Cards with Fall Puns

I'm not really into puns, so when I saw that one of the National Scrapbook Day challenges at A Cherry on Top was to make a project featuring a pun, I wasn't 100% sure if I even had any supplies that would work. But once I started looking through my stash, I found a fall collection with puns. I used them to make these two cards. The fox says, "Falling for you" and the squirrel says "I'm nuts about you."

Cards with Fall Puns (affiliate link)

Steve loves puns, so maybe he'll get two unexpected greeting cards in the fall. Or I might just donate them. Either way, it was a fun challenge and I enjoyed the opportunity to work with fall colors.

Football Helmet Refrigerator Magnet Craft

If you have a football fan in your life, you're going to love this football helmet craft! It's fun to do as a team activity, at a sports-themed party, or to make as gifts for football players and fans. You can customize the helmet however you want. Make a replica of the helmet from an NFL, college, or high school team, or design your own from your imagination! Affiliate links below.  

Football Helmet Refrigerator Magnet Craft

Materials: 

• wooden football helmets
• Folk Art acrylic paint
• paintbrushes - flat and liner
• Mod Podge Sealer (optional)
• self-adhesive magnets

Steps: 

Use a flat brush to paint the base coat for each helmet you are making. 

When the paint is dry, you can draw your design freehand. Or, if you need a little help getting the proportions of the logo just right, print out an image of the actual helmet that is the same size as the wooden helmet. Cut around the edges, then use this transfer technique to get the design onto your wooden piece. 

Use the liner brush to paint the logo onto the helmet, then paint the facemask in the appropriate color. 

The facemask continues onto the body of the helmet. I painted mine freehand, but you can sketch it out first or use the transfer technique again. 

If you are going to be putting your magnet on the refrigerator or somewhere else where it could get wet, use the Mod Podge to seal it as soon as the paint is dry. You can skip that step if your magnet is going onto something like an office filing cabinet, where it's very unlikely to get splashed. Finally, apply a magnet to the back of the helmet. 

Here's a closer look at each of the helmets I made: 

Indianapolis Colts

Cincinnati Bengals

Minnesota Vikings

Green Bay Packers

Cleveland Browns... who famously don't have a logo 

As I was painting these, I was thinking about other things you could do with them besides turn them into magnets. Drill a hole into the top and turn them into ornaments. Link them together to make a banner. Or write names on them to use as place settings at a team banquet or party. Lots of possibilities!

Fall Leaf Luminarias

Luminarias looks so pretty lining a path at night. Use fall leaves to make make your own luminaries to display during autumn. They're particularly nice to set out for Halloween to welcome the trick-or-treaters. Affiliate links below. 

 

Fall Leaf Luminarias

Materials: 

• leaves
• white lunch sacks
• spray ink (orange and yellow)
• dried beans, rice, or pebbles to weigh down the luminarias
• battery-operated tea lights

Steps: 

Spread out the paper bags and arrange the leaves on top of them. I made my luminarias two at a time and used a box to contain the spray. 

Spritz the spray ink over the leaves until the visible white area is mostly covered. If you leave visible white, there won't be contrast when you remove the leaves.  

You can remove the leaves immediately and set the bags aside to dry while you spray the next batch. Continue until you've decorated enough bags to line your walkway. 

Fill the bags with an inch or so of dried beans (or rice or pebbles). You want enough to keep the bags upright and in place. Nestle the tea lights into the beans and arrange the luminarias. Beautiful!

I made these for fall, but luminarias are even more common for the Christmas season in places like New Mexico. I found this fascinating article about the difference between luminarias and farolitos that you might enjoy. You can make a winter version by following the same steps. Try using different elements from nature (holly leaves and berries, for example). You can also use different colors. 

 

Pineapple Sunflowers

One of my all-time favorite treats is a wedge of fresh pineapple dipped in dark chocolate. It's a must-have at the Dole Plantation in Hawaii. My latest edible craft takes that amazing flavor combination and adds a salty component and an unexpected crunch from sunflower seeds. Because the pineapple rings are dried, this delicious dessert is easy to make year-round but is especially beautiful on a fall table. Affiliate links below.    

Pineapple Sunflowers

Materials:

• parchment paper
• dried pineapple rings (unsweetened)
• Wilton lollipop sticks
• Ghiradelli Dark Melting Wafers
• salted sunflower seeds

Steps: 

Put a piece of parchment on your work surface, then arrange the pineapple rings on the parchment. Put a lollipop stick behind each pineapple ring. Follow the directions on the package to melt the chocolate wafers, then spoon a small amount of chocolate into the holes in the pineapple rings. Add a generous amount of sunflower seeds on top of the chocolate (as shown in the bottom right), then cover the seeds with more chocolate. Allow the chocolate to set completely. 

I experimented with different methods of making these and recommend the directions above. You can make the sunflowers without sticks if you prefer and/or make wedges to accompany the sunflower treats. Enjoy! 

