Acorn Crazy

Acorns are one of my favorite fall decor items. Look at all these awesome acorn ideas from the Whatever Goes Wednesday party!

Cottage Hill is ingenious by turning jingle bells into acorns! This is another idea I never would have thought of! Gotta find me some LARGE jingle bells like these!

Use all those acorns that have fallen on the ground to make fun pictures. This would be a great activity for kids (besides just smashing acorns like my kids do!!!) See the acorn art at Sweet Pea and JoJo.

This post at Moore Minutes has many pictures of fall decor using acorns and pears! Such great ways to decorate. You must see these fall decor ideas!

I'm loving this large acorn topiary from Gail's Decorative Touch! Doesn't that look fantastic?

This isn't an acorn idea, but I had to share it! This pumpkin looks good enough to eat! I'm having a hard time believing that it actually a cake. I don't think I could cut a cake that looks so beautiful! See this pumpkin cake at I'm Topsy Turvy.


See more ideas from the Whatever Goes Wednesday Party!

I'm BACK!!!!

I'm Back from Disneyland and Southern California!!!! We had a blast! I will post a few pictures when I catch up with life!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to Disney Days! I hope you enjoyed the ideas and tips! And a big thanks to Kim at seven-thirty-three for helping out with this blog last week. She did lots of little things to make it work while I was gone!

In case you missed it, there were two GREAT giveaways last week and very few entries for either of them. They end at midnight tonight. Please go back and enter!

The first giveaway is for McKenna Layne Designs - your new home for printed or digital announcements, invitations, luggage tags, showers, birthdays, holidays, baptisms, parties, graduation and even candy wrappers!
Christmas cards are made easy and stress-free with McKenna Layne Designs.
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McKenna Layne is giving away a $30.00 gift certificate to spend however you want (and you have one year to use it)!!!! I could do quite a few Christmas cards with $30.00!!!

McKenna Layne Designs is also giving a 10% off discount to any of my viewers when you use the code: DISNEY(and that is for any product - not just Disney cards). This discount is good until the end of October.

Go HERE to enter the McKenna Layne Design Giveaway.

Bitsy Whimsy!

Vinyl, crafts and more can be found here!

You know you want some vinyl stick figures with Disney ears on them. Perfect for the back window of your car, a picture frame or a shadow box!

I've never seen cuter vinyl figures than these! Check them out HERE.

There are a ton more items to look at too!

Bitsy Whimsy is giving away any 4 Disney ear stick figures of your choice!!!! Sweet!

Enter the Bitsy Whimsy giveaway HERE.

I've missed a lot of spectacular crafts and have looked through the Whatever Goes Wednesday party. I'll be highlighting quite a few links today! It is good to be back!!!

Guest Blogger - Crafts By Amanda - Monster Yard Lights!

Hi everyone, I'm excited to be here at Someday Crafts and a special thanks to Michelle for inviting me!

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My name is Amanda Formaro and my blog is aptly named

Crafts by Amanda.

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I love making kid friendly crafts that are easy to make, appropriate for different age levels, and whenever possible don't require moms to run out to the store to buy supplies. Most of my projects use items from around the house.

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One of my day jobs is making kid's crafts for Disney's Kaboose.com and I love it! While the majority of what I make is centered around kids, I also post some of my makeovers and redos and adult friendly crafts. Some of you may also know me as the Home and Garden editor at Craft Gossip or maybe even from my cooking blog, Amanda's Cookin'. :)

Some of the most popular posts on my blog are the painted jar luminaries I made last Halloween, the plastic lid ladybugs I made over the summer, and the bread tag monsters I made this year. As you can see, I love using plenty of color in my projects! :)

Painted Jar Luminaries

Plastic Lid Ladybugs

Bread Tag Monsters

Michelle asked me to make something I thought her readers might be interested in. I know that many of you enjoy PB inspired projects, home decorating projects and the like. I'm also guessing that many of you have kids or grand kids, so I'm hoping you enjoy this. Being that it's almost Halloween, I decided to make some monster yard lights from some plastic milk and juice jugs.

Before making these I sketched out a couple of ideas.

Monster Yard Lights

You will need:

Empty plastic milk jug
Empty plastic Sunny D jug
Acrylic paint: white, black, green, yellow, purple, red, light blue, orange
1 1/4" spouncer
3/4" spouncer
Large paintbrush
Small paintbrush
Sharpie marker
White paint pen (optional)
Clear gloss sealer spray
2 battery operated tap lights
Wall mounting putty or hot glue
Old broom handles or tall branches or sticks

What you do:

Decide which side of the jug will be the front, where your monster's face will go. Turn the jug over to the other side and cut the bottom of the jug, about 2" from the bottom, in a horizontal line. Do not cut the entire jug open, just about a third of the way around, enough to open it. This will give you access to the light. Repeat this process on the Sunny D jug as well.

Paint the Sunny D jug green and the milk jug yellow. Let the paint dry completely then paint each jug with a second coat.

If you milk jug has circle indents in the side, that's a great place for the eyeball! I left mine unpainted when I did the yellow, then painted the indented circle white. If you jug doesn't have the indents you will simply paint the eyeball on instead.

