Halloween Treat Bags {Craft DIY}

Last year I decided to make some treat bags for my boy to take to school but I decided like um on October 29th and it was a tad bit too late.  This year I decided to start early that way I can make a few of them a week without being overwhelmed.

I created Mummy & Frankenstein treat bags.

UPDATE (10/3/11):
At the request of my son, I made the Frankenstein bag a little more scarier and all I did was add a couple of eyebrows.  I must admit the bag looks much better!  All thanks to my boy not wanting the cutesy stuff.  :)

These were very simple to make and here's how I did it.
I used the mini size paper bags at Michael's (green) and Hobby Lobby (white).

NOTE: Make a fold on each bag before you begin to decorate the bag that way you will know where to start decorating.

Frankenstein
Step 1: Cut strips of black card stock for the hair.  I cut 2"x3 1/2" for this size bag; Make the jagged edge with craft scissors (these come in all kinds of designs)

Step 2: Use adhesive to place on bag

Step 3: Make eyes with 3/4" hole puncher

Step 4: Use black adhesive 'pop-ups' for the pupil to give it a little 3-D action
(these come in a variety of sizes)

Note: These have double-sided adhesive so you
only need to peel the paper off one side

Step 5: Draw the mouth using a black marker

Mummy
Step 1: Cut two different size strips of white card stock: 1"x3 1/2" & 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Use adhesive to place on bag.

Use the wider strips first to lay out on bag

Use the thinner strips to overlap

Step 3: Dab a sponge brush on a brown color ink pad and color along the edges of the cut card stock

Step 4: Make the eyes using a 3/4" size hole puncher (for the white part) and a two-hole puncher (for the black part); place on bag with adhesive

And there you have it.  Two fun and cute treat bags for your kiddos to pass out at school to their friends or any other function.  You can seal the bags with a Halloween sticker once they are packaged and ready to go.

My son was not to excited about my project until he saw the end result and now he wants to help make the rest.  :) 

We plan to put a small handful of candy corn with a couple of cookies in our bags.  Talk about a sugar high!

I'm linking up with these fab bloggers:

A Verry Merry Vintage Style * Sugar Bee Crafts * A Diamond in the Stuff

Night Owl Crafting * Ginger Snap Crafts * Organize and Decorate Everything

Creations by Kara * A Place Called Home *Itsy Bitsy Paper * The DIY Showoff

Tatertots & Jello * Craft-o-Maniac * Centsational Girl * One Artsy Mama

Sew Woodsy

Goodbye, Summer ~ Hello, Fall

Good golly Miss Molly am I glad summer is over. Really, I never thought I would say that but the summer of 2011 took a mean beating on us Texans. No rain, not even when we washed our cars, triple digit heat day after day and certainly no backyard bbq gatherings unless there was a pool involved. Our town and state has suffered one of the worst droughts on record and we are all PRAYING for rain. Still.

Ah but the changing of the seasons was definitely a breath of fresh air for me and I began to think of the fall decorating and baking I have planned for the next couple of months. I always like to decorate for the season on the first official day and yesterday was that day. Well I forgot that my son had a Cub Scout meeting so after work I picked up the kids, served a quick dinner and we were off again. I did manage to hang a 'Welcome' sign with a friendly looking scarecrow. Aw, he's cute.

Last weekend I started my annual fall cleaning and I got in over my head just a lil bit. My mission was to clean out all closets and get rid of all things that are never used whether it be toys, books, kitchen gadgets, clothes, etc. Lemme tell ya, my house looked like a screen shot from one of those hoarder shows. It took me a whole week but I finally got eveything boxed up and is ready for donation.

Now I can decorate with help from my kiddos (and the hubs) and start working on those craft projects for Halloween. I am little girl excited.

Scrapbook Page Idea {Softball}

A few days ago, I was organizing my photos and I came across one of a scrapbook page that I made for my co-worker's daughter.  Her daughter has been involved in athletics ever since she was a wee one and is mighty proud to show off her got game skills.    :) One day I snagged two pictures of her daughter's softball tournament and decided to surprise her with a scrapbook page.  Honestly, I was nervous as heck that she was going to be mad especially since I took the pictures without her permission. 

Well, all's well and ends well because she loved what I did with her photos and so did her daughter.  Whew!

Here is what I made:

And here are some of the materials I used to make the page:

As you can see I made this back in 2006 so I don't have all of the materials I used to make this page therefore I will explain it as best as possible.

1. I used a fun shaped paper punch from Stampin' Up! for the name.  I did the paper punch first then stamped the letters.
2. I used a baseball glove stamp from one of my Stampin' Up! stamp sets; I also used Sticky Doos (adhesive foam dots) to make the gloves 3-D.  You can't tell on the picture but it is a fun way to spruce up any scrapbook page.
3. I used star shaped eyelets from Making Memories (also on #4).
4. The stamp set I used here was from Hobby Lobby (Stampabilities). I did write the word 'THE' because I did not have any stamps small enough for that space.
5. A plain, type set stamp was used here and also for #1 (also Stampabilities)

The page was made on a 12"x12" sheet and I didn't measure for any of the trimming.  I first put the pictures (w/photo adhesive) along the corner of the white card stock. I then trimmed it all around with my paper cutter, placed it on the blue card stock and trimmed again.

