Modge Podge a Pumpkin

Thanks to one of our readers who sent me this pumpkin! It is too stinking cute. This whole project was done by modge podging (that's a word, right?) fabric onto the pumpkin and then wrapping the stem with burlap to create a bow. Excellent job, Shelly! Thanks for sharing!

Do you have a pumpkin you would like to share? You can comment on the bottom of the picture and share your e-mail address and I will contact you - or shoot me an email! 

Pumpkin Cupcake Box

I tweaked one of the cupcake boxes a little bit to make a gift for the teachers at school. I liked how it turned out, but in the end...probably should have just gone with straight orange for color since it is borderline looking devilish. Anyways, here it is!

The idea is to add either candy, cookies, or a pumpkin bread muffin inside. These are great inexpensive ways to show your children's teachers that you are thankful for taking care of them. Here's the how-to:

All the pieces were cut using the silhouette cameo. 

I then used glue dots to glue down the pieces together. I used a sandwich bag that I cut for the front opening, but you could use anything you want (even the plastic wrap from sliced cheese I suppose). 

Fold it all up and insert the cupcake holder - or leave it out depending on what you are putting in there. 

Here's the back of the box. If you like the idea of having the inside be a surprise, then leave the face off and just use it as a cute little box! 

The Paper Pumpkin

Today I wanted to attempt something a little more fun...and use a lot of glitter doing it. I came upon a wonderful post by Jenice from Lolly Paper and she did such a spectacular job creating her paper pumpkin that I had to have one for myself. Well...mine didn't turn out near as amazing as hers, but it still is pretty - as long as you're not looking at the picture asking yourself...what is that.

I'm not real big on the leaf...I think it looks odd. I added a combination here...you can add burlap for the stem, or use something else. Here is the how to:

 Take your silhouette, or find a shape of the size pumpkin you want and trace it and cut out 6 pumpkins. The cheez-its in the picture have nothing to do with the tutorial. 

Glue them together at the sides. At this point it doesn't matter the color paper you use unless you plan on keeping it that color. 

Glue your pattern pieces to the pumpkin - I used spray glue because it's amazing, but it is very VERY sticky. 

Create a guard to spray adhesive on your pumpkin - again this stuff is STICKY (I have scrubbed my hands and still have glitter glued on them - I assume it will never come off - yeah...this stuff is that good). Next pour your glitter where you sprayed and finish all sides of the pumpkin. Do whatever your heart desires to make your little paper pumpkin extra amazing. You can find this pattern in the silhouette online store here. Have fun! 

"Witch" One?

When I was growing up I don't really recall having a say in what I was for Halloween....or maybe I didn't care due to my infatuation with candy - it didn't really matter as long as I got my bag filled. My oldest daughter, she's almost 3, gave me a run for my money. She was all about Doc McStuffins and couldn't wait to get her costume...and then it got here...she wanted to be Princess Sofia. Yep. Nothing else would do except Princess Sofia - so since I am mother of the year to quiet the madness...we went with Princess Sofia. If you read my post last night, then you were able to see my youngest, 15 month old, wearing her witch outfit.

 Today Miranda had to be a witch too. Hello number 3 costume. She put it on and loved it for about 4 minutes and then wanted to be Sofia again. Goodness gracious. Long story short...she will be a witch for Halloween. Tonight they went to a 'trunk or treat' and sported their cute little outfits.

 

When I bought Maggie's witch hat...I did not realize that I was going to need another...and of course they did not have anymore left. So, the only thing left to do was to break out the silhouette machine and get to work. Although, you don't have to use a silhouette machine - it just makes life easier. First thing first, I found a 3-D witch hat pattern (which is really used for candy holding) on the online store and printed it out on card stock. I don't have the fabric cutter so that wasn't an option for me - but I will get it one day. 

Top pieces are the card stock and bottom are the fabric pieces. I just traced the pattern onto my fabric and used my scissors. 

Next I pinned it right sides together and sewed it up. After that I turned it right side out and took some odd looking tool that obviously belongs to  my husband, although I have never seen him use it - or many tools at all for that matter, and poked it up the top to get the pointed look. Then I proceeded to fill it with stuffing.

Pin the round circle piece to the bottom of the hat, right sides together and then hand sew. When finished sewing, tack down a piece of felt or any thicker material to cover up the hole in the middle. Add a headband or whatever other tool you need to hold this to your child's head. 

And BOOM...there it is. I somehow misplaced the green strip of fabric that I was going to use around the hat, but I have every intention of gluing some orange ribbon around it. So there is an example, although it is not complete yet. 

Here is my Lovey. I used alligator clips to hold the hat to her head - I just slid them underneath the thick felt piece. 

Decorating Pumpkins with Vinyl

I love to carve pumpkins, but when you do it too early then all you have on Halloween night is a rotted corpse of a pumpkin and nobody ringing your doorbell for candy. So, with that being said...I decided that I would fix up one of my pumpkins with a little vinyl.

After I put the vinyl "H" on, I decided I wanted to spruce it up with spiders and a cobweb...well I had to go with white glitter because there was no black in the double sided adhesive kit I got from the Silhouette store. For the spider and the cobweb I used the double adhesive paper - so that allowed me to add glitter to the top. I think that this project turned out alright...it's not my favorite, but it is definitely something to set out on the porch. Oh...and my dog chewed the stem of my pumpkin for me...how nice. 

