messyart

Jack-O-Lanterns

One of my fave traditions for Halloween is the carving of pumpkins and  making them into Jack-O-Lanterns. Normally we do quite a few pumpkins but this year we only did 2.

Traditionally, we carve out the pumpkins on Halloween day, but this year i did our pumpkins at Kody's kindy with his class. We talked a bit about what a Jack-O-Lantern was and how we carve them out (i had done one before i got there so they could see it), and then we carved one out from scratch in the classroom. Mr. Steve, Kody's kindy teacher had a go at the 2nd one and did an awesome job! We took a picture on the school camera (i will post when i get it).

We also carved out some capsicums as miniature pumpkins, which were really cute, and at nap-time, they put tealight candles in them all and lit them up for the kids. The kids loved getting their hands into the pumpkin and pulling out all the insides (well, not all of them, lol) and afterwards we toasted the pumpkin seeds from the pumkins and i believe the kids ate them as a snack (i was gone by then). It was alot of fun watching the kids all get involved. And for those who didnt want to get thier hands dirty i had brought in some old HS Halloween foam stamps, which they used to create some fun little art works.

IF you have never carved out a pumpkin i would definitely give it a go. It's really not as hard as one might think. And just to encourage you along, here are some tutorials to  help you get started!

Martha does some great stuff with pumpkins over at her site and has plenty ot tips and tricks for Pumpkins that will be sure to amaze.

Pumpkin Carving How-To with Martha

And you can see more of her pumpkins HERE

Then you can also get a Video Tutorial HERE.

And here are some of my fave Pumpkin finds from Flickr...
Here, these, these, ooooh....and this one! Heres another one and how cute are these?

And if i now have you in the Pumpkin mood...what about trying some yummy pumpkin recipes like this Baked Pumpkin Cheesecake  or one of the many pumpkin recipes from HERE or HERE.

And if you have any yummy pumpkin recipes of your own, please share!

Trick-Or-Treat!

Although Halloween is not as big here as it is in America, we still always get quite a few on our street. Mabey it's because we go all out, as does my SIL, and MIL, who both seperately live 2 and 3 doors down from me. OUr neighbor and friend also has some fun on the night occasionally getting dressed up and often having little 'tricks' set up for out trick-ot-treaters. So our street is kind of a fun one!

Funnily enough, i do get alot of negative comments from Aussies about celebrating American holidays. I'm not sure why all the fuss against Halloween. It's a fun, harmless holiday . And really, these people who boycott American Holidays....i have to wonder, do they drink Starbucks? Eat McDonalds? Do they support American business's in any way? Do they celebrate Valentines Day? I mean....cmon, really?

So anyway, now that i've got that out of my system....heres a little idea for the Trick-Or-Treaters,   a Party Favour, or just a fun activity to do with the kids.

Our Little Ghost Lollipops

You'll need a bag of lollipops, some white napkins or paper towels , a black pen and some pipe cleaners (i used  black, but any colours will do)

You take your lollipop and wrap the napkin or paper towel around the top of it.

Cut your pipe cleaner into 3 or 4 pieces, and use a piece to tie around the top of the lollipop stick, keeping the napkin in place (kinda like a scarf for the ghost, hee hee)

Last...take your pen and draw on a spooky face. Kids can have fun doing all sorts of faces on the lollipops. And Viola! You have little ghosts lollipops.

I used 2 bags of lollipops from the $2 store, napkins and pipecleaners from there also. So all up it cost me about $8 (if that) to make a massive bowl full of these cute little ghosts.

Another fave Treat we like to make is our little Monster Hands. You can have a look HERE at how to do it. It's another fun, easy and in-expensive activity for the kids to do in preparation for Halloween, and a much healthier alternative to handing out sweets.

Only 4 more days to go!!!

And that means 3 more posts. On Tuesday i'll post some Pumpkin Stuff, on Wednesday i'll post some Food ideas, on Thursday i'll post some random Halloween goodness and on Friday i'll be getting ready for our Halloween Party...so i'm not sure if i'll get a chance to post ;)

Tomorrow i'm off to Kody's Kindy to carve a pumpkin with the kids and talk about Halloween. Gonna be lots of fun.

