Chocolate Ginger"dead" Men

 Using some leftover chocolate cookie dough from my son's Mirror, Mirror cookies, I decided to try out a cookie cutter I bought last year after Halloween:

 Picked this up on clearance because I knew my boys would love these scary-but-cute cookies.

I first tried it out on some regular sugar cookie dough last November and it was a dismal failure. 

 First you cut out your dough in the gingerbread man shape using this side of the cutter.

Then, you flip it over and use the stamper side to indent the dough with the skeleton design.  Throw those cookies in the oven and bake...easy, right?  NO!  I could never get the stamper to stamp cleanly into my sugar cookie dough.  No matter how much I floured or greased the dough and stamper, it would stick.  AND if I did finally get a decently stamped cookie, they puffed up too much in the oven while baking, thus rendering my tedious bone stamping efforts useless!  The whole point is to have the indentation of the bones intact after baking so you can fill it in with thinned, white frosting.  It was so aggravating that I gave up and stored the cookie cutter away, thinking I would just use the cutter side at Christmas time for normal gingerbread men.

Well, after seeing how well those Mirror Mirror cookies were holding their shape, I gave the skeleton stamper another go....

 ...and it worked!  It's all about the dough consistency, baby.  Just dust the top of the dough and stamper with a little cocoa powder and you are good to go!  I love this cookie dough and prefer the chocolate to regular sugar cookies anyway.  Win, win.

These will definitely be making another appearance this October...or if one my boys wants a skeleton themed birthday party this summer...hey, you never know with my kids.

Last Minute Halloween Projects

We let the boys chose an image online to carve into their pumpkins.  It was pretty stressful since we didn't have the best pumpkins and my husband and I had to do all the work!  They turned out decent (Yoshi and Iron Man if  you can't tell), but next year we are drawing a face with a marker and cutting it out.  Done.

Mike Wasowski shirt

Saw this tutorial HERE and we just had to try it.  I was too lazy to go down to the store for fabric paint, so I made a template for each color on my Silhouette program and we cut it out of heat transfer vinyl.  The next Monsters, Inc movie is coming out next year, can't wait!

Mini Halloween Pennants

Made these mini Halloween pennants for some "BOO baskets" to hand out last week.  They are a much smaller version of what is hanging on my fireplace, printed from HERE last year.  Still love them and love that my Mac can shrink these babies down so easily, then just hit "Print".

Happy Haunting!

Usain Bolt Halloween Costume

My five year old is severely autistic and is in a running away phase.  Considering he has little self preservation skills no verbal skills at all, it makes it very scary when he bolts away from us.  He has shown to have an uncanny ability to wait for the right moment of parental distraction to break away and he is FAST.  Kind of like the world's fastest human, Usain Bolt.  My mom thought up the idea to have Austin be him for Halloween, since he fits the bill so nicely.  I loved the idea and got to work.

Picked up a child's running shirt and pants (who knew they made them this size?!) and added a little vinyl.  I had to recheck a few times to make sure I spelled the country correctly, it just looks wrong to me...

Back

And what is a world class runner without a racing bib?  I tried to replicate what was worn at the Olympics.  There will be another one for the back with a number on it instead of the name.  This is the perfect costume for my son, not only because it's so appropriate, but because it's loose, comfortable, and doesn't have anything on his head.  So many costumes have head gear and he won't tolerate it.  Hope you like it, buddy.....Ready?....Set....GO!

Spider Web Sugar Cookies

Fall carnival at school was last weekend.  I volunteered to make treats for the cake walk instead of working a booth.  

Best.  Decision.  Ever.

Wrapped them up individually so they would be easy to pass out to the kids.

Love the way these turn out and they are really fun to make.  I have an old post HERE with step by step instructions.

Happy Haunting

Found these great printables HERE via Pinterest.  I printed the bunting on white cardstock and hung it with some brown twine I had from another project.  I'm thinking of laminating it for storage and use in future years.  We'll see.

I love the fonts, reminds me of the calligraphy class I took in college.  I need to practice more often.

Throwback to Halloween

 Check out these pumpkins my mom carved for Halloween.  She's a big Twilight fan if you can't tell.

This one says, "Team JakeWard...too hard to choose."

This one: "Vampires Suck- cept for Edward"

This is the letters JACOB in the shape of a wolf.  My mom was helping a teenage girl make some of these for a pumpkin carving contest.  I think they did a great job!

And the "pièce de résistance", this fabulous quilt.  She has two choices:  show me how to make one or make one for me.  Let me know, Mom.

Candy Corn Wreath

A friend of mine invited me over to make a candy corn wreath the other day.  These wreaths are super easy to make and can create a big impact.

This wreath was made following the instructions from the Woman's Day magazine.  Perhaps you've seen the cover of their magazine at the grocery store with this wreath on it?  Anyway, click HERE for all of the supplies and instructions.  I was lucky in that my friend went and picked up all the supplies and all I had to do was tape and glue away.

The trick is figuring out how to keep the bugs away from the candy for long term display and storage.  I don't know about the storage part yet, but you can read about different ways to preserve your wreath HERE.  I couldn't find the preservative spray that the website talked about, so I tried to find something similar.  I picked up this can at my local Walmart.

I laid my wreath on an old piece of carpet and sprayed at least 4 coats on, allowing each coat to dry before spraying again.  I liked the spray, it coated well and didn't make the wreath shiny, which I didn't want.  Only time will tell how it holds up though.

