DIY Halloween Lights

img_7381

We really don’t like spiders. We scream when we see them in our homes, and fear them crawling on us. We have recurring nightmares after a villa experience in Tuscany {which was amazing, and we would do it all over again}. Along with the wonderful grapes, vines, greenery, olive trees and an old villa came spiders…big ones! To this day, we still dream that spiders are crawling on us, or people next to us, and although we seem to be ‘awake’ and we think we really see them, they are just a bad dream.

Despite our fears, spiders crawled their way onto our DIY Halloween balloons, and now they are shining bright for our DIY Halloween lights. The creepy spider tattoos from Oriental Trading were our source of inspiration, once again. Tis the season of Halloween.

DIY-ping-pong-ball-diy-halloween-lights-spider

Materials:

Directions:

Step 1: Gather ping-pong balls. Remove the piece of plastic from the tattoo and cut the spider tattoos into individuals spiders.

white-ping-pong-balls

halloween-spider-tattoos

Step 2: Place the spider tattoo face down onto the ping-pong ball, press down and apply water all over the back of the tattoos with a wet sponge or wash cloth. Apply it just the way you would on skin.

halloween-spider-tattoos

halloween-spider-tattoos

halloween-spider-tattoos-ping-pong-balls

halloween-spider-tattoos-ping-pong-balls

Step 3: Insert a sharp knife into the back-side of the ping-pong ball {opposite of the spider}. Make an X or a T with the knife.

halloween-spider-tattoos-ping-pong-balls

Step 4: Insert the light into each ping-pong balls.

halloween-spider-tattoos-ping-pong-balls

DIY-ping-pong-ball-diy-halloween-lights-spider

DIY-ping-pong-ball-diy-halloween-lights-spider

Step 5: Find the closest outlet, and let the spiders hang.

DIY-ping-pong-ball-diy-halloween-lights-spider

DIY-ping-pong-ball-spider-halloween-lights

DIY-ping-pong-ball-diy-halloween-lights-spider

DIY-ping-pong-ball-diy-halloween-lights-spider

DIY Marbled Bar Necklace

img_7151

We played with nail polish lately, and had a colorful time!

See all the details of how we made a DIY Bar Necklace at Momtastic. Hint: Materials are really affordable, and can be found at Home Depot.

DIY-marbled-nail-polish-bar-necklace-manican

DIY No-Carve Pumpkin with Customized Jean Pocket

diy-jean-pocket-pumpkin-green-bandana-country-cowboy-boots

We can hardly believe the watermelons and pool bags are being replaced with pumpkins and scarves. But, the fall season is upon us, so we dove right in with a good ‘ole DIY country pumpkin. Maybe it’s our Colorado roots, but there is something nostalgic about farms this time of year for us. The beautiful changing leaves, campfires, pumpkin patches with the kids, corn fields, bales of hay, rustic farm houses and apple picking.

As we were going through our kids closets, we found old jeans with holes in the front. So, why not upcycle an old pair of jeans for a DIY pumpkin with a customized jean pocket? And, wait, the best part was that it didn’t entail any cutting or gut removal of the pumpkin. We’ll do that closer to Halloween, but for now this no-carve pumpkin was stress and mess free, which made us happy.

We tried our new Silhouette CAMEO 3 for this project, and we are so in love with the capabilities of it. This is just a blimp on its cutting radar. But, it’s a cute blimp, and a great way to welcome fall, that’s for sure!

This customized jean pocket pumpkin is so easy, you can do it within 30 minutes. If you really get into it, add a belt through the belt loops.

white-pumpkin-happy-fall-y'all-jean-pocket

Materials:

  • White pumpkin, faux {use a fake pumpkin for this, so you can re-use it year after year}
  • Silhouette Heat Transfer, yellow
  • Old pair of jeans
  • Scissors
  • Hot glue and glue gun
  • Bandana
  • Silhouette CAMEO 3 electronic cutting machine

Directions:

Step 1: Cut the pockets and belt loops from an old pair of jeans, or the kids jeans.