Yellow Monster
To add the polka dots to the yellow jug, use the two spouncers and red, purple and light blue paint.

Simply dip the spouncer in the paint, remove excess by gently pressing onto plate or scrap paper and twirling. Then just place spouncer on jug and gently add pressure.

Use the larger spouncer dipped in orange paint to the add the center of the eye.

Dip large paintbrush into black paint. To create the eyebrow, bounce the paintbrush straight up and down across the top of the eye.

When the orange is dry, use the smaller spouncer to add the black of the eye.

Use the white paint pen (or a pencil) to draw on teeth. Fill in with white paint using small paintbrush. Use Sharpie marker to add the mouth line. Set the yellow jug aside to dry.

Green Monster
Use the large paintbrush to add the monster's hair. The hair will take up about 1/3 of the jug. Paint on the eyebrows.

Use the Sharpie marker to draw on the mouth, eyes, nose and stitches. When using the marker, use a light hand. Pressing too hard with the marker will tear through the paint.

Add the whites of the eyes then dot on the black with the handle end of the small paintbrush.
(NOTE! I realize the photo below differs from my instruction here. I'm a "work as I go" kinda crafter, then I provide the most logical instruction in the tutorial. The eyes were an after thought and I ended up building them backwards. The instructions however would be easier than how I ended up doing it ;))

Carefully draw over the stitch lines again with the marker for a second coat.

When everything has dried, give the jugs a coat of sealer. Let dry 20 minutes before applying a second coat of the sealer.

Press some wall putty to the bottom of a tap light. Insert the tap light inside the jug and attach it to the inside top of the head with the putty. Push the tap light to turn on. You could use a hot glue gun instead of wall mounting putty if you prefer.

Insert a broom handle or sturdy stick into the jug opening. If the stick is much smaller that the opening, causing the jug to wiggle around, take a sheet of felt and fold it in half. Place the felt on top of the stick then push the opening of the jug over the top of the felt and stick. This will fill the gap and give the jug stability.

TIPS

1) Wall mounting putty is inexpensive and available at WalMart, craft stores and home improvement centers. It's ideal for many things and doesn't leave holes in your walls.

2) The tap lights I used I found at WalMart. They are battery operated and came in different sized packs. The one I purchased was a 4 pack, came complete with batteries and was a whopping $3.96. :)

3) If you have an old broom, rake or snow shovel that you aren't using those are great for the stakes. It's even better if the handle is removable as you can just put it back on after Halloween, no harm done. I actually needed a couple of rakes anyway, so I grabbed a couple of cheap ones from Walmart for $5 each and used those handles.

4) You could dress these up even more by attaching a long branch in a cross form with the broom handle. Attach it with tape and/or twine, then drape a sheet over it so it looks like it has arms :)

5) When painting on plastic, let the first coat dry completely before trying to add the second coat or the first coat may peel. When adding the second coat, be sure to use a light hand.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Again, thanks so much to Michelle for inviting me and thanks to all of you for having me! I'm on Twitter, Facebook and Stumble Upon, so I hope to see you there as well.

Amanda ~ Crafts by Amanda





If you've never been to Crafts By Amanda, you are missing out! Her Halloween and monster crafts are so spectular. Amanda's ideas are AMAZINGLY CREATIVE! I would never think to make the ideas she comes up with! I Love these jug monsters! My kids would flip out over these outside! Looks like I will be saving my next couple of milk jugs!

You really should visit Crafts By Amanda and peruse her sidebars for her recent ideas and then look through her archives for more! You will be INSPIRED!

Mickey Mouse Party Ideas,Favors and Printables

Check out this homemade Mickey mouse invitation from Embellishing Life. So fun for a kid's birthday party!

Embellishing Life also has more fun Mickey party ideas like this Mickey bag for favors or games. And you can see Mickey cupcake toppers HERE too.

Hi Everyone!!! The website who submitted the rest of this post has been taken down. The pictures and links don't work anymore. However, there are LOTS of Mickey Mouse and Disney posts here for you to find. You can view them by either "SEARCHING" for them using the word "Disney" (found on sidebar) or by viewing the posts from October 4, 2010 to October 9, 2010.

My Party File
Bring you all these great ideas for throwing a Disney-themed party!

Mickey Mouse Handmade Invitation

These bold invitations are a great way to invite your guests to your Mickey Mouse party. Use our printable Mickey Mouse invitation template to create the invitation from black and red cardboard, and then print the Mickey Mouse buttons onto white paper, and glue on onto the red cardboard. Edit the details on the back of the invitation, print onto white paper, then glue onto the back.

Cheesecake Pops

These Cheesecake Pops are perfect for a Mickey Mouse party! They are scrumptious balls of real cheesecake, covered in dark chocolate and served on a lollipop stick or skewer. Serve them at the party, or pop them into a cellophane bag and tie with a red ribbon and give as a party favour.