Fall Leaf Fashion

A few days ago, I went for a long walk to collect fall leaves for an upcoming craft. As I was thinking about all the common ways to craft with fall leaves, it occurred to me that most are designed for young children. For example, my Fall Leaves Wall Hanging is easy enough for preschoolers to do. I challenged myself to come up with a fall leaf craft that would appear to tweens and older kids who are no longer interested in gluing leaves to a paper plate to make a wreath. Presenting, Fall Leaf Fashion!

I started by cutting out models to inspire my fabulous fashions. (Read here, if you've forgotten how in touch with fashion I am.) I had scraps of tan and black cardstock sitting on my desk, so that's what I used. Obviously, you can make your models with whatever skin tone, hair color, and body type you want. 

Here are my models after they were glued. 

I had a wide variety of leaf shapes and colors to inspire my fashions. After a lot of trial and error, and trying different outfits on different girls, I settled on the fashions for my runway show. I hadn't intended a fall collection to look beachy, but at least the garments show creativity in the use of textures, a strong sense of proportion, and good use of color. Hopefully Nina won't be bored. 

I miss the Tim, Heidi, and Nina era of Project Runway. 

Scarecrow Mason Jar

This Scarecrow Mason Jar is such a fun way to share a fall treat with friends! You can fill it with anything you want, but I designed it with Cinnamon Spice Caramel Apple Popcorn in mind. Affiliate links below. 

Scarecrow Mason Jar

Materials:

• wide-mouth quart mason jar with lid and ring
• unbleached muslin
• pinking shears and regular scissors
• craft glue
• cream-colored yarn
• black buttons
• craft foam (brown and orange)
• golden yellow ribbon
• black Sharpie

Steps: 

Use the pinking shears to cut a circle of fabric approximately 6" in diameter. Glue the lid to the center of the fabric. 

Use regular scissors to cut lengths of yarn for the scarecrow's hair. Then cut a triangle nose from orange craft foam and a pointy hat from brown craft foam. Cut a length of ribbon to make a hat band, then tie another piece of ribbon into a small bow. 

Fill the mason jar with the popcorn or other treat, then add the lid. Screw on the ring tightly. 

Glue lengths of hair to the scarecrow, trimming as necessary. Glue the hat on top. Glue the eyes, nose, and bow into place. Use the Sharpie to draw the scarecrow's mouth. 

Dimensional Fall Tree (Experimenting with Piping Flour-Thickened Paint)

A large number of the crafts I make could start with the introduction, "So I had this idea and wanted to see what would happen if..." In this case, I wanted to see if I could thicken inexpensive acrylic paint with flour*, then pipe it onto a canvas as if it were frosting. It didn't quite work as I'd hoped, but I'm happy with the end result. And it was a lot of fun to make!

I started out by painting a blue background on a square canvas, then painted a tree onto that. While the paint was drying, I got out the flour, acrylic paints in fall colors, and ziplock bags. 

I put about 1/4 cup of flour into a bag, then added a very generous squirt of yellow paint and a teaspoon or so of water. I added more paint and kneaded the bag until everything was evenly mixed and the consistency of thick frosting. I cut a tiny hole in the end of the bag, then started piping leaves onto my tree. 

It worked well at first and I was enjoying piping little leaves onto the branches. But then my bag clogged. I removed the clog, only to have another clog a few seconds later. I tried to squeeze out that second clog (not wanting to get as messy as I had carefully extracting the first one), but that just made things worse. The more I piped, the globbier the paint got.  

Time for a new technique! I mixed up some orange flour paint and applied it in globs with a plastic knife. It was actually really fun to drop paint globs onto the branches. 

I kept going using that technique, adding two more colors of leaves. When I was happy with my tree, I let the whole thing dry overnight. Success!

*I'm fully aware that there are artist-grade options for thickening paint, like gel medium and modeling paste. And of course, I could have bought thicker (i.e., more expensive) paint to begin with, but the point of my experiment was to make a kid-friendly project using things from around the house. Thus the basic craft paint, flour, ziplocks, and plastic knife. 

Fall Colors Tissue Paper Sun Catcher

I know we're two months into fall and thus it's a bit late for a fall craft, but we're just getting our fall color now here in northern California. Besides, fall technically lasts for another month. 

Anyway, I had a lot of fun making this tissue paper sun catcher. All of the tissue paper is reused. I'm that person at birthday parties stopping people from throwing away barely-crumpled tissue paper. If you're not that person, I've included affiliate links for tissue paper and other supplies below.

Fall Colors Tissue Paper Sun Catcher

Materials:

• clear contact paper
• scotch tape
• tissue paper (brown, red, orange, yellow, light blue)
• scissors

Steps: 

First, find a location. You'll be making your artwork directly on a window or glass door. It worked perfectly for me to sit on the floor by our back door to make my project, but it would work just as well standing at a window. 

Cut a piece of contact paper that is slightly larger than you want your finished art to be. I used the width of the contact paper (18") by about 22" for mine. With the NON-sticky side against the glass, start peeling away the liner of the contact paper. Use two pieces of tape to hang the contact paper onto the glass. 

Continue peeling away the rest of the liner, then tape the bottom of the contact paper to the window. The sticky