Laura, Author at | Page 23 of 101

Halloween Craft | A Dripping Paint Pumpkin

October 8, 2012 By Laura 42 Comments

000_

Last year for the Halloween/Hallowtide season, I went bat **** crazy (no Halloween-pun intended ;), with the decorating, inside and out. I did a huge photo-galore post on it, and it’s a popular one, come that time of year again. There is some real creativity there, for you to see. This year, however, I didn’t need to do much of anything, because I have all of last years stuff! So I’ve mostly just been doing little fall-fun crafts, and baking. I did however, decide I wanted to do a little pumpkin project I thought of, and I thought I would show it to you all, and tell you how I went about it.

001_faux-pumpkin
I started with a medium sized faux craft pumpkin. You absolutely can use a real pumpkin if you’d like, but obviously it will not last beyond this season. So if you want your pumpkin craft for keeps, than faux is the way to go!

I also covered my table as always, to protect it, with a cheap party table cloth, of which I always have a bunch on hand from the Dollar Tree store. Unless they get real messy (and it sure will this time), you can use them over and over. Of course old newspaper or something else disposable will do.

002_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft I cut out an appropriate sized BOO! for my pumpkin, out of vinyl. I don’t know why, but I have always loved the whole BOO thing, for this time of year. Probably because it’s so . . . . . . childish. Elementary. You know, not a serious scare kind of thing, because I’m really not into that. Anyhoo, you can use any kind of graphic or word(s) you’d like for this project. Use your imagination and put some of your own style into it. Or, you can copy my BOO, and I won’t BOO-HOO about it.

003_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft
So I properly positioned my vinyl design and applied it to my pumpkin. Now you’ll notice it’s got wrinkles in it all over the place. That’s ok! My husband is a professional master with vinyl (for real), but I’m not so much. Of course it’s harder to apply to curving surfaces but anyway, but also, I wasn’t extra careful either because this is just a mask! I am using the vinyl to protect the pumpkin for where I do not want paint, and will later be peeling the vinyl letters back off. So any wrinkles did not concern me. I just made sure I went over every area of the vinyl with a lot of pressure with my squeegee. (As seen in the next photo.)

004_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft
What I did want to be concerned with, was doing my best to close any gaping holes that formed at the edge of the vinyl where wrinkles were. Because I didn’t want paint to get under there. If you do this project, you really want to do your best to seal down the vinyl edges. Especially at the top! Chances are paint is going to get under the vinyl somewhere, but the better you have those gaps closed off, the less clean-up on the pumpkin later. You’ll see what I mean in a little bit.

005
Black was the only color paint I’d be using, and I had two partial bottles in my storage. So I just mixed them up together in a glass measuring cup, because the spout on the cup would be coming in handy.

006_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft To begin the painting process though, I used a flat brush and painting out the top. I imagine a foam brush would work fine enough as well.

After I had painted out the top all the way around, it was time to get messy. Thank goodness for the table cloth.

007_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft
I just started pouring paint onto the pumpkin, right out of my cup, starting on the black where I had already painted black, and about the level where gravity would take over the paint. Because getting the paint dripping is the whole goal here.

008_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft
And it was working for me. : ) Now….depending on the consistency of your paint, you may want to add water to it just a drop or 2 at a time, to thin it a little of you need to at all. But really just a drop or 2 at a time, and test it, because you do not want it too thin and runny. I really loved the look of my pumpkin right there in this photo! lol. The 3 dimension of the paint was giving me new ideas! But, for my original project plan here, I needed the paint to cover my lettering, and yet still have a drip look to it.

009_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft
So I really got the drip factor going. You see how messy this is getting? Oh . . . you haven’t seen anything, yet. LOL. As cool as this looked, I knew peeling the letters off with even this amount of paint, would leave it unable to read.

