Spooky Spider Web Cupcakes (Halloween 2014)

What's the best way to spend a cold, rainy October afternoon?  Designing beautiful Halloween treats, that's how!

Getting Started

I decided upon cupcakes so that I could make several spiderwebs, as well as a couple of other Halloween designs, sort of a Halloween assortment.  Of course I lined my cupcake tins with my re-usable silicone liners from Dollar Tree.  The cake mix this time was carrot cake and we used plain vanilla icing.  I needed the icing to be white so that it could be easily tinted with food coloring.

Notice the Halloween themed cookie cutters hanging in the background?  I love it when everything comes together :)

I first read about the spider web icing design a few years ago in a magazine, but you can find tutorials all over the place.  Pinterest is a great place to start, or you can read on to see how I do it.

After the cupcakes have baked and cooled, I start with a blank canvas of plain white icing.

Next I use a sandwich baggie of colored icing to create a swirl design on top.

Most food coloring packaging contains instructions for creating various colors.  The box that I had had instructions for everything but black.  Since black is what I wanted, I spent some  a lot of time experimenting :D

(You can read more about my sandwich bag method in this earlier post)

Making Webs

Position a toothpick at the center of the swirled icing, and carefully draw it out toward the edge of the cupcake.  Continue doing this all the way around until the swirl has been transformed into a cute little spider web.

Halloween Cupcakes!

In addition to the spider webs, I also used food coloring to make a few in orange and purple.  To the orange I added candy corn, and the purple I topped with chocolate sprinkles.  I liked how they turned out with the pop of color. They didn't last very long!

What kind of treats did you make for the holiday?  I love seeing your photos so send away, and have a fun and safe Trick-Or-Treating night!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Halloween Print Art 2014

Because I'm not already busy enough (hee hee) I had to make time for some Halloween print art.  Each of these are framed and on display as part of our Halloween decor, check them out!

(Inspiration for each of these was found on Pinterest)

Hand Print Spider

This is Baby Girl's 2-year-old hand (Awwwww!) that has been turned into a friendly spider.  I used a plain piece of orange paper for the background and hand painted a simple spider web design with white paint.  Next we used black poster paint for the hand print and I added the facial details in yellow.

Now if you want to be accurate, a spider should have eight legs.  This can be achieved by making two hand prints that overlay at the thumbs.  In other words, you will place your child's hand down once, rotate the paper and place the hand down again with the thumb on top of the previously made thumb print.  

For me it was more important to have a clear representation of Baby Girl's adorable little hand.

If you know me at all, then you are aware that I am a complete and total science lover.  Years of graduate studies have left me obsessed with data collection, accuracy and quality of research methodology.....and here I am making five-legged spiders.....Mommy-Hood changes you, friends, it changes you!  :D :D :D

Hand Print Jack-O-Lantern

This one is also Baby Girl's, and was a little more challenging to make.  First I cut out a pumpkin shape before cutting out holes for the eyes and mouth.  I taped a piece of yellow paper to the back of the pumpkin to provide the 'glow' of the eyes and mouth. I taped the pumpkin to an 8x10 white background sheet before adding a green hand print 'leaf' and painted the stem in brown.  Once the paint was dry, a black Sharpie took care of all the detailing.

 Foot Print Jack-O-Lantern


It's the Little Man's first Halloween, so his perfect prints had to join the party!  Now, where Baby Girl was always happy to patiently sit and let me paint and place her hands, Little Man, not so much :D

This little booger wants to stamp, smack, reach and contort his body in any way that might give him access to the wonderfully messy paint.  Hence, he gets foot prints instead.  It's the only way I can semi control how the project turns out, but you can see there are a bit more smears!  He had fun and now I have another memory.....maybe I can get an hand print out of  him in a year or two....;)

Foot Print Ghost

Little Man also got a foot print ghost.  This one is probably the easiest I have ever done; a little white foot print, some Sharpie detail and the ghost is complete!  .....If only you could see the way he giggled having his foot painted, such sweet memories :)

It's not too late to break out the craft supplies and make up some Halloween pretties.  In the meantime, I'll be working on a Halloween cupcake post for tomorrow :) 

Hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Halloween Happenings 2014

Here are a few of the things going on around our home right now:

Remember the jar of skeletons that I said Baby Girl loves to play with?  

This is how I found them the other day.  According to her they are a family of: one Daddy, one Mommy, one Sister and one Baby Brother.  The Baby Brother is being cuddled on his Mommy's lap.  Who knew spooky skeletons could be so sweet?! :D

You can read about the jar of skeletons and our other Halloween decor here

 Little Man got his blue jack-o-lantern bucket :)

Baby Girl has a pink one and they each have an orange one as well.  I like to have orange because it's traditional and the colorful ones just for fun.  Which one they use for trick-or-treating depends on their costumes, but it's nice to have multiple colors for the pictures that I do.

