Vampire Bites

When I was a kid, mom's would bring in incredible homemade creations for class parties and I always had it in my head that I would do the same. I had heard talk through friends with older kids that you could no longer bring food into the class for your kid’s birthday. What I didn't realize, until my daughter started school, is that you cannot bring homemade food at all. At first I was horrified! It was the death of the bake sale. I couldn't imagine someone thinking that packaged processed food would be better than a homemade wholesome creation. I called my girlfriend to tell her about this appalling travesty happening in the schools. She said, “Well, think of it like this: did the person making these homemade treats wash their hands? Use fresh ingredients? Were they sick? Did they lick their fingers, or the spoon?” GAG!

Touché, my friend. I am now a supporter of prepackaged food in the classroom. I will have to find something else to do with all those clever holiday treat ideas I pinned. But for our class's upcoming Halloween party, I wanted to think of a way to bring homemade into the mix. I made these Vampire Bites to share with the class instead of cookies. It was very simple and I am sharing my PDF for the labels with you.

You can pick up vampire teeth at the 99 Cent Store, Target or any place that sells Halloween stuff. The small treat bags are available at JoAnn. I used Wilton treat bags, but any bag the right size will do.

Print out my Vampire Bites PDF, and make sure you print it onto cardstock. Regular paper would be too flimsy for this. If you wanted to, you could use colored paper. I used white because I love all things black and white.

Vampire Bites PDF

Cut the labels out. There are three labels per sheet. Cut a line across the bottom leaving the same size white margin that is printed along the top. Then make two cuts down the columns directly in the center of each column. This should leave you with three rectangle-shaped labels containing two dotted-edged boxes. You will then fold the card in half, creating a tent. Only one dotted box should show on each side. Place the vampire teeth in the baggy and slide the baggy between the tent. Staple it shut, twice.

Now you have Vampire Bites for your classroom party stash! They're also good for getting "Boo'd."

My stash of materials:

Cardstock

Wilton Treat Bags

Halloween Sugar Skull Masks

Recently we went on a camping trip with friends. I took to Pinterest in search of Halloween themed crafts for the kids and found the perfect thing from Yucca Flats, NM. They have an amazing Sugar Skull coloring page you can download here. The kids colored their masks, cut them out and then we added elastic. It kept the kids busy for a long time and they enjoyed wearing their masks for the rest of the trip!

It's the perfect Halloween craft for your holiday stash.

Halloween Trick or Treat Bags

Halloween is SO MUCH MORE FUN with kids. I love it. It’s my new favorite holiday- type of love. I never truly appreciated fall for all its warmth and magic, but I have seen the light. I love the costume creations, the pumpkins, the crafts, the feeling, the food, the decorations - it's all so magical! Have you discovered Pandora Halloween Party Radio? It is a blast. My kids and I listen to it for hours on end and never stop dancing. It will rock your socks off with fun creepy songs. I especially love when they play the theme song from Disney's haunted house. In fact, it's playing right now and I can't help but feel giddy!

Last year I made the kids their own personalized trick-or-treat bags. I wanted to share a tutorial on how to make your own. I don't have many action shots, but you will get the gist.

I purchased two black canvas totes from Jo-Ann. You can use any tote. I made letter appliqués to put their names on them. You can see a tutorial here on how to do that. I used the exact same technique to make the ghosts too. I just sketched a ghost for this, but you could always Google some Halloween clip-art to get a stencil to use. You're looking for very basic shaped images that will transfer into an appliqué easily - nothing with intricate detail.

For the trim, I pinned the pompom fringe in place and ran a zigzag stitch over it with the sewing machine. The problem here is that the thread that matches the fringe can be seen from the inside, and when you are sewing over a bumpy trim, it doesn't always look pretty. So, to cover this up, I just got black cross-grain ribbon and found fusible web tape (double sided) that was the same size (or a little smaller) than the ribbon. I ironed it on over the stitch the same way as I apply the appliqués. However, you will want to use a thin cloth between the iron and the ribbon to keep the ribbon from melting.

To create a clean edge where the ribbon meets, turn the ribbon under and make a fold, then match the other end to that. Place the fusible tape under the folded under side to secure it. You could also just cut the ends to match perfectly and run a lighter quickly over the cut ends to melt and prevent fraying. This should create a clean, secure cover that blends with the color of the bag.

Now you have personalized trick-or-treat bags for your Halloween stash!

My Stash of Materials:

Canvas Tote

Felt

Pompom Fringe

Cross Grain Ribbon

Double Sided Fusible Web Tape

Letter Appliqué's

My daughter started Kindergarten this year. It is so exciting and she is loving this new adventure. I have taken on the official title of Room Mom, which of course leads to tons of projects that I love to do. My first order of business as Room Mom was to create a travel bag for the class mascot, Busy, the Brown Bear. Busy is a stuffed bear and he gets to go home with a new student each week. The teacher purchased a cute burlap bag from Trader Joes that fit the little guy perfectly. My job was to cover the Trader Joes logo and make it feel like a home for a bear.

Incidentally, some of the other Room Moms directed me to Pinterest to obtain a fabulous teacher survey created by Life Sweet Life, which every Room Mom needs. It's a cute little survey that asks for the teachers’ favorites, making gift giving ultra easy. Plus, I shared it with the families in the classroom in case anyone was looking to be teacher's pet. I wanted to share it with you and you can download it here.

