Halloween Papercrafting Fun and Blog Hop with Cardmaker

I'm so excited to be part of a fun Halloween Blog Hop with CardMakers blog and Glue Dots today! 

With Halloween just around the corner, you can find all kinds of fun cards and papercrafting on this blog hop! AND there's even a giveaway you can enter on GlueDots blog too! 

BUT, before you start checking them all out...I want to share with you the fun I had papercrafting and dressing up this little treat to give away. It was so easy and fun and fast too!

Have you seen the fun ways people dress up cupcakes? That's what got me started on this project, but then I adapted it to work not only with cupcakes, but with cookies, or mini donuts too! So fun and you can change it up!

Here's what you'll need:

No Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas; DIY Bubble Gum Machine Pumpkin

 Do your kids have pumpkin decorating contests at their school? Ours do in a few grades. My daughter made a minion a couple years ago. And this year my first grader brought home a pumpkin from her field trip to the pumpkin patch and got to decorate it (without any carving). She had all kinds of ideas and even drew them all out, but this is the one she chose. 

I love that it was easy enough that she could do almost all of it herself!
She was so proud and LOVES it!

Here's how we made it. We actually already had everything we needed at home to make it too! Super simple!

How to Relax and Enjoy that Road Trip (Plus a Travel Center Tutorial & 25+ Game/Activity Ideas!)

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc and its advertiser. 

All opinions are mine alone.

#RoadTripOil #CollectiveBias

What do you think of when you hear the word "road trip"? Do you groan and remember being stuck in a car for what felt like forever? OR do you get excited and start planning right away? I have to say that I have felt some of BOTH of these emotions. BUT...over the years, as we have traveled literally from the South to the North on both sides of the country, I have come to feel excitement all of the time now. Most of this is due to figuring out how to make road trips successful and making everyone in the car happy. And today I'm going to share all of my great tips with you to do just that!

Plus I have over 25 game and activity ideas for many different ages that you can play in the car...including a tutorial to make this fun and easy DIY Travel Activity Center.  

It's magnetic and keeps everything in one place and from falling all over the floor. So keep reading to see How to Make Your Road Trip a Happy One For Everyone.

The key is to prepare!

Childrens Books and Crafts Round Up; Goodnight Moon and DIY Children's Moon Nightlight

I'm excited to share today's post with you today. I love reading and want to instill that in my kids, so today I am sharing a favorite Children's book of ours for our littles and a craft to go along with it.  AND my little post is just part of 50+!!! posts on the same thing. Lots of lots of great books and crafts are being shared this week. I gotta say, I'm so happy that I was invited and signed up to be part of this big round up months ago, With everything being "out of whack" in my life recently, this has been great to still do with my kids. Read It, Make it Book + Craft over at Emma Owls here. 

AND it's perfect timing, with the summer months coming up! These will be great little afternoon time  filling helpers!

I honestly had a hard time choosing what book to do a craft on, so we've actually done a few lately. I posted one we have done in the past here with the book: There's a Monster at the end of this Book. It's still a favorite book of my kids and one I remember as a kid too!

But today, I chose a "classic" Goodnight Moon. It's one of those books that you read to your kids when they are really young, but that my 16 year old can still remember the words to! I love that! I love this book! It's so simple and yet the kids just love it!

And for the craft, I thought, what better than to make a fun little moon themed night light that the kids can take to bed after reading the book before bed?! 

"I will walk by Faith..." Word Art

If you know me at all, you know I love word art. I have several up in my house and am always adding to them. In fact, I am in the middle of creating a "new wall full of word art" in my living room right now. And this new one I just finished is perfect to add to the wall!

I love anything funny, uplifting, thought provoking, encouraging, family related when it comes to quotes, sayings, and more. AND then...I love to turn it into word art to hang. And this one is no exception. It's perfect for an everyday reminder for me.

Valentine Gifts Galore; Day 5: Hot Air Balloon Valentine

Well, today is our last day of a week filled with DIY Valentine ideas. Which one has been your favorite so far? 

I've saved the best for last, because today's is just as easy and soooooo cute and fun and sure to catch some eyes. I love this one for teachers, kids, or your loved one. It's so fun and so easy! 

It's my favorite one this week!

It's a hot air balloon valentine that is so easy to make! 

  

All you need is:

Cookie Cake {and Recipe} in a Pizza Box!

Is it a pizza? NOPE! It's a cookie cake IN a pizza box!

I have made my own cookie cakes for years now and like the way they taste so much better when they are homemade. And they are really so easy! So today,  I wanted to share my favorite recipe I use for cookie cakes AND show you a fun way to deliver them...in an inside out pizza box!