010_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft
So I just kept adding paint, and helping it along to drip, with my brush when needed. The paint tended to puddle on top of the pumpkin too, so I helped that out and down. And, as the paint dripped onto the table, I kept moving the pumpkin back out of the paint-puddle. I really wanted the dripping to be evident after the word, which didn’t leave me a lot of room. So I was sure to have the drips starting from higher all around the word, on the sides of the pumpkin.

Basically at this point, I had to leave the paint to dry a little. Not bone-dry. But dry enough to be able to peel out the lettering.

011_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft
Just awhile later, I did peel out the vinyl. I used the tip of an x-acto to do that.
Now, you can see it’s a bit of a mess. It’s obvious where the paint did indeed get under the vinyl and onto my ‘negative space’ word. But no worries: I just used damp q-tips to clean it off. It took a few q-tips in some areas, and sometimes a little scrubbing with it, but it worked well enough.

Much better, don’t you think? Not perfect, but cleaner lines. There is still something that bugged me though . . .

013_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft This little spot is where the paint over-dried at the vinyl edge, so when I peeled off the letter B, a little paint peeled off right there. So to fill that area in, I could have just touched it up with paint. But I didn’t. I just used a permanent black Sharpie marker to fill it in there. And while I was at it, I went around any areas on the insides of the letters, where it could have used a cleaner line edge. I cheated. Oh yes I did. All over the place.

And I had to paint the stem a better brown; because whatever that color was that it came as, was not working for me!

It never did become perfect, and that was o.k. with me. Because I am working on embracing imperfections since, let’s face it….I can be a hot mess some days. And there is only so much time in a week!

014_halloween-faux-painted-pumpkin-craft
So I called it DONE, and put it on simple display, with a little bale of hay and little sugar pumpkins from my mother-in-law, and I think it came out rather cute.
So BOO!
What say YOU?!

Save

Recipe for Apple Pie Pops

October 2, 2012 By Laura 20 Comments

If you only knew the recipes I see in a day, a week, a month – that I have every intention of making! I get to really making some, but most not, simply because there is really only so much time in a day, and so much food we can eat in it! Granted some (little) people (my kids and husband), eat way more than others (myself.) I actually am one of those with big eyes. I can be starving, and then eat 2 crackers, and I’m good. My kids cannot believe how little I eat. I just get full easy. Still, I consider myself a food lover, if only in my head. I love to find recipes, plan great food for my family, and photograph it too. And I really do enjoy eating. I’m just done sooner than everyone else.

Anyway, I first saw these pie pops almost 2 years ago at Bakerella’s site. As soon as I saw them that first time, I immediately fell smitten. She had seen them at yet another’s site. Since then I have seen them 100 times, all over the place. Of course, you can make these pie pops with any kind of pie filling you’d like. But I have a particular fondness for apple pies, so that’s what I was planning to make. We do a lot of baking in the Fall, so last year got away before we made them. But not this year! This past weekend we finally made them, as well as some cute cookies I’ll be sharing soon too!

So although these are not my idea, I thought I’d share how we made our Apple Pie Pops.

For any apple filling for baked goods, you want to start with good, firm apples, and a mix of the tart and sweet variety. Whether they are evenly mixed, or a little more of the sweet or tart, is all up to your preference. I chose to keep it even, and used Granny Smiths (tart) and Golden Delicious (sweet).

One of the greatest parts of making any baked goods that call for apples, is using my Aunt Dot’s apple peeler-corer-slicer. The peeler part actually needs to be replaced, but we have not been able to find it yet. But that’s alright – so we peel the apples by hand for now, or forever. We still feel so blessed to have this antique of my beloved aunt’s, that is such a part of my most fondest childhood memories.

But I’ll admit, it’s damn handy!

Apple Pie Filling Recipe

6 C. peeled *apples, chopped small, and evenly sized as possible
3/4 C. sugar
2 T. all purpose flour
3/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. nutmeg (Optional. I don’t like it.)
1 T. lemon juice

*Reminder: Use a mix of sweet and tart firm apples.

Mix it all up well in a bowl.