(Treat buckets like the one pictured  here can be found at Wal-Mart for $1.)

I purchased a couple of these spooky rats from Dollar Tree.

Mamaw has one of these at her house and Baby Girl loves to play with it, so I got a couple for us.  You can see how they spend their nights frolicking in the light of the big jack-o-lantern :D 

(They remind me of the big white lab rats I used to work with during my undergrad except these guys don't bite!)

 Mr. Who also got a new hat, courtesy of Mamaw.
Thank you Mamaw, he loves to be dressed up!

Did you see the post where Mr. Bones got his hat?  You can read about that here

We got our own copy of Room on the Broom.

This story is fantastic!  We also love watching the movie.  (It will be airing again on Sprout October 30 & 31).  I love the text of this story so well that I am contemplating making up some new Room on the Broom inspired printables.  We'll see if I get to that this year, my mind is already starting to wander toward Thanksgiving.......:)

...and we also made some Halloween cupcakes!

These cupcakes were fun and easy to make, not to mention yummy.  A  more detailed post about how we made them will be coming soon :)


I hope you enjoyed this update from our holiday house, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

My Halloween Printables (Halloween 2014)

Recently I shared a few Halloween printables that I made this year using MyScrapNook.  Today I am going to share with you the Halloween printables that I currently have framed in my home.  (If you want to read the earlier post, click here)

Last year when I wanted to make up some printables, I searched through Pinterest and found a ton of possibilities!  (Each of the framed verses I am showing you today can be easily found in a Pinterest or Google search, in many different design variations).

 I decided that I wanted my printables to be on pretty scrapbook paper and framed, so I chose a couple different colors of paper as well as some simple Halloween stickers.  The stickers also glow in the dark which is a really nice touch in the evenings :)

The two longer verses I printed onto lighter paper and framed as they were, but the shorter verses I cut out and layered onto a dark chocolate background paper.  You will have to play around with this to see what looks the best with the frames you have chosen.  Another thing to experiment with is the type of font used, as well as what words are printed in caps or lowercase.  Each of these elements come together to influence the outcome of the design, and can create quite a different feel depending upon the choices made.

I chose to keep my printables simple and similar looking to one another.  This is because I knew I would be tucking them into my existing decor and didn't want things to start looking cluttered.

Scroll on to check out the finished product!

 GHOSTS AND GOBLINS

SPOOKS GALORE

SCARY WITCHES

AT YOUR DOOR

JACK-O-LANTERNS

SHINING BRIGHT

WISHING YOU A

HAUNTING NIGHT!

 A WITCH

a WEREWOLF

and their little

MONSTERS live here!

 Witches go riding.

And black cats are seen.

The moon laughs and whispers,

'tis near HALLOWEEN!

Eye of newt

and wing of bat.

Dancing Witches,

One-eyed cat.

Jack-o-lanterns

shining bright,

this I saw on

HALLOWEEN night.

A hooting owl

high in the tree,

marching skeletons

coming at me.

This my friend

is a scary sight,

so BEWARE and happy

trick-or-treat night!

Those are the printables currently on display in my home, I hope you found something you liked!  If not, head right over to Pinterest.  Spooky inspiration is just a few clicks away!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Fall Photography 2014

Whatever it is that I'm doing, wherever it is that I go, I always have my camera ready.  You never know when the opportunity for an amazing photo will present.  I catch so many fond memories and beautiful scenes this way.  Here are a few from this fall:

(I left my watermark off of these photos, feel free to use and share however you would like!)

This is my favorite photo from this series.

I was walking to pick up Baby Girl from Kindergarten when I noticed how pretty the buses looked underneath the fall trees.  I love picking her up from school.  Each day the Little Man and I park at the far end of the parking lot and use his stroller to walk up to the building.  It's a great opportunity to get fresh air and exercise annnnd we get to see Baby Girl with her class on the playground.  There are so many sweet memories attached to this picture that I will probably end up framing it and adding it to the fall decor.

Life is awesome, enjoy every moment and never stop designing!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Upgrading a Store-Bought Halloween Costume: Queen Elsa (2014)

It's Halloween and pretty much every little girl wants to be Elsa this year.  Trouble is, Baby Girl thought she would be the only Elsa out and about on the search for treats.  So I explained that while she can't be the only Elsa, she can be a unique Elsa if we alter her dress a little bit.

It was super easy to take a pre-made Elsa costume and fix it up, take a look:

 

 The Original Dress

(Photo from Amazon)

 Foam Snowflakes

I found these treasure hunting a couple of weeks ago.  (Even though Baby Girl's next birthday is not until the end of next summer, she has decided that she will have a Frozen themed party. I don't know where she gets this tendency to plan so far ahead in advance...hee hee hee)  So when we came upon a sale with Frozen birthday decor, we snatched it up.  We got two big plastic bags full of Frozen themed items for $2 and these snowflakes were included.