Spooky Games to keep little Spirits @ bay...

When I was young, mum held a Halloween Party at home for me and my friends, and being the Creative that she is….she did an awesome job. There are 2 things I remember most about this party. One was the “Haunted Maze” she created in the garage.  We had a pretty big double garage (or that’s how I remember it as a child anyway) and she created a maze by hanging old sheets and blankets from the ceiling to make ‘walls’ which led us to little ‘stations’ she had set up to scare us. There were tings like a talking doll…really freaky. She’d messed up and bloodied this old doll that I never really liked, and placed it on a table  in some dreary set up. Then she had recorded a child's voice telling some eerie story of how she came to be on that table all messed up and stuff. Then she would cry ‘helllllp me!’ (man, did that freak me out!) then in another station she had set up a table and created what looked like a body under a sheet lying on the table. She cut a hole in the table, and sat under it, and when a child would walk past, she would reach her arm out and try to grab them. There were lots of other things, but I remember those the most. She did an amazing job….so good in fact that she scared some of the kids to tears, lol. There were a few kids who refused to even go through the Haunted Maze after hearing the other kids scream

Then there was another game we played…something like the “Mad Scientist”. I want to do this one for our Halloween party this year (i'm having a kids party instead of our usual adult party), so I looked on line and found something similar. It’s loads of fun and easy to do….you can read about it HERE.

I also found a game called the “Mummy Wrap” HERE, which is a version of a game we play every year at Christmas time. So I think I will definitely have to give this one a go too.  

And another fun game for the littlies  is the Pumpkin Pop . I cant remember where i found this game, but it's pretty easy and fun for the little ones. Get some orange balloons and stick a little wrapped lollie or a small toy in each one, then blow them up. Draw pumpkin faces on the balloons with a permanent marker. Place all the balloons in a room ( preferrable a carpeted one). The idea is to get the kids to pop as many ballons as they can using there hands or bottoms (by sitting on them) or some part of there body. Let them do this to music. As they pop the balloons they can collect there prizes. It's up to you wether you put a prize in every balloon or not. In this game, everybody wins :)

Here is a great site full of fun games for kids.

Another fun party idea (given to me by THIS creative gal) is to get a polariod and take pictures of each of your party guests as they arrive. You can then hang the pictures on the wall for all to see, and even let the guests add to the 'wall of pics' as the night goes on.

But for all you computer junkies and fellow bloggers, HERE is a fun online game that you (and your kids) can play to get you in the spirit ;) And HERE is another game for older kids and adults.

And heres a layout i did a few years back with pics from one of our Halloween Party's, 2004 (just because every post needs a picture)

And some pics from Halloween 2005 Party...

 

Do u have any games you play on Halloween? If you do, please share… I’d love some new ideas!

more decorating ideas....

I love this idea from Martha Stewart...

I have some bats from last year that i cut out and put on the wall...but not as many as she has here. Going to have to go and get myself some more black paper, lol!

The kids and i have been busy creating lots of spooky decorations. I love watching them get all excited and creative. An easy craft idea for kids is our pipecleaner spiders.

All you need is a styrafoam ball, some black paint, black pipe cleaners, and either red paint or googly-eyes for thier eyes, and a skewer.

• Pop the styrafoam ball onto the skewer and paint it black. Let dry.
• Paint or glue on eyes. You can paint some fangs on too if u want.

• Get the pipe cleaners and stick 4 in each side of the ball, making the spiders legs. Bend pipe cleaner in the middle.
• Viola! You have a spider!

We hang them up from the cieling,or attach them to webs on the walls.

I also always hang some from the trees in the front yard...it's always fun to watch people freak out when they feel the 'spider' brush thier shoulder.

I also created this centre-piece for the table.

 This super super easy . I got some branches off a dead tree in the backyard, and spray painted them black. Then i added some black glitter to the branches as well. When they were dry, i stuck them in a vase and hung some cheap decorations from the $2 store off them.

