One of my favorite places to go to check out plushes (and to buy plushes!) is the plush section at Shana Logic which offers the following adorable items among others:

As you can see, there are a number of fun things you can try with plushes, and they don’t all have to be difficult.  If you’re looking for more resources on plush crafts, check out our Felt Craft article.

Related posts:

1. Felt Fun
2. Six Crafty Venues to Promote your Hand Made Craft Business
3. Crafty Ways to Keep the Kids Busy This Summer w/ Craft Project

In 2007, nearly 50 percent of Americans decorated their homes or yards for Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation’s Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions survey. The survey estimated total Halloween spending, including decorations, at around $5 billion last year.

Spooky Sheriff

Many serious Halloween acolytes add one or two major items of decoration to their collections every year. Larger pieces, especially those that feature movement, light or sound, can cost hundreds of dollars. But it’s possible to create a fresh, fun or even frightful atmosphere with a cost-effective, timeless decorating tool – cut flowers.

“It’s easy to take home decorating for Halloween a step beyond store-bought decorations by using flower arrangements,” says Jill Slater, flower designer for flowerpossibilities.com. “While simple, Halloween-themed floral creations can be enjoyed during the fall holiday season, fresh-cut flowers can be enjoyed in the home throughout the year.”

Flowers are especially versatile as Halloween decorations because they can be used to create fun or frightening effects. Whatever the atmosphere you plan to evoke, remember that color is key.

For scary effect, choose cut flowers in powerful colors like blood red, or ghostly white. Crimson roses, lightly laced with somber white genistra and presented in a creepily cracked urn can make a frightfully good — and eerily elegant — decoration for your grown-up Halloween display..

For fun arrangements, choose seasonal colors like golds, yellows, oranges and burnt umber. Accent seasonally hued floral arrangements with harvest-themed extras like dried corn husks, wheat stalks or gourds.

Flowerpossibilities.com offers several “recipes” for fun Halloween floral decorations, including:

Spooky Sheriff

Materials:

* One 6-inch round pumpkin (real or hollow artificial)
* Three stems protea
* Two stems orange gerbera daisies
* Two stems yellow gerbera daisies
* One stem yellow lily
* Three stems boxwood
* Three or four stems sword fern
* One red bandana
* One small cowboy hat
* One brick floral foam
* Floral clippers, scissors and knife
* Floral preservative/food

Directions:

1. Soak floral foam for at least 30 minutes in water treated with flower food/preservative.

2. Cut and scoop out pumpkin. With permanent marker, draw eyes and nose of Spooky Sheriff.

3. Cut the wet foam to fit and insert the floral foam into the pumpkin. Set the cowboy hat on top of the floral foam.

4. Cut flowers and foliage to approximately 4- to 6-inches in length. Begin inserting stems under the cowboy hat and into the exposed floral foam. Place the colorful yellow lily and yellow gerbera daisies front and center and position the dried wheat and orange gerbera daisies to one side. The protea and sword fern are used to fill spaces of the bright flowers.

5. Tie the bandana around the base of the pumpkin.

Floral Creepy Crawlers

Floral Creepy Crawlers
Materials:

* One decorative wire basket
* Two bricks floral foam
* One stem each: orange standard carnation and pin-cushion protea
* Colorful shredded bunny grass
* Two 2-inch clay pots
* Six Chenille Bump stems of pipe cleaner (available at craft stores)
* Four stick-on plastic eyes (available at craft stores)
* Glue gun and glue
* Halloween candy
* Floral clippers, scissors and knife
* Floral preservative/food

Directions:

1. Soak one brick of floral foam for at least 30 minutes in water treated with floral preservative/food.

2. Cut the floral foam that has been treated with floral preservative/food to fit the inside the clay pots

3. Cut the pin-cushion protea to about 2-inches in length and insert it into the center of soaked floral foam.

4. To make the spider legs, cut the pipe cleaners in half. Then shape them by wrapping around index finger. Insert the pipe cleaner legs into the floral foam surrounding the flower at spaced intervals. 6 legs are used for each spider.

