It's Official, Fall Craft Season Is Here!

Well, fall is officially here and my family is very excited.  First of all, the days of 100 degree temps are behind us.  But most of all, we have all the parties and festivals to attend!!  This year, like every year, I put my name way down on the room mom sign up sheet, I would only like to "assist", but I was chosen to be room mom for my daughter's class.  Thank goodness I'm only a helper in my son's class.  I have no idea why I signed up on both sheets!!  Anyway, I'm in charge of keeping the party moving with an activity, craft and snack.  Truth be told, I'm terrible at craft ideas.  I love making crafts, I just don't come up ideas on my own.  :)

So, wasn't I relieved when I received the following e-mail this morning:

Free Halloween Decorations eBook: 11 Easy Halloween Craft Ideas including centerpieces, wreaths, outdoor decorations, party props, kids' crafts and more. Learn how to make your own Halloween decor with these quick and easy tutorials from creative bloggers and craft manufacturers. Find a Spooky Halloween Bunting (pg. 7), Candy Corn Decor (pg. 11), a Spiderweb Lantern (pg. 19) and much more in this free eBook.

Woot woot!!  After looking through a few, I decided on the Baby Jar Pumpkins for the class party.  They look perfect for my age group, and will only require a little prep from me.  Here's what they look like:

Cute, huh?  For a complete list of ideas, click the link above or banner below.  They are great ideas for school crafts, homeschooling, or family night!

 

Have a fun and happy fall!

Carve Cool Jack-O-Lanterns From My Free Pumpkin Stencil List

Want to have a really cool jack-o-lantern but not up to drawing it out freehand? You've come to the right spot! Here's a list of some FREE printable pumpkin carving templates and a few directions:

Disney Pumpkin Stencils (Aurora, Cinderella, Maleficent, etc)

Betty Crocker Cereal Pumpkin Stencils (Trix Rabbit, Count Chocula, etc)

12 Easy Pumpkin Carving Stencils

Pumpkin Carving Stencils & Directions

SpookMaster Pumpkin Carving Stencils, features a free stencil of the day.

Pumpkin Lady Stencils, scroll to the bottom for the freebies!

Pumpkin Carving 101

Better Homes & Gardens Pumpkin Carving Page

Extreme Pumpkins a favorite for the boys in your life. Thanks to Jeanne at Who Knew Home (featuring household tips, tricks and ways to save) for the tip.

You might also like to read my Halloween 2008 post! Do you have a cool pumpkin carving page I should add to the list? Please send me an e-mail and I'll give you credit/link back to you. Thank you!!

Cheap And Easy Valentine's Day Craft

This is a cheap and easy craft that could be customized for any holiday or occasion! Here's what the kids and I did:

1. Gather some "marketing" magnets. You know the ones, they are on phone books and handed out at fairs, etc.

2. Paint the magnets with acrylic paint. Two or three coats will be needed, depending on the paint color and the design you are covering up.

3. Print of some cute photos or pictures. I just printed some pictures of the kids on regular paper in a wallet size. Then I cut out pictures with pinking shears.

4. Glue pictures onto magnets.

5. Add cute foam Valentine's hearts around pictures.

6. Ta-da!!!!!

I ended up with 5 large magnets and some small ones that the kids have been playing with. We kept one large one for us and mailed the other 4 off to grandparents.

I spent a total of $5.27 at Hobby Lobby. I got one new shade of pink (I didn't really NEED it, since I had paint here) and 2 bags of foam hearts. I still have enough hearts for the kids to play with today. I thought we could cut out some hearts and make more valentines. Anyway, one bag of hearts was on sale and on the other I used a Hobby Lobby coupon.

Isn't this a cute "card", that won't be thrown away? This could be done for all kinds of occassions: birthdays, reunions, Halloween, baby showers, okay you get the idea. It's cheap, easy and oh-so cute! :)

Samples To Make Your Mailbox Think It's Always Christmas

Here's some freebies to keep that mailbox happy!

Kleeenx Lotion Facial Tissues from Sam's, leave the member number blank if you need to.

Free 8x10 print from Walgreens. This expires tomorrow (12/20/08)!!!!! Use code FREEGIFT at checkout.

5 free issues of Cosmopolitan magazine from StartSampling. I love free magazines. You can read them, sometimes they have fun coupons and then I donate mine to the library.

Walmart's sample page-stop by to see if you've missed one. I don't always mention Walmart since they seem to repeat some samples (panty liners, Benefiber, etc).

Free Christmas Printables (coloring pages)-this is one to bookmark! They have tons of coloring pages. :)

We're off to color and make some snowflakes for the house. Speaking of snowflakes, make virtual snowflakes here.

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!! I hope everyone has some fun activities planned for the afternoon and evening.

My kids have already dressed up 3 times. They dressed up Wednesday for story time, yesterday morning for my daughter's "Traditional Halloween Party" at pre-school (they invited my son, how sweet, huh?), and last night we attended Boo on Ballard where we trick-or-treated in downtown Wylie. It has been Halloween central around here!

Wednesday night we carved pumpkins. Since it's so warm here in October, we have to be careful about carving them too early, or they rot too quick. Aren't our pumpkins cute?? I carved the castle from the Disney Pumpkin Stencils and my hubby carved his VERY FIRST pumpkin as well. It's the cute one on the very right. It was a Pumpkin Master's pattern. The kids helped hubby with the one in the middle! I've curious about the middle pumpkin....I wonder if I can "use" it later for pie filling. If not, I bought one more (the skin hasn't been punctured!). I may not like to cook, but I don't mind preparing pumpkin for pies. I'm weird I know!

I know I haven't posted a lot lately! The kids and I have been enjoying the season! I am also letting the groceries dwindle, because we'll be heading out of town soon. Yay!

Happy Halloween!!

Disney Pumpkin Stencils

Found them!! Visit Huggies Happy Baby to get the Disney Pumpkin Stencils. They are so cute!!

Here's what the site says:

"Print your favorite Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella pumpkin stencil! Choose Aurora, Prince, Maleficent, Fairies and Dragon from the sleeping beauty collection. Or choose Cinderella, Castle, Cat and Mouse from the Cinderella collection. Click on the pattern size perfect for your pumpkin and print. "

The hard part in my house will be picking which two we will do. What's your favorite?

Make your own Bird Feeder!

Friday afternoon was craft time!! I decided we'd make a bird feeder that I saw in the "Going Green Family Handbook" from the May/June Nick Jr. Magazine . It was totally free, except for the bird feed!!

Here's a list of supplies:

2 Liter bottle (empty with cap)
Hammer
Nail
Twine
Duct Tape
Pencil
Funnel (I made one with a sheet of paper)
Bird Seed

Parents: Use the hammer and nail to punch 2 pencil size holes just below the curved top. I found this very difficult! Next time, I think I'll borrow a Dremel tool from my brother. Anyway, that was for the pencil perch. Then punch 2 larger holes 1.5" above the perch for the birds to feed from. Then punch 2 holes on the botton to hang. I found this immpossible, so I did mine one the side. It seems to work.

Kids: Weave twine through holes to hang.

Parents: Seal twine holes with duct tape.

Kids: Poke pencil through for perch.

Together: Pour seed through funnel, replace cap, flip over and hang!

And look, by Sunday morning we had a visitor!!!! My brother was kind enough to hang our bird house yesterday while he was over, so now the kids have plenty of bird watching to do. :)