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   Buy a cheesecake or make one from scratch. Use any flavour of cheesecake you like, but it is best to use a baked cheesecake, as the no-bake cheesecakes are too soft to keep their shape. Line a tray with baking paper. Scoop spoonfuls of cheesecake onto the tray. If necessary, wet your hands and roll the cheesecake balls to make them round.
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   Insert the lollipop sticks (or use trimmed skewers) into the cheesecake balls. Freeze the balls until they are very firm, at least 2 hours.
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   Melt some dark chocolate buds (saving some buds for the ears!) until completely smooth.
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   Remove the cheesecake balls from the freezer. Working quickly, dip a frozen cheesecake ball into the melted chocolate. Place the cheesecake pop upright in a piece of styrofoam or floral foam brick (or a container filled with sugar/rice) to dry. Refrigerate the pops until the chocolate is completely set.
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   To make the ears, run a chocolate bud along the side of a hot kettle to slightly melt it, then gently hold it against the cheesecake pop for a few seconds.
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   Complete them by tying a red ribbon around the stick. They can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Alternative: Instead of cheesecake, you can buy a cake, crumble it into a fine consistency and then mix it with frosting. Blend thoroughly. Mickey Mouse Pop Biscuits - (you call them cookies!)

If baking isn't your thing, try these no-bake Mickey Mouse pop biscuits. Cut a skewer in half, then gently slide it directly through the centre of an Oreo biscuit (through the white fillling in the middle) and stop just before it comes out the other end. If the biscuits come apart, gently press them together or glue together with melted chocolate. (Hint: Pop the Oreos in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds before you insert the sticks so they slide right in and the biscuit doesn't move). Rub a dark chocolate button on the side of a hot kettle to slightly melt it, and gently insert between the biscuits. Repeat for the other ear. Mix icing sugar with a little warm water and red food colouring, until icing becomes smooth and slightly runny. Coat the bottom half of the biscuit with the red icing. When the icing is dry, add two dots of white icing (I used a tube of white icing) for Mickey's buttons. Store in an airtight container, and refrigerate if the weather is hot! If you want to give them as party favours, pop each one into a cellophane bag, then tie a little ribbon underneath the biscuit. Mickey Mouse Bubble Mixture Label

Small bottles of bubbles make great party favours, and are easy to tie into your party theme simply by adding a new label! For party favours for your Mickey Mouse party, simply print our Mickey Mouse bubble mixture label, cut out, wrap around small bottles of bubble mixture, then glue the ends of the label together. I was lucky enough to find bubble mixture containers that matched the colour scheme of my party, but if you can't, don't worry - the labels still look fantastic on an array of coloured containers! Mickey Mouse Jokes Party Favour

This is an easy party favour for your Mickey Mouse party. Simply print out our Mickey Mouse jokes sheet, cut and place into your Mickey Mouse goodie bag. Mickey Mouse Notebook Cover printable Minnie Mouse notebook cover and stick it to the front. Chocolate Mickey Mouse Confectionery Wrapper

I was finding it hard to find Mickey Mouse trinkets for party favours, so I decided to make a wrapper that I could put around anything, so that it would tie in better to the theme! As it was, I found some small packets of 3 Oreo biscuits (29.4gms) that my daughter thought looked like Mickey Mouse ears! Use our printable Chocolate Mickey Mouse Ears Wrapper to wrap around a small packet of chocolate biscuits, or printable Mickey Mouse Wrapper to wrap around chocolate bars - just trim to suit your needs. Don't worry, I have removed the Chocolate Mickey Ears reference from the template! Cheers! Tammy
Don't you love Austrailian spelling and terminology?
Thanks My Party File!!!

Add these to your goodie bags at your Mickey Mouse party. Simply pick up some note pads from your local variety store (you can usually buy them in packs of 5 or so), use our printable Mickey Mouse notebook cover or

Cinderella Shirt and Mickey Shorts

Here is a beauty by Fussy Monkey Business!

I am kind of under-impressed by this shirt:o) I had a great vision and when this vision came to be, I was just like, 'oh, okay.' Anyway, you can tell that it's supposed to be a Cinderella shirt. This was the first time that I had worked with satin....very slippery and kinda stretchy at times.

I really like the "bubble skirt" on the bottom of the shirt.

Here are some views of the under side to show you how everything was sewn together. The lining is actually shorter than the actual bottom of the shirt, so when sewn together, it creates this bubbles effect. You can do this on any pattern you choose.

I had to make sure that I got those white things on the side...not really sure what they are called:o) I am happy with how it turned out though....but like I said, slightly under-whelmed.

I was able to make this shirt for less than $4. Not too shabby:o)

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So let me know what you think. S.R. loved it of course and wanted to touch it the whole time she was trying it on:o)

These Mickey shorts are very easy to make. Read how they were made HERE.

Visit Fussy Monkey Business

and thank her for showing these.

Personalized Disney Maps

Frugal Life Project

gives us this great tip!

If you are planning a future trip to Disney, these maps will make a great keepsake. You customize them for your family and then print the maps yourself or have them sent to your home. The maps come with stickers so you can mark your favorite spots! They are really cute and best of all, they're free! Click HERE.


Thanks Frugal Life Project

making us aware of this option!