Posts tagged Halloween

These cookies are so cute! They make quick and easy last minute Halloween treats

Ingredients

• 32 Hershey’s Kisses milk chocolates, unwrapped
•  1  Package (11 1/2 ounces) fudge-striped shortbread cookies (32)
•  1  Tube (4.25 ounces) orange or red decorating icing

Instructions

Attach 1 chocolate candy to chocolate bottom of each cookie, using decorating icing.

Pipe decorating icing around base of milk chocolate candy.

* Original Recipe can be found at Betty Crocker

I like using vinyl as a reverse stencil because it’s super easy and almost no-fail. You can cut your own vinyl or buy precut vinyl stencils at any craft store. 

Monograms are an easy thing to hand-cut from vinyl! Simply print your monogram on standard paper, cut and trace onto vinyl.

Of course, I used my silhouette to cut the “M” because…well, if you’ve got it, use it. Right? But, I promise you it’s not essential to this project!

I did not, however, use the silhouette to cut out my polka-dots. I always keep scraps of leftover vinyl when I’m done with my projects. I used those itty-bitty (unusable with my machine) scraps to trace and cut my circles. I then hand-placed them (no need for transfer paper with these guys) around the M. I’ll be honest, since my pumpkin’s backside faces a wall, I concentrated my efforts on the front of the pumpkin.

Stick your monogram letter on the best looking side of the pumpkin. 

                 
                                    Place your dots here and there.

When I got my vinyl stencil (reverse stencil, that is) in place, I took the pumpkin outside to spray paint. I really wanted a light dusting of white so the orange would come through a bit. However, I got a little spray happy,  and it ended up with a fairly saturated white coat.                       

                         

                       

     

When it comes to Halloween, I definitely prefer haunted—spooky music, cobwebs and ghouls—to gore. And these super easy DIY decorations are just the right amount of haunting. Set at the center of a dimly lit dining room or perched on a porch for Halloween night, these lit-up skeleton hands give any vignette a spooky vibe. And guess what? All you need is a few latex gloves and a permanent marker to complete the whole look.

It really is that simple: Pull up some guide photos of skeleton hands on Google Images, then use a standard Sharpie marker to draw some bone shapes onto one side of a latex glove. Start with long bone shapes for the palm of the hand, then shorter ones for the middle and tips of each finger. Complete the sketch with a bunch of smaller triangle-y and rectangle-y shaped bones at the base of the hand. I’ll warn you now: Drawing on latex is kind of tricky. Don’t worry if your lines aren’t perfect—you can always fix the minor imperfections in the next step.

Once you’ve got a skeleton hand you’re happy with, it’s time to color in between the lines. I switched to a thicker, chisel-tipped Sharpie marker for this (it gets the job done better and quicker!). Begin to color between each of the bones on the palm and wrist area, then color in a thick border around the outside of the palm and the fingers (about a half-inch).

Once your skeleton hands are all inked in, it’s time to make them stand up and light up.

Drop a flameless LED tea light—turn it on first—into a wide votive holder or a 4-ounce mason jar (with the ring but without the lid). Stretch the opening of your skeleton glove around the votive or jar so it fits snugly and hides the glass.

Note:  As someone pointed out after the project was finished, you can also stretch the glove around the jar upside-down. This way, you won’t have to pull the glove off each time you want to turn the LED candle on or off. Why didn’t I think of that? Brilliant!

At this point, it will look a little limp, but all you have to do to “raise your hand” (ha!) is blow. Seriously, just stretch the glove out a little bit and blow some air into the glove to inflate it. The latex glove should fit snug enough around the jar to keep the air in.

That’s it! Time to put ‘em somewhere dark and moody and get the spooky vibe going! I love it when holiday crafts are this easy and inexpensive, don’t you?

*Credit: FormalFringe.com

(Source: zazzle.com)

Guest Blog by Arielle

A lifelong crafter, I have always loved Halloween. Last weekend my sisters and I decided to host a pumpkin-carving party for my nieces and nephews. We served hot cider and scary Halloween cookies

Materials

• pumpkin or squash
• linoleum cutter kit 
• knife 
• power drill 
• nail or pushpin
• tea lights
• template for ornate pumpkin pattern (click to download)
• template for leaf pumpkin pattern (click to download)

Instructions

1. Using a knife, cut a hole at the bottom of the pumpkin big enough to allow you to scoop out the seeds and pulp. Smooth down the inner walls of the pumpkin.

2. Choose the pattern you would like to carve out, print it (see above) and tape it on the pumpkin. Since pumpkins vary in size and shape, you may have to enlarge or reduce the size of your pattern to fit the pumpkin.

3. Using a nail, trace the pattern on the pumpkin by punching holes along the lines so your pattern is printed directly onto the pumpkin once you remove the paper.

4. With the linoleum cutter, draw your pattern by linking all the dots made with the nail. Do not carve completely through the pumpkin meat.

5. Following the outline just cut, remove the outer layer of the pumpkin while remaining inside the pattern’s lines. Do not carve completely through the pumpkin; leave a portion of the meat to give a frosted glow to your pumpkin once it is lit.

6. Drill holes wherever you want the light to shine through.

7. Place a tea light inside. If you did not carve through the skin of the pumpkin at any point, it is necessary to cut a hole at the back of the pumpkin for safety and ventilation.

(Source: merrybrides)