Halloween Hat Cookies

Earlier this month I hosted a costume swap for our local MOMS Club. I decided to provide some Halloween treats, but did not go overboard since all of the attending children were toddlers or babies. Let's be serious, the cookies were for the Moms :)

All I had to buy for the cookies was a pack of fudge stripe cookies and a pack of Hershey's Kisses. You also need honey and "writing" frosting, but I had both of those.

As you can see, the stripe side of the cookie will be face down on your plate/tray. Put a small dollop (I like that word) of honey on the bottom of the Hershey Kiss and then push onto the cookie, covering the hole. I let them sit overnight to "stick" better.

The next morning I used a small tube of yellow writing frosting to make a ring around the edge, where the cookie joined the kiss.

Then I added little buckles to the witch's hats.

The cookies were yummy and people thought they were so cute! :)

William's Birthday Party Crafts

Back to William's 1st birthday party!! I did a quick photo-filled post soon after his party, but I can't resist sharing more, including my DIY projects.

Since I went with the little red wagon theme (don't ask me why, but I decided on it probably ten months ago) I accented with light blue so it wasn't so picnic-like. For drinks, I borrowed aqua mason jars from my in-laws that were once used as centerpieces at my sister-in-laws wedding. I tied ribbon around the neck of each jar and also added red and white striped straws for the lemonade. 

Easy factor: 1  Time factor: 1

These super cute wagon cookies were practically the only thing we didn't cook or make ourselves. I contacted Brittanie at Snickety-Snacks because I had tasted her cake balls before and knew she made super sweet cookies. She even put each cookie in a bag for me and I created the scalloped edge bag tags. The cookies were favors for the parents kids and then the ones without names said "Happy Birthday William" and were for the rest of the guests. I actually didn't use my Cameo to cut these out because I wanted some help, so we used a scalloped hand punch that I also used for his cupcake toppers at last year's Baptism.

Had to make the scallop the right size and put each child's name inside before printing. Also punch hole in top for ribbon.

Easy factor: 2  Time factor: 2

I made a party-color-themed wreath using plastic tablecloths too! This was the most involved project because of the size of the wreath itself. I did the same thing as with my Christmas fabric wreath and even hung it in the same place in our dining room/kitchen since that's where most of the party action was happening. I am also guilty of it still hanging up!

Easy factor: 2  Time factor: 4

Since the "trend" nowadays is for kids to have their own smash cake or cupcake, I made a small cake for William using what else, Funfetti cake mix and cream cheese frosting. My friend had the small cake pan from her daughter's 1st birthday a week earlier and I made two layers since that was how much batter I had. I know it is a bit tall. I used red and blue sprinkles and put the little red wagon on top. Do you know how long it took me to find that wagon…?! 

But the real "craft" here is the plate. I bought a plain white plate and then cut the letters with my Cameo. Because of the curve of the edge, I placed each letter by hand which took a little longer than the standard method using transfer tape.

Easy factor: 2   Time factor: 3

(Factors based on having a Silhouette Cameo)

Since I already had this cute tin bucket from Kirkland's, I added William's monogram and it immediately looked customized for his birthday. I also did the water bottle labels. I designed them using Silhouette Studio and then sent it to my printer. To decide on the measurements I simply measured the original bottle label and matched it. The text said "William is One" then there was a wagon inside a blue oval and then "Happy Birthday!" I cut each strip of label out, covered it with packing tap and then adhered it to the bottle.

Easy factor: 2 Time factor: 3

I did two fabric projects for the party, a highchair banner (which fell while he was eating his cake) and pennants that hung in the dining room. I used coordinating but not matching red/white and blue/white polka dot fabrics. The pennants were each 9 feet long (the length of the store-made bias tape) and I cut the highchair one to be the right length for our particular chair. I didn't have any bias tape at this point so I used thick red/white ribbon I had on hand. I did an easy applique for the number one on the center pennant. I loved the whimsical nature of the pennants.

Easy factor: 3  Time factor: 4

(Post party pic to see the flags. You can also see his banner!)

And finally is my entry sign. I used my Cameo to cut the blue circle, the wagon and do the lettering with my sketch pens. The white backing is made of folded coffee filters (I might do a separate post on that). I wanted it the whole house to be connected with William's birthday theme :)

Holiday Craft #3: Christmas Scrapbook

For my third holiday craft I'm going to share with you an idea that I thought of last year but didn't get around to making until this year. Last year I focused on organizing our Christmas cards and made my Christmas Card Saver. This year, I made a simple scrapbook with one photo from each Christmas past. There are definitely holes in our childhood years since I have to rely on our parents for the photos, so I worked with what I have. Since each year is its own 8x8 page, it is easy to add and move the pages around.

I bought an 8x8 red scrapbook from Michael's on Black Friday and made a basic (I know its boring and needs to be jazzed up) "title."

I had stacks of Christmas paper from a few years back when I literally made Christmas cards. I also bought a few sheets of black number stickers at Michael's to make it look uniform. I printed the pictures at home and got started. I didn't do anything fancy with different scissors or embellishments, just kept it focused on the picture.

This is a great project that is fun to add to year after year.

