: Low
Frustration Level: Low

Spookie Pictures

Sometimes you are bored at work, do something extremely silly and come up with an incredible idea for home. This happened to my friend Natalie. She started messing around with the copier at work and started copying her face. Turns out it this makes a very spooky Halloween decoration. You can give it a try at your local library, but you may want to have your kids do it so you don't look like you've lost your mind.

      

The next time Natalie is bored, I'm sure I'll be getting some pictures of her tush. My friends are funny!

Indie Films

This blog isn't just about crafts. Its about attempting new things. You just have children, your life isn't over! There is no better time than now to experience life and attempt the things you want to do. I want to make sure I try new things that I would personally find fun, so you are not going to find me jumping out of any planes. I find that terrifying. Noooooo thank you.

Sometimes its hard to get motivated and that's when you need support from your friends. Encourage each other. One of my best friends, Natalie, keeps me going and trying new adventures. 

The other day I didn't want to go out "My house is a mess, I need to clean it." 

Natalie yelled at me, "Now, do you really think that would be interesting on your tomb stone? - Had the cleanest house in town? Or would you rather be remembered as an adventurer?"

I picked adventurer.

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to have a part in a movie? I did. Last summer, I went for it and got a part in an Indie Film with the help of my friend Natalie. No. I didn't get paid, that is not the point. I have no experience as an actor, but I did have experience as a mom and that was all I needed to play the part of Ben's mom. I'd like to thank Jason Heffner, the director, for giving me the opportunity to cross this off my bucket list.

Here is trailer:

If you want to see the entire short click here :Short Film


Now I have an IMDB credit. I'm checking that off my bucket list!!! Next I'm trying stand up comedy!!!! In the mean while, I'll still continue to do crafts because I just can't stop!

Here I am on the red carpet!

Minion Cupcakes (without Twinkies)

I've got to learn to remember to bake birthday cakes and cupcakes two days BEFORE I need to send them to school. But yet again, another birthday, and I'm up until 2:30 in the morning. Although I was a zombie all day at work, at least my kid was smiling all day at school.

I saw a lot of recipes for cupcakes on the internet for Minions using a Twinkie but my kid didn't want that so I had to come up with my own ideas. After inspecting the candy aisle at the local supermarket, I decided I could work with white lifesavers for the eyes and black licorice for the hair. In retrospect, I should have used chocolate sprinkles for the hair, but I was hormonal and craving licorice. So I used 4 pieces of licorice for the hair, and the rest went in my mouth. 

Materials
Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Icing 
Yellow gel Food Coloring
Betty Crocker Easy Squeeze Icing (Chocolate)
Cake Mate Decorative Icing (Black)
Life Savers (Pep O Mint)
A bag of Black Licorice
Dry Fondant (any will do)

All of the ingredients with the exception of the fondant, were found at my local Acme Market. I acquired the dry fondant from Michael's Craft Store. I've actually had it for months not knowing what to do with it. 

First I baked 50 mini cupcakes for school and the birthday party using two box mixes. After the cupcakes cooled I mixed a tiny bit of yellow gel food coloring in with the Betty Crocker frosting until I got the desired color yellow. Any frosting product that is white or cream color will work perfectly.  

After I iced all the cupcakes with the yellow frosting, I mixed the fondant with some water and a couple of squeezes of the the black icing to give it a gray color that would be similar to the color of the silver minion goggles. You have to mix in the fondant and water so that it is the texture of play dough. Add a little water at a time to the dry fondant and mix it with your fingers until it is the right consistency. Then add the black icing, knead it in, and keep adding the black icing until the fondant is the correct color gray.  I rolled the fondant into a thin snake and wrapped it around the outside life saver, pressing the gray fondant into the side of the lifesaver. 

I put a pea sized drop of chocolate easy squeeze icing on the yellow icing then pushed the minion goggle on to the cupcake with the Lifesaver hole over the chocolate frosting dot, to create a brown eye.

I pushed the cut up licorice into the icing at the top of the cupcake for minion hair. 

I used the black icing to make the goggle straps and the mouths. I just cut the tip off the Cake Mate Icing, I didn't use any special screw on tips.

Ta DA! Minions!

Grade: B+
Skill Level: Low
Difficulty Level: Low
Frustration Level: Moderate (You have to work with the fondant quickly because it dries fast. If it starts to crumble while you work with it, just add a drop of water and knead the fondant so it is easier to work with.)

Bad Minions! No smoking!

I know I have a sick sense of humor, my excuse is that I didn't get any sleep!!!

Marble Mosaic Bird House

I've missing the summer months on this blog because I've been a little busy taking the kids to water parks, the beach, paddle boarding, boating, museums, NYC, fishing, swimming, surfing, national parks, picnics, nature hikes and other family fun events... And when my kids go back to school this September, when the teacher asks, "What did you do this summer?" My kids will respond "Nothing."

I would have completely blown off my blog in August if it wasn't my friend Angela's birthday. What do you give the girl who has everything? A craft from your heart of course. 

The materials 
   Any A frame unfinished bird house found at the craft store
   Aleene's - Arts & Craft Glue
   Mosaic Tile Craft Grout (use any craft grout found in the store)
   Apple Barrel Color Mosaic Green 20792
   Apple Barrel Color Berry Red 20525
   Apple Barrel Color Antique Gold 20506
   Glass marbles (found in the floral section)

Did you ever walk through the floral section of the craft store, see flat, pretty, assorted color, shiny glass beads and really really want them, but you don't know what you need them for? If your answer is yes, you are a magpie like me. I finally found an excuse to use them. They happen to make a striking mosaic tile.

