Duct Tape Fall Leaves Table Runner

     I got the idea for this table runner from the duct tape leaf garland I made a couple of years ago.  If you like this craft, be sure to check out that one too.

Materials:
*Duct tape in colors of your choice
*Leaf templates or leaves and paper
*2-3 cereal boxes
*Pen
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Print out the leaf templates given below.  Alternately, you could collect leaves of your own and trace around them to make your own set of templates.

*Choose whichever leaf templates you like and line them up along the table that you intend to place the runner on, overlapping the tips and bottoms of the leaves slightly.  You can then either measure the combined length of the leaves and compare it to the length of the table or eyeball it to determine how many of each leaf type you'll need to create your runner.
*Select one of the leaf templates.  Place about 3 strips of duct tape (or five if you're planning on cutting out two copies of the same leaf) slightly wider than the template on the inside of one of the cereal boxes, with only a slight overlap between the strips.

*Trace the leaf template onto the duct tape.

*Repeat the previous two steps until you have created as many leaves as you want for your table runner and then cut out all of the leaves.

*Line the leaves up in whatever pattern you would like, overlapping the tips and bottoms of the leaves, and then glue the tips and bottoms of adjacent leaves together.  Let dry.

Thanksgiving Family Photos Tree Centerpiece

Materials:
*2 sheets of brown cardstock
*1 sheet of green cardstock
*1 sheet of red cardstock
*Pen
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive
*Digital photos, computer, and printer
*Markers (optional)

Directions:
*Resize the below template to the desired size and print.  Alternately, if you have a Silhouette CAMEO, you can import this template into Silhouette Studio and have your machine cut out the pieces for you.  For a description of how to use my templates in Silhouette Studio, see this post.

*Trace each of the shapes twice, except for the leaf, which you can trace as many times as you would like.  Trace the tree and the extra set of roots onto brown cardstock, the half oval shape onto green cardstock, and the leaf onto red cardstock.  Cut out your shapes.

*Line up the two tree templates and glue together the top parts, but leave the rooty bottom part unglued, like this (you can see a double image at the bottom, where it's unglued, but not at the top, where it's glued together):

*Slide one of the green half ovals between the two trees and glue the roots to it.  Let dry.

*Glue the extra root pieces to the other green half oval (see above).  Let dry.
*Once everything has dried, cut a slit in the bottom of the glued together tree template, going about halfway up the green half oval.  Cut from the top of the other half oval about halfway down.  Your two pieces should look something like this:

*Fit the two pieces together to make a stand.  Due to the thickness of all of the cardstock pieces, it will be a snug fit.  If the two pieces don't fit together in such a way that the bottoms of the two half oval pieces touch the table, cut the slits a little deeper until they do.  Once you've made sure that they fit appropriately, you can disassemble the stand.

*Crop the photos into squares, paste them into a word document, shrink them down, and print them.  This is what mine looked like when printed onto a 4" x 6" sheet of photo paper:

*Cut out the photos, leaving white space around the edges to give a Polaroid-style look.
*If you want to go for a color-dipped photo look like I did, swipe a marker across the bottom of each one.
*Arrange the photos and leaves on the tree in a desired pattern and then glue down.  Set aside to dry.
*Once it's dry, slide the two half ovals together as before to make the tree stand.

Fall Leaves Window Clings

Materials:
*Dimensional fabric paint
*Cling wrap
*Tape
*Leaf templates

Directions:
*Print out leaf templates, such as the ones given below.  Alternatively, you can create your own leaf templates by collecting leaves and tracing around them, which is how I created these templates.

*Tape the leaf templates down to a flat surface, one that you will not need to use for at least 24 hours.  Tape some cling wrap over the templates, making sure that each leaf shape that you plan on using is entirely covered by the cling wrap.

*Carefully trace the outlines of the leaves using fabric paint.  Make sure to shake the fabric paint well before using.

*Draw a stem onto your leaves.

*Fill in the inside of the leaves with fabric paint.  If you're working with little ones who you think would be likely to smear the outline paint with their hands, it may be best to let the outline dry for 24 hours before they fill it in.

Apparently I forgot to take a pic of the red leaf once I'd finished filling it in, so here's the gold one.

*Let the paint dry for 24 hours and then carefully peel the paint off the cling wrap.  Now your leaf clings are ready for your window.

