Halloween Cookies

Have I mentioned that I love Halloween? Cuz I do! The costumes are all done (except my husband's...), and we're carving pumpkins tonight! We took the boys to this huge Halloween party at a local shopping center on Saturday, and had lots of fun.

We also made some Halloween cookies!  Jack loved it! He always likes to "help" Mommy cook. Mostly he wanted to steal the cookies and chocolate chips... But he was incredibly cute telling me that the Jack-o-lantern cookies were for Jack, and the mummy cookies were for Mommy.

Here's what you'll need if you want to make these cute and easy Halloween treats:

Oreos
Wilton candy melts in orange, green, and white (or white chocolate chips and food coloring)
Mini chocolate chips
Regular chocolate chips
Red hots/cinnamon imperials
Plastic sandwich bags
Wax paper

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper, or just lay it out on your counter so it's ready for the cookies.

To make the Jack-o-lanterns:
1. Melt the orange candy melts in a bowl.  A whole package is about enough for a whole package of Oreos. I usually do about 30 seconds in the microwave, stir, and then a little more to finish melting.

2. Dip Oreos into the orange candy, coating as evenly as possible. Let some of the candy drip off, then lay it on the wax paper. If there's a spot where you were holding the cookie that didn't really get covered, just drip a little off a spoon.

3. Use mini chocolate chips to make a Jack-o-lantern face. Make sure the orange coating doesn't set too much before you do this, or the chips won't stick. I'd recommend either assigning one person to dip and one to do faces, or just dip a few at a time.

4. Melt a few green candies in a ziploc bag. Just leave the bag open, microwave it for 20-30 seconds, then knead the melted candies. If they're not melted enough, put them back in the microwave for a few more seconds.

5. Knead the melted candy down to one corner of the bag, and cut the tip off the corner. Be sure to cut just a small opening!

6. Pipe the melted green onto the top of the jack-o-lanterns to make a stem, leaf, and curly vine. Or any combination of those.

Jack-o-lanterns complete! Just let them sit for a little while so the candy sets.

To make the mummies:
1. Lay out Oreos on the wax paper. Place regular size chocolate chips in the center of the Oreos for the eyes.

2. Melt the white candy in a ziploc bag (see #4 above). Knead the melted candy down to one corner. Cut the tip of the bag. This one you should cut a little bigger than the green, but not too big!

3. Pipe white candy over Oreos, partially covering chocolate chip eyes. Be sure to pipe in several directions so it looks like overlapping bandages.

4. Let them set for a little while, and then break off the pieces of white candy that got drizzled past the edges of the cookie. (See how messy they look in the picture above compared to the one below?)

Mummy cookies are done! If you don't like that some of the Oreo shows through, you could dip them in white first, then add the eyes and pipe on the bandages.

To make the monsters:
1. Melt green candy in a bowl. (See #1 on making the jack-o-lanterns)

2. Dip Oreos into the melted green candy. (See #2 on the jack-o-lanterns)

3. Place mini chocolate chips along the top edge of the cookie to make spiky hair. Place two red hots/cinnamon imperials in the middle for the eyes. Use mini chocolate chips or one regular chocolate chip (I put them pointy-side-down) for the mouth.

Monster cookies finished! Just let them sit until the candy is set up.

Now all you need is a glass of milk!  I thought of doing a few other Halloween-themed Oreos, but didn't get the chance. What other monsters and such would you make with Oreos (or other cookies)?


Update: I recently decided to start a separate blog for recipes and food/cooking tips and ideas. You can see more ideas like this over at Modern Mommy's Kitchen!

easy baby or toddler cloak

I am so excited for Halloween! I've always loved it, but it's even more fun now with kids. Especially now that Jack is getting old enough to start getting excited about and understanding holidays. And what's better than dressing up a little kid in an awesome costume? Dressing up TWO kids in awesome costumes!

So let's just say I've been more than a little excited for our family's Halloween costumes this year ever since I came up with the brilliant idea a few months ago. And since I came up with the idea a few months ago, I should be long done with all the costumes, right? Of course not! But I am making pretty good progress.