5. Adhere eyes onto the flower using the glue gun.

6. Repeat steps two through five to create the orange standard carnation spider in the other clay pot.

7. Cut dry brick of floral foam to fit inside of the basket, and place securely inside to use to prop up accessories and your floral creations.

8. Cover dry floral foam with colorful bunny grass and set one Floral Creepy Crawler inside the basket and the other just outside.

9. Sprinkle Halloween candy throughout the bunny grass.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Founded in 1999, the Flower Promotion Organization is an alliance between United States and Colombian fresh-cut flower growers. Through multiple marketing channels, the FPO strives to increase awareness and education about flowers in the U.S.

Related posts:

1. Halloween Trends Feature Colorful Charm and Whimsy (Project Included)
2. Chase Away Those Winter Blues and Morning Blahs with these Flower Recipes
3. Ideas for Halloween Face Painting

Make a space for yourself and your favorite hobby by converting your basement into a bright, clean cozy living space.

 

Related posts:

1. Needling your Competition – Three Ways to Promote your Needlepoint Crafts
2. Going Green With Wood Working Machinery
3. Making Christmas Crafts Begins Before Fall Arrives

So my eight-year-old daughter and I did some over the weekend and we both had a great time – it’s really the perfect craft for all ages – and pretty cheap too!

So what it entailed was tracing the patterns,

then cutting them out of the felt,

then doing some sewing with embroidery thread and an embroidery or quilting needle (BTW, she’s using a very blunt quilting needle here – works on felt and safe for youngsters if you keep an eye on them),

and a bit of glueing here and there.

When it was all done, I ended up with this cute fish:

and my six-year-old just had a good time coming up with her own creations :

So if you’re looking for a fun and affordable project for adults and kids, this is definitely a great book to check out!

Related posts:

1. Crafty Plushes
2. Quilting Catalogs – Find Everything You Are Looking For Every Time
3. Quilting Frames And Other Supplies

Decorating eggs is a traditional craft practiced by families and artisans around the world.

Some use decorating methods handed down over generations, such as the elaborately decorated pysanky of Slavic nations or the cascarones of Mexico. Others invent new ways to embellish their eggs each year — painting them, writing on them, turning them into funny faces, or trimming them with odds and ends from around the house. Many folks, though, prefer their eggs simply dyed in a rainbow of hues. For both children and adults, it can be fascinating to see the effects of dipping the eggs into different colored dyes.

You can decorate either hard-cooked eggs or empty eggshells. Hard-cooked eggs are a bit sturdier for children to use, while empty shells are best if you’re making an egg tree or want to keep the eggs on display for a considerable time. To dye your eggs, use commercial egg dyes, food coloring or dyes you make yourself from foods and spices. According to the American Egg Board, homemade natural dyes are easy to prepare and go well with all-natural eggs.

Simply toss your choice of a handful — or two or three — of one of the materials below into a saucepan. For spices, try a spoonful or two instead. Use your own judgment about quantity. This is an art, not a science. Add about a cup of water for each handful, so the water comes at least an inch above the dyestuff. Bring to boiling, reduce the heat and simmer from 15 minutes up to an hour, until the color is the shade you want. Keep in mind that the eggs will dye a lighter shade than the dye. Remove the pan from the heat.

To achieve the following colors, try these natural dye materials:

* Pinkish red — Fresh beets, cranberries, radishes or frozen raspberries
* Orange — Yellow onion skins
* Delicate yellow — Orange or lemon peels, carrot tops, celery seed or ground cumin
* Yellow — Ground turmeric
* Pale green — Spinach leaves
* Green-gold — Yellow Delicious apple peels
* Blue — Canned blueberries or red cabbage leaves
* Beige to brown — Strong brewed coffee or black tea
* Brown-gold — Dill seeds
* Brown-orange — Chili powder
* Gray — Purple or red grape juice or beet juice

Through cheesecloth, a coffee filter or a fine sieve, strain the dye mixture into a small bowl that’s deep enough to completely cover the eggs you want to dye. Add two to three teaspoons of white vinegar for each cup of dye liquid. With a slotted spoon or wire egg holder from a dyeing kit, lower the eggs into the hot liquid. Let the eggs stand until they reach the desired color. For emptied eggshells, stir or rotate for even coloring. With the spoon or wire egg holder, remove the eggs to a rack or drainer. Allow the eggs to dry thoroughly. Within less than two hours, refrigerate hard-cooked eggs that you intend to eat.