Button Spider Halloween Kids Craft AND Cheesy Popcorn Snack Hack

I help out at my daughter's preschool co-op on Tuesdays, so we're off to preschool this morning. BUT first, I wanted to show you a couple of fun little crafts I have done with my littles recently.

One of them, the Button Spider I even have a short little tutorial for you today, but first...

Do you remember my string art pumpkin from last week? My five year old wanted to make one for her kindergarten teacher and did amazing with it. I helped draw the heart and helped with the thumbtacks and she took it from there! She did great with the string. I love that you can do it methodically OR with no rhyme or reason and it still turns out adorable!

So much fun for any age to make AND receive!

Ok!...back to our fun kids craft and cheesy popcorn snack hack!

DIY Mini Pumpkin Sweet Treats {with Orange Tulle}

#pumpkin #pumpkinlove #fallfun #falltreats #pumpkinsweets 

#diy #tutorial #pumpkintreats #candypumpkins

I said it before, and I'll say it again...I love anything pumpkin! haha Maybe it's the bright pretty colors? Who knows, but I have a fun little DIY pumpkin treat to share with you today!

But first, I wanted to tell you how excited I am to be the newest Glue Dots Design team member. My first project for them is up on their blog today here. So head over there and check out the super easy and fun craft tutorial I have there to make a DIY Autumn Leaf Canvas. It's gorgeous and full of those warm, call colors that you will love!

Okay, back to these oober cute and easy little Orange tulle pumpkins. They are adorable and great to make for a few friends, teachers, co-workers, or even a whole classroom!

Here's what you'll need to get started:

Using your Silhouette to create DIY Vinyl Nail Art

First off, let me preface this post with...these are not my best ever pics. Trying to take pictures of your own hands, by yourself, is not the easiest. haha

Have you ever tried some of the nail art decals out there? I have and some seem to not stay on very long at all and others that cost more do. They're all fun though! Some of them are actually made from vinyl that you heat up before applying. I started thinking about this, and thought why not try and make my own?!

So, here is my first attempt at DIY Nail Art Decals.

haha I think they came out super fun!

DIY Vinyl Nail Art Using your Silhouette Machine

First I started by creating my own designs in my Silhouette Designer Studio program on my computer. I stuck to some pretty simple designs:

DIY Easy 10 Minute Pumpkin Decorating {with Thumb Tacks and Push Pins}

Pumpkins! Pumpkins! Pumpkins!I love pumpkins! 

I love all of the recipes that use pumpkin this time of year. I love taking pictures in pumpkin patches. I love the happy color of pumpkins. I love it all!

So this past week, I decided to decorate a few of the pumpkins out on my front porch a little differently and I had so much fun! I love the way they came out and add a bit more charm to it all! And it only took me 10 minutes or less! So so easy that any of you can do it!

Materials:

All you'll need is some pumpkins, thumb tacks, string and some paint pens or vinyl for a bit more decoration if you want.

My Top 10+ Fall Posts

Happy Thursday! Are you as ready for Friday as I am?! My son that got injured this past weekend, and now has a concussion, has consumed my week and now he has the doctor's orders to stay home from school. A good thing (for his brain) and a bad thing as far as stressing about how much he is missing and getting behind on in school.

So...to cheer me up AND to celebrate the beginning of fall, today I've got a round up of my past and best 10+ fall projects! I don't know what it is about fall, but just knowing that it's here, has me smiling!

So many fun things to do in the fall!

From baking these yummy cookies...

U is for Ukulele and V is for Vinyl!

#Silhouetterocks #SilhouetteAmerica #vinyl #ukulele 

I'm so excited to share with you a little bit of fun I had with a friend. Her oldest had a birthday recently and wanted a ukulele. BUT...with the fun personality he (AND his mother) has, she wanted to add something more to it for him. She asked me about putting vinyl on it, and I was like "Sure!" Let's go for it! (Hadn't tried it before, but was pretty sure it would adhere just fine. And why not try?! haha)

He had mentioned flames at one point, but is not really a rocker kind of kid...but is a great Boy Scout who likes camping, so we came up with the idea of putting a campfire on the front of it.

Didn't it turn out so fun?!

For the Love of Acorns [Collection}

I don't know what it is about acorns...but I love them! I always have! When I was little, I don't ever remember seeing them where I grew up. I always thought they were as big as a fist. haha Then in High School. my family moved and I remember walking home from school one day and seeing some on the ground under a tree next to the road. I was astonished that they were so small! haha BUT there's just something about them...love them!

Apparently. I am not the only one either, because I have found a whole slew of ways to DIY acorns into fun crafts, jewelry and more! So, this weekend, I wanted to share a few of the ones that I found that caught my attention!

