Halloween Cauldrons {Easy DIY}

Posted in Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

Looking for a last minute Halloween craft? Planning on leaving candy outside for trick-or-treaters? Want a fancy way to display all the candy you’re going to eat yourself?

I have the DIY project for you: Oozing Witch Cauldrons!

Oozing witch cauldrons

This idea came from this year’s Better Homes & Garden’s Halloween magazine. We likely won’t put it outside for trick-or-treaters, but you’d better believe it’s filled with all our favorite candies already, awaiting Halloween this weekend.

This is a super easy craft. Please make your own and tag me or post your projects here!

Gather your supplies:

Cauldron ($6, Walmart)
Spray insulation ($3, Home Depot)
Acrylic paint for the ooze (had on-hand)
Stick for sign (We used a painted paint stir stick, optional)
Candy (once completed, for filling)

… And get started. This project is so easy a five year old can do it!

Prep spray insulation per package instructions (open, put on nozzle)
Set up work space (cauldron on top of working space– we used cardboard box in the garage)
Spray! (If you’re adding a sign, make sure you insert your stick/sign post when the ooze is still wet.)
And then wait per package instructions. Warning: the insulation will GROW as it hardens.
Once fully dry, paint the ooze, if you’d like. We used a “lime” matte acrylic that we had on-hand. The original instructions suggest spray painting, but that didn’t make sense to me, plus I had time to hand paint it while Michael did his virtual schooling.
Add glow-in-the-dark paint. (We did because glow-in-the-dark puffy paint is amazing. We put it on everything!)
Print and adhere sign. (We printed onto a heavy cardstock and adhered it with 1″ blue painters tape)
Fill with candy and enjoy!

Here are the PDFs for the signs: Witch way to the candy & Boo’s (which I envision filled with little alcohol bottles at a party during non-COVID times)

Gather your supplies

Apply insulation per the instructions. Make sure you drizzle some tendrils down the cauldron

Let dry. Make sure to stick your sign stick in while the insulation is still wet!

Paint, paint, paint. Green paint first. Glow in the dark paint after its dry.

We opted for spooky green ooze, painted while I supervised “at home” school

Added some glow in the dark puffy paint once the green paint was dry.

Fill it and place it and you’re done!

Ready to print signs (8.5″ x 11″) CLICK FOR THE PDF

11Apr2020

Halloween recap {2018}

Posted in Crafts, DIY, Holidays, Homemade, Parties! by mszerwo

What a Halloween!

We dressed up, paraded, trick-or-treated, and ate and ate and ate.

Most of my creative juices went to Michael’s Mater costume, which was a work of art.

From the front:

And from the back… a working tow hook!

And let’s not forget the working headlamps once dusk hit! (Don’t you just love the pie tin radiator/candy dish!?)

Mater was WAY too big to wear to school for Michael’s class parade, so we pulled this Captain America costume out of the closet. Look at these little super heroes!

Apparently Michael grew a bit… Look at his shoes and fake shoes.

Brandon and I phoned in our outfits, thanks to Target. They were fun and easy– fine by me!

Of course we had some festive eats too… Our many-layer dip was so easy and paired perfectly with orange and black chips from Wegmans:

And some sweet treats, “blood” courtesy of food coloring and corn syrup, applied with an infant medicine dropper, edible axes made by Wilton, bought by me:

We carved pumpkins too. All around, the perfect holiday!

9May2018

Mother’s day “flowers” {last-minute gift idea}

Posted in Baby Michael, Crafts, DIY, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

Still looking for the perfect gift or card for your Mom this Mother’s day? Look no further!

Presenting a special bouquet of flowers:

Mother's day bouquet of hand print flowers

My Mother’s day bouquet

These are really easy to make:

Squirt out your paint – we used Michael’s Crayola washable tempera paints
Take subject’s hand
Paint subject’s hand. Work quickly depending on age and patience level of subject.
Press subject’s hand onto paper.
Let dry.
Add some foliage (stems and leaves) and cut out or back with additional paper.

And if you’re a visual learner:

Prep your materials.

Painting your subject.

Stamp, stamp, stamp.

Hand prints: complete!

And then when the hand prints turn into painting…

Happy Mother’s day!

8Dec2016

Trinity Tree Farm

Posted in Exploring Seattle, Holidays by mszerwo

A couple of weekends ago, Brandon, Michael and I hopped into the car and drove 20 or so minutes east to Trinity Tree Farms, in search of the perfect Christmas tree.

Brandon has been trying for a few years now to get me to skip our annual trip to Lowe’s or Home Depot in favor of a U-cut tree lot.

(In my defense, I thought he wanted to drive into the forest and actually cut down a tree from nature– too many Christmas movies, or something, I guess…)

I subscribe to Red Tricycle and they sent out a great compilation of U-cut lots in the greater Seattle area. So, we did our researched and ended up at Trinity.

Due to Michael’s afternoon nap, we got a later start, which wasn’t ideal with Christmas tree shopping. But it wasn’t raining and we did catch some daylight.

Trinity Tree Farm was lovely. It’s a bit out of the way and the signage to get there was very clear and there was ample parking. They offer complimentary hot chocolate and other snacks are available for purchase. My favorite part was the roaring campfire. Michael and I sat around it with several other families. We toured the available trees to cut, but didn’t find the perfect one and ended up buying a pre-cut tree.