Mama's Crafts: October 2013

Monday, October 28, 2013

Spider Cider (Kid Friendly)

Hello! I am back from the most fantastic vacation to sunny Florida and Walt Disney World! Halloween this year is going to be kind of a bummer at my house because we will be childless and my sweet hubs has surgery on Nov. 1st that will require us to drive an hour and a half from home very early in the morning.

Anyways, normally I love to go all out for Halloween and if we are lucky enough for it to fall on a weekend, then I make every meal "Halloween-ish" from breakfast through dinner. One of my favorite idea's is what I call "Spider Cider":

Just use your favorite hot cider recipe, I have a couple that I like to use. One of them that's super easy is:

Ingredients:
1 c. water
2 quarts apple juice
1 c. orange juice
1/4 c. lemon juice
5 or 6 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 T. brown sugar
2 tsp whole cloves
2 or 3 diced apples
Big plastic spiders (make sure that they float so that no one will choke on one!)

In a pot, combine the first 8 ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. Strain out the cinnamon sticks and cloves and then pour into individual cups (I like to use clear ones). Toss in some chopped apples and drop in a plastic spider.

This one is always a hit with kids and is great for either breakfast or after trick or treating when everyone is chilly and needs to warm up!

*This could also very easily be turned into an adult drink by adding Spiced Rum...

Linking to:
craft-o-maniac-monday
made-by-you-monday
nifty-thrifty-tuesday
time-sparkle
tell-us-tuesday
all-my-bloggy-friends

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Dish Towel Trick or Treat Bag...

I actually made this in 2010 but only posted it on my personal blog. I'm not sure why I never posted it on here, but decided that I would now!

I found a Halloween dish towel at the Dollar Store and thought it would make a cute Trick or Treat bag. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have ZERO tolerance for sewing. I really want to love it, and I have major sewing envy when I see all the cute things that can be made but it always turns into a major hassle. Typically, I get this big idea for an awesome sewing project so I go and spend lots of money on supplies, then I pull out my brand new almost never used, really nice sewing machine that my awesome parents bought me and I attempt to wind the bobbin. I always run into major problems and spend about an hour fighting with the bobbin before I get so frustrated that I pack it all up and vow to NEVER sew again! This time, I was determined to make it work and I figured that I couldn't have chosen an easier project. When I successfully wound the bobbin without a single problem, I knew that I was headed in the right direction! I used the machine to sew the edges together and also to sew on the ribbon handles, then I cut and hand sewed on the felt letters with blanket stitch. I'm well aware of how amateur it looks, but for me this HUGE! Give me a paint brush, paint and sander and I can do about anything but this is about the extent of my sewing successes haha!

A close up of the letters:

Hunter loved it and used it the last couple of years that he went Trick or Treating and I'm just patting myself on the back for getting that dang bobbin wound!

Linked to:
craft-o-maniac-monday
made-by-you-monday
mad-skills-party

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Old Wood Scarecrow...

I love old wood, I tend to hoard it and therefore I have a huge stack of it. I haven't used any of it to make Fall decorations so I decided that I needed to! Here is what I came up with:

I adore scarecrows! For me, they totally symbolize Fall and everything about it. I painted the top part of the board brown as well as an old plank for the hat and hat brim, the rest white for his face, then I painted his cute face on. Then I glued raffia on the hat brim and stapled it to the hat. Finally, I added the sunflower, leaves and bow and that was it. The entire decoration took less than 40 minutes and most of that was drying time for the paint.