Pie Crust Dough: You can make your own, or use store-bought ready pie crust, such as Pillsbury.
On a flour dusted surface, roll out your dough. If you are using ready pie crust that is already round, remember that the size of the circle of dough does not matter for our purpose with pie pops, as it would for a pie dish. So you can roll it out larger and thinner than as it comes, and get more out of it. (We wish we did roll ours out thinner, and will next time. I’ll tell you about that at the end.)

Use a scalloped or plain circle cutter, or any other manageable shape that you would like, that is about 2 inches in diameter. I like the idea of our pops looking like real little pies, but using shapes like an apple, or a maple leaf, or a pumpkin, etc., would also be cute. Cut your shapes out of your crust dough as closely as possible, to get as many out of your dough as you can. Weed out the scraps of dough, re-roll, and use again. (As seen 2 photos up.)

Put a good dollop (what a great word…dollop..) of apple filling in the center of half of all of your cut dough shapes, because you’ll need the other half as tops, of course. You want to put as much as possible on there, but remembering you’ll need to cover it with the other dough circles, and be able to seal it. Too much apple filling will be a problem, and too little will just be….sad.

Transfer your pie bottoms with the filling onto a greased or sprayed cookie sheet.
If it easier for you, you can transfer the dough shapes first, and then put the filling on.

Also add your pop sticks. These are found in the candy making aisle of the craft stores. Now, I have seen that some cover their sticks with aluminum foil, to prevent them from burning. That is too tedious for me, and I was sure they wouldn’t burn anyway, and they didn’t, except where they got a little juice on them. No biggie, and still not worth covering them in foil. But you do what you want!

You may want to pre-heat you oven at this point, to 375°

Now put on your tops. We had a little dish of water, just to dip one finger in, and wet the under-edge of the top all the way around, just to help it stick the bottom better. It also helps to stretch the top piece out bigger, to better fit over your dollop : ) of apple filling.
To make the wavy edge like a real pie, just cut off the end of a pop stick, and use it to press grooves all the way around each pie. This is a a bit tedious too, but one that is worth it to me!

Lastly, just brush each pie pop top with a little egg white, and if you wish, sprinkle with a bit of sugar for sparkle. The egg whites really help the pie crust kind of blister and look nice.

When the oven is up to temperature, you can put your pie pops in for 12-15 minutes.

How’s that for a high cute factor?
We bagged each one, and tied them closed with a little red stitched ribbon. Presentation is everything, Folks!

As mentioned earlier, we did not roll out our dough as thin as we will next time. Our pops seemed to be a little more crust, and a little less apple filling than we would have liked. We must remember the filling soaks in just a bit, and the dough really puffs as it bakes into pie crust. Nonetheless, they were oh so good, and next time they’ll be perfect. : )

There are SO many Fall-time apple treats to enjoy – Apple Pie Pops, big Apple Pies, Apple Crisp, Caramel Apples, Apple Sauce, Apple Cake, Apple Cider…..it’s endless, and there are no complaints here! My favorites are Apple Crisp and Apple Pie, both with Vanilla Ice Cream, please.
Do you eat more apples this time of year? What are your favorite apple or Fall treats?

******

Come follow me here or there:

Save

Rustic Autumn Wreath | A Simple Craft

September 24, 2012 By Laura 20 Comments

If you’d like to add a touch of crafted Autumn decor to your home, but don’t have a lot of time or energy right now, this wreath is for you! It is so very simple and quick to make. I think it’s beautiful, and has a real rustic flair that fits right in here at our homestead.

I hung our wreath in the sun room, on the wall directly in front of anyone coming in through our front door.

It’s so very simple to make, you really don’t even need to be shown how.
But I will tell to you how, and give you a couple of tips as well.

Start with a stick/branch wreath, which can be found ready-made at your local craft store.

The pumpkins I also found at the craft store. They are very light in weight, made of a paper medium, and some kind of painted wire. They are finished with a shellac, and they came as a bunch in a net bag, much like potpourri comes. So you may want to look in that area.

