halloween face-in-hole party prop

hiyo! i'm a little behind in my halloween posts.

it's cuz i had a big halloween party over the weekend and holy cow it took a lot out of me as far as time so blogging had to take a back seat.

anyway, with halloween coming tomorrow, 

this probably won't be on your to-do list now 

but mark it for next halloween cuz it's a 

totally fun party "activity" for lack of a better term.

today we are talking about how to make a 

halloween face-in-hole-party prop. 

you first need a photo stand which i got here. 

or i guess you can make one out of pvc pipes or something but heck i'm surely not going there!

to make this actual party prop is so much easier.

and it's cheap cuz you just need plastic tablecloths, scissors, and mod podge!

you are not gonna like this tute because i have no patterns for you...

it's cuz i had a vision in my head then i just started cutting away freehand.

i guess i forgot to mention you need some scissor skills to do this..?! oopsies!

anyway, i just started cutting out skeleton parts,

and halloween words out of the white and orange tablecloths...

and didn't care about the crooked jagged edges cuz it just added to the halloween look. 

once you have all your pieces cut,

lay out all the white and orange parts on the black tablecloth.

cutting tablecloths is a little tricky cuz they are so darn thin but the effect to make the prop creepy turns out cool when you glue the parts down with mod podge.

as you can see i didn't glue the entire thing down, but instead parts here and there.

i didn't think i would get this effect cuz i thought it would just dry normally but instead i got the creepy look which i was thrilled about!

once it's all glued down and dried,

cut out the face holes.

again i just did the whole thing free hand.

remember the more imperfect your shapes are,

 the more perfect it comes out :)

then grab your party guests and have a thrilling hilarious time!

the best part of this craft is you can make a million designs out of tablecloths even if it's not halloween.

now how scary fun is that?

dollar tree skeleton picture

today we are gonna do a lickety splickety halloween craft. 

because halloween is coming up lickety splickety.

all you have to do is take a trip 

to your nearest dollar tree, 

grab some hot glue, and you are 

on your way to making a 

dollar tree skeleton picture

for your spooky viewing pleasure.

so all the supplies will cost you $3 plus tax.

daggone dollar tree is becoming one of my staple stores. 

holy cow i think their inventory is 

remarkable and you can find sooo many things 

in there that would cost so much more in other stores.

and no i am not getting paid for saying that but if anyone out there wants to pay me, 

i'm all ears. lol

anyway, where were we?

oh yeah. you probably already figured out 

how easy peasy this is but here are the directions anyway.

hot glue the eyes and place over the cheek bones.

then pull the ring off the door hanger and discard so you just have the bow and the bells.

glue the bow to the neck area and woolah!

oooooooky spooooooky!!!!

the pic has a mirror image too so you can look into it 

and see how spooky you look in the morning before you brush your hair. 

LOL just kidding Beautiful!

bloom where you are planted scalloped sign

i know it's winter in some places but here in fl. it's either summer, summer, or summer.

nevertheless, as we are heading into the spring season, 

i'm gonna embrace it with a spring pic to celebrate this gorgeous weather we've been having.

today i'm gonna show you how i made this 

bloom where you are planted scalloped sign.

it all started with a trip to hobby lobby 

where i found this on clearance:

i immediately fell in  love with the scalloped edges and knew i had to have it even though there are 

no little ladies at our house. lol

so i painted the whole thing white.

and drew some tulips from inspiration here.

then i got my acrylics out and started painting.

after i painted the leaves and stems i started on the flowers then got cross eyed and decided to outline them first.

i'm a color fanatic so of course i had to use all kinds of colors in the tulip garden.

i just used a sharpie for the outlines.

then i made a vinyl sticker phrase on my cricut.

and there ya have it.

the "bloom where you are planted" is a sentimental quote for me as my parents who are in heaven always said that. 

so for now i  am trying to bloom as best i can :)

diy christmas light picture

at the christmas craft party i had a few weeks ago,

everyone made (or at least attempted lol)  

a diy christmas light picture.

holy christmas cow was it ever a blast!

there was paint on the floor, glitter all over the tables 

and merry hearts all around.

 there are tons of tutorials and ways to make 

a canvas light art piece but i took it 

a few steps further.

before i get ahead of myself, 

here are the first steps:

if you have a silhouette or cricut, 

you already know there are tons of christmas phrases you can purchase or get for free. 

if you don't, you can find a ton online. 

i picked the "let it snow" from the silhouette store.

when you have all your lights pushed thru the canvas, 

hot glue the loose wires and battery pack on the back. 

be sure to have the battery pack accessible to open it up and change the batteries!

after i got everything stabilized,

 i saw i had 173,258 little christmas doodads 

in my craft room so i got to work.