I also did not pre-cut or measure for any of the wording.  Again, starting at the corner of the white card stock I stamped the words and then used my paper cutter to cut and trim to the size of my liking. 

There ye have it.  A fun and super duper easy scrapbook page to add in a scrapbook or display in a frame.  Fun and simple, right?

Just Showing Off

With the exception of the faux wood blinds on my kitchen window, it is a sad blank space.  There is no valance of any kind to spruce up the area.  We bought and installed the faux blinds as soon as we moved in and I always told my husband that I would dress it up later.  Nine friggin years later and nada.  Just like our closet.   A couple of weeks ago I decided that I wanted a better way to show off my kids’ school art activities besides slapping them on the fridge with a magnet or tape.  I do not want the fridge hogged up like that anymore and then I remembered that Young House Love displayed flash cards in their daughter’s room  a la banner style. 

Off to work I went and it was easy cheesy.  I bought four scrapbook sheets of paper from Hobby Lobby and I already had on hand the Mod Podge, sponge brush, ribbon white hooks and clothespins.

This is how my kitchen window looked before:

Here it is with the show-off school art banner:



My son's orange longhorn.

He is a proud UT Longhorn fan and a self-proclaimed future Longhorn.  :)

A close-up of my baby girl's giraffe.

She used her thumb for the brown spots.  :)

I will admit that it is not my ideal window treatment but I am totally content with it for now and this is a much better way to see what my kiddos have made at school and preschool.  They can also proudly show it off to our visitors and it can serve as a topic of conversation while eating.  I plan to change out their masterpieces every couple of weeks.

Here is what I used:

I traced the clothespins on the back of each scrapbook paper and then cut out the traced pieces.  Next, I applied the Mod Podge on each pin with the sponge brush and then adhered the paper.

This is also a fun craft for kids to participate in and they truly enjoy it.  Both of my kids took in on the action and wanted to keep going until we ran out of paper.  My son even said he would like to make some for his teacher. Such a sweet boy of mine.  :)

I Made Something Pretty {DIY}

Awhile back, I wrote a post about some fun things I found at Goodwill.  I finally got to complete a project on one of those finds.  We have never had anything to put our mail.  We check the mail and put it either on the dining room table or the kitchen counter.  This has always bothered me, yet we continue to do it.  I have looked for mail holders in the past but never found anything I liked.  It was either too bulky, wrong color, too many slots or not big enough.  I saw this office letter tray at Goodwill and thought that was perfect for our mail.  I do not want or care for anything with slots and I do not want to hang something up on the wall.  I bought this beat up thing for $1.99 and off to work my brain went. 

The fam and I went to Home Depot to buy a can of spray paint for this new project.  Honestly, I was overwhelmed with all the colors and like a typical girl or just typical me I could not make a decision.  I knew I wanted a soft, pale color but I just could not make up my friggin mind.  Finally, my boy said that he liked the “yellow one” and without hesitation I bought Krylon’s Meringue.

I know that a project like this is a piece of cake for veteran DIYers but that wasn’t exactly the case for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I was excited to finally spray paint something and call it my own.  The prep work took a wee bit longer than I thought and I have a thing or two or three or four to learn about wood filler and sanding.  Ay yay yay, I tell you.

Anywho, here it is:

I started out with this.

And ended with this.

I started out by peeling off the ugly felt that was glued on the back and scraped what did not peel off.  I scraped so much that it scratched the tray.

In comes the wood filler for the scratches and the small gap along the perimeter.  I also used wood filler for other little nicks and scratches on the rest of the tray.  I then sanded it with a medium sand block followed by a fine sand block.  This process took me the longest and frustrated me some.  Let's just say that this part of the tray (the back part) did not end up looking the way I planned so I will be fixing it later.

After the whole wood filler and sanding mess I was finally able to spray paint.  My very first spray painting project ever.  I felt so grown up.  First, I coated it with Krylon's Primer in white and then sprayed on Krylon's Meringue in satin.  After reading many tutorials, I remembered that thin, even coats was key.  I did mighty good there and only had a few drips.  I did go back and sand those areas lightly and start over but it was no biggie.  Once it was completely dry I sprayed on a couple of coats of Minwax Polycrylic protective spray.  It was beginning to look purdy.  :)

I mentioned that this tray is for our mail and although the inside will most likely never be seen I still wanted it to have a decorative touch.  I decided to put the letter P on it (for our last name).  I typed the P in French Script font, adjusted the size to my liking and hit print.

I cut the black P (with scissors) and then traced it on the back of the scrapbook paper I bought at Hobby Lobby.  I used another black P that printed out too small as my guide while I traced and cut.  I reversed the P that I was tracing and cutting to save space, so I put it as close to the edge of the paper as I could.  Yes, I'm frugal that way.