The first items to be finished were the hooded cloaks for the boys. After looking at (and even purchasing) several patterns, and deciding I didn't like any of them, I made my own, which ended up being way better and easier and anyway. So here I present to you:

(These aren't their full costumes... Also, what's harder than taking a picture of one kid? Taking a picture of TWO kids!)

The Super Simple Baby/Toddler Cloak

What you need:
- Felt* (approx 1 yard of 72" felt)
- 1/2" ribbon (about a yard to be safe)
- thread
- fabric marker
- typical sewing supplies (scissors, tape measure, pins, etc.)

*You could use other fabric, but I like felt for a few reasons - 1. It's cheap 2. It's warm (and sometimes it's pretty cold on Halloween!) 3. You don't have to finish the edges. And I'm lazy.

1. Determine how long you need the cloak to be. Measure from the top of the child's shoulder to the desired length of the cloak. (When in doubt, go a little long - you can always cut some off the bottom later.) Now add 3" for a baby, 6" for a toddler. (This allows you to cut out around the neck and maintain the desired length.) For my baby, I wanted the cloak to be 15" long, so my magic number was 18". For my toddler, it was 36" - perfect for 72" felt! (In fact, if your magic number is any bigger than 36, you'll need more than a yard of fabric.)

2. You're going to cut out a half circle from your felt. Lay out the felt on a flat surface, and mark the center point with a fabric marker. Now use a tape measure and measure straight out along the edge of the fabric the number of inches you calculated in step 1. Repeat on the other side of the center mark. Now measure and mark straight out at 90 degree angle. Think of your tape measure as a protractor, and continue moving and marking so you have a dashed line marking out a half circle.

3. Using the same center point, you will now mark the neck line. For a baby cloak, measure out about 3". For a toddler cloak, measure out about 6". Measure and mark just as you did in step 2. (You can adjust this as needed, just remember this was the number you added to your length measurement in step 1.)

4. Cut along the outer dashed line, then cut along the inner line. You now have the main piece of your cloak!

5. Cut out two pieces for the hood. You can use my pattern below, or adapt it to your own size and liking. (I adapted it from one of the patterns I bought. That pattern made an absolutely enormous hood! So I used the basic shape/dimensions and scaled it down a bit.)

Baby Hood Pattern

Toddler Hood Pattern

(To adjust size, just add on or cut back the center back seam. For example, just measure out 1" all the way around the center back seam to make it bigger.)

6. With right sides together, stitch the two hood pieces together along the outer curved edge, forming a seam up the middle of the hood. You can either clip the extra fabric from the seam allowance at the front of the hood, or fold it back and tack/stitch it in place.

7. Time to attach the hood to the cloak! With right sides together, line up the center seam of the hood with the mid point of the neckline. Pin it.

8. Now continue pinning each side of the hood, creating pleats as you go to make the hood line up nicely with the curve of the neckline. I did two pleats in the baby cloak, three in the toddler cloak. The hood should not come all the way to the front of the cloak. It should end 1-2" back from the front edge.

(You can also see the pleats in the previous picture for step 6)

9. Stitch the hood to the cloak.

10. Cut two lengths of ribbon, each at least 12" long. (Better to be too long and trim them later!) Pin them to the inside edge of the front of the cloak, just below where the hood meets the cloak. Stitch along the ribbon to secure it to the cloak.

11. Try it on your little one, see if you need to cut any length off the bottom, and you're done! (If you want a more finished look, you can stitch around the front edges of the hood and cloak, and the hem.)

The finished product, looking slightly creepy without a little person in it!

Baby cloak! And of course he's making his awesome gnome face. I was just glad to get a picture in which he wasn't trying to eat the cloak.

Toddler cloak! In typical toddler fashion, he was throwing a tantrum about wearing the cloak and taking pictures. He kept crying "Jack come out!" (meaning out of the cloak...) This was the best I could get.

the 12 apostles

I just finished up a fun custom order for finger puppets of Jesus with all 12 apostles.  I have a set in my shop with Jesus and a few of the apostles, so I started with those and then designed and made a whole bunch more!