And my Little helper....

Isn't he cute?

Transforming our house...

OMG...this week has been crazy. We've started decorating for Halloween (check out my mess), which has got the kids all excited. Costumes are all organized...well, almost all. I just have a few touch ups for Zalis 'Angel' costume. Oh, and i need a dress for me...i'll be a Vampire this year. Or maybe an Evil Fairy...still not decided. And we all chose this week to get sick as well, each one of us in turn and then just when i thought i was all better, i got sick again. Gotta love my Ease-a-Colds for kids and adults. I swear by those things....and their all natural!

So trick-or-treating is not such a big thing here in Australia, but every year we get more and more kids coming to our door all dressed up. I have to admit, we have gotten a reputation in our street because of the efforts we go to to decorate our house, which by American standards would probably be quite poor, but by Australian standards where most don’t do anything, our house is pretty feakin cool, if I do say so myself. 2 years ago, mum even made a life-size paper mache witch which hung from our tree to look as if she was flying on a broom stick. However, it was REALLY windy that Halloween , a bits of her ended up flying off down the street… so ding dong, the witch is dead.

There are lots of easy cheap and fun decorating ideas you can do with your kids to get ready for  Halloween night. Here are some of our favourites…

Tombstones made from cardboard

Ghosts made from balloons (will show pics when we make them, closer to the day)

Carved pumpkins

Styrofoam spiders (will show u how to make them tomorrow)

black tree centerpiece (will also show tomorrow)

oversized spider webs made from black yarn

So anyway...wanna sneak peak at whats happening here at my house?

I'll show you more pics after we are all done. Hopefully this year i'll remember to take them. I usually forget in all the excitement of the night.

Halloween goodies to get u in the 'Spirit'

IT'S HALLOWEEN

It's Halloween! It's Halloween!
The moon is full and bright
And we shall see what can't be seen
On any other night.

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,
Grinning goblins fighting duels,
Werewolves rising from their tombs,
Witches on their magic brooms.

In masks and gowns we haunt the street
And knock on doors for trick or treat.
Tonight we are the king and queen,
For tonight it's Halloween!

And this woman here really knows how to throw a Halloween Party. Check out this Arty Mamma as well to see her halloween decorations.

And i LOVE these halloween costumes based on Tim Burtons characters. And speaking of Tim Burton, have you heard that he's making the movie Alice in Wonderland!!!! How cool is that....i *love* Tim Burtons stuff! You can see more HERE.

If your looking for some Halloween costume ideas, check out Martha Stewart site for lots of spooky and cute  NO-SEW Halloween Costumes ....not thats always a bonus. I love this Spider-web Momma and her spider baby...

 

And how cool is this idea for an Invitation to a Halloween party??? If only i'd seen it sooner!

 

Or there's this great idea to make as a memorable party favour....might definitely have to try this idea!

 

I also found some great craft ideas. Unfortunately, there are more ideas than i have time for, but these gauzy ghosts are so adorable, i am really going to try and get some done for the party this year.

But if not, then they will be top of my Halloween To Do list for next year!

Here are some more great Halloween links to get you started getting in the mood...

Haunted Houses

Always Halloween

Create My Event

Family Fun - Halloween

Kaboose - Halloween

Martha Stewart - Haunted House Party

That should keep you busy for now!

Hallow's Eve is coming......

OK, so anyone who knows me knows I am a HUGE fan of Halloween. It is definitely my fave holiday. Unfortunately, here in Australia, they are not big fans of this holiday so much. I do miss the way American's celebrated Halloween.  I mean, it’s just like one big street party for young and old alike! And in the states, people really go all out decorating their houses with tomb stones and corpses in the front yard and amazing window displays...all sorts of stuff!

So every year we have always had a big halloween party for our friends and family (except for last year). And everyones who's come has always made an effort to really get into the spirit of halloween by dressing up in awesome costumes. Traditionally, we have always carved out around 6 – 10 pumpkins, lighting them up on halloween night (something that Adam loved to do…it was kinda his thing) and the kids and I have  spent the weeks before making home made Halloween decorations and decorating the house. We figure, if we are going to go through all that trouble, why not enjoy it for more than just a weekend? Afterall, you start decorating for Xmas a month before, right?