The Finished Product

I used three colors of snowflakes; white, light blue and dark blue.  Making sure to distribute the colors evenly, I used a hot glue gun to attach them to the outer layer of tulle on the skirt.  I also positioned a larger light blue snowflake at the middle of the bodice and layered a smaller white snowflake on top.  I love how this sets off the design!

Upgrading this dress was really quick and easy to do.  I literally squeezed this project in between bath time and evening snack time while the kids played a bit.  So easy, that I added in the creation of a hair accessories as well....couldn't help myself....;)

A hair clip fit for a Snowy Queen

I layered a few of the foam snowflakes until I had an arrangement that I liked, then glued them together as one larger piece.  Then I took that piece and glued it to an alligator clip.  Again, quick and easy!  I made one for my niece too as she will also be Elsa this year ;)

So there you have it: a dress upgrade and two hair accessories in about 30 minutes!


Hope you enjoyed  the upgrade, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Halloween Printables (2014)

It's FREE printable time!

 I used MyScrapNook to make up these fun Halloween printables. 
Here are just a few ways that these can be used:

*Print and frame as part of your holiday decor
*Print and work into your holiday scrapbook pages
*Save the images to your computer and use within your digital scrapbooking projects
*Pick an image and use it as a 'board cover' for your Halloween board on Pinterest
......the possibilities are endless!


Remember, these are FREE for you to use however you would like, enjoy!

(I used the same cream background on the first four printables so they would work as a set.  How cute would these be framed and placed in a row?!)

Witch's Hat

Jack-O-Lantern

Spooky Cat

Haunted House

Miss October ;)

October 31st

Bewitched

Witches Welcome!

Halloween

Happy Jack-O-Lanterns

Trick or Treat!

Welcome to Our Pumpkin Patch!

Did you find something you liked?  I would love to see how you used it!  Share with me photos of your projects and maybe they will end up in a  blog post too ;)

Happy crafting and thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Halloween Wreath Update (2014)

Remember When I introduced these skeleton wreaths in my Halloween decor post?

 

I have two of them; one in the living room and another in the dining room.  I made them by attaching foam bones to a wreath form and covering with black tulle.  

You can read that Halloween decor post by clicking here

As I mentioned in that post, the only thing missing for Mr. Bones' was some sort of  hat...well I found  a solution!

I was at Dollar Tree (surprise, surprise) when I noticed the Christmas Decor was already being put out.  Of course I had to check that out, and came across these little top hats.  They were the perfect size for Mr. Bones, and could easily be altered.  I purchased two at $1 each.

Dollar Tree people, you must check out Dollar Tree!

 (A jar of miniature pumpkins and corn cobs, already owned and on display)

What could I add to the hats instead of the red pine cone-feather thing?  I started looking around the house at my existing decor, and settled on  some miniature orange mums and little pumpkins.  Since I took these items right out of my own display there are two results; no additional money was spent, and everything looks as though it goes together.

A side note:  I rarely ever purchase items ready made, or even at the same time.  Instead I make a lot of my decor myself or collect things while treasure hunting.  However, I like for every item to look as though it belongs.  It can be a challenge at times but is also a lot of fun!

The little top hat, now all dressed for fall!

You can see a small impression at the top of the hat.  That is a little hole from where I removed the ornament hanger and I used a Sharpie to darken the white Styrofoam that was exposed.  The hole won't be easily seen since the hat will be hanging up high as part of a wreath....so I won't let the imperfection bother me too much....:D

 Once I got the embellishments glued into place, my plan was to pierce a toothpick through the cardboard bottom of the hat.  Trouble was, the circular base isn't cardboard but actually plastic.  Yep, the toothpick snapped right in half!  So instead I ended up grabbing a knife and boring a small hole into the bottom.  It would have been easier to do this before the embellishments were glued on, but that's how it goes sometimes ;)

I inserted a toothpick into the top of Mr. Bones' skull. Don't worry, he barley felt a thing! ;)

I added a little glue at the base of the toothpick so that it will stay nice and firm in place.

I added a little glue to the bottom of the hat (where I made the hole) and slid it down on top of the toothpick.

 The Finished Product

I couldn't help but add a couple more of the miniature orange mums toward the base of the wreath as well.  Now it sort of looks as though Mr. Bones is holding a fall bouquet.  I didn't start out with that idea in mind, but that's what happens to me once I start crafting; things just sort of evolve on their own.  Luckily, the alarm on my phone went off at that point (reminding me it would be time to pick up Baby Girl from school) or who knows what kind of crafty storm would have taken over!  Heeheehee.....:D

I hope you enjoyed this wreath makeover, I know Mr. Bones sure did.

Happy crafting and thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014