To attach them to the wreath, I used a small piece of raffia! I simply slipped it under the wire on the bottom/underside of the pumpkin, and tied it onto a branch where I wanted the pumpkin placed. How easy is that? I cut any excess tails of raffia I didn’t need, but I don’t even care if it is seen, because it just adds to the simple rustic charm of the wreath, in my opinion.

Then I added some nice looking faux fall leaves. You can simply just tuck them under the intertwining sticks of the wreath. But if you want to be sure they stay, and/or plan to save the wreath to use year after year, I recommend using a dab of glue from a glue gun at the base of the leaf or stem area, and stick in between branches in an inconspicuous place. The leaves don’t need to be any more attached than that, and keeping the leaves loose gives it a more natural look.

Just follow that technique with leaves and pumpkins, all the way around.

The little birdie is just a clip on, and was also picked up at the craft store at some point. It was one we had, and it not only went perfectly with this wreath, with it’s warm tones, but added new interest.

The wide ribbon is wired, which can be a little difficult to work with, when tying bows or making nice curls. But I found a trick I’ll share with you.
TIP: When working with wired ribbon, use an aluminum can, cup, or any cylinder object to make nice curls for the tail of your ribbon, or uniform loops in your bows. Simply choose an appropriately sized cylinder object, relevant to the size you’d like your curls or loops, and use it to shape your ribbon. You can place the cylinder into the loops to make them nice and round where they curve around, and/or wrap the ribbon around the tails to make nice curls.

It’s really as easy as that! It can literally be done in 10 minutes.

It’s not only a simple and beautiful wreath for this awesome season, but you can say you made it yourself.

Save

Customized Sketchbooks | DIY idea

September 18, 2012 By Laura 15 Comments

The kids and I are well into a new school year here, and things are going really well so far. Our oldest is a high school sophmore now, and the 3 youngest (triplets) are fifth graders. So naturally, each year has gotten more academically involved, deeper and serious for all of us; myself as the teacher, and they as students. But I can freely admit that I am learning almost as much as they are, and enjoying my re-education as we progress with each year. I love finding new ways to keep their homeschooling experiences fun.

One new idea I came up with this year, actually came about as I was brainstorming a gift idea for a special-little someone-else in my life. While that gift is more elaborate and expensive, and personalized from me, it occurred to me that it might be fun to incorporate the general idea into our schooling, on a more budget level, for my own kids. So I mentioned the idea to them, of keeping their own sketch books throughout the year, and was not prepared for their level of excitement about it! I also wanted them to customize their very own a little bit, so they treasured them more.

The intentions for these sketch books are for the kids to just use freely whenever they want to, to practice drawing, write a little poetry, journal some thoughts, or even just doodle as they feel like it. But I did let them know I may ask them to use their sketch pads to express their thoughts or feelings in any way they’d like, following field trips or other home schooling or life events worth noting, in an artistic way. These pads are for dry medium only, but naturally you can adapt the general idea to any kind of pad, as well as customize the cover using any material you’d like. But today, I’m just sharing with you what we did.

Here’s the basic supplies we worked with:

Inexpensive spiral bound sketching pads
Modge Podge
Foam brushes
Scissors or an X-Acto type blade

And, 12″ x 12″ patterned scrap booking paper. These are the sheets my kiddos picked out for themselves.

Now things are about to get ever-so-slightly-messy. Especially with kids. So I thought I would tell you my cheap little trick I use for protecting the table for all of our craft happenings . . . . . .

TIP: Plastic party table covers, from the Dollar Store! One usually lasts us for many, many projects. When we are done working, we make sure any paint or glue on it is dry, and then we just roll it up in a ball and put it away for next time. (You could fold it, if you really need to. I know some people are like that. Hey, I have my own weird issues, but they are different. I’m not judging! lol)

So the first step is putting a quick layer of Modge Podge on the back of the patterned paper.

