Pumpkin Decorating Ideas & Tutorial Guest Post From Pams Party and Practical Tips

Hi. I am Pam from Pams Party and Practical Tips and  I have been a long time follower of Mindie's.  When she asked for guest posters, I told her I would be more than happy to share some new members of my Pumpkin Gang.   

Last year the gang included Frankenpumpkin, Mummy, Witchipoo, Vampire, and Black Cat

So far this year, three new members have joined the gang.  The sweet Owl, and the two members I am about to introduce you to.  

Meet Vampire Bat and Mr. Spider  

I started with dollar store pumpkins that I painted black. 

I found an extra long chenille stem from Michaels, and cut it into 8 equal size pieces to make the spider legs.  Using my hot glue gun I  placed them around the body.  I found it was easiest to glue the leg to the pumpkin body and then bend it into place. 

Once I got the legs placed where I wanted them, I added google eyes and a felt mouth.  This spider is definitely more sweet than scary.  

The Vampire Bat started with a similar face.   

I used white craft foam for the fangs, and black craft foam for the wings and ears.  I am not sure if bats have pointed or round ears, but he looks like he could fly away at any moment.  

I hope you enjoyed meeting the members of the pumpkin gang.  I have a some ideas for more pumpkins,  so look for a few new members to the pumpkin gang  in the upcoming weeks.  

Thank you so much for having me on your blog Mindie! 

Thank you Pam for sharing your cute family of pumpkins! If you would like to guest post on Bacon Time too, please email me at mindiehilton@gmail.com

Pills To Help You Get Pregnant

Recycled Ankle Bracelet Displays and Vases

These two cute vintage style ankle bracelet shoe displays and vases cost me practically nothing to make. They were recycled from empty Coastal Cocktails Cranberry Cosmo mix bottles.  They will be super cute this Summer as displays in my craft fair booth.

Materials Needed:

St. Patrick's Day Frugal Basket

Here is another St. Patties item I made last year and never shared a tutorial for.  It is another frugal craft, like the wreath I shared recently. Using items from the Dollar Store, you can make this basket for about $3.

Here is what you need:

Halloween Pine Cone Craft

Living in the Sierra Mountains I have an endless supply of free pine cones.  I think my Candy Corn Cones turned out pretty cute, and they cost very little. 

DIY Mini Pumpkin Bottles

Give away update: I know I usually have give aways on Monday, but I am sharing some craft projects today since tomorrow we will be kicking the morning off with two Pre-BlogMania give aways!

So make sure to check back tomorrow, and for now enjoy this tutorial.

Tackle It Tuesday Interchangeable Cork Necklace Tutorial

I love earth friendly projects and I have one for you today.  This cork necklace can be interchanged with as many cork pendants as you can make.  Here is what you will need:

Old/used bottle corks

necklace chain (long enough to pull over your head)

Floral pins (I used both pearl and diamond)

Beads (I used pearl)

Optional:

fabric, ribbon, or fused pearl beads to cover cork

buttons

If you decide to cover the cork with some sort of material you will want to hot glue that on.  Other wise all you will need to do is take your jewelry chain and slip it on to your  floral pin.  Then add a bead on to the floral pin and push the pin into the center of your cork.  Repeat for other side.  The entire project takes about 5 minutes or less.

                              Well what are you tackling this Tuesday?

Linked to: (see my link page of buttons to find out where I party)

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Aromatherapy Christmas Crafting

Diva Bread Women



    Under my list of favorite blogs, you will find "Mommy's Kitchen".  It is here where I found my inspiration for this next crafting project.  I am a big fan of home fragrances.  I have to be, common, I don't want my house smelling like bacon all the time  lol.  So I decided to try making some scented ornaments.  Although they may look a lot like cookies, they are not for eating, as I had to remind my toddler on several occasions.  Thanks to my youngest we have a reindeer that will never have two horns again. 

   In the original recipe, that has been around for years, they use Elmer's Glue, applesauce, and cinnamon.  I decided to play around with the items in my pantry, and came up with a new recipe with glitter glue (for a little sparkle), applesauce, cinnamon, cloves, and the extracts of orange, almond, and vanilla.  I can't tell you how inviting my home smelled this weekend while these were baking. Of course you could hang these with some pretty ribbon and have a sweet smelling ornament complete.  We decided to get a little silly with some of ours, just check out our Diva Bread Women!  We accessorized with some fun foam self sticking cutouts found at the dollar store.

Reindeer, Rudolph, and Our one antler deer with his eyes closed so he wouldn't see my toddler biting his ear off.  lol

With this recipe you should have enough dough to bake up 4 cookie sheets of  ornaments. 

You will bake your ornaments in a 170 degree preheated oven for 35 minutes then let them dry for 2 days before decorating, stringing, and hanging. 

1 cup plus 4 tsp of ground cinnamon

1/2 cup ground cloves

1 1/2 cups applesauce

1 tsp of each vanilla, almond, and orange extracts

1/8 cup glitter glue, I used a bit of red, silver, and gold colors

I mixed all of the above with an electric mixer until a nice dough formed.  You will need a little extra cinnamon or cloves or both for dusting your rolling pin and your foil, that you will roll the dough out on to prevent sticking.  Bake on cookie sheets lined with foil too.  I let mine dry on the cookie sheets for two days.  I flipped them over after day one so the back side would dry too. 

I hope you will enjoy these fun scented ornaments.  I have some that are almost a year old now, and they still smell good. 

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