I used the tacky glue to place the glass beads on the bird house. 

Let it try overnight. It is best to glue the beads on one side, wait about 30 minutes, then glue on them on the other side. You have to keep the beads flat or they slowly slide off the A frame house. After I started this, I realized that it would have been easier to use a hot glue gun.

I mixed the grout with a little paint then spread it on the birdhouse with my hand. It is much easier to use your hand to navigate around the smooth round glass beads. I would never use my hands for square glass tiles because I would surely cut myself. And blood is not a pretty color on a birdhouse.

After about 15 minutes I wiped it down with a damp sponge to clean the grout off the glass.

After it dried overnight, I scraped off the excess grout around the beads with the back of a paint brush.

I found that if you water down the paint you can spread it unevenly over the grout with a paint brush to give it a nice textured look.

I painted a couple of flowers on the front and back of the house to draw in the reds, golds and greens in the glass beads. The finished product makes a nice porch decoration!  Maybe I'll keep this one for myself !

Grade: A
Skill Level: Low
Difficulty Level: Low
Frustration Level: Low

Train Cake

If you ever told my 20-year-old self that I would be staying up until 2:00 in the morning making a train cake for my 5-year-old, I would have told you that you were nuts... and yet many, MANY years later here we are. 

Re-wind to last year when I found this train cake pan at Jo-Ann Fabrics and decided to make my husband a cake for his promotion.  I made a train cake with dollar signs on it and put some bacon sticking out of the train car because he was "bringing home the bacon on the money train." It was the VERY first time I actually decorated a cake with with a tube set and it turned out quite well because it was so easy. I used box cake mix and mixed food coloring in with store bought icing. 

So this year, for the first time, I decided to make my son a birthday cake. Last night,  the night before his party, I realized I forgot to start the cake the day before to let it cool. Oops. So I quickly got everything out and started at 8:30 PM. This was the first time I was going to try the Duncan Hines Frosting Creations. I bought 4 packets of color/flavoring but only used 2 cans of white frosting, so the color was a little darker and the flavor was a little stronger.


To tell you the truth, I wasn't really paying attention when I grabbed this particular box of cake mix off the ACME shelf because, that day, I was worried about my soon to be 5-year-old having a melt down in the super-market. Instead of getting the regular chocolate cake, I grabbed the first thing I put my hands on. At the time, it didn't seem that important because I just wanted to get the heck out of there... WARNING this is what happens when you use SUPER MOIST cake. Another oops!!

AT this point it was almost 10:00 and there was no way in heck I was about to go to back to the super-market and re-make the cake, so I mixed my frosting and I figured I would just load the icing on the train wreck and make it look as train like as possible. Only problem was, my cake wasn't 100% cooled down... This is what happens when your cake isn't cool, your frosting starts to melt. Oops number 3. 

All my icing was just sliding off the cake, the re-construction was even a bigger mess!!! So I had to throw that sucker in the freezer for 20 minutes. Something I should have done BEFORE I started icing the cake.

The front was just so mangled that the icing just wouldn't be able to re-construct an ENTIRE train front. So I ran around the kitchen trying to find something edible to hold up the icing. I found marshmallows!!! I just started shoving it under the icing that was sliding off the front of the cake. It actually looked pretty good! The marshmallows also happened to make good looking smoke too! 

Lets be honest, I'd never make the cut for a Food Network Cake Decorating Challenge or you'd never see me on an episode of Cake Boss, however, I did save money and my son thought it was great so that's really all that mattered. 

Grade: C
Skill Level: Moderate-High
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Frustration Level: High (don't start a cake at 8:30 at night!)

Duncan Hines Frosting Creations was a big hit, He couldn't keep his fingers off!

Sun Catchers for Dad

Doesn't dad have a pile of ties and mugs from Father's Day past?

Wouldn't it be nice to give dad a gift created by the kids that didn't take space in the junk drawer? I was looking at my sun-catchers and decided that simulated stained glass project is the perfect gift for Father's Day. I have included print outs for you so that you can make them too!




You can always find plastic packaging around if its in your recycle bin or your trash can. There are several types of plastics that can't be recycled and those are the best kinds to use for this project. 

1) Wash the plastic with dish soap to remove traces of dirt and oil. Dry thoroughly.

2) Rub the side of the plastic that you are going to write on with sand paper then wipe with a damp cloth.

3) Slowly trace the plastic placed over the printout with Sharpie Fine Point Permanent Markers. My 8 year old did this and really did a wonderful job.

4) Cut out plastic.

5) Spray with clear sealant for fade resistance. This step is optional.

6) Use pin to push through the plastic to create holes for fishing line.

7) Tie on fishing line. This was the absolute worst part of the project. Tying all that little, thin, slippery string was very frustrating. I will have to find some alternative to fishing line because it is a bear to work with. Actually, I'd rather work with the bear.

8) Add plastic beads to make it pretty. You can find these at any craft or 5 and 10 store.

9) Cut out another piece of plastic (clear or colored) to make the top. I used a clear plastic bottle sliced in half and cut and inch and a half thick, so that it gave the final product a curved look. You can see it more clearly if you click on the big picture at the top of this blog page. 

After my 4-year-old son saw the finished product he wanted to confiscate it for his own. I'm sure daddy will let him keep it in his room!

Grade: A-
Skill Level: Easy 
Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate
Frustration Level: Moderate (Oooooo, that fishing line!!!)

Make sure you check out the print-out below!!!

Print Me