Cub Scout Raingutter Regata Pencil Awards

Happy Monday everyone! I woke up a bit more refreshed than normal today, but maybe that's because I went to sleep earlier. You would think I would learn to do this more often. haha

Hope you all had a great weekend! I spent most of the day Saturday at an Emergency Preparation Fair in our area. My husband, who is a scoutmaster, was there teaching the Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge to some of our local Boy Scouts. If you're new to my blog, we are a big scouting family. My boys started as Tiger Cubs and are now both Boy Scouts, one working on his Eagle right now, and the other a Star Scout. We love it all! AND I still get to help with the Cubs in our area too! Which brings me to today's post...We recently had a Raingutter Regata in our local cub scout pack and I wanted to keep it simple, but still have a fun little reward for everyone that participated (nothing like the BIG Pinewood Derbym but still fun!). 

So, I came up with these fun little Raingutter Regata Pencils to give to each boy after the race. 

And they are super easy and inexpensive too! I picked up some Scout pencils at our local Scout Supply store. Then I gathered my materials together. Here's what you'll need:

Cinnamon Apple...in a pot! {Teacher Gift or Fall Candy Bowl}

#teachergift #apple #fall #backtoschool #teacherappreciation #endofschool #firstdayofschool #cinnamonapples #gifts #diygifts #gluedots

I'm ready to say Happy Fall Ya'll! But we're not quite there yet. haha

We started back to school last week here and I wanted to share with you a super duper simple easy peasy! teacher gift that you can use right now OR anytime of year. Seriously! It can't get any easier than this! AND it's multifunctional for the teacher!

It's a Cinnamon Apple...in a pot! So so easy and yet, they can use it later to take home and plant something in or put their pens and pencils in...whatever they want! I even thought of dolling it up a bit more by putting the teacher's name on the front or a big A+. BUT decided that I liked the simplicity of it being just a big red apple this time. :)

So, here is your list of supplies needed to make this gem:

Summer Fun with Cousin Swaps! {DIY Water Bottles}

We've been having fun with ALL girls in our house the last couple weeks. We have cousins visiting and our boys are gone visiting other cousins elsewhere. We've had craft days and outtings, and swimming, and lots and lots of karoke, and basically lots of girl fun.Such a different dynamic in our house and my poor hubby has been so outnumbered. Ha!

But, I wanted to share with you one little thing we did as a DIY craft one afternoon. We picked up some water bottles and decided to personalize them so that they could each have a little something to remember this summer together. PLUS, they have worked great here at home and on outtings to help keep everyone hydrated in the summer heat! (And it has eliminated the number of cups used in our house too! WIN! haha)

We decided to just put Cousin Swap on the bottles, and the year mainly, but had to add some names and a fun sun for the summer fun we are having. We kept the design simple, and love the way it came out! They each helped to apply the vinyl to the bottles too. 

Toadally Awesome! {Frog or Toad Kids Craft}

How is your summer going? Ours has been so much fun! We've gone camping, and hiking, and been a small road trip to a family wedding and now we have cousins staying wit us for a bit! So we decided to make it even more fun with these TOADally awesome rock crafts today! 

They're so simple to make....and even more fun sitting out in your garden or in your house next to some plants. PLUS they're great to play with too!

Check them out and see how easy they are to make!

All you really need is some little rocks, some adhesive (I used double sided foam tape and glue dots.), googly eyes, and some paper cut outs of toad (or frog shapes). (Painting the rocks is optional.) They take just minutes to make and kids love love LOVE them!

Summer Fun with Fireflies Bookmark {Kids Craft}

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great Fourth of July weekend and got to relax a little with family and friends and enjoy celebrating living in a free country!

We had tons of fun and spent a lot of time outside. One of my kids' favorite things to do in the summer is to watch and to try and catch fireflies (or lightning bugs...whichever you call them at your house). So...with that in our minds and all of the summer reading we are doing at our house, we decided to make some Summer Fun Firefly Bookmarks!

There are so fun and easy to do too! I loved them as much as my kids. AND it's a great craft for kids of ANY age! Keep reading to see how we made them!

Checkered Nerkerchief Tablecloth, Table Runner, Picnic Blanket, AND Bedcover

Happy Fourth of July!

Today I have a quick little DIY project for you that you could even make this morning if you wanted!

I love multi-purpose items and today's post definitely fits into that category. This works as:

a Tablecloth, 

a Table Runner, 

a Picnic Blanket, 

AND a Bedcover! 

I love how versatile it is! And all you need is a few neckerchiefs to make this DIY project!