Holiday Craft #2: Shabby & Chic Wreath

I finally got around to making a wreath!! I had purchased a wire wreath form some time ago, but hadn't made it a priority to actually do something with it…until now! As if I don't have enough Christmas decorations, I decided to use scraps of Christmas fabric from last year and turn it into a festive wreath. Try this for a pretty simple Christmas DIY decoration.

The fabric I used was: solid dark green, a white backed full of holiday phrases, lime and red stripe (used the most), a green, white and red snowflake, and a red fabric with holiday candy all over it.

I cut strips of fabric out of all the scraps I had. The strips were about 1.5 inches by 7 inches. Then, I just folded each strip in half, looped it around the metal, pulled the double end through the loop and pulled it tight!

To be honest, I have no idea how much fabric I used, but I think it ended up being about 225 strips. Since I didn't know if I would have enough or not and I wanted a random look, I made sure to rotate the wreath form and placement of the fabric as I was making it.

This was a nice and clean project, all you have to do is cut fabric, and I even did it during playtime. I hope you find some time to make your own wreath!

Holiday Craft #1: Handprint Tree

I have decided to make December craft month at Enjoy Life & Love because I already have some cute and festive ideas up my sleeve. I will share at least one holiday craft project per week. There are two children's projects, a fabric-related home decor project and a paper craft. So please make sure to come back each week (I'm going to try and post on Tuesdays) and get some ideas, share your ideas, and let me know what you think!

This week's craft was made with my favorite sidekick: William. This is not the first or the last time his Momma will be dipping his hands in paint for the sake of craftiness, but soon he will not mind! I will admit that I found this idea on Pinterest, it is not an original idea of mine.

I purchased a 9x12 canvas at Michael's on Thanksgiving night when I decided I wasn't ready for bed and not in the mood to watch football. All stretched canvas was 50% off and then I had a 30% off total purchase coupon which made everything an even better deal. I also purchased dark green paint since I already had the other colors at home.

I buckled the little guy into his high chair,

painted his right hand with green paint and then did my best to get a fingers spread flat handprint

….six times!

I added details later -- the red edges, brown metallic tree trunk and gold star. I love it!

Monogrammed Pumpkin

While trolling the pumpkin patch, I fell in love with this deep green beauty. Maybe because we have a baby boy or maybe because I thought it looked more elegant than orange, I picked it off the vine. Everyone was telling me, "you picked a green one" which I realized since I'm not color blind, but I liked it.

To make it more personal without carving it (because what is safe about carving a pumpkin with a baby?) I monogrammed it with gold paint. Very easy steps: create template from computer, cut out stencil, trace and paint.

Come back in a few days to see where the pumpkin "lives" at our house.

Halloween Footprint Ghosts

This is one of my favorite projects and it was William's first real craft. Here he is with the finished product:

To kick-off our Halloween decor, I decided to make ghosts out of William's footprints. I saw a similar idea in a magazine a while ago, but I made some modifications and made it even easier.

Materials you need:
baby or child
wood
saw
paints: black, white, yellow
paintbrush
Sharpie
numerical stickers

I started off at Lowe's and purchased one piece of wood and cut it at home into a few different size pieces. (I did different sizes because I made these for William's grandparents too, but I used one footprint instead of two.) I also picked up a can of $1 black spray paint. I covered the basement floor in newspaper and gave each piece of wood two coats of spray paint on each side and all edges.

Then, I put William in his highchair and painted the bottom of his bare foot white and stamped it on the wood. Now, the first time I did this, I dipped his foot into the paint and then stood him up on the wood, but this resulted in a messy ghost that wasn't hardly recognizable as a footprint. By painting his foot, I had more control over the amount of paint used and could also spread out his toes if that makes any sense.

While the paint was drying, I added some additional details: a yellow full moon and the year 2011 in 3D white sparkle stickers so I didn't have to worry about neatly painting numbers. Then, I drew faces on each ghost with a Sharpie.

I love how this project came out and want to do it annually. Once William has a sibling, I can use one foot from each of them to have a big ghost and little ghost. One of the best parts is, since it is wood, I don't have to worry about it getting ripped in a box, paper fading, etc. I can just sit it anywhere in our house until Halloween!

Canvas Prints

Ever since we moved into our house I have been looking for art to hang above our bed in the master bedroom. I had a framed quote above the bed, but we took it down when we realized we had a frame hanging in the room with the same quote: "Love forgives all things, endures all things...." A while back I was shopping for fabric for living room pillows and I absolutely fell in love with one print. It is white, black, gray, gold and purple. I wasn't sure about how my husband would react since we have sort of an agreement about floral things, but the boldness of this pattern means it doesn't scream female.

So, I went about making my own frames to stretch the fabric around and create canvas panels. The pictures are pretty self explanatory so I won't editorialize much.

Supplies:
wood (I used 3 pieces of 1x2x6 for two 19x19 frames)
saw
wood screws
screwdriver/drill
measuring tape
fabric
staple gun

Make sure all pieces are the same length or you won't have an even square

This is when I used a drill to make the holes for the wood screws

Cut enough fabric so it will wrap around the wood and can be stapled in the back

I wrapped the edges like a present so it looks clean