If you’d like a shiny finish, rub the dyed eggs with a bit of cooking oil. You can also use food-safe white glue to add natural decorations, such as beans, seeds, small pasta shapes or large pieces of spices. Be creative and experiment to express yourself in unique ways.

For other egg-decorating ideas, visit www.IncredibleEgg.org.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

(ARA) – However you decide to color your hard-cooked eggs, follow these tips if you’d like to enjoy their high-quality protein later:

* Wash your hands thoroughly before handling the eggs at every step, including cooking, cooling, dyeing and hiding.

* If you won’t be coloring your eggs right after cooking them, store them in their cartons in the refrigerator.

* Don’t color , hide or eat cracked eggs. And don’t eat eggs that have been out of refrigeration for more than two hours.

* When coloring the eggs, use water warmer than the eggs.

* Refrigerate the eggs in their cartons right after coloring and refrigerate them again after they’ve been hidden and found.

* If you plan to use hard-cooked eggs as a centerpiece or other decoration and they will be out of refrigeration for many hours or several days, cook extra eggs to refrigerate for eating. Discard the eggs that have been left out as a decoration.

Related posts:

1. Body Painting with Women Subjects
2. Frightful Flowers Make Halloween ‘Boo-tiful’
3. Halloween Trends Feature Colorful Charm and Whimsy (Project Included)

Breakfast-in-bed
 
It’s all in the presentation. Make assorted fruit, crispy toast and fresh-squeezed orange juice a special breakfast treat by serving them with fancy china, silverware and a brightly-colored, homemade centerpiece. With just a little fabric, ribbon and the right glue, a plain glass cylinder can be transformed into a colorful vase for the breakfast tray. Use it to display a Valentine bouquet or to hold cookies and treats.

You’ll need:
Perfect Glue 1
Cylindrical glass or metal vase
Fabric (2 colors or prints)
Ribbon
Rotary cutter or scissors
Cutting mat
Ruler
Iron
Clothespin

For the bottom layer (closest to the vase), cut a piece of fabric large enough to wrap around the vase with a 1/4 inch allowance on all four sides. Fold edge of fabric over 1/4 inch on top and bottom edges and iron.

Cut another piece of fabric narrower than the first, with the same 1/4 inch allowance. Fold over and iron edges as before. Apply a thin line of Perfect Glue 1 to top and bottom edges of narrower piece of fabric; glue to bottom inside layer of fabric. Layer ribbon over fabric and glue. Once dry (approximately 1 hour), wrap layered fabric band around vase. Apply a thin line of glue to one end and glue to vase. Glue one end over the other; secure with a clothespin at the top edge while drying.

Heart Cards 

Create homemade Valentines with a personal touch by gluing embellishments such as buttons, velvet ribbon and rhinestone clips to heart-shaped cardstock. Write a personalized note and leave them in unexpected places, like your children’s backpacks and your co-worker’s desk or briefcase. These unique Valentine surprises are easy to make and are versatile enough to be used for greeting cards, gift tags and place holders on a Valentine’s Day dinner table.

Perfect Glue offers several inspirational ideas for craft enthusiasts. Visit www.perfectglue.com for more information.
Courtesy of ARA Content

Related posts:

1. Halloween Trends Feature Colorful Charm and Whimsy (Project Included)
2. Scrapbooking – 101 Scrapbooking Techniques, Almost
3. Multiply your Money and Create Handmade Craft Kits to Sell

Ghastly Garland (project instructions at the bottom).