Prior to the glitter and dog chewing. 

My girls at the patch. 

Happy Halloween

Success! I have finally finished the project I have been saying I would finish. 

I painted the 12x12 wood piece in a chalkboard black by Valspar. It turned out really nice. The blue thing is a Pepsi drink thing turned over - wonderful for my projects! 

Transferring the lettering to the transfer tape. I love transfer tape because you don't have to press very hard to lift the letters. Also, you can reuse it - or at least I have depending on if the stickiness remains. I added an extra E later. =)

Here is the finished product! The color here does not do it justice. The letters are bright orange and it looks really good! Yay me!! This did not take long at all once I actually started. 

Happy Happy! 

An apple a day keeps the...witch doctor away?

This project was not easy...I repeat NOT EASY. I do not recommend this. I used burlap canvas that I painted for this project and it was super difficult to get the vinyl on there.

First I took a roller brush and painted the sign (from Hobby Lobby) pumpkin patch orange by Glidden. It was a great color and turned out wonderful. Those are shoes on the floor in the background...they play no role in my project. 

These were the 2 designs I came up with on silhouette studio. The Doctor's office picked which one they wanted. The word "Witch" and the flying witch were both purchased off of Silhouette online store (with my nifty little $10 gift card they gave me). The fonts are from Dafont. If you don't know how to get fonts off of other places, let me know and I will do a brief tutorial.

I get my vinyl from Expressions Vinyl. It is great quality and you can get big gigantic rolls that are 10 yds. Okay...so once again I goofed during the transfer step and I accidentally ripped off the D in Doctor. So, I had to improvise. I cut the transfer paper and made a black space where the D would be and went ahead and applied the vinyl and LATER cut out the D and just put it on there. I also thought that the sign needed a little more something and added this great spider web to the top.

I then set it up all nice and cute looking so I could use it to share with all of you. 

Happy Bewitching! 

Borrowing is not stealing...well I'm not taking it back

I'm supposed to have a really awesome finished project to show y'all right about now...yeah I don't have it ready. BUT, I will....just not now...well lets be reasonable, it's not happening tonight. I have 2 Halloween projects that I'm in the middle of plus I'm still waiting on my hubs to go down the street and borrow some wood scraps from the new house being built.

This isn't a very good picture. It's a little further away than I thought it was, but that pile there that you see is wood...and I want it. Before you call the police, we aren't stealing it. They will throw this away, but if it will make you feel better I will call the construction manager in the morning to let him know that it will be gone and down at my home should they wish to retrieve it. 

Just to keep y'all interested though...here's another pic of the fabulous project that I will do the tutorial on -TOMORROW. I will also be working on a Witch Doctor sign that should be equally fabulous. 

Also...take a look at this amazing cup cake holder by Rivka Wilkins.

Those are absolutely adorable and I will be doing a tutorial -SOON ...not right now so don't get all huffy when there isn't an automatic post following this about cupcake boxes. And don't you dare look tomorrow either and wonder where it is because it won't be here...definitely not the cupcake because I will have eaten that. Anyways, for you lovely Silhouette owners you can find this design on the Silhouette online store. 

Happy Waiting...again

Silhouette Cameo...my new love

So...I have found a new love and it is the Silhouette Cameo! It is absolutely, without a doubt...amazing. 

There's that beauty right there...eating some vinyl. Today I have started some subway art and will continue to post until the project is done. If I didn't have 5 little people, I'd live a life of luxury in the Bahamas I could get this done much faster...but somehow I ended up with them so I'm kind of stuck. ;) The first one I'm going to talk about is my Christmas project. 

I started out by going to home depot and buying a 24x24 inch board that cost me little to nothing. While I was there I went ahead and picked up some red Behr paint (sample size since that is more than enough) for a little over $2. That other thing is what we like to call a paint brush...and I already had that. 

I painted the board the red color, I didn't need primer because Behr is greatness and comes with it in there, and I sanded the edges to round it out a bit. You don't have to sand it..but I did because I like the edges better, plus I will stain them later to give it a more distressed look. After this I had my wonderful husband cut the board in half to make two 12x24 inch boards. No picture...sorry. 

Okay...this is obviously not the finished product. In the first picture there you see what is called Silhouette Studio...it kind of works like Photoshop, but for cutting out projects. Below that is the vinyl that I am currently working on. I'm taking out the negative and so you see the blue coloring underneath. That color will not be there. What I'm doing with this particular project is making it into a stencil so that I can lay it on top of my board and use another paint color to paint on top. There is an easier way to do this. So why didn't I do it the easier way? Because I painted my boards the wrong color. I will show you the easier way at a later date...or you can comment and I will go ahead and answer. 

This is not the same project, but I just wanted to show you this nifty little tool that helps to take out the unwanted vinyl. This is made by cricut. Silhouette also has one, but not one hobby store in my area sells it, which I find odd. Anyways, this is called a weeder - I believe...if not then it is just that tool that they use at the dentist office. 

Okay..that's it for this one. Tomorrow I will fix it all up and post the end result.

Happy waiting!