Going back to Busy's bag, I basically covered the Trader Joe's logo with fabric and made a design on top of that. I used felt for the design and hand sketched a tree I then used for a stencil. I used iron-on adhesive to adhere the felt pieces to the fabric. I attached the fabric to the bag using tacky glue.

But now I needed to add Busy's moniker to the bag. I did this by making custom letter appliqués. Using Microsoft Word you can create your own stencil. It is very easy and only a few steps.

Step 1 - Choose your font. You will want to use block letters for the best result. When choosing a font, think about what it would be like to cut out. If you are looking at a font that uses a thin line anywhere in the letter, it won't work. Some great block letter fonts available in word are:

Arial Black
Britanic Bold
Franklin Gothic Heavy
Gills Sans Ultra Bold
Playbill
Rockwell Extra Bold

For this project I used Arial Black, which is my go to font. You could also download a font. My favorite place to get fonts is dafont.com.

Step 2 - Choose your size. Make sure it's big enough to get your scissors around. To get a good idea of size, print a test piece and hold it up to the item you will be attaching the letters to.

Step 3 - Highlight your text and select the font dropdown menu. It's located at the top menu bar directly to the right of the word "font" found in the blue bar. It is a little box with an arrow pointing down to the right. Click that.

Step 4 - Once the font box opens, select "outline" located in the center under "effects."

Step 5 - Print. I like to print stencils onto cardstock as it's much easier to trace. Paper tends to bunch and move.

Step 6 - Cut out letters.

Now you have your stencils ready to go. Note, there is no need to cut out more than one of a particular letter. You can just reuse the stencil.

Once you have your stencils, you can prep your material or felt. Follow the directions on your iron-on adhesive to attach one side to your material or felt. If you are using material, it is best to iron it first so that a crease doesn't end up making a fold in your fabric.

I used Heat n Bond for this project and it worked great, although I did have to apply extra heat time. This is because I was using felt, which is thick and harder for the heat to pass through. I used "lite" and probably would have got better results from something heavier; however, it did work and I had it on hand.

Now you should have a paper backing on your material that you can trace your stencils onto. Make sure you turn your letters upside down. If you trace them right side up, when you cut them out and turn them over, they will be upside down.

Once you cut out your letters, you can place them where you want them and follow the directions of the iron-on adhesive to attach them. Something to note is that if you create felt letters you MUST use a cloth between the felt and the iron.

Once your letters have cooled, they will be permanently attached. Depending on the project and the look I am going for, sometimes I run the sewing machine over the edges with a zigzag stitch. This is particularly good for clothing items that will be washed. It helps to keep the edge of the material from raveling, and as time goes on, the adhesive could wear, and it will keep the letters right where they are supposed to be.

Now you have letter appliqués to add to your stash!

My Stash of Materials:

Felt Pieces or Fabric

Iron - On Adhesive

Gold Foil Transfers

I came across this amazing gold foil, Tiger iron-on transfer, and immediately thought of how cute it would be on a toddler tank for my little man. It's so simple to use iron on embellishments to make your own unique style for your kid. Plus, anything gold foil needs to get in your kids stash, now!

Get yourself a basic tee or tank. You can find them anywhere, really. I like American Apparels tanks so I got one from there.

Your iron-on transfer will have specific instructions that you will want to follow. Mine told me to cut out my design, place it where I wanted it and then to use a cloth between the iron and the transfer. Make sure you do this if it says to.

The only snafu I had was my transfer required a little extra heat time, but this could be because of variations on different irons.

So simple, so quick and SO cute!

Here are some other gold foil embellishments that would be fun:

Lion Cub

Leopard Lips

My stash of materials:

Topography Metallic Foil Iron-Ons 1/Pkg-Tiger

American Apparel Kids Tri-Blend Tank

Faux Leather Hair Bows

Little faux leather bows are easier than you'd think!

You could use faux or real leather. I happened to have these two strips of faux, so that's what I used.

The first thing you do is cut your faux into squares or rectangles. A square will make a bigger, boxier bow and a rectangle will make a longer, thinner bow. Next, cut a strip for the center of the bow. It can be as wide as you'd like, but don't make it too thin. You want to be able to get a good amount of glue in there without it seeping out.

You are going to want to use hot glue so that you can easily pinch the pleats and folds into place while it dries. This is the trickiest part. Lay the faux strip in the direction you want your bow to be. Pinch the top and bottom sections to create two folds. When you bring them together it should make three total folds. Another way you could create this is to fold the strip in half with the top facing in. Then, fold the two sides back, exposing the top of the faux leather, almost like to start a paper airplane.

You are going to place glue inside of the folds on the backside of the strip. Gently pinch the folds until the glue has cooled and they are locked into place. Place a small amount of glue in the center on the top of the strip. Pinch that together until the glue cools.

Now, turn the bow over. Glue the top of your barrette to the section of the bow where everything gathers. You might have to hold the barrette open so it doesn't get glued shut. While that is in place, carefully place the center strip over the top of the barrette, securing it to the glue. You should be able to close your barrette now and hold that in place until the glue has cooled.

Next, wrap the strip around the center of the bow and cut it to the correct length. Now you can glue the strip down all the way around. Make sure that you do not pull and tug so that the seams meet nicely. You can place a very small amount of glue on the end and gently press the seams together.

Once your bow is in place you can tuck the ends of the faux leather to give it a puckered look, or leave it as is. Now you have a perfect faux leather bow for your little girl’s hair accessory stash.

My stash of materials:


Faux Leather/Real Leather

Single Prong Clips (barrette)