More Halloween Perler Fuse Bead Magnets

     A few years ago I wrote a blog post about my Halloween Perler fuse bead refrigerator magnets.  I decided it was about time to add a few more to my collection.

Materials

*Fuse Beads kit

*Round magnets

*Adhesive

*Iron

Directions:

*Design your fuse bead creations by arranging beads on a peg board, following the patterns below:

*Cover the designs with a sheet of waxed paper and iron the first side.  Remove the fuse bead project from its peg board, cover with waxed paper, and iron the other side.  For more detailed instructions, visit Perler's website.

*Glue round magnets to the backs of your fuse bead creations.

Batty Headband

     I found the idea for this headband here and modified it a bit to get the resulting look.

Materials:
*Black headband
*Black wire
*Wire cutters
*Black cardstock
*Scissors
*Pencil
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Print out the bat template given below and trace it 10 times onto a sheet of cardstock.  Cut out the 10 bats.

*Cut off 5 lengths of wire about 10" and wrap the bottom of each piece of wire around the headband at evenly spaced intervals.
*Curl the rest of the wire around a pencil or another cylindrical object and then stretch out the wire.
*Glue two bats back to back on each free end of wire, so that the ends of the wire are sandwiched between the bats.  Let dry and then you are finished.

Bat Mask and Halloween Party Ideas

Bat Mask

Materials:

*Tulle

*Puffy fabric paint

*Elastic cord

*Waxed paper

*Scissors

*Tape

*X-acto knife

Directions:

*I got the template and instructions for this craft from Joann's website.  I basically followed the directions given there, except for the following:

*I used elastic cord in place of ribbon to hold the mask up.

*I practiced drawing lines on a scrap of tulle to get a feel for drawing lines on the material itself.

*I peeled the mask off the waxed paper before cutting.

*I used an X-acto knife to help with cutting out parts of the mask, including for making incisions through which to loop the elastic cord.

Halloween Snacks and Food Related Party Crafts

     Brian and I made our cemetery cupcakes again this year, but we varied the recipe slightly.  I found some cute Halloween tombstone candy molds from Joann and thought they would be perfect for my cupcakes.

Halloween Cemetery Cupcakes

Ingredients:
*10 oz bag of white candy melts

*10 oz bag of black candy melts

*10 oz bag of pumpkin spice flavored candy melts (could be substituted for flavor of your choice)

*Brian's vanilla icing (scroll to the bottom of this blog post for recipe)

*Green food coloring

*Devil's food cupcakes

*Oreos

Supplies:

*Tombstone mold

*Microwave safe bowl

*Spoon

*Food processor (or blender)

Directions for tombstones:

*Place 3 pumpkin spice candy melts, 5 black candy melts, and 14 white candy melts in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute (we have a 900 watt microwave, so time may vary depending on the wattage of your microwave).  Stir until smooth and the colors are thoroughly mixed to produce a uniform gray color.

*Spoon the mixture into the four tombstone shaped molds.  The amount of candy in the bowl should be enough to fill each mold about halfway.  I liked filling them halfway because the thinner, lighter tombstones didn't have to be pressed as deep into the cupcakes to stay upright, but if you want maximal thickness, use twice as much candy as the first step calls for.

*Place candy mold in the freezer.  Let sit for about 10 minutes and then pop the candies out of the mold.  Clean the mold and repeat the process to make the remainder of the tombstones.

Directions for cupcake decorating:

*Prepare devil's food cupcakes according to the directions on the packaging.

*Prepare icing and add green food coloring a few drops at a time, until the icing is the shade of green that you want for your cemetery "grass."

*Place three Oreos in a food processor and grind them up.

*Take one of the cupcakes, ice it, push a tombstone into the center, and sprinkle some Oreo "dirt" at the foot of the tombstone.

     Here are some of the other snacks we had.  This year Brian and I made our eyeball deviled eggs again (for recipe, see this post.  It also has instructions for how to make a neat Halloween egg plate, which the eggs are resting on, although you can't really tell from this picture).  We cut up some sharp cheddar cheese and put it in the center of the egg plate.  Brian's mom made the eyeball cookies by making a chocolate chip cookie type dough and placing Hershey's Hugs and Hershey's Drops in the center.  As for the non-food items present, here's how I made the cupcake stand, here's how I made the appetizer skewers and their "stone" holder, and here's how I made the tablecloth.