So in honour of Hallows Eve (halloween), I will be posting lots of fun Halloween inspired posts all this month up until the night itself.  You will find  decorating ideas, trick-or-treats, games, and spooky tid bits as well as some Haloween inspired Etsy finds. So if you feel like  getting into the “spirit” of things (queue ghost noises) then come along and check things out as we gear up for a ghoulish Halloween celebration for all the family.

And in the meantime, I would love for you to share any Halloween tid bits you may have. What ways do you and your family celebrate Halloween? Do you have any traditions? Do you mabye celebrate a different version of Halloween? If you have anything Halloween related you’d like to share, I would LOVE to hear about it!

Horoscopes

Apparently i am a great lover, an extreme thinker and a procrastinator. Which one are you?

ARIES - The Aggressive

Outgoing. Lovable. Spontaneous. Not one to mess with. Funny. Excellent kisser EXTREMELY adorable. Loves relationships, and family is very important to an aries. Aries are known for being generous and giving. Addictive. Loud. Always has the need to be 'Right'. Aries will argue to prove their point for hours and hours. Aries are some of the most wonderful people in the world.

TAURUS - The Tramp

Aggressive. Loves being in long relationships. Likes to give a good fight.
Fight for what they want. Can be annoying at times, but for the love of attention. Extremely outgoing. Loves to help people in times of need. Good kisser. Good personality. Stubborn. A caring person. They can be self centered and if they want something they will do anything to get it. They love to sleep and can be lazy. One of a kind. Not one to mess with. Are the most attractive people on earth!

GEMINI - The Twin

Nice. Love is one of a kind. Great listeners Very Good at confusing people... Lover not a fighter, but will still knock you out. Gemini's will not take any crap from anyone. Gemini's like to tell people what they should do and get offended easily. They are great at losing things and are forgetful. Gemini's can be very sarcastic and childish at times, and are very nosey. Trustworthy. Always happy. VERY Loud. Talkative. Outgoing VERY FORGIVING. Loves to make out. Has a beautiful smile. Generous. Strong. THE MOST IRRESISTIBLE.

CANCER - The Beauty

MOST AMAZING KISSER. Very high appeal. A Cancer's Love is one of a kind. Very romantic. Most caring person you will ever meet in your life. Entirely creative Person, most's are artists and insane respectfully speaking. They perfected sex and do it often. Extremely random. An Ultimate Freak. Extremely funny and is usually the life of the party. Most cancers will take you under their wing and into their hearts where you will remain forever. Cancers make love with a passion beyond compare
Spontaneous. Not a Fighter, But will kick your ass good if it comes down to it. Someone you should hold on to!

LEO - The Lion

Great talker. Attractive and passionate. Laid back. Usually happy, but when unhappy tend to be grouchy and childish. A leo's problem becomes everyone's problem. Most Leos are very predictable and tend to be monotonous. Knows how to have fun. Is really good at almost anything. Great kisser. Very predictable. Outgoing. Down to earth. Addictive. Attractive. Loud. Loves being in long relationships. Talkative. Not one to mess with. Rare to find. Good when found.

VIRGO - The One that Waits

Dominant in relationships. Someone loves them right now. Always wants the last word. Caring. Smart. Loud. Loyal. Easy to talk to. Everything you ever wanted. Easy to please. A pushover. Loves to gamble and take chances. Needs to have the last say in everything. They think they know everything and usually do. Respectful to others but you will quickly lose their respect if you do something untrustworthy towards them and never regain respect. The do not forgive and never forgetThe one and only.

LIBRA - The Lame One

Nice to everyone they meet. Their Love is one of a kind. Silly, fun and sweet. Have own unique appeal. Most caring person you will ever meet! However, not the kind of person you want to mess with... you might end up crying... Libras can cause as much havoc as they can prevent. faithful friends to the end. Can hold a grudge for years. Libras are someone you want on your side. Usually great at sports and are extreme sports fanatics. Kinda dumb at times.

