The Creative Spark {No. 64}

It's party day!! Only one more day to go until Halloween and I can't wait to see what YOU all have been up to! We have been busy around here with some last minute Halloween fun!

We made some bat cupcakes...

...some treats for the kids' classmates...

{free printables included!}

...and ended off the weekend with a Halloween dinner and some pumpkin carving.

Also, I just wanted to let you know that Turkey Week will be starting on November 1st.  One week full of Thanksgiving ideas, projects, and {or course!} food!

Okay, so now it`s your turn!!  What have you all been up to?  Feel free to link up anything that you have created - crafts, DIY, scrapbook projects, organization ideas, decorating, recipes - anything goes! 

Want to link up?

• Link directly to your specific post {not the homepage}. 
• Please add The Creative Spark button to your post or blog {the code is in my sidebar} OR place a text link at the end of your post. I would love for you to help me spread the word!
• Follow along with Facebook to see if you have been featured throughout the week. I will also be back to showcase some of my favorite ideas for my Sunday Sparks.
• Check out some of the other fabulous links. A few nice comments always inspires us to create more!

 

Our Pumpkin Carving Dinner

Last night we had our annual pumpkin carving night. The boys still wouldn't help us pull out the "pumpkin guts" but they did participate more in the carving and coming up with the pumpkin designs {which is pretty obvious if you see our pumpkins!}  No big pumpkin reveal yet though - you will just have to wait until Halloween. :)

Before we got to the carving, I made up a fun Halloween dinner for my little pumpkins.

 

So here was the menu... 

Pumpkin Dip and Chips

{spicy red hummus with grated carrots}

Eyeballs

{meat balls with ketchup and a pea}

Werewolf Bones

{Pillsbury dough shaped into bones...well, kind of!}

Ghost Milk "Shakes"

{apparently my ghost face was not acceptable to Matthew...}

and Spaghetti {AKA witches' worms or brains}.  No picture of this one but I am sure you have seen this before!

We ended up eating by candlelight which the boys thought was fun.  

And then it was on to the carving!!!  

Have you carved up your pumpkins yet?  Only a couple of days left to the big night!

I linked up with Lil Luna, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Home Stories A to Z, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia.

My Sunday Sparks {No. 63}

Hello! I hope you are having a fabulous weekend!  I'm just popping in today to show off some of the wonderful ideas linked up at last week's Creative Spark - lots of amazing inspiration as always.  If you weren't able to make it out the party last week be sure to check it out!

There are only a few more days until Halloween but here are a few quick and easy last minute food ideas for you...

Check out this perfect pre-Halloween snack from Echoes of Laughter.  It's cute, easy AND healthy!

And check out these adorable deviled egg jack-o-lanterns from Happier Than a Pig In Mud {love the blog name!}

I also love these Monster Munchies from All I Create.  Wouldn't they make a cute class treat?

If you have already moved on from Halloween, there were lots of other ideas shared as well...

Sweet little gals designed this fun camping themed baby shower.  Definitely a unique shower idea complete with a DIY smores bar!

Love these chevron pushpin boards from Vintage Finds.

And The Moody Fashionista created these cute chalkboard drink coasters.  Such a fun gift idea!

Thanks again to all of you that came out and participated in last week's Creative Spark.  You are ALL amazing!!  For those of you that were featured, please feel free to grab a featured button from my sidebar.  Party features are also showcased over on Pinterest!

Have a great day!

Halloween School Treats {Free Printable}

I always like to send a little school treat with the kids on holidays. Last year I made up these Frankenstein treat holders for Matthew to take on Halloween. Now that I have two kiddos in school, however, the project time has doubled so I had to come up with a quicker treat idea.  

I made up a couple of versions of Halloween tags using My Memories Suite.  You can download the Eat If Your Dare tag here and download the Happy Halloween tag here.

Using the tags, I made up a couple of quick treat ideas.  The first one is super quick...

Just print and cut out the tags, ink the edges with black ink, and cut out a little ghost from the left over scraps.  Then just punch a hole and tie it all together with some backer's twine or ribbon.

The second version involves a little more work but is still fairly quick.  

• Cut double sided cardstock into strips 10 inch x 3.5 inch strips.  {It is actually just under 3.5 inches wide if you want the tags to be flush with the edges}.  
• Score the strip at the 3/4 inch, 5 inch, and 8 3/4 inch marks.  {You can also just fold the strip in half and eye ball the measurements once you have done 1 or 2 to make it faster}.
• Fold the paper strip in half and then fold down the front along the score line {this should be the one done at the 8 3/4 inch mark}  Ink the edges with black ink making sure to ink the inside of the flaps as well.  Glue the front fold down.

• Cut your bakers twine so that it will wrap around the back and front of the card with extra length left at the top to tie it {mine was approximately 16.5 inches long. You will be using the tag to secure the twine in place.
• Cut out your tag and ink the edges.  Using glue, adhere the tag over the bakers twine to hold in place.

• Staple some treats to the inside of the pocket.

• Fold down the flap on the back of the pocket and tie together.

Hopefully that all makes sense!!  They are way harder to explain how to make them than it is to actually do it!

