Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!

I am a little sad that Halloween is over. Other then the Halloween luminaries I made in an older post, I did not have time to create any new Halloween decorations but I had a blast celebrating Halloween with my family and friends!

Halloween actually started the Thursday before with a party at my son's preschool. My son dressed up as a Presidential Candidate for the 2012 election. We found this idea from this site and then we also handed out party favors to each student in the preschool class. The party favors were mini frisbees with a sticker on the inside that said "Vote for Kevin!" and a sticker on the outside that said "Kevin 2012". Of course, we had stickers on Kevin's shirt, a big button on his jacket and a big campaign sign. Kevin was the best looking Presidential Candidate thus far, but you will have to wait until later in the post to see his costume.

Then on Friday, we had a Halloween food day with my best friend and her two kids. This is what the kids had for lunch!

My friend, Renae, made the jack-o-lantern fruit cups and the Frankenstein pudding cups; however we had the kids make mummy pizza. All of these ideas she found off of the Internet! Here are a few pictures of the kids having fun making their own pizzas and eating the food!

The mummy pizzas were very easy to make. We had English muffins, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese (pulled apart and laid across the muffin) and black olives for the eyes.

After lunch we prepared the gingerbread (made out of graham crackers) houses so that when my 5 year old came home from school we can then make spooky haunted houses! The kids chose what color(s) they wanted and we had tons of candy for them to decorate. Below are a few of the pictures from this messy but very fun project!

The weekend consisted of baking 5 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and 3 dozen ghost cookies. The kids helped with all of this! And prior to Halloween weekend we carved jack-o-lanterns, roasted pumpkin seeds, attended HarvestFest, made spooky foam pirate ships, and even visited a Nursery to paint pumpkins. With everything we managed to do prior to Halloween, I cannot imagine how much fun Christmas and preparing for Christmas is going to be this year!

When Halloween actually arrived, the kids had 2 Halloween parties to attend plus lots of trick-or-treating! As I said before, my 3 year old is a Presidential Candidate. What did my 5 year old decide to be? A School Crossing Guard! I can honestly say they both changed their minds on a dozen different Superhero costumes and many other ideas but when I convinced them that we should be "different" these ideas stuck almost immediately with them. Brady loves the Crossing Guard because he sees one at school every day and she "protects" the children. It didn't take long for my 3 year old to realize that the President "protects" people too. So, meet my "protectors"!

And out of this entire post, we do have one vinyl project out of this! I made the "stop sign" out of vinyl! :)

Vinyl Halloween Luminaries

I love Halloween and I love finding new things to make!  A few weeks ago I came across a blog called "Sugar Plum Delights" and fell in love with this idea to make Halloween Luminaries!  The project was simple but very messy!  The main reason why it was messy is because I used too much Modge Podge and did not allow for enough dry time in between the layers of tissue paper; however the end result still turned out great!

For this project, I needed different colors of tissue paper, Modge Podge, 3 glass jars, a lighting source and 3 Halloween designs for the front of the jar which I used vinyl to adhere to the jar. 

The first step is to cut the tissue paper to the approximate height and width of the jar.  Then brush on a thin layer of Modge Podge onto the entire jar.  Quickly, wrap the tissue paper onto the jar before the Modge Podge dries.  The picture below shows the jars with one layer of tissue paper attached to the jar.   

Now, after the tissue paper is on and the Modge Podge has had a chance to dry, apply a second layer of Modge Podge over the tissue paper.  Then wrap a second layer of tissue paper on the jar.  Once that dries, you can apply the Halloween design onto the jar.  I used vinyl but one could paint a design, cut out construction paper and glue it on or I'm sure there are many other possibilities.  Once the design is on, add a couple more layers of Modge Podge to the jar.  This will provide a nice shiny finish and protect it from rain, snow or any other outside elements.  The picture below shows the jars drying upside down (only way I could figure out how to do it without having the Modge Podge stick to the table).

And here are the finished Halloween Luminaries! 

