Fall crafts with kids

Activities and projects with the grands is one of my favorite things.  It is always inspiring to watch the kids imaginations grow and their creativity take over with only a few supplies and a little supervision.  They know when I come there will be "projects" and are always anxious to get started. These are some projects you can easily do with your young people this afternoon with craft paint, markers and any hard surface scraps. 

We found some salvaged brown tiles in the garage from the bathroom remodel to make a wonderful background for a night scene of spooky creatures! Girl grand made fingerprints and set them loose like a flock of bats.  Do bats fly in flocks?  Hm.  

 

On some larger tiles and tile pieces we used a paint brush to add Craft paint on their palms and fingers to make hand prints.  Some added details and they became spooky but friendly spiders.  The grands presented them to their mom who is thrilled to have them.

To do this easy craft, gather some craft paint, paint brushes,  permanent marker and a hard surface to paint on such as tile or plates or wood.

Spread out some protective covering like garbage bags and put old shirts on the kids.  I first drew a picture to show the kids what we were going to do then started by painting black craft paint onto one hand.  Have them spread their fingers a little and warn them to keep the hand still as you press it firmly onto the surface.  Remind them not to move their fingers.... then lift the little hand straight up and onto paper towels.  Sit it aside to dry before using a dab of white paint for eyes and smiles.  Then draw on a permanent marker spider web.  In between drying times give them extra tiles or hard surfaces to make finger print animals.  BTW, a pencil eraser makes a nice little white circle for the eyes...  If they don't like the way it looks, it's easy to wipe away the wet paint and start again.

Pretty Fall Mantle decor

  

My daughter’s fall mantle is lovely and I’d like to share it with you.

This darling hand carved zebra came home with her from a medical mission trip to Kenya.

             

The globe on the far right is a bit difficult to see, but it is a puzzle hand carved by her great great uncle.

Fall frame redo

Framing Fall

It may be 101 F. outside today, but it's a crisp cool fall inside!  I'm willing the cooler weather to be here just by adding new fall decorations.  I have kept the cutest framed collection from Pinterest in my mind for a couple of weeks and finally finished my version yesterday. 

I pulled some old frames out of a garage storage box and picked up some different alpha letters at Hobby Lobby (on 1/2 price no less!).  This is what resulted:

Cute, right?  Inside the frames from left to right is a kitchen towel, fall leaves, craft paper, and an antique doily.  I spray painted the 3 D letters with Rust-Oleum  hammered brown and attached them  to the glass using a picture hanging putty.  Seriously, this was so easy- I'd say level 1 or 2 if you are spray paint challenged... 

What you need:
frames
letters
spray paint
something to go inside the frames
scissors
mirror hanging putty (comes in rolls either in the mirror section or hardware section at Walmart)

Spray paint the frames and letters a unifying color, fill the frames with fall colored items, attach the letters to the glass on front.  Done.


I put them up right away, but decided the mirror frame is too dark. 
Have spray...will fix.

The camera caught the light from the windows in the mirror,

but you get the picture...pun intended

My inspiration came from A Diamond in the Stuff.  Visit her site for more cute "stuff".

Thanks for stopping by, hope you'll stay awhile and check out some of my other posts.

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 Happy Hour Projects



Doily pumpkin

An ugly duckling story about a Halloween decoration.

Once upon a time someone bought this plastic battery operated pumpkin for Halloween.  It was ugly and was almost tossed out to the garbage truck for pick up.  But alas, an old woman rescued it and it became  a beautiful fall decoration!  This is how it happened.

The old woman brought the plastic pumpkin in from the garbage

and placed it on a doily.  There was an instant attraction.

She measured it for a transformation in her mind.

 

Some quilt batting was cut to fit.

 

The pumpkin was swaddled in the batting cozily.

Some jute rope was cut and taped together.

The doily covered the batting and was held in place with the jute.

A stem was crafted from the ends of the jute. 

The transformation was amazing.

Then the newly transformed pumpkin sighed happily

as it rested on a table center piece and

heard the trash truck pass by.

 

Save an ugly plastic pumpkin! 

You will need:

 A plastic pumpkin, measuring tape, scissors, tape, quilt batting, doily, jute rope.

Transform an ugly plastic pumpkin:

• Measure the circumference of the pumpkin and cut some batting.
• Cut 4 lengths of jute twice as long as the circumference of the pumpkin.
• Follow the photo tutorial for wrapping the pumpkin.
• After wrapping the jute around the doily, use an additional length of jute to tie the ends together
• to form a stem, fold the ends of the jute back over itself.
• Use more jute to wrap around the ends starting from the base up and back down (ending where you started) Tie it off at the base.
• Add a couple fall leaves and display your saved pumpkin.

 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed my pumpkin story!

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I Gotta Create! Wildly Original (Bewitchingly Fall)