You don’t want to put any excessive amount on, or go over and over it, or the paper will get kind of soggy, and buckle.
But you do want to go right to the edge of the paper.

Then also put a layer all over the cover of the sketchbook.

Then carefully place your Modge Podge’d paper, onto your Modge Podge’d sketch pad cover.

You can line up your paper evenly, by using the spiral bind as a guide.
Be sure to smooth out any air bubbles in the paper.

Now, the paper was not cut to size on purpose. You could figure out and prepare the exact size paper you needed ahead of time. But it just seemed easier to me to just put it on their, and then either trim off the excess, or just fold it over into the inside of the cover.

These particular sketch pads were conveniently 12 ” tall, but only 9″ wide, so we had 3 extra inches to fold in. The putting Modge Podge on both surfaces is just a preference, and may not be necessarry. I just know with my kids, these sketch books were going places, and going to take a traveling beating. So, I figured the more secure the paper was adhered, the better.

Granted, not all of them came out with the paper put on perfectly straight anyway, because they are kids, and doing the best they can. And perhaps not as particular and picky as I am! (Which really, has got to be a nice feeling, sometimes!) They just had fun making them, and were really excited about the whole project. Which is really the best part: Kids being proud of what they made, and caring for those things that much more, because it is their own creation, from start to finish.

I’ll tell you, it’s been weeks now, and these sketch books have proven to be a really great idea for my kids. They have really used them, on their very own whims. Regularly! Every day. It’s a beautiful thing to catch your kids sketching this or that. Sometimes really working on a particular one over time, trying to make it come out just right. This is how all of my illustration skills were born!

As you can see, we further personalized their sketch pads, with their initials. Those were all cut in vinyl for them, but they each specified the exact initials they wanted, colors, design and arrangement. I think they all came out so great! And each cover really does well express their individual styles and personalities.

I hope this idea inspires you in some way. I know that for me personally, any notebook or sketch book full of blank or lined paper, gives me the butterflies. IS there anyone else out there, who understands what I mean? The opportunity for expression just laying before those two covers, is exciting! So consider making yourself a special one of your own, and just let whatever wants to come out of your head to your hand, come out. See what happens inside! You may be surprised, and you may just enjoy every minute of it. Everybody should just take time to chill and doodle, sometimes.

Thanks for coming over. Please share this idea if you are so inclined.

Save

Part II: A Day of Celebration Fun! | Our Triplets’ 10th Birthday

September 10, 2012 By Laura 1 Comment

I told you Part II was coming! There could be a Part III but, I can let it go. It was a big day though, and I took a lot of photos of so many special moments. (If you missed it, you can find Part I here.) But listen, here’s the truth of it all: You know I (we) love to share with you our crafting ideas, house projects, decor, recipes, and all of that. But our kids . . . . . . They are our greatest creation of all! Well, God’s creation, of course, of ours. They are the reason we celebrate, every day. And they really love to see and read the posts on our blog! Especially the ones about them. It’s their childhood memories recorded, for them to hold onto. So if you want to skip it, we won’t hold it against you. : )

So, after their big water balloon fight at the park, we came straight to the beach for just a couple of hours, before dinner and their birthday surprise. Of course they had already been in the sun for some time, so birthdays or not, it was time for sunscreen! Confession time: Over the past 15 years of raising my 4 kids, I have realized there are only 2 ‘mom jobs’ I have really hated: 1) When they were very little, putting on and tying all of their shoes! Uuu-Gh. 2) And the other is putting sunscreen on them. (OH! And the wiping in the bathroom while potty training too! But gosh, that one’s a given. Isn’t it?) Sometimes, Michael and I can still hear in our heads, the little voices yelling from the bathroom, “I’M DONE!!”

What you should know about me is, when I really hate doing something, I’m going to find a way out of it! So all of the shoes and boots thing got to a point with the triplets where I just announced one day “OK! That’s it. Today, we are going to spend the whole day just learning how to put on and tie your very own shoes, all by yourself! Isn’t that exciting, Guys? I don’t really care if you are only 9 months old.” (Kidding.)

