October Featured Etsy Sellers!!

Last month I decided to start a monthly Featured Etsy Shops Post. Well being the month of October I wanted to feature shops with Halloween items. Please take some time to view some of these wonderful talented people and their shops full of great items!

Handmade Clay Candy Corn Earrings by KelseysPastries on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Printable Halloween Invitation by Double Action Design on Etsy

 

 

Pack of 25 Halloween Diecuts by DieCut4You on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Halloween Treat Basket by HandmadeMichelle on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Halloween Girls Skirt by KelleenKreations on Etsy

 

 

 

Handmade Coffee Cozy by MsAmandaJayne on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Chiffon Ruffle Wreath by BonitaBellita on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Camera Strap by SizzleStrapz on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Halloween Hair Clips by HelloDarlingJewelry on Etsy

 

 

DIY Printable Halloween Decorations by TaraHandmade on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Halloween Cupcake Toppers by JoJoBeanDesigns on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Halloween Decor Painting by ReGrowRoots on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Pumpkin Hat by SmittenForKnittin on Etsy

 

 

Handmade Pot Holder by CountryNeccessities on Etsy

 

 

Thank you to all the wonderful Etsy Shops for making such wonderful and Beautiful Items to make this post happen!! Keep checking the blog for Novembers Featured Etsy Sellers! Thanks from AlishaKayDesigns on Etsy

New Etsy Shop!

Hello Everyone! Boy oh boy the month of October has been super busy in many different ways. As noticed I have not been posting many crafts this month at ALL. The main reason for this was because I was gone visiting family back in MI for 3 weeks while my husband was doing dermatology rotations all over the state. After we got back home I decided to get my Etsy shop back and running since I had not been able to do much with it since being pregnant, having a newborn, taking care of my two year old, etc. SO I finally sat down crafted more cards, took pictures of them, wrote descriptions and posted them. I hope all of you take the time to check out what I have so far. Some of the cards I posted tutorials about are on there for sale and all the Halloween items are on clearance. Hope everyone has a great day and has fun crafting away! The October featured Etsy shops post is in the works and will be up in the next couple days!

Spooky Sparkles!

 

Yes, yes, another one of my cards. I wanted to post this card because I was surprised on how much a little glitter can make a simple patterned paper stand out better. You can use this technique on almost any patterned paper of your choice.

 

To make use this technique I simply took some patterned spider wed paper and made this card layering different papers then to make the pattern stand out a bit better I just took some good ol' Elmer's school glue and traced part of the pattern then dropped the silver glitter all over and then shook off the access, and there you have it sparkly spider webs!!

BOO! Cutest DIY Halloween Home Decor!!

 

I have been in Michigan visiting family for almost 3 weeks now and have not been able to craft much since all my craft supplies are at home, but I did this craft a while back and still had the photos of it on my computer still, so I decided with Halloween around the corner I would post it. I love making anything with paper, and believe it or not you can make a TON of different things from paper. I got this idea from a craft magazine I had that had something very similar. This was really fun and super cheap seeing that everything here is stuff from the dollar tree.

 

Things you need

 

Small buckets (dollar tree has these in the wedding favor section)

Floral Foam (dollar tree also has this)

Moss (this is also in the floral section at dollar tree, comes in a bag)

Ribbon/s

Wooden skewers

Colored card Stock

Glue Stick

Hot Glue/Gun

Wiggle Eye Balls

 

How to make:

 

Step One: Cut your colored card stock to your desired sizes for the background square and then a 3 little bit smaller squares in black for the inner background.

Step Two: Cut out the letters to spell BOO! (I used my cricut machine for my letters but if you don't have a cricut you can print out letters in your desired font on the computer then use them as a stencil on your card stock)

Step Three: Cut out a half oval for the ghost shapes.

Step Four: Glue all your cut pieces together and then place your wiggle eyes in place on the ghosts.

Step Five: Hot glue the skewer stick to the back of the finished card stock topper letters.

 

 

Step Six: Hot glue your ribbons around the bottom of the buckets

Step Seven: Break or cut off blocks the fit inside of the buckets from the floral foam.

Step Eight: Hot glue some moss at the top of the floral foam

Step Nine: Stick your finished letters into the buckets and Enjoy your super cute Halloween Craft!

 

DYI Play Dough

This afternoon my daughter and I sat down to make some homemade play dough.  The store bought stuff I had purchased many moons ago, was all dried up and had to be tossed.  I saw a recipe online for homemade dough and I knew I had everything on hand, what I didn't realize is just how EASY and FAST it is to make this stuff!  It has the same consistency of the real Playdough and makes a ton too!

What You Will Need:

1 Cup Salt

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Cups Water

Food coloring -OR- Kool Aid Packet**

1 TB cooking oil (I used Safflower Oil because I had it on hand)

1 tsp Cream of Tartar

Directions:

Put all ingredients into a medium sized pot.  If you are using Kool Aid dissolve it into the water first.

Turn the stove onto med-high heat and stir the mixture continuously. 

After literally about 2 min it's DONE!

Gather all the contents from the pot into a lump and dump onto the counter.

I let it sit for a couple minutes and then kneeded it all together...it was still pretty warm but not real hot.

Wait a few more minutes until it is cool enough for the kiddies to handle and then viola!

TIME TO PLAY!!!!

Store in airtight container in the refridgerator.

**Other people who have made this says that the play dough stinks a little.  However if you use the Kool Aid instead of the food coloring, the dough takes on the scent of the drink mix and smells pretty good!

Bath Bombs

  

One of my favorite things to do is sit in a nice hot tub with a good book!  I have always loved buying those big bath bombs that fizz away in the tub like a tablet of Alka-Seltzer, but they are kind of pricy considering they are only used one time.  I decided to try a recipe to make my own bath bombs at home.  There are several recipes out there, but the one I decided to try is made up mostly of things you may already have in your kitchen.

Dry Ingredients:

Silicone mold of any shape or silicone muffin pan

1 Cup Citric Acid

2 Cups Baking Soda

1 Cup Corn Starch

Wet Ingredients:

1 1/4 tsp Essential Oils

1/3 Cup Safflower Oil

2 TB Water

drop of food coloring (optional) -- I did not do this

I found some essential oils at a massage supply store, but you can order them from the internet.  Prices will vary, but I got tangerine scent for about $5.  The citric acid I went to several stores to find and kept coming up empty handed.  I ended up finding some in Walmart next to the canning supplies.  To buy it this way is more expensive, but I was impatient.  They do sell it in bulk at amazon.com.

Directions:

• Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
• Mix the wet ingredients into a jar and shake well to mix.
• Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients wisking quickly while you pour.  If it starts fizzing then you are either adding too much wet or not wisking quickly enough.
• Once all of the wet ingredients are added the mixture will be dry looking.

• Use a icecream scoop to scoop into the silicone mold and press down firmly to pack the mold full.*
• Keep the mixture in the molds overnight to ensure that they are dried thoroughly.

• After they have dried all night in the mold carefully remove the bath bombs and either place in a jar or package for gifts.

• Take a nice bath with your new bath bomb and RELAX!

*Once in the molds my mixture kept fizzing up, and I had to keep pressing it down nume

rous times to stop the fizzing.  Other recipes call for witch hazel instead of the water as a binder to minimize the fizzing....I will try this next time to see if it works better.  I finally gave up on pushing them down after repeated attempts and just let them fizz up.  They ended up hardening, they just looked a little funny on top.

I tested out one of the bath bombs and it fizzed away just as it was supposed to.  The tangerine smell was perfect...not too powerful. The Safflower oil really made my skin feel nice and soft too!

ENJOY!!!