     Here's the table setup.  It's basically the same as it was for last year's Halloween party.  I again used my glittery goblets.

Indoor Decor

     This year I had so many decorations that I wanted to keep on my Halloween "mantle" that I ended up throwing some spare cloth over the printer and its stand and using that as a secondary place to put my spooky accent items.  Here's how I made the haunted mirror.  I used my Silhouette CAMEO to construct the spell book in the center.  I combined elements from this pattern and this pattern and used Old English Text MT font for the text.  That particular lenticular portrait is one that I bought from Rite Aid last year.  All of the lenticulars I've bought have either come without a frame or in a tacky plastic frame, but in this post I explain how to make them look nicer (scroll to the bottom of the post to find the directions).  On top of the printer is one of my creepy dolls.  Here's how to make them.

     Here's my traditional Halloween "mantle" (read: tower of storage containers I've thrown a sheet over).  I took some black gauzy cloth I got from Dollar Tree and threw it over my tie dyed sheet that I usually cover it with.  Instructions for the gingerbread zombie plushie will be coming in a later post.

     Here's my felt sleepy bat and my spooky sign.

     And here's my Halloween banner.

     And some pom pom pals hanging around with the sign I got from the Target dollar aisle a few years back.

     The figurines and the light up haunted grove in the foreground of the photo my mom gave me a number of years ago.  I think she got them from A. C. Moore.  There's my Halloween tree with ornaments and behind that you can see my potion bottles.

Outdoor Decor

     Here's the whole outdoor setup.  The eyeball path markers I got from Kmart several years back and the jack o'lantern lights on the door Brian surprised me with last year for Halloween.  He got them from Rite Aid.  Those zombie lawn gnomes lurking at the edge of the house Brian's mom gave me for Christmas.  She got them from Oriental Trading.  Also, it's hard to see, but there is a light up spider on the glass part of the screen door that I got this year from Dollar Tree.

     Here's a closeup on the door.  That's my glow in the dark eyeball wreath on the door.  The door hanger I printed out from the internet and laminated, but I can't find a link to the PDF for the door hanger anymore.

     Here's my little Halloween cemetery.  It was predicted to rain up until noontime, which was one hour before my party started, so I had to wait until then to put everything up.  That's why it looks like it was just thrown together, but I'm so glad that I got to put it out there that I don't care.  The tombstone on the far left of the picture I made from insulation foam and the third and sixth from left I made from regular styrofoam.  The other tombstones came from Target (they were part of a kit along with some of the skeletal remains and fencing), Dollar Tree, and some sort of yard sale/flea market.  In front of my insulation foam tombstone you can see my eerie graveyard bouquet.  Those skeletal arms in front of the two tiny tombstones I made from skeletal salad tongs I picked up from Dollar Tree (directions to come).  Lastly, it's hard to see, but peeking out from behind the tombstone that the skull is in front of you can see my haunted hedge eyes, which I got from Target last year.  We don't have any hedges nearby, so I figured that was a good place for them.

Activities

     We had a Yankee swap again this year.  I wrote numbers on masking tape and stuck them to the bottom of the paper witch hats I made last year and Brian stuck numbers to the prizes so that no one would know which hat corresponded to a particular prize.  This year I didn't have time to craft prizes (too much time spent writing my paper on quantum teleportation :p), so I picked up inexpensive items from Joann and Dollar Tree.  What we did for the swap was that people would pick up one of the hats and then find the prize corresponding to the number on the bottom of the hat.  If they liked their prize, then they got to keep it and if they didn't, then they could swap with someone for their prize.

     This year Brian also did Tarot readings for our guests.  People seemed to get a kick out of that.  Yes, Brian is wearing his Mad Hatter hat with a vampire cape.  Don't ask me why.

Costumes

     For my Halloween parties, I like to reuse bits of old Halloween costumes.  This year I went as a "bat lady," (like a cat lady, except fond of bats instead of cats).  I'm wearing the mask I wrote about in this post, my batty cape, and a bat headband that I'll give instructions for soon.  Brian's mom went as the Queen of Hearts.  I have a number of other costume ideas in the Halloween section of my craft blog (as well as other Halloween crafting ideas), so if you're looking for costume ideas check that out.

Domestic Violence Awareness Ribbons

Trigger warning: discussion of domestic violence and sexual assault.  If you are experiencing domestic violence and need help, check out this hotline service or skip to the paragraph below the bullet points in this post for more details on how you can receive help.