I may change my ribbon out, but this is what I had at my house.  I chose to hang my wreath inside because my front door gets a lot of direct sunlight and we have some pretty warm weather here still.  Don't want my candy corn to melt!  Have fun with this project, I sure did!

Fairy Princess Skirt Tutorial

Jen, our giveaway winner, wanted a Fairy Princess skirt for her little girl.  She requested a light purple skirt.....and unfortunately, this is the best I can do.  I spent two weeks looking for light purple ribbon that would work and finally gave up.  Sorry Jen!  There must have been a wedding or two with light purple as their color because there was none to be found.  I did make you a cute skirt though, and if it doesn't work for you, here are the instructions on how to make it (in case you are able to find light purple ribbon that you like).

You need:

*Ribbon:  I used 7/8 inch NON WIRED ribbon of purple and pink.  The white shimmery ribbon was 5/8 inch I believe.  I used 24 feet of pink and purple and 12 feet of the white. (2 spools of purple and pink, 1 of white)

*Elastic headband: bought at Walmart

*Circle jewels: bought at Michaels

Cut all of your ribbon (at an angle) into 24 inch strips.  Tie ribbon in the middle (or close to it) around the headband.  I like some variety in length for the skirt, so I don't tie every ribbon exactly even.

Tie all ribbon in whatever pattern you want until your headband is covered.

Now, you can leave it like this.  Very cute.

Or you can glue some "bling" on the bottom of each ribbon end.  I used a glue gun to glue two gems together with the tip of the ribbon in between.

Super easy, right?  This one is for you, Jen.  I'll get it in the mail this week!

Quirky Halloween Silhouettes

Aren't these Victorian silhouettes fun? I saw them on UCreate and had to make them for my home this Halloween. You can find the link to the images HERE at Value Village. Just print, frame, and enjoy. This took me about 10 minutes, with the longest part of the project being cleaning the glass on some existing picture frames and hanging them up straight. Definitely worth 10 minutes, I think.

Hello Pumpkin

I have a new niece and wanted to make a little homemade gift for her to wear during the Thanksgiving season. I even ordered a special stamp that said "hello pumpkin" and was going to use it. Well, the stamp still has not been delivered (bought it online), so I was forced to use plan B. It turned out alright, but I think I'll make another one when my real stamp gets here.

The present probably hasn't gotten to you yet Tiff, so I guess you get to see it early. I hope you like it and you'll have to tell me how it washes up for you. I washed it once with the decorations on, but baby clothes get washed so often, you don't know how they'll hold up.

Mummy Dogs

The boys and I had these for lunch on Halloween.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut thawed puff pastry into long strips and wind around hot dog. Cook for 25 minutes and add mustard eyes.

Chocolate Pumpkin Tart

This little dessert is heavenly. I am not a big pumpkin fan, but if it is combined tastefully with other dessert items (my mother-in-law has a wonderful recipe combining pumpkin and yellow cake mix for example) I find it quite good. Pumpkin and chocolate is an excellent combination. Try this recipe out, you will not be disappointed.

Crust:
20 chocolate wafers
2 TB sugar
3 TB unsalted butter, more for pan
4 oz melted semi-sweet chocolate

Filling:
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 egg
1/2 c heavy cream
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 c pure maple syrup
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulse cookies and sugar in food processor until finely ground. Add butter, pulse until crumbs are moistened. Press crumbs into the bottom of a 9 inch removable -bottom tart pan. Place tart pan on rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes.

Pour chocolate onto warm crust, spread with spatula. Freeze until chocolate is firm, about 5 minutes. Brush sides of tart pan with butter, set aside.

In a bowl, combine all filling ingredients using a whisk. Pour filling into prepared crust and bake on a rimmed baking sheet for 45-50 minutes until set. Cool 1 hour at room temperature or cool in fridge. Unmold tart and transfer to a platter for serving.
(Martha Stewart Everday Food magazine November 2008 issue, page 27)

(Britt tip: a little dabble of whipped cream just before serving doesn't hurt either)

Werewolf Cupcakes

These are just too cute. I don't know if I have time to make these this year, but they're adorable and seemingly easy to make. Check these out on the Wilton website here.

Candy Corn Cake

Using this handy little tool from Wilton, you can create a fun Halloween cake. Due to time constraints, I used a boxed white cake mix, divided the batter, and colored some yellow and orange, leaving a little plain white for the center. I would recommend a homemade cake mix if you have the time though, the box mix is only enough for one 9-inch round using this Wilton pan (there is some left over but not enough for a second cake) and I think this cake looks better as two cakes stacked on top of each other. I guess you could use two cake mixes, duh.

After getting your circles of cake colors in their correct position using the handy tool (I don't know if it has a name), pull it out, and VOILA!...your cake is ready to bake!

When coloring the cake mix and getting into the right places in the pan, I use Pyrex measuring cups. I can measure out the right amount of batter for each ring (you need a lot more yellow batter obviously), mix the gel food color right in the Pyrex, and then easily pour it into the pan. Much easier than trying to do it all in regular bowls.

This cake was for a birthday, so with the leftover batter, I made a small example cake that I could cut and show the layers. Doesn't that look great? It's a fun surprise if you don't tell your guests before cutting it open.

Add some star-tipped icing to your cake to coordinate with the colored cake underneath and you are good to go. Just make sure you slice it like a pie, or it won't look like candy corn when you serve it.

I like to add a little of the real thing on the side, just for fun. Check out the Wilton Cake Decorating Yearbook 2006, that's where I first saw this idea.