Thursday, October 28, 2010

Halloween, Already? A Quick Craft and Recipe

This may or may not come as a surprise to you...
I am not one of those marvelous crafty bloggers
who decorate their house impeccably for the holidays...
any of the holidays.
I tend to let the kiddos loose for most decorating,
adding my touches here and there.
In fact, you could say I "Bah Humbug" all holidays.
Although my own personal pumpkin patch {see below}
did get me in the Halloween spirit for awhile today!
I thought this would be a quiet week...but I have bought and scooped the insides out of 45 pumpkins for Cub Scouts {I had some help}, been volunteered to make pumpkin pie for one kiddo, make pumpkin goodies and bring snack for the other, create a Bakugan {don't ask! UGH!} costume for a kid...I know it could be worse...but seriously the Bakugan costume has thrown me over the edge.

I will get in the mood {or at least out of this mood by Sunday} and here is how!

I've Got my Eye On You Candles 
This is surely not a craft that will get me into the Crafting Hall of Fame...BUT it was fun, the kids helped, and it looks spooky-fun! {And I have been loving all the eyeball decor I have seen!}

Supplies
  • Old Jars - I used jelly jars, relish jars and some mason jars...all clean of course! And labels removed if necessary.
  • DecoArt Gloss enamels in red, black and white
  • Paint brush
  • Votive candles
  • PK Glitz, Silver
  • Gorilla Glue Wood Glue
  • Child-like Imagination

DIY IT!
Find the full tutorial at The DIY Club!

DIY Club
For display, I added some dried black beans in the bottom of each jar and settled the votive into it and placed all the candles on a platter.

It is silly...it is fun...my kids love it!
*****************************************
Creepy Spider Treats
{These guys are cute and fun...my photo is awful!} 
I totally did not measure anything...these are guesses...adjust accordingly
  • Stick pretzels (8 per spider plus 1 cup crumbled)
  • Chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 to 2 cups)
  • Red hots (2 per spider)
  • 1/2 cup cried cranberries (optional)
  • Wax paper
  • Cookie sheet
Directions
  1. Layout a layer of wax paper on the cookie sheet
  2. Chop cranberries.
  3. Crumbled about 1 cup of pretzels.
  4. Melt chocolate chips in a glass bowl in the microwave. Heat at 40 second intervals, stirring in between cycles. I needed about 4 cycles for the chocolate to be melted.
  5. Spoon out about 1/2 cup of smooth chocolate into a separate bowl.
  6. In the larger bowl, add crumbled pretzels and chopped cranberries and mix well.
  7. Place a spoonful of crumbled mixture on the was paper.
  8. Place 4 stick pretzels on each side of the spoonful of chocolate
  9. Drizzle smooth chocolate on top of the pretzels to cover the pretzels and hold them.
  10. Place 2 red hots for eyes.
  11. Let the spiders harden - I put mine in the frig for awhile.
These guys are cute, but their pretzel legs are fragile!
Signature

24 comments:

  1. Those spider treats are awesome! You better link them up for today's Share a Spoon! I made Zombie Eyeballs! Ha!

    Love the eyeball candles.

    Also, is there such a thing as a quiet week? If you actually have them I want to know how, why, when, where. I was certain they were some mythical imaginary thing like unicorns!

    ReplyDelete
  2. On our drive to my in-laws I pointed to my Hubby how Halloween is not as cool as in America.

    Then every time I read blogs from America the affirmation is confirmed. I love the decoration you've created, they are classy but scary :).

    ReplyDelete
  3. coming by from Mama Kat's...

    love the eyeball jars!
    The first few years we were in our house - before I realized the long driveway was too scary for the neighborhood kids to come down- I set up scary stations and dressed like a witch. There was a bowl of brains, of eyeballs, maggots and more.
    My older kids were in elementary and middle school and their friends loved it. So did I...
    maybe it's time to pull out those jars of pickled onions and steam up some rice again!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am not crafty either but this post reminded me to get out my little decorated Halloween candy basket. I'll take it to work today!

    Stopping by from writer's workshop. Here's my link if you get a chance to visit by: http://zemeks.blogspot.com/2010/10/historical-event-i-would-like-to-have.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your pumpkin patch looks like so much fun! We have just two outside our house. Love the spiders!

    ReplyDelete
  6. HOw fun! I'll have to try those spiders!

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's like pretzels and chocolate are twins separated at birth. Made to be together and so much happier when they are. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great halloween crafts.. love the eyeball jar the best.
    Visiting from Mama Kat's.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Holly I love the eyeball craft! It's not bloody and gory, and my kids will have a blast painting their versions of eyeballs. Thanks for the great idea you smartypants! PS. 45 pumpkins??!?! You are a good mom.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Halloween already? Haven't you seen that I am preparing for Thanksgiving on my blog? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your front porch looks great with all those pumpkins !

    ReplyDelete
  12. So cute and creepy! The best crafts are the ones the kids can help with, don't you think? My daughter and I are currently trying to figure out how to make heads for our Halloween dummies (I'm tired of having headless dummies every year!).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh my! 45 pumpkins?! Do you have carpal tunnel now? Just this a.m. at at store, I saw a special pumpkin-insides scooper. I had to laugh because it looked handy (I hope you had one!), but in the 70s, we just used an old, flat, dull silver, ice cream scoop. Does this qualify as technology?

    ReplyDelete
  14. You could get enough pumpkin seeds to last a year out of all those pumpkins!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh I love your post and the DIY is adorable and I love your pumpkins!!!!
    XO

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous4:29 PM

    Those spider treats are awesome! Im definitely gonna make them next year.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love the eyeball jars. Sometimes I think the simpler, more kid-friendly crafts are the best. They can be more fun and less stressful. The spiders look really yummy. I have a thing for pretzels and chocolate!
    Thanks for linking up with me amd Happy Halloween!
    xo
    -Jami

    ReplyDelete
  18. Loving the candles. I just picked up a little idea on another blog to fill the jars with candy corn and stick candles in that.I gotta go buy tons of candy corn and maybe pick out some google eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Those spiders are the caUTEST things.
    See ya in a bit for linky..:))

    ReplyDelete
  20. But see, those are crafts that are totally at my level! I can DO those crafts and they're cute to boot! And you gave me a chocolate treat to munch on while I do it. It doesn't get any better than that. :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. I love the spooky eyeball jars. They are so neat. My kiddos will love them. Especially my son. He loves anything spooky and halloweenish:> Thanks for sharing:>

    ReplyDelete
  22. Those spider treats look yummy! My baby is 17, so not doing any cute Halloween stuff, 'round here...Lezlee

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ahhhh!!!! I love the candles!!!! I love corky, cute ORIGINAL ideas! Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I love your blog!
    New follower! I'd love it if you could follow me back!
    http://changingbutstillme.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by and joining the conversation! I sure hope you come back for more!