Deck Out Your Fridays! Wreathes aren't just for Christmas!

Making and hanging wreathes is great for any time of year!

To make your own wreath, start with a wire or foam base, depending on what you plan on adding to it.  Use materials that you find in the season that you'll be hanging the wreath during.  A few ideas to start:

Autumn: Color-turned leaves, nuts and berries, Indian Corn, dried gourds 

Winter: Evergreen base, pine cones, red berries

Spring: Twig base with beginning buds, or Fresh green leaves (for beginning or end of spring), pastels

Summer: Fresh green base, sunflowers, bold-colored flowers

Examples, respectively (Not my own work!):

 

 

It's easy to have fun and get creative with wreathes.  If you use natural material, you can recycle the wreath when it wilts, then start new each season.  It saves space and starts a great tradition!

Links:

• Save on Crafts
• eHow
• Comfy Country Creations

Miscellaneous Wednesdays: Next year, turn your leftover treats into turkeys!

I "stumbled" across this flickr post today from user Kimi Coopet:

Oreo Turkey Cookies (Explored)   This is my 2009 Oreo Turkey! I changed it up a bit and decided to add a gobbler. lol Funny. Check out 2007 Oreo Turkey Cookies www.flickr.com/photos/mamakimi/2056437398/ Check out 2008 Oreo Turkey Cookies www.flickr.com/photos/mamakimi/3058728821/ I will also post the directions here on how to make these: I make these every Thanksgiving. They are a hit for kids and adults. It's a nice alternative to pie! I get emails everyday asking how to make these cute little cookies. I put this together so have fun! What you need: 9 Candy Corn 2 Double Stuffed Oreo Cookies 1 Whopper 1 Reese's Peanut Butter Cup 1 Tube of black piping gel 1 tube of white icing 1 Yellow and red food coloring 1 Yellow and red food coloring 2 plastic Ziplock bag 1 sharp knife 1 pair of scissors 1 bowl Prep: Put your Peanut Butter Cups in the fridge to cool. If you have cold hard chocolate to work with it makes it a lot easier. Squeeze some of the white icing into a bowl. This will be your orange. Mix red and yellow food coloring with the icing to create your desired orange. Then put that into a plastic bag and set it aside for later. Do the same for a thing of red. Creating: First you will be creating the tail using 1 Oreo cookie and 6 Candy Corns. Gently, with one candy corn pull apart just one side of the Oreo. Don't don't break about the entire thing. Put a good amount of icing in between the two sides. This will help the Candy Corn stay. Place 6 Candy Corn (white side down) in between the cookie. See picture. Take your white icing and squeeze a generous amount onto the top back of an Oreo cookie. Take the other Oreo and put the bottom into the icing to have it stand up. If it doesn't stand, add more icing! Once you have it stand put it up against something so it doesn't fall until the icing is dry. I use a thick book. Remove your Peanut Butter Cup from the fridge. Take your knife and cut off the very bottem so you have a flat surface. Put icing on the bottom of it the bigger flat. Bump it up against the bottom and back of your Oreo cookies. See picture. Next take your Whopper and squeeze more icing on it on one side. Place the whopper on top of the Peanut Butter Cup to make your head. Find a piece of Candy Corn that has a nice big white end. Using your sharp knife cut the color off leaving you with the white end. Place some icing on it and stick it on your whopper as the beak to your Oreo Turkey. Hold for a moment. Put some frosting on the back of a Candy Corn and place it on the side of the Peanut Butter Cup with the small end pointing up. Do this on each side for the wings. Make sure to hold for a moment to get them to stick! Take your icing and place two white dots as eyes. Get your tube of black piping gel and place a black dot on each eye to make them come alive. Grab your bag of already created orange. Cut a very small hole in the corner of the bag. Now, pipe feet. Grab your bag of already created red. Cut a very small hole in the coner of the bag. Pipe a strip under the nose for a gobble. It's okay if it looks messy. Those things are silly looking anyways! Now you are done! It is that simple!!

Deck Out Your Fridays! Indian Corn

Indian corn is a great autumn decoration that can be used for Halloween and carried right on over through Thanksgiving.

If you have the resources to do so, I found a neat blog on how to grow your own Indian corn!  However, if that doesn't seem so feasible, Indian corn is usually available throughout autumn, for decoration purposes, at your local farmers markets, craft supply stores, garden centers, and grocery stores.

HGTV's site has a great page all about Indian corn, which offers history, ideas, and other resources.  Some tidbits from the site:

• leave an ear out in the warm rain and the kernels sprout almost overnight
• Native Americans saved their largest ears of a crop for seed
• Calico corn is the result of cross-pollination among a wide range of Native American strains

One of their links at the end of the article is to make "Indian Corn Swag."  They encourage using backyard finds to embellish your corn.  I'm all about using what you have and recycling to make things you'd otherwise throw away.  In this economy, do-it-yourself skills are key.  I have also rather recently gained a strong opposition to "stuff."  

Prepare for a rant.  People today buy far too much crap that doesn't even support our own nation's economy.  Look at what you have, what you can make!  The best gifts anymore are gifts that are made and can be used up.  Gift cards to the movies or restaurants can be enjoyed and take up no space.  Baked goods, which is the way I often go now, show the effort you put into the gift yet don't take up room one they've been gobbled up!  Of course, I'm not opposed to electronics and books... But you get my point ;)

What do you do with your Indian Corn?

Activities Tuesdays: Paper Bag Scarecrows

Now is the time to mention that much of what I'll be posting here between seasons is usable (or easily converted to be used) all throughout the year!  Today's activity is an easy favorite of mine from  my time working in childcare that we would do to last the whole fall season.