I do not have the lights in them which you wouldn't be able to see anyway since it's too light out.  Battery operated Candle Votives work but I would prefer more light for the darker colored jars.  I also found some battery operated lights that I placed upside down onto the top of the jar from Walgreens.  It was a package of 3 LED puck lights from First Alert for $5 and these provide much more light!  The back of it looks like a lid on the jar which finishes off the entire look.  I tried to take a picture of that in the dark but it didn't turn out, I'll play around with that and if I get it to work I'll post another picture. 

Trick Or Treat!!!! - Halloween Buckets

Trick Or Treat!!!  Halloween is Almost Here!

While shopping at Michaels one day I saw orange and black buckets for a $1 each.  I knew these would be perfect for my boys for Trick Or Treating with a little help of some Vinyl Decorations!  This was a very simple project as I cut out several vinyl pictures and sayings and just placed them on the bucket.  Much easier then my last Halloween project of adding vinyl to pumpkins as their grooves proved to be a challenge although I did eventually win in the end! 

These buckets could be used for many other Halloween decorations as well.  Just not in my household as once my boys saw the finished buckets, they will not set them down!  They love to pretend to Trick Or Treat in the house with the buckets and in their costumes which I'm hoping will still be in one piece by Halloween.  Below are the final pictures!

Cindy

Halloween - Craft Pumpkins

Slowly but surely I am decorating for Halloween!  The other day I stopped at Michaels and picked up 2 White Craft Pumpkins and knew they needed to have some vinyl placed on them!  This was actually a very long and frustrating project as trying to line up vinyl pictures on grooved pumpkins is much easier said then done!  Once I would line up a picture, I then used several thin coats of Modge Podge to ensure they were sealed tight and the Modge Podge also gave a nice glossy finish to the pumpkin!

Here are my final pictures - I did put 4 pictures on each pumpkin so I could rotate them around and no matter which angle a person came from he would have a picture to look at!  : )  I am so glad I can save these pumpkins year after year as, at times, it may have just been easier to just gut and carve a real pumpkin!  : )  ha ha!

Cindy

Outdoor Halloween Sign

After creating an 18 x 18 Tile originally intended for my front porch but now afraid it would be too easy to have someone walk off with it - I needed to make a "BIG" Halloween Sign that can be attached over the railing on the front porch! 

I started with a 4 foot by 2 foot piece of wood and painted it orange and then went designing!  I based it off of the very popular Subway Art themes that I have seen on numerous other blogs and a few that I created myself.  I kept the main color as black but then added some white, grey and red vinyl for a more dramatic touch.  When finished we sealed it with modge podge and then added several coats of a urathane finish to provide a super glossy finish and will protect the sign from rain and the snow that will be arriving way too soon for me!

And here is the sign on our front porch! 

Cindy

Subway Art - Halloween Tile

I have not been able to Blog as often as I want as I'm trying to put the finishing touches on this brand new website and also complete some vinyl signs for other people. 

In my spare time, I did test out a new idea and created a nice Halloween sign from an 18x18 tile.  I found some Halloween Orange Acrylic paint on sale at Hobby Lobby and used that for my main color.  I then based the idea off of some previous Subway Art signs I made and created a Halloween sign with words and pictures and even used different colors of vinyl. 

Originally I wanted this as an outside sign but am now afraid that maybe it would be too easy for someone to remove from my front porch so am displaying this for everyone to see once they walk into my front door!  Because this was going to be an outside sign I covered the finished tile with several coats of a clear water-based urathane to protect the vinyl from the outside elements and to provide a nice, glossy finish! 

(the witch's blue effect is from the camera flash)

I really liked how this Tile turned out!  And  because I still really want something for the outside I have a brand new idea for the front porch that I am hoping to try out very soon!  I have already bought some wood that is 4 feet wide by 2 feet tall and will be painting it and creating a much bigger Halloween Sign.  Check back soon and hopefully that project will be completed with pictures to share!

Cindy