(This is the set already in my shop)

It was fun,  though slightly challenging to come up with 12 different puppets wearing Biblical-looking clothes in neutral colors.  There are only so many neutral colors of felt, and so many combinations, before you start feeling like they're all going to look the same!  But I had three basic clothing designs, and between those, and the different colors for clothes, hair, beards, etc. I think I managed to come up with 12 unique apostle puppets.

Now I'm just trying to finish up my Thanksgiving puppet set, and our Halloween costumes!

excuses and new addictions

I've been a bit negligent in keeping up with the blog lately.  I have a few reasons (meaning excuses)

1) The husband's been out of town, so I haven't had much time for crafting or blogging

2) I've been much better at making lists of ideas for new puppets and other crafts than actually making any of them

3) I also do wedding flowers (wanna see?) and I have my first post-baby wedding this weekend, so I've been getting things ready for that

4) I did something I probably shouldn't have.  I created an account on Polyvore.  And now I'm addicted.  Are any of you on there?  It's lots of fun, and very addicting, and now I want to get rid of approximately 80% of my wardrobe and go on a shopping spree!  Who's in?

But I do have some new puppet designs in the works, plus some awesome Halloween costumes I've started working on (seriously, they're going to be epic!) and some other projects I'm hoping to get done and listed in the shop before the holiday season hits.  So maybe I'll pull myself away from Polyvore and actually get some things done!

halloween puppets

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  The crisp fall air, the fun costumes, the candy (of course!), the colorful leaves, the spooky decorations, carving pumpkins, and eating all sorts of pumpkin-flavored goodies.  I love it.  Which is kind of weird, because I really dislike being scared, or even most scary movies.  I have to cover my eyes during anything gross in a movie or show. But I love Halloween!  Maybe because I avoid the haunted houses, and instead make costumes and delicious treats.

And this year to get ready, I also made some Halloween finger puppets!  I shared a sneak peek a few posts ago, but now they're finished.  I love the way they turned out.  Very Halloweeny (I know, it's not a word...) but not at all scary!  My kind of Halloween.

10 Halloween puppets and a haunted house that's a pouch to hold all the puppets

My favorite thing about this set is all the little details - the fishing line whiskers on the cat, the googley eyes on the monster, the scar on Frankenstein's forehead, the spider web in the window of the house... It was so fun to come up with the little details that really make this set feel complete!

All the puppets in the house pouch

Here's a few close-ups

Frankenstein puppet

Dracula puppet

Monster puppet

I'm so excited for Halloween!

And yes, they're available in my shop.  :)

Now to start on the awesome costumes I have planned for this year!

special day

This past Sunday was a special day for our family.  It was our baby's blessing day!  In some churches, babies are christened or baptized.  In our church, babies are blessed, usually by their fathers.  We were so grateful to have many of our relatives come for the weekend to meet little Sam and be there for our special day!

Some of our family who came.  So glad you could come!

A few months ago, I decided to make him a little outfit for his blessing.  At the time it seemed like a great idea!  I had loads of time!  But you know how these things always go, and of course I was finishing it Saturday night.  But it was finished and ready for his big day!  And in spite of the fact that it was a little big still, I think it turned out pretty well.

I used a Simplicity pattern, and I'm fairly certain whoever designed the pattern thinks all babies have enormously fat legs.  My babies do not... so it was a little big around his scrawny legs.  But he likes to be wrapped up in a blanket anyway, so you couldn't really tell.

Does it get much more precious than that?  A glimpse of heaven right there.

busy busy

Lately I've been busy with my boys, some orders from the shop, working on some new puppet designs, and getting ready for family to come visit this weekend!  So I haven't posted much lately... But I thought I'd give you a little preview of some of the new puppets that will be coming soon:

Halloween puppets!

They're obviously not finished, but I finally got the Halloween puppet set designed, and all the pieces cut out!  Now I just have to sew and assemble them all.  They'll hopefully be done and in the shop next week.  Don't worry, I'll post more pictures once they're finished.  :)