Halloween Wrap-up

This year was as low key as Halloween gets around here. The night was cool (but not too cold) and rainy, but we still had a great time. It was the second in a row that I made my own costume. I was excited about it because I was the character from one of my favorite Halloween stories. 

The headless horseman.

Thankfully making this costume didn't rely on my bad sewing skills. It was mostly constructing some fake shoulders using poster board, newspaper, and duct tape. And pumpkin carving! I used a artificial pumpkin so it was lightweight. And taped some LED lights inside.

I also carved a real pumpkin to go with my theme.

And since I can't resist having at least one classic Jack-o-lantern, I carved this happy faced guy.

Hope you had a great Halloween too!   

Batty Cake Bites

Although these bats look too sweet to bite anyone (I guess that's what happens when bats are made out of red velvet cake). It's probably better to be safe than sorry, and take a bite out of these vampire bats before they try to take a bite out of you!

And while the wings might look gravity defying, there's and easy trick to sticking them on.

To make these cake pops you'll need:

• Cake Balls
• Black Candy Melts
• Purple CandyMelts
• Lollipop Sticks
• Tooth Picks
• Candy Eyes
• Mini Chocolate Chips
• Cinnamon candy Sprinkles
• White Sprinkles
• Piping Bag (I used a sandwich bag with the corner clipped off)

I started by piping bat wings onto parchment using black candy melts.

While those were hardening I coated the balls in the same candy melts and decorated each one with candy eyes, a mini chocolate chip nose, cinnamon candy mouth, and white sprinkle fangs.

Then I piped some black candy on top for ears, and used a toothpick to create the outline of the mouth.

To add the wings I dipped each one into the melted candy and stuck it onto the side of the pop.

The trick to getting them to stay was to dip into chocolate that was slightly cooler (that way it sets quickly) and hold the pop sideways while the wing sets. Use a finger or two to gently help the wing balance in place until the candy is hard enough to hold it. Once the wing stays position on it's own, you can turn the pop over and add the second wing.

Last but not least, I added some purple candy melt accents to the eyelids, ears, and wings.

Happy Halloween!

Upcycled Halloween Countdown

Halloween is getting closer! And if you're like me and love the holiday... or have kids that are already so excited they are talking about Halloween nonstop, it's probably a good idea to make some sort of a countdown.

And this one started out life in an unusual way- as countertop swatches.

A while back I was trying to pick a color for some laminate countertop and ended up with loads of the little sample chips. But once the color had been picked and we they weren't need anymore I felt bad about throwing this pile of chips away. So I decided I'd come up with some use for them.

Then it hit me that since these were already the same size, shape, and made to hang off a hook, they'd be perfect thing for a countdown board.

I started by painting the swatch tiles green. Then I printed and cutout some numbers and decoupaged them onto each of the tiles.

Cutting out these all these delicate little numbers was tedious, it definitely would have been faster to paint the numbers. But I wanted a very crisp looking font, and for me the only way I get that was to decoupage the characters.

For the sign I used two wooden shapes (an owl and a rectangle) that I found at the craft store.

I painted them using a Halloween inspired pallet of light and dark purple, green, orange, and black.

Then I glued the rectangle and owl together and decopodged my message onto the rectangular board. Last but not least, I sealed the whole thing.

To hold the countdown tiles I screwed small teacup hooks into the rectangular board. Before screwing the hooks in, I bent them so they'd be straighter. That way the tiles are easier to change.

If your not into Halloween, this same technique would work for anything you'd want a countdown for- other holidays, birthdays, first day of school, vacation. You could even use the same idea to make a perpetual calendar.

Scrumptious Spell Books

I've done a bit of confectionary conjuring. 

The result- scrumptious little spell books that come together so quick it's like... well... magic! 

I know Halloween is only a few days away, but I promise these really are very easy to make. You can decorate them as fancy or as simply as you like. And the kiddos can help because these are no-bake! 

(Plus I've had the idea for these little spell book treats since last year and I really, really wanted to share them this year. Better late than never, right!)

OK- Step number one is to make or buy a batch of rice cereal treats. (I bought mine because they're already cut into perfect shape and size.)

Next melt some chocolate candy- this will be for the pages of the book. I wanted the books to look old and weathered so I "dirtied" up the color of my white chocolate by adding a little regular chocolate and a touch of yellow chocolate. (You could also just add a tiny bit of black or brown candy coloring).

