Count Down to Halloween

When I was little, we had an advent calendar that counted the days until Christmas. My mom had a way of making holidays so much fun. My sisters and I LOVED it! I wanted to be that kind of mom for my own kids so a few years ago, I found a kit that was similar to that advent calendar and made it so that my girls could enjoy counting down to Christmas like I did when I was little.

A few weeks ago I decided I was going to design and make a "Count Down to Halloween." I wanted my sisters to participate in the fun too and my little sister said that she would make one only if it didn't involve sewing. (Haha) So this is what I came up with. We had tons of fun making them this past weekend.

This "Count Down to Halloween" not only counts down the days, but has a fun activity for the kids to do hiding behind each number.

What you will need:

1- 12 x 24 board

31- 2.25" tags

Halloween Paper

Black Ink

Black, Orange, Yellow, Purple, Green, and White Vinyl

Ribbon

Mod Podge

Foam Brush

Glue Dots

Black Semi-Gloss Spray Paint

31 white nails

( I was super excited about this project and went a little crazy, but you could simplify it if you want. :) )

First, spray paint your board and one side of your 31 tags. (I forgot to get a picture of this, but I am sure you get the idea!)

Ask your super cool brother-in-law to measure, mark, and nail your 31 nails into your board.

Next you will need to cut your paper to fit the tags. I used my Silhouette to cut my paper. Mod Podge your paper to the side of the tag that you did not paint.


Let it dry completely. When dry, distress the edge using black ink.
Cut numbers out of black vinyl (once again, I used my Silhouette) and then apply the vinyl to the paper side of the tag.
Next, cut a piece of paper that is 4.5" x 12", distress the edge with the black ink and mod podge that to the top of your board. Dry completely. Then cut out your title "Count Down to Halloween" in black vinyl. Apply to the paper.

I also cut out 2 bats and 1 cat in black vinyl and put them with the title. So it looked like this when I was finished.I cut out various Halloween sayings and pictures from white, orange, yellow, green, and purple vinyl and put one on the back of each of the tags. I am going to have my girls flip the tag over as they go to keep track of what day it is and wanted something cute on the back.

So by the end of the 31 days in October, this is what it will look like.

Next, put your orange "Trick or Treat" vinyl on the bottom of your board. (I forgot to take a picture, again!)

Then you will want to add the ribbon to your tags. It makes them SO much cuter! I bought orange and black polk-a-dot ribbon. I cut them a few inches long.

Tied a knot in the middle.

And used fray check to prevent it from fraying on the edges, and then stuck them to my tags, just below the hole, using a glue dot.

I typed up a list of 31 fun activities and printed them out and used a 1 inch hole punch to punch them out. I used the big craft glue dots to adhere them to the board behind each tag. I wanted to make sure I would be able to pull them off and change activities if I wanted, so that is why I used the dots.

So as you pull the tag off, you can read the activity for the day, have fun with your kids, and have them flip the tag over so they can keep track of how close it is getting to Halloween.

And if your kids are anything like my 4-year-old, they will hardly be able to contain their excitement!

Hurry, you still have plenty of time to whip one up before October is here!
Happy Halloween!

The Pillowcase Dress

Love the pillowcase dress!! Easy enough for the beginner sewer and cute!!

For the summer version I got inspiration from here to make my own lemon-lime bandanna dress ($2 total-Wal-mart).

I used the instructions here.

She kept tugging at the ribbons so I ended up making different ties but didn't get a picture for this one. I used the tutorial here using an old green tee shirt for the straps instead. Great for a hot summer day or a swimming cover-up.

Then the other day at the thrift store I spotted a sweater with great fall colors. ($3) I'm not much of a sweater person myself but I knew I use the fall colors for something. So I made this from the same concept.

I used the leftovers to make a headband and flower. I made the flower from this tutorial, then painted a wooden circle, added some rub-ons, sprayed with finishing spray and glued an embellishment in the middle. Bring on fall!!

DIY Painted Barbie Undies

I have a creative friend who always thinks of great ideas. One of them is to paint undies (or swimming suits) on barbie dolls, because lets face it: barbies spend a lot of time in the buff. So far we only own one barbie I got at a garage sale, but I thought I would try it. For the top I outlined it with a sharpie and filled it in with nail polish and let dry. For the bottom I just painted it. I think next time I will do a full swimming suit.

Now we have a (semi) modest barbie whether she is dressed or not!

Awesome Sock Buns

So, I tried this sock bun thing in my hair last night, and I'm so excited I had to share it with you.

Watch the video first. It's a little long, but you probably spend more than eight minutes curling your hair in the morning so this is worth it. You put it in at night and sleep (and the bun is on the top of your head so it's comfie) and then take it out in the morning.

Here is what my hair looked like this morning (and I have two sweatie workouts since I have washed my hair-TMI- I know!)

Pretty awesome!

Summer Fun

4th of July Kabob. Sorry I lost the source where I got this idea. It was a great side to a BBQ.

I made this Mariners dress for my daughter using an old T-shirt. Got the tute here. I didn't add the elastic in the middle or the sleeves cuz it's summer!

And one my favorite projects ever is the romper made out of a boys church shirt. I love it.

Got the tute here. I used a 6-8 boys shirt for a 2T romper.

Great Hair Colour

So I've been growing my hair out for eight months. I felt like I needed a change so last night I bought this hair color halfway expecting to have to run to the salon today to fix it. But I was actually really impressed.

This is me earlier in the day before I colored:


And this is me after:


The back lays so much nicer. Maybe I just needed a lot of moisture. Anyway, I will definitely be buying this again. I will probably be better at applying the highlights next time but I still like how it turned out.

Teacher Gift

Today was my 3 year old's, last day of school. I wanted to do something nice for her teacher because I know how much time it takes to prepare lessons for young kids. Teachers put in a lot of extra hours and I wanted to show Miss Emily our appreciation for being such a fantastic teacher. We need more of those! This is what I did for her:

I got a bucket from Target and put her name on the front with some apples. I used my Silhouette to cut the vinyl. I love that thing! She gives her students a gumball every day as they leave if they followed directions for that day. So I decided to use gumballs for the filler. I put some tissue paper in the very bottom and filled it a little with gumballs. Then I bought a circle shaped piece of floral styrofoam to hold some apple-shaped cake pops I made. And I covered that with wax paper so it wouldn't get any little styrofoam flakes on the gumballs. I put another piece of tissue paper around that so when I put it in the bucket, the tissue paper would stick up out of the bucket.

Then I stuck all my little apple cake pops in the holes I pre-made in the styrofoam circle. I had previously covered each one with a little bag and tied a red bow around the bottom. So they are all individually wrapped. Once my cake pops were in, I filled around them with the rest of the little gumballs and nestled a Target gift card in the center with a little thank you note from me and my little girl.

Here is a close up of the apple cake pops. They have cute, smiling faces. A fun gift for an awesome teacher!

My little girl loved giving her gift to Miss Emily.

Here they are together on her last day of school.

They had a fun carnival party.

We love Miss Emily!