Step 2: Design a fall phrase on your Silhouette software. We bought the adorable Happy Fall Y’all for a whopping .99 cents. Cut the design according to Heat Transfer instructions on the packaging. Remove the yellow ’empty space’ from one side of the heat transfer material.

yellow heat transfer craft project

happy fall y'all

Step 3Press the design onto the jean pocket.

happy fall y'all-jean pocket

Step 4: Place a cloth over the pocket with the design, and use an iron to set it. We counted to 30, and then peeled up just a corner of the design to make sure it was set onto the pocket before removing the plastic entirely. Once the design is set, remove the plastic.

happy-fall-y'all-heat-iron-transfer

Step 5: Use a hot glue gun to glue the pocket onto the pumpkin. Glue the belt loops, too.

hot-glue-gun-pumpkin-fall-craft

Step 6: Insert a bandana, wheat, cotton or whatever ‘accessory’ you want into the pocket.

diy-punpkin-with-a-jean-pocket-bandana

Step 7: Use the Silhouette CAMEO 3 to cut colorful leaves you can stick to the wall. Dust off your cowboy boots, and a hat, and you have a lovely country fall scene.

Happy Fall Y’all!

fall-bench-with-cowboy-boots-hat-pumpkin-jean-pocket-leaves

happy-fall-y'all-pumpkin-with-jean-pockets

jean-pocket-happy-fall-y'all-diy-white-pumpkin

diy-white-pumpkin-happy-fall-y'all-custom-jean-pocket

Thanks to Silhouette America for making this post possible. We loved Silhouette America since the inception of our blog, and would love them even if we didn’t receive product from them. All opinions expressed are our own. Thanks for supporting the companies that support j. sorelle. 

DIY Backyard Jungle Obstacle Course for Momtastic

the-jungle-book

Jessica was lucky enough to work with Momtastic for a DIY Jungle Obstacle Course in celebration of Disney’s The Jungle Book release on Blu-Ray Aug. 30. The Jungle Book was one of our kid’s favorite movies this year, so it was really fun to transform our backyard into a jungle adventure.

One bonus obstacle (only seen here) for the course was our DIY honeycomb climb. In the movie, Mowgli had to climb a tall cliff side to get honey, nature’s ointment, for Baloo. Since honey is a bear necessity, we made our little man cub’s climb a diy rope to reach our 3D paper hive.

Here’s how we made it.

diy-rope-climb-for-kids-honeycomb-bee-hive-paper-craft

Materials:

Directions:

Step 1: Design and cut 3D honeycombs using a template online, or via Silhouette cutting machine (like we did). If 3D is too labor intensive for you, we get it – just cut standard honeycombs. Use different shades of yellow for texture.

Step 2: Glue all the sides of the hexagon together with a glue stick (if you opted for the 3D design).

Step 3: Draw a honeycomb shape similar to the hives in The Jungle Book on a foam core board and cut it out with an X-acto knife.

Step 4: Glue the honeycombs (hexagons) on the board with a hot glue gun to fit like a puzzle. We glued some facing forward and others flipped for some added texture.

Step 5: Cut out mini bees using a template online or an electronic cutting machine.

Step 6: Glue the bees onto the hive. For an added 3D effect, we glued one end of a small piece of wire onto the foam core and then a bee on the other end of the wire.

Step 7: Poke two holes on the top corners of the hive and hang with string from a tree.

As we mentioned, this was a bonus obstacle for the course – don’t miss the main DIY Jungle Obstacle Course here.

diy-rope-climb-for-kids-honeycomb-bee-hive-paper-craft

honeycomb-craft-rope-climb-for-kids

honeycomb-craft-rope-climb-for-kids

Photography by Pure Lee Photography

Shark and Mermaid Party

IMG_6597

It’s that time of year again for Jessica’s family – that time when it feels like Christmas in July. All three kids celebrate birthdays in July, so not only is the month busy, but it’s really fun. She’s going to take us back to her Shark and Mermaid party, and the details she created…

Every year I to find a theme that will work for boys and girls, and this year, our trip to Florida inspired our fin and tail celebration.