seal the phrase with more mod podge and 

allow the whole thing to dry.

then add some pom pom trim.  i got this one at home goods cuz 

i flippin' LOVE that store.

i just hot glued the trim to the edge of the canvas.

and woolah!

you're done.

i know christmas is next week but this 

would make a really cute gift you think?

summer souvenir shadow box picture

YOU'RE INVITED!

to a BLOG POST SUMMER 

hoopla palooza 

VACATION VIEWING

when: whenever you want

where: wherever you want

what (to wear): whatever you want.

but may i suggest sweatpants and a ratty ole shirt or pj's, hair in rollers, spinach in teeth and legs that need shaven?

ok so are you ready?

 or do i have to wait til you get ready?

ok. i'll wait as long as you want.

nothing but the best at this party!

.........................................................doo de doo.....doo dee do....

oh yay!

you're ready.

here we go.

last month, my family and i went on a 2-week road trip.

we always take road trips.

it would be much much easier to fly, 
but my hubby hates to fly.

like he is deathly afraid to fly.

and now that there is someone actually named Captain Sum Ting Wong, 
i do not think we will ever fly. 

like ever.

anywho, our trips are always an adventure.   my hubby is totally the opposite of me as far as planning but he did tell me a coupla places he had in mind.

so off we went to another adventure, where an hour or 2 goes by and he asks me "did you remember to pack my _________?" 

it never fails.

anyway, check these out.

if you ever get a chance to check out the Gaylord Opry Resort hotel, you must. they have BOATS in there that take you on a river cruise. 

IN the hotel. 

oh yeah and there are waterfalls in it too.

and heck no we didn't stay there. 

we just drooled at all the rich people stuff.

lynchburg is the home of that famous whiskey. 

my hubby wanted to take the tour there.

he promised to take me to the 

first hobby lobby we saw on the road. 

even trade i think don't you?

we made another stop in Tennessee too.

what a quaint town. full of history. i liked it except my hubby made me walk over a humungously long bridge to get to the park. i whined til i saw Ms. Rita's italian icees. 

then i was fine.

next up was another car thing. 

a museum filled to the brink of cars.

zzzzz. but i suggested we take a boat ride in a dark cave first. it was cool i guess but had bad photo opportunities, unless you like to see black pics. i did however LOVE the gift shop there. who the heck knew i could buy a chevron burlap purse at a lost cave tourist stop? i shoulda taken a pic of it for you come to think of it. 

but i hogged it all to myself.

i may be outta sequence here with our stops 

but just roll with me.

we went to the Oprah show stomping ground city.

it was awesome.

the navy pier is SOOOO fun. restaurants, shops, rides for the kids, and oh yeah, funnel cakes. 

and giant ice cream cones that you can hug as you can see in the teeny tiny pic above.

'nuf said.

and the museum was killer too. 

very interactive. and educational, something we don't do enough of for the kids. or ourselves. duh!

downtown is just. plain. beautiful!

unlike the downtown here:

this stop was ok i guess. 

i was still trying to figure out 

why my hubby was so excited to be there.

then we headed back south again to this town:

ok so nashville downtown seemed like they had drunken saloon stories to tell that i wasn't interested in hearing but when we came across this 2-story candy shop, everything changed.

they must've had every kinda soda and candy ever made there! i not only have a problem with sugar, but with multi-colors too so i was a little gaga there and the check out girl thought i was weird taking a million pics. i almost told her i was a blogger but i got distracted when i saw the candy grasshopers and centipedes.

that's when i stopped taking pics.

we did stop at the grand ole opry to spy on famous people but darn it all there weren't any there at the moment.

then our last stop.

there's nothing like disney fireworks. 

in the pic it looks like a nuclear explosion.

but that hamburger i ate in the pic above and the friendly alligator made the trip worthwhile.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.snore snore snore. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

HEY!
is that you snoring??!?!

oh goodness! sorry i took so much of your time

(man this is a flippin' llllloooonnngg post!)

lemme get to the bottom of this post 

and the main reason for your invitation. 

see, when you go to your summer vacation, 

pick up some souvenirs like this:

then stare at the pile and wonder what the heck you are gonna do with it all.

so do this:

take a shadow box frame.

and cut out a long rectangular piece of black cardstock paper. 

(this is what i had but any will do)

fold it as shown and stick some letters on it.

then grab all those vacation goodies and arrange them to your liking. and then,

put the frame back together with the banner inside so you end up with this:

now due to the time i spent writing this post, 

i'm gonna take a vacation straight to my bed.

oh yeah, thanks for coming over!!!

 zzzzzzzzzzzzzz