Once again, you can find the Eat if You Dare tags here and the Happy Halloween tags here.

Have a wonderful Saturday night!  The kids and I are decorating cupcakes, making stay puffed marshmallow men and watching ghost busters tonight. 

Who ya gonna call??  Ghost Busters!! 

I linked up with Lil Luna, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Home Stories A to Z, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Under the Table and Dreaming, Alderberry Hill, Project Inspire, Craft-O-Maniac, Positively Splendid and I Heart Naptime.

Halloween Bat Cupcakes

Happy Friday!! I hope you have all had a great week! Sorry about the lack of posts this week - I have been busy trying to get caught up on things around the house and blogging time always seems to be the first to go! 

So we are into our final weekend before Halloween!  Can you believe it?  If you are looking for some last minute Halloween activities that you can do with your kids, I have a couple of projects to share with you over the next couple of days starting with these little guys...

The kids had a bake sale at school today, so we made up a bunch of these bat cupcakes for the boys to take. Obviously they do not require any great skill in the kitchen which is perfect for me!

Here is what you will need:

• frosted cupcakes
• chocolate frosting
• mini Oreo cookies
• full size Oreo cookies or chocolate wafers {cut in half}
• white chocolate chips
• milk chocolate chips

For the eyes, twist your mini Oreos to pull off the top cookie layer.  Cut off the pointy part of the chocolate chip and use a small amount of frosting to adhere it to the white.  

Cut one of the mini cookie layers that you removed in half to form the ears.  Note: When you are cutting the cookies, use a slow sawing motion to avoid breaking!

Separate your full size Oreo cookie and cut one of the cookies in half to from the wings.  Attach to your cupcake and add the white chocolate chips for the fangs.

Make sure you take a second to admire how cute your bat is before you eat him up!  Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!  See you soon!

I linked up with Lil Luna, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Home Stories A to Z, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Under the Table and Dreaming, Alderberry Hill, Project Inspire, Craft-O-Maniac, Postively Splendid, I Heart Naptime, Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, Too Much Time, Tatertots and Jello and Crafty Scrappy Happy. 

The Creative Spark {No. 63}

Happy Tuesday!! And welcome back to another edition of The Creative Spark!  I can't wait to see what you all have been working on!

 I had Connor's Kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch this morning. It was cold and rainy with a few snowflakes thrown in there just for fun.   I am STILL trying to warm up! At least we had made it out to one of the other pumpkin patches on the weekend when the weather was a little nicer...

Things around the blog have been a little slow this week {and probably will be this next week too!} as I try to catch up on my "To Do" list and spend some time doing our Halloween activities with the kiddos.  On the plus side, I did manage to get all of our Halloween decorating completed!

Okay, so now it`s your turn!!  What have you all been up to?  Feel free to link up anything that you have created - crafts, DIY, scrapbook projects, organization ideas, decorating, recipes - anything goes! 

Want to link up?

• Link directly to your specific post {not the homepage}. 
• Please add The Creative Spark button to your post or blog {the code is in my sidebar} OR place a text link at the end of your post. I would love for you to help me spread the word!
• Follow along with Facebook to see if you have been featured throughout the week. I will alsbe back to showcase some of my favorite ideas for my Sunday Sparks.
• Check out some of the other fabulous links. A few nice comments always inspires us to create more! 

 One last thing - if you enjoy this blog I would love it if you could pop over to Circle of Moms and vote for me for one of the Top 25 Home Management Blogs.  There are only a couple of days left! :) 

Thank-you!! Now link away!!!

My Sunday Sparks {No. 62}

Hello! I hope you have all been having a wonderful weekend. We have our fingers crossed that there will be a break in the rain and we can head out to the pumpkin patch today {please, please please!}.  It is hard to believe that there is only one more weekend until Halloween!

Well, as always, it was an amazing week of link ups at last week's Creative Spark.  I would like to take this time to say thank-you to all of you that come out to share your ideas and support other bloggers.  You are all amazing and I know how much time you all put into your blogs.  I wish I could feature you all but here are just a few of the wonderful projects linked up...

These Monsters in a Jar from Hoopla Polooza have go to be one of the cutest things ever!  This one is for all of you washi tape lovers! :)

I LOVE these glittered ombre candle holders from Becoming Martha.  Just change the glitter colors and you could make some for every season!

Looking for a quick but pretty project to do?  How about these beautiful doorstops from Shabby Art Boutique?  {I think they would make a wonderful homemade gift too!}

I adore this gallery wall from Meeha Meeha.  Simplicity at its best!

Liz Marie created this beautiful fall porch from dollar store containers and items from around home.  I love the stenciled tags on the wreath!

This week I had to pick 2 yummy treats from Mom on Timeout! {Halloween IS all about treats, right?}  First up are these gingersnap pumpkin cheesecakes

And second is this delicious looking chocolate cheesecake.  This one is definitely mouth-watering goodness!

Thanks again to everyone who participated in last weeks Creative Spark.  If you were featured here or on my Facebook page, feel free to grab a button from the sidebar. 

Happy Sunday!!