Note: It wasn’t until shortly after we took photos of the party, when we realized the t and h were mixed up in the word birthday on the mermaid side. And, well, when guests arrived, we partied! We were so focused on details, we forgot to spell. The mistake was quickly fixed and the party went on.

Supplies: 

Directions:

Step 1: Create a shark backdrop. During a recent trip to Florida, the kids took photos in front of a cool Megalodon. Print the photo on an engineering print from Staples. Glue the photo on one of the large wood boards with the multi-purpose spray adhesive.

Think again before you order plates from Oriental Trading for just food, because they make the perfect waves for an ocean backdrop. Use a hot glue gun to glue plates on the bottom of the photo for an ocean wave effect. Start with the dark blue and then glue light blue plates on top of it. Layer until you reach the bottom of the photo.

shark-party-wall-mural-kids-swim-

shark-party-wall-mural-kids-swim-

Step 2: Create a mermaid backdrop. Draw and cut a mermaid tail on foam core, and then cover it with paint chips. I love these paint chips from Oriental Trading because there is a wide variety of colors, and no circle cutter necessary – they are perfect circles when they arrive. Once all the chips are glued in place, flip it over and use an X-acto knife to cut the edges of the paint chips along the fin tail shape. Glue the tail to the other piece of thin white wood board. Just like the shark backdrop, glue paper plates to make waves. Start at the top, and work your way down.

mermaid-tail-colorful-seashell-crowns-doll-girl-party

mermaid-birthday-party-coloful-tail

Step 3: Add tablecloths to each table. Layer three tablecloths on each side. Cut the bottom of each layer in waves, or scallops. Each layer should be visible.

party-mermaid-shark-under-the-sea-boy-girl-party-diy

Step 4: Accessorize the tables. Shark koozies and bubbles made for the perfect shark table accessories, plus they doubled as great party favors. Another fun detail on the table was a pint container filled with a t-shirt, and topped with a blue paper shark. The shark’s edges were sealed with hot glue, but before it was totally sealed, it was filled with swedish fish. All boys had to do was rip, eat and enjoy!

For the mermaids, the table was set with pink cups with shells glued in the center, DIY seashell crowns (also a party favor), DIY shell and bead necklaces, a plush mermaid and cupcakes with tails. To make the DIY seashells crowns, use a hot glue gun to glue shells on crowns from Oriental Trading. Play with the shells and design the crowns of your mermaid dreams.

shark-koozie-blue-striped-straws-cups

shark-bubbles-blue-ocean-party

shark-party-favor

pink-cups-with-shells-striped-straws

seashell-crowns-girls-mermaid-party

seashell-crowns-diy-mermaid-gifts

seashell-necklace-beads

mermaid-party-girl-smiling-diy-crown

Step 5: Decorate the entire party area. Hang pom poms, fish nets and happy birthday banners.

shark-party-mermaid

Step 6: Play games. Aside from all the pool fun, set up a fishbowl game. Set up plastic cups in cascading order, 8, 7, 6, 5 and so on. Fill them with water, and then set a prize inside each cup. The cups at our party were filled with seashells and mini shark toys. Draw a line on the ground several feet away from the table, and get the kids throwing for some fun prizes.

pool-party-floatie

game

ping-pong-ball-game

Step 7: Send friends off with favors. Every family went home with a special bag of Shark vs. Mermaid Tic Tac Toe. The shark photo prop at Oriental Trading inspired me to paint DIY shark rocks, and well we didn’t have to paint the shells because they were so pretty. The game packaged in drawstring bags with the Tic Tac Toe lines drawn on top with a Sharpie marker. This game is so much fun, and can be easily brought to church or dinner out to keep the kids occupied.

shark-painted-rocks

shark-mermaid-tic-tac-toe-diy-party-favor

shark-mermaid-tic-tac-toe-seashells-party-favor-drawstring-bag-diy-kids-game

shark-mermaid-tic-tac-toe-diy-party-favor

shark-mermaid-tic-tac-toe-diy-kids-game

Oriental Trading sent us some items of our choosing for this party, free of charge. All opinions are honest, and our own. No other type of compensation was received. Thanks for supporting the companies that support j. sorelle. We love Oriental Trading, even before this post.