Once I had my P cut I used Mod Podge to adhere it to the tray.  Again, I used the other P as my guide for placing it on the tray.

I definitely loved the way it looked but I still wanted a little bit more on it.  That is when I looked through all of my paper punches and found a small butterfly punch.  I thought it was perfect since my daughter has a thing for butterflies.  My son picked out the color and the butterfly touches were for her.  :)

I punched out several and randomly placed them at the bottom of the tray with Mod Podge.  My girl got in on the action too once she saw me punching and gluing.

Here is what I used for my first true DIY home project: office tray from Goodwill, Krylon primer & paint, Minwax Polycrylic, wood filler, and two sanding blocks- fine and medium (not pictured), Mod Podge oh and the one sheet of scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby.

Voila. My end result.  Not bad, eh?  It's not the best picture so I will have to take another in the sunlight.  I was so excited when I finished it that I snapped a picture in the evening once I was finally done.

Here she is with some mail of ours.  I spy an IKEA catalog!

I'm so happy I now have something for mail.  It will sit nice and pretty on our console table.

UPDATE: Here is a picture of it not taken at night.

P is for our last name and for pretty too.  :)

I'm party crashing at the following:
New Nostalgia
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Sugar Bee Crafts
Today's Creative Blog
Tip Junkie
Night Owl Crafting
Creations by Kara
The Thrifty Home
Someday Crafts
Domestically Speaking
Beyond The Picket Fence
The Shabby Nest

Texas Fires

I have been MIA from my blog for a lil bit mostly because I have been a busy bee lately but then the fires happening here in Texas just put a damper on my spirits and preoccupied my mind.  Texas is in a severe drought and the temperatures here have been intense all summer long.  Over Labor Day weekend, we all think we are getting a break once the crazy winds start kicking in but it turns out that they did more damage than good.  A lot of damage.  Everything is so dry and brittle that nothing is fireproof.  Who knows how all these fires got started but somehow they did and poof the whole state it seems is up in flames.  The smoke is visible from just about every angle in Austin and it has caused several cough attacks for us Austinites.  Everyone here knows someone affected by these fires.

·         My husband’s cousin, his wife and their newborn son were evacuated from their home

·          Another cousin is a firefighter that has been working tirelessly

·          A co-worker of mine was evacuated and still does not know if her home was damaged or spared

·         A family member’s aunt lost everything– everything.

·         One of my best friends was on pins and needles because her home is about five miles from the Bastrop fire. 

·         In addition, my parents and grandparents live a short distance from the Bastrop county line and I was on standby in case we had to help evacuate them.  I was especially worried about my grandfather.  He is paraplegic so attending to him and his medical needs and helping my grandmother was a concern we all had in the back of our minds.

Here is what it looked like from my parents and grandparents property on Monday, September 5^th.

Here is a shot of the Austin skyline on Sunday afternoon, 9/4

Not sure where this picture originated from but it has circulated a lot!

Oh and my birthday was on Labor Day, September 5^th but with all the devastation around us it wasn’t one of those days where I wanted to spoil and pamper myself all day.  It was too depressing and stressful of a day.  We were all on high alert for whatever need be.  Instead, I just stayed home, cleaned my house and later had dinner with the family and one of my besties.  The other bestie could not make it because she was at home ready to evacuate (mentioned above). 

There are lots and lots of our fellow Texans that need help and if you are willing and able to donate then please consider one of these charities (info taken from the Austin-American Statesman and KVUE web pages):

American Red Cross of Central Texas

2218 Pershing Drive, Austin, 78723

(512) 929-1250

http://www.centex.redcross.org/

Austin Disaster Relief Network

P.O. Box 3817, Cedar Park, 78630

(512) 331-2200

http://www.austindisasterreliefnetwork.org/

Capital Area Food Bank

Accepting nonperishable food donations (canned meats, granola bars, peanut butter, bottled water) at 8201 S. Congress Ave., Austin

(512) 282-2111

http://www.austinfoodbank.org/

Catholic Charities of Central Texas

Accepting monetary donations as well as items such as blankets, pillows, toiletries and medical supplies from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1817 E. Sixth St., Austin, and 7-10 a.m. and 4-7 p.m. at 6225 U.S. 290 East.

http://www.ccctx.org/

Moreover, if you live around here then you can help at the following places:

H-E-B

Collecting donations to American Red Cross at its stores' checkout stands. 
H-E-B is donating $50,000 to the Red Cross and deploying its mobile kitchen to the emergency shelter at Bastrop Middle School.

Randall's

Those wishing to participate can go to any Austin-area Randall's and donate using a scan card at the register.

Old Wind's Dollar General Store

Accepting clothing donations at 210 Main St., Smithville

You can keep up with news of the fires through various media outlets but here is a link to our local newspaper, the Austin-American Statesman.

Please keep Texas in your prayers and send good thoughts our way.  Thank you kindly.  :)