What you'll need:

• 1 brown paper bag
• raffia/straw/cut yellow paper
• construction paper-full sheets and scraps
• crayons/markers
• hot glue gun
• glue stick
• ribbon/string/twine
• newspaper
• optional: buttons

What to do:

1. Place your bag in front of you, flap at the top but facing down.
2. Assemble your face.  I suggest using construction paper triangles for the nose, buttons for eyes (use hot glue gun here), and draw the mouth.  Embellish with your crayons!
3. **Wait for any glue to completely dry and set!**
4. Ball up newspaper and stuff your head (from the bottom).  Before tying off with string/ribbon/twine/etc., add your "straw" so that it's visibly hanging out of the head.  After you tie off the bottom of the bag, add a little hot glue to the space where the straw is just starting to come out to make sure that it doesn't pull out.
5. Create a cone out of your full piece of construction for the hat.  Add any embellishments to the paper before you make the cone.
6. Hot glue some straw either to the head or the hat to get that kind of blonde bangs look that scarecrows get... Then use your hot glue to attach the hat to the head, part or brim-side front, whichever you prefer.
7. TADA!  Hang your man by a string or shove a pole up his neck and display him for all to see!

In the childcare setting, we have a wall above the [cubbies] that we use for bulletin board displays.  We created a simple cornfield scene by stapling the heads just above the bottom ledge to make it seem like they were peering over the fence!

Other versions:

• Kaboose
• All Kids Network
• Busy Bee Kids Crafts
• FunRoom (with body!)
• eHow

I wish I had a picture to share with you, but I do not!  I couldn't find anything online that quite fits my version...  If you attempt this craft, send me a picture and I'll post it!  (Appropriately accredited, of course ;)

Activities Tuesdays: Carve your own...Funkin?

If you're looking for a less-gooey alternative to carving pumpkins, (I know, why would anyone want that?) then the answer has finally arrived!  Now you can create everlasting Jack-o'-Lanterns to use for every Halloween to come.

The first place I saw one of these "pumpkins" was at a Joann Fabric and Craft store.  They're called Funkins.  The description provided by Joann.com for the above pictured Funkin:

This 10'' carvable funkin will last all season long. Funkins are resistant to all kinds of weather. Funkins are already hollow, making them just as easy to carve as a real pumpkin without the mess.

 Funkins also have their own site if you're interested!  Complete with examples...

...And an option to buy them straight from the site.  They also have luminas, gourds, and pumpkins all different sizes!

I'm curious as to how these carve, but I've yet to even carve my real pumpkin this year.  Let me know if you've tried out the Funkin!

Deck Out Your Fridays! A Grave Decision

What's a better way to show your Halloween dedication to the neighborhood than by turning your front lawn into a cemetery?  Nothing.

Now, there are a few ways to go about it.

I found one site that instructs you on building your headstones of plywood and mud or joint compound.  If you have the space, the time, and the tools required, this would be a really fun project!  Not only could you then showcase your work but also have it for years and years to come.

A place called FrightCatalog.com has some pretty intense foam tombstones for purchase.  They also offer something called a "Grave Scene Kit" for $16.99, which includes two tombstones, soft barbed wire, and bloody cloth? (Seen below)

Or, you could go with the easiest/cheapest option.  Many of these kinds, made up of mostly plastic, are available at most Dollar Stores, supermarkets, and party stores.

No matter your choice, put just a little extra effort into the set-up to give it that creepy cemetery feel.  Use straw or loose soil to mark the grave sites.  Grab some body parts from your local Halloween store to have "bursting" through the ground.  Build up the earth around the bottoms of the gravestones so that they don't appear to be floating.  Little things like that will make a simple decoration that much better!

Make sure to mark your graves!  Let your viewers know who's house it is by creating your own epitaphs.  OR, make ones for your neighbors...

Other resources:

• eHow
• HubPages - With instructions to make a peeping zombie!!
• Oriental Trading 

Deck Out Your Fridays! Tree Ghosts

Why not make your front yard tree a Christmas tree? Only for Halloween!

"Tree ghosts" are cute ornaments that you can make to display from your branches for the Spooky Season. The best part about this project is that you can make them completely from recycled materials and they're totally durable! I've had made for well over 10 years.

What you'll need:

• White fabric - either purchased from a craft store or recycled from old sheets, shirts,etc. The amount will depend on how many you want to make. (See instructions)
• Newspapers, paper-towels, whatever you have laying around
• String - Yarn or fishing wire will also work
• Black marker - Sharpee, Fabric paint pen
• Scissors
• Ribbon - optional

1. Cut a square of white fabric. The size is entirely up to you and where you're hanging it. Try a square foot to start.
2. Draw a face - use long ovals for his eyes and mouth. (You know, if you want.) Read on to approximate where to place your face.
3. Take your newspaper and scrunch into a ball. (About the size of your fist if using 1 square foot of fabric.)
4. Flip the fabric over so it's face down. Place the paper ball in the center. Wrap the fabric around the ball as if you're wrapping a lollypop. (Before the next step, this would be the best time to mark where your face should go if you weren't sure before!)
5. Using your string, or ribbon, tie a knot around the fabric beneath the paper ball. It doesn't have to be super tight! Just tight enough so the ball can't get loose.
6. Thread your string through the top of the head (cut two small holes to thread thicker string, like yarn) and tie to make a loop for hanging.
7. Display!

When I finally dig my decorations of the attic, I will be putting pictures up. I'm so behind!!