Once the chocolate is melted, dip three edges of the cereal treat into the chocolate.

Smooth it with a butter knife or offset spatula. Scraping off any excess chocolate back into the bowl.

Then drag the tines of a fork through the chocolate to make it look like pages.

As I dipped and dragged my treats, I placed them on parchment to let the chocolate set.

While the treats were drying I rolled out some brown and black fondant. 

Place a treat onto the fondant and cut around the treat on the three chocolate covered sides. Roll the cereal treat and fondant over so the fondant covers the top of the treat and the non-chocolate coated edge. Then cut around the three remaining fondant edges.

Now you have a book that can be decorated any way you like.

Before the fondant dried I put little sugar pearls on some. I also gave a few books an eye by pressing edible sugar eyes onto the front and covering the edges with more fondant. 

(I want to say a big Thank You to Beth at Hungry Happenings, the sugar pearls and eyes were from a great Halloween giveaway pack I won over on her fantastic blog! If you aren't a regular reader of Hungry Happenings I hope you go check it out because Beth has some of the most amazing projects!)

I also used a skewer to press emblems and crease lines into cover.

Once the fondant firmed up a bit I painted designs onto the covers using powdered color mixed with vodka (don't worry the vodka evaporates). Food coloring pens, or gel colors and a brush could be used instead.

Finally to give my brown books a bit of age, I rubbed them with some purple powdered color.

Wrapped in individual plastic treat bags these make wonderful party favors or classroom treats. Mine will go to a few special Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween night.

Happy Halloween!

Broomstick Treats

It's been almost a month since I've posted anything- but I haven't been feeling well enough lately to do much crafting. So rather than total blog silence, I thought I'd post a sweet from a few years ago that was previously only posted on my other blog (MegaSpooky).

These broomsticks are easier to make then they look! Nothing more than simple-to-find ingredients assembled into a treat that's sum is way more impressive than it's parts. They make a perfect no-bake treat for a Halloween party or classroom treat.

Here's what you need to make them:

A batch of rice cereal treats

Bag of chocolate chips/or any chocolate you like for melting.

Bag of Pretzel rods

Can of potato sticks

Black shoestring licorice

Start with puffed rice cereal treats cut into squares or rectangles.

Mush them onto cone shapes. And yes, mush is a technical term.

Melt a little bit of chocolate. Dip the ends of pretzel rods into the chocolate and then stick them onto your cereal treats.

Set them aside to let the chocolate harden.

Once they are hard you can start adding potato sticks to the sides of the rice cereal cone. Melt more chocolate and use an offset spatula (a butter knife works too) to coat the bottom half of the cone in chocolate. 

While the chocolate is still melty add the potato sticks. Working from the bottom up until you've coated all the way around the bottom of the broom.

Do that on all of your treats then go back and coat the top half of the broom in the same way. Starting with the ones that have had the most time for the bottom to set.

Once you've coated all the brooms with potato sticks set them aside until the chocolate hardens completely.

Last but not least wrap a bit of black licorice around the pretzel stick where the "handle" and the "bristles" of the broom meet. Secure the licorice by tucking the loose ends in.

Salty Sweet Broomstick Treats... YUM!

I hope to be back soon (maybe even this week) with some more Halloween ideas!

Jack-o-lantern Surprise Invitation Tutorial- A new Venture

This Jack-o-lantern holds a fun little secret. If you lift his lid he reveals a special invitation or greeting. There's also another surprise... it's my first tutorial/pattern in my new Etsy shop!

I've struggled with the idea of selling on Etsy for a long time and kept coming back to the same thing- I don't want to make a lots of crafts to sell. But I do love making new crafts and sharing those ideas and how-to's with people. So creating patterns and tutorials seemed like the perfect thing!

The pdf file tutorial includes:

• A detailed step by step tutorial with photos 
• Printable tracing templates
• Printable invitation cards
• And six bonus face templates 

The card was designed as an invitation but it can easily be made into a greeting card. And although the Jack-o-lantern theme is for Halloween the face can be omitted to make a pumpkin card suitable for Fall or Thanksgiving. 

I have a few more listings I'm working on. In the meantime I hope some of you who have Etsy experience (both shoppers and sellers) will let me know what you think about my first listing.

And rest assured... just because I'm now putting patterns and tutorials into an Etsy shop... that doesn't mean I'll stop doing free downloads and all the tutorials here on MegaCrafty.