For the sunscreen applying, here’s my trick. First I just spray them, and then I line them up like a train . . . . . .

Am I a mean Mama, or what? Turns out, they don’t like putting sunscreen on any more than I do! Imagine that. They just had no idea the fun they were missing out on. For the rest of their bodies, I spray it where it needs to go, and the rub it in themselves. But for their backs, they need each other. What do you think of that?

Personally, I think I’m a genius.

Something had to be done. We practically live on the beach.

The ocean is like our backyard.

They are all serious water babies. Probably most of all Olivia, who is difficult to get out of the water. She even asks to take a shower at really odd times; and I know she just wants/needs to get into the water.

Probably least of all, is Shane. The boy cannot take the cold water! Look at him! Its like . . . . . . excruciating for him! They were trying to all put their feet up together and next to each other, but he just couldn’t stand it any longer, and bailed.

But Olivia and JackMichael managed. And that got me pondering one of those little weird life questions . . . . . .

How can the bottom of 2 little people’s feet, be such different colors? They are siblings. ‘Super-twins’, even. I do know that JM’s feet sweat and stink more. Maybe that is some kind of clue to this mystery. But I’m not sure what to do with it, to figure this out.

Oh; this one. I’ve got to catch you all up on her. She’s got a lot of exciting things happening in her life. Especially for a just-turned-15 year old. And I’ll tell you what else: I think I’ve been warned 1,000 times over in life, about what a nightmare being a parent of a teen is. I’m here to say, if this is as bad as it gets with any of our kids, we’ll be getting off easy! I’m thanking God she’s our ‘trail-blazer’. (That’s what I call her. ; ) That’s my little hot reminder to her, that she is setting an example, every day! Hoping the littles are taking notes!

Not to say she is perfect, by any means . . . . . .

( Taunting her sister with seaweed. )

Remember doing this as a kid? There’s a sure way to get sand in your shorts.

Sometimes, I love to just watch them.

Olivia senses the Mamapaparrazzi is watching.

I’ve got to tell you: My most favorite photo of the day, I can’t even show you! It’s almost killing me, too. But my boy asked me not to please blog it or put on Facebook. (Actually, he said, “You better not!”) And, I would never go ahead and do it anyway. I try very hard not to embarrass my kids, or ever disrespect their privacy, online. When I think of it, I’m pretty happy my mother wasn’t blogging and all over the internet while she was raising . . . you know . . . . Cain. (Or is it…me, who was raising cane? Well, whatever.) But back to the photo of my boy – I’ll just tell you that it involved losing his bathing suit shorts a bit, on his backside. Oh my goodness. It’s just the sweetest shot. When they were little toddlers, and losing their diaper a bit, I thought it was so cute! I would have thought that my gushing over it would go away as they got older but….nope! Still wicked cute. (Ask me again when they are teens. I promise you; There will be no “lookin’ like a fool with their pants on the ground”. ; ) Not cute, and not happening, when they are older.

Anyway. This day was going by too fast. It was time to get home and take showers, before heading to dinner and their big surprise, which would be Part III. But as of this posting, those photos aren’t even processed yet. So in case I never get to it, after dinner we went to our favorite park, and gave them their gift: Razor Scooters in their own colors, and gear. (Helmets, pads, etc.) Boy were they happy! It was awesome to see them so excited, hop right on them and go racing off and racing each other, around the park.

I know most of you have your own joys and blessings, in the way of children, as well. And for those we know, we love to watch your children grow up, in various ways as we can too. It’s nice to share the special (or difficult) moments of this parenting gig, with each other. Kids. They don’t always make life easy. But gosh, they sure do make life worth it! God is so good, and we are so thankful to Him, for blessing us as He has.

Thanks for stopping by. And please say hi. Hope you didn’t get any sand in your shorts while you were here. : )

Save

Amazon Affiliates