(ARA) – Halloween has become the second most-decorated holiday of the year. Decorations for house and yard to welcome trick-or-treaters are all the rage. This year an estimated $4.96 billion will be spent on holiday decor in addition to costumes, making it the sixth largest spending holiday of the year, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

Keeping up with what’s in style this Halloween season will help you have the hippest, spookiest house on the block. “Creating festive Halloween decorations can be easy and fun for the whole family, whether you’re a beginner or advanced at crafting,” says Susan Atchison, trend expert for Jo-Ann Stores. “This season, creepy, scary monsters are out. Instead, a new cast of goofy ghouls takes their place with silly expressions, crazy colors and lots of whimsical, kid-friendly charm.”Slightly surprising colors are popping up this Halloween, bringing lots of animated personality to the color palette. Lime green, bright purple and electric blue combine with classic orange and black to create fun color combinations — not frightening. For a slightly more sinister Halloween atmosphere, use shades of gray and olive green paired with spicy orange, golden yellow and dusky blue. Or, the traditional colors of orange, black, brown and yellow appear in almost every possible shade and hue to recreate the simplicity and charm of a vintage Halloween.

* Give trick-or-treaters a warm welcome to your home with metal stand-up figurines in vivid colors and lively expressions.

* Dress up your table with a “Boo” table runner and candy dish, jack-o-lantern serving dishes and not-so-spooky trays and platters to add character and charm to your Halloween monster mash.

* Find partyware and décor in matching bright colors and themes to set the tone for Halloween parties at home or in the classroom.

* Display Halloween goodies with a Frankenstein and Skeleton treat bucket — a fun way to watch even the littlest monsters scream with delight at the treats displayed at their own height.

* Deck the walls and windows with a ghastly garland of spiders, bats, monsters and pumpkins for a playful fright (see instructions). Add a strand of colorful sparkling lights to create fun shadows inside and out.

* Create a personalized treat bag, use colorful fur, felt and yarn to create a cat, a scary or funny face — for a fun alternative to the typical plastic pumpkin treat bag.

For more ideas and a monstrous selection of the latest trends in indoor and outdoor Halloween decorating projects, visit your local Jo-Ann fabric and craft store.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

 Supplies and Tools:

* String-along Poms, black
* Textured yarn: black, green multicolored, green ribbon — 1 skein each
* 1/8 yard purple tulle
* 15 black chenille stems
* Craft foam sheets: 1 orange, 1 green, 3 purple
* Sticky-back craft foam sheets: 2 black, 1 white
* Wiggle eyes
* Scissors and pinking shears
* Purple embroidery floss, 1 skein
* Alphabet template, optional
* Tacky glue
* Hole punch
* Push pins

Directions:

1. Create ornaments:
a. Pumpkins: Cut two 5-inch orange craft foam circles. Decorate with wiggle eyes, black craft foam nose and mouth, and green craft foam stem and leaf.
b. Monsters: Cut two 5-inch flower pot shaped green craft foam pieces. Decorate with wiggle eyes, green craft foam nose, round orange craft foam cheeks, chenille stem smile and black craft foam hair. Gather 5- by 10-inch tulle, wrap short end with floss to form fan shape and glue to the back.
c. Bats: Cut seven 8-inch bat shaped purple craft foam pieces. Cut BEWARE! letters out of white craft foam then glue onto bats. Glue on wiggle eyes.
d. Spiders — Using pinking shears, cut six 3-inch circles of black craft foam. Place eight 6-inch chenille stem legs between two circles, then glue together to form one spider. Glue eyes on both sides of spiders.

2. Attach the String-along Poms to the wall with push pins to make assembly easier.

Allow about a foot of Poms to hang down on each end.

3. Attach ornaments to Poms using chenille stems or yarn. Cut the black and green multicolored yarns together in various lengths and tie between each pom-pom. Cut green ribbon yarn and tie so the tails stick out above the garland. Do the same with scraps of purple tulle.

Approximate Crafting Time: 3 hours
Skill Level: No experience needed

Related posts:

1. Frightful Flowers Make Halloween ‘Boo-tiful’
2. Ideas for Halloween Face Painting
3. Paper Plate Animal Crafts