SCORPIO - The Addict

EXTREMELY adorable. Loves to joke. Very Good sense of humor. Will try almost anything once. Loves to be pampered. Energetic. Predictable. GREAT kisser. Always get what they want. Attractive. Loves being in long relationships. Talkative. Loves to party but at times to the extreme. Loves the smell and feel of money and is good at making it but just as good at spending it! Very protective over loved ones. HARD workers. Can be a good friend but if is disrespected by a friend, the friendship will end. Romantic. Caring.

SAGITTARIUS - The Promiscuous One

Spontaneous. High appeal. Rare to find. Great when found. Loves being in long relationships. So much love to give. A loner most of the time. Loses patience easily and will not take crap. If in a bad mood stay FAR away. Gets offended easily and remembers the offense forever. Loves deeply but at times will not show it feels it is a sign of weakness. Has many fears but will not show it. VERY private person. Defends loved ones will all their abilities. Can be childish often. Not one to mess with. Very pretty. Very romantic. Nice to everyone they meet. Their Love is one of a kind. Silly, fun and sweet. Have own unique appeal. Most caring person you will ever meet! Amazing in bed..!!! Not the kind of person you want to mess with- you might end up crying.

CAPRICORN - The Passionate Lover

Love to bust. Nice. Sassy. Intelligent. Sexy. Grouchy at times and annoying to some. Lazy and love to take it easy. But when they find a job or something they like to do they put their all into it. Proud, understanding and sweet.
Irresistible. Loves being in long relationships. Great talker. Always gets what he or she wants. Cool. Loves to win against other signs especially Gemini's in sports. Likes to cook but would rather go out to eat at good restaurants.
Extremely fun. Loves to joke. Smart.

AQUARIUS - Does It In The Water

Trustworthy. Attractive. Great kisser. One of a kind, loves being in long-term relationships. Can be clumsy at times but tries hard. Will take on any project. Proud of themselves in whatever they do. Messy, and unorganized. Procrastinators. Great lovers, when their not sleeping. Extreme thinkers. Loves their pets usually more then their familiy. Can be VERY irritating to others when they try to explain or tell a story. Unpredictable. Will exceed your expectations. Not a Fighter, But will Knock your lights out.

PISCES - The Partner for Life

Caring and kind. Smart. Center of attention. Messy at times and irresponsible! Smart but lazy. High appeal. Has the last word. Good to find, hard to keep. Passionate, wonderful lovers. Fun to be around. Too trusting at times and gets hurt easily. Lover of animals. VERY caring, make wonderful nurses or doctors. They always try to do the right thing sometimes get the short end of the stick. They sometimes get used by others and hurt because of their trusting. Extremely weird but in a good way. Good Sense of Humor!!! Thoughtful. Always gets what he or she wants. Loves to joke. Very popular. Silly, fun and sweet. Good friend to other but need to be choosy on who they allow their friends to be.

Hello Creative Type People!

Well, remember i told you about this new blog i fell in love with called The Creative Type ? Well i was lucky enough to get to join the ranks with all the other creatives from there and made a layout for Prompt #3, which, by the way...i would give it a go, cause the prize is a really great book ( i dont have it yet, but it is on the top of my wish list for sure!) called Hand Job.

This is the layout i created for Promt #3. But you should check out the other Typists's works. Very inspiring and pretty damn cool, if u ask me.

It was all about the quote this week, and my quote was one that i could really relate to at the moment.

"I am aware that i am less than some people prefer me to be, but most people are unaware that i am so much more than what they see" - douglas pagels

So if you have popped by from the Creative Type blog, Hello! and Welcome! Unfortunately i am taking a quick break over the holidays, but i hope you pop by in a week or two and say HI! I look forward to seeing you again :)

Taking a short break...

(Yes..... i scrapped. And here's a sneaky peaky)

Check back here tomorrow for one more fun post (it was the thing i promised to reveal on Tuesday) an a super cool give-away before i go on a short break over the holidays  :) :)