Mummy Suckers

Every year my work throws a big Halloween pot luck and we have a dessert contest. I wasn't sure if I was going to participate this year, but decided the day before that I would. I was searching the Internet and came across Howdoesshe.com and they had these really cute Oreo Mummy Suckers and I knew that I was going to make them. And I did! They were really fun to make but took about 3 hours (most of that time was waiting for the chocolate to set). Friday was my work party and I woke up feeling really sick. So my amazing husband took my suckers to my work for me (he's a keeper). I was bummed when I heard that I didn't win, but I still had fun making them!

For the recipe and directions click HERE!

Paper Pumpkins

I came across this cute idea today and will be making them soon!

http://craftskeepmesane.blogspot.com/2010/09/whatever-wednesday-paper-pumpkin.html

Picture Ledge

I'm sorry if you read this on my family blog but I'm posting it here as well!

I have been on a decorating kick lately! It has taken me some time, but I have been working on a few projects and they are finally (almost) finished and I am ready to share them!

The first project is a picture ledge. I saw the idea on THIS blog and wanted to re create it in my home. I went to Ikea and purchased a PICTURE LEDGE and some frame less picture frames from HERE, blew up some pictures in black and white from Costco, added some bamboo from Ikea (bamboo was $2.99 and the pot was $.29!) and done!

I love the look of the frame less picture frames, I think it's classy with the black and white pictures. I originally purchased the frames from Ikea, but the sizes were really weird and my pictures would not fit correctly in them.

I plan on changing the pictures every few months!

Wreath Hanger

Hanging in the hall

My sisters birthday was in September and I made us both wreath hangers. You can change the wreath out according to the season, hang a festive sign from it, or hang a picture from it. I got the frame from The Wood Connection and painted it black. I inserted a "C" hook so you can hang things from it. And then I put a hook on the back to hang it on the wall. It was very easy and minus the wreath it cost me about $20!

Calendar

We had Girls Night Out with my work a few weeks ago and we made calendars! I am really excited about it being done and looking good!

I used two 6 X 6 pieces of cardboard and covered them with decorative paper. On the top I used a piece of ribbon to add color and a metal embellishment. On the bottom corner I used a hairpin. We used some weird tool to cut the holes and I used metal rings to connect the two sides (I got the rings at Office Max). And then I glued a piece of ribbon to the back side to hang the calendar.

This was a fairly easy project, but a very fun one! I think that I will make another one so that when I get sick of this one I can swap it out! Anyone want to make one with me?

Cards

These are some cards that I made. The first one is a birthday card that I made for my friend Melanie. The second card I made for my friend Michelles baby shower. This is a new hobby of mine and I love to try new things and make each card different. I think that making a card is more special than buying one and it means more to the person who receives it. And it's fun!

Birthday Gift for April

I mentioned a few posts back that I was working on some projects, well this is one of them. I made my best friend a a calendar for her birthday. I purchased a calendar kit from the craft store and it came with instructions-I threw those in the garbage and had fun creating my own pages! I left room for her to put pictures of her children on the pages. I also left the dates off so she could have the choice to start it now or next year. My friend loved the calendar and I had fun making it. Here it is:

Christmas Craft

Before Christmas last year my sister and I went to Tai Pan to look at their decorations. We found a cute sign made with tags. It was $50 and I started thinking that I could make it for half that price. So I went to a craft store and purchased a shadow box frame. I took the back panel of the frame and wrapped it in silver wrapping paper. Then I spelled out the saying with rub-on letters and tied some cute ribbon on the tops of the tags. The white snowflakes are ornaments and I placed some bells in the corner of the frame. I got tons of compliments on the sign and everyone loved it. It ended up costing me about the same price as the original sign at Tai Pan (the rub-on letters were expensive even with a coupon because we had to buy 3 packs to spell out the saying). My intention is to swap out the decor for each season, but I haven't done that yet.

Wood Lettering

Last year I was in need of a wedding gift for a friend who lived out of state. I did not want to get a gift card or something off her registery, I wanted to give her something unique. While at the craft store I noticed these wood letters. They were already painted white and were about $2.50 each. So I decided to spell out her last name, but they need to be spiced up. I got some cute paper that reminded me of her and some embelishments. I spray painted the letters black and then put the paper on the letters using Mod Podge. I love that stuff! The "E" has a textured paper on it so I left it plain, but added a flower on it. It's hard to see but the pink "L" has a rub-on that says love on it and the "L" on the end has a metal heart on it. The total project took about 1 hour to make and she loved it. She hung it on her wall in her family room.

When I moved into our house and was going through my decorations I realized that I didn't have anything for fall. So I went back to the craft store and got some more wood letters. I painted them fall colors and used the Mod Podge again to put the brown textured paper on the "L". I had some leaf stamps and stamped them on the yellow "L"and tied some raffia on the "F". The total time for this project was about 40 minutes.

I have received lots of compliments from the wood letters and everybody loves them! They are super easy and cheap to make. You can spell anything you want with them and they are fun to embellish!