     Before I get to this week's craft, I want to take a moment to talk about something serious.  October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  This is important because domestic violence is an issue that affects all of us in one way or another, either through our own personal experiences or the experiences of loved ones.  It can take many forms, including physical, emotional, sexual, economic and psychological abuse (source).  More than 1 in 3 women and more than 1 in 4 men in the US will experience physical violence, rape, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime (source).  About 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience severe physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner in their lifetime (source).  Nearly 1 in 5 women (and 1 in 71 men) will be raped in their lifetime, and of these women, more than half have been assaulted by an intimate partner (40.8% have been assaulted by an acquaintance) (source).  Here in Maine, about half of all homicides are domestic violence related  (source).
     With statistics like these, the odds are that even if you have not personally experienced domestic violence, someone close to you has.  Sadly, there are a lot of misconceptions about what domestic violence is and there is a stigma associated with experiencing it.  Many people who are experiencing emotional, psychological, or economic abuse don't realize that what they are experiencing constitutes abuse because their partner isn't hitting them (if you suspect that you or someone you care about might be experiencing domestic violence, this chart is a good starting place.  If you're still not sure or are wondering what your next step should be, try calling their hotline or talking to someone at your local anti-domestic violence organization).  Many survivors feel pressured into remaining silent about their experiences.  This is why Domestic Violence Awareness Month is so important.  It gives us a chance to come together and say that we will not tolerate domestic violence in any of its forms.  It provides us with an opportunity to educate others about what domestic violence is and to stand with survivors.
     You may be wondering how you can help.  There are numerous ways to get involved, some of which are low commitment.  For example, you could:

• Don purple (the color of domestic violence awareness) or teal (the color of sexual assault awareness) clothing and purple or teal ribbons to show your support.
• Change your Facebook or Twitter profile using this Domestic Violence Awareness Twibbon.
• Attend one of the many Domestic Violence Awareness events going on across the country (this site has some of the events going on across the country, although I'm not sure how comprehensive it is).  If you're a Mainer, click on this link and select the organization corresponding to the county you live in to see what events are happening in your area.  Additionally, if you're a UMaine student or community member, the Student Women's Association will be hosting our annual Take Back The Night march and rally on Thursday, October 15th at 5 pm in the North Pod of the Memorial Union.  We would love to have your presence and support!
• Volunteer to help with your local anti-domestic violence organization.  Needs may vary from one organization to the next, so check with your local group to see what they're looking for.  Hotline workers are a position that many organizations need volunteers to fill on a regular basis.  They often have specific times when they are hosting training sessions, so if you're interested in this be sure to keep an eye out.
• Donate to your local organization.  Groups are always in need of money to maintain and/or expand services.  Many groups that operate shelters may also need personal care items such as shampoos and menstrual hygiene products or toys and games if there are children at the shelter, but check with your specific organization before donating to make sure that your gift best suits their needs.

     The most important thing you can do all year round is listen and offer support.  If you suspect a loved one is in an abusive situation, the best thing you can do is to be there for them in whatever capacity they need.  If you aren't sure how to handle the situation, this site has some good advice.  If you yourself are experiencing or have experienced domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is a 24 hour hotline and chat service that can help you figure out the best course of action given your situation.  They have an escape button in the upper left hand corner of their webpage that you can click on if you need to leave the site immediately.  Many local organizations also offer hotline services and other forms of support, so if you have the ability to do so, check out the services that they have to offer.
     I know this has been a heavy post, but this is such an important issue and if I inspire even one person to take action or seek out help, then it was worthwhile.  Now on to this week's craft.

Domestic Violence Awareness Ribbons

Materials

*Purple and teal ribbons, one of which is thicker than the other (the purple ribbon is for domestic violence awareness and the teal one is for sexual assault awareness)

*Safety pins

*Scissors

Directions:

*Take one of the lengths of ribbon and cross it over itself to form a loop, adjusting it until you have a ribbon of the desired length.  Cut off excess ribbon.

*Cut the second ribbon to be the same length as the first.

*Lay the thinner ribbon over the thicker ribbon and cross the two ribbons in the same manner as you did in step one.

*Slide a safety pin through the intersection point of the ribbons.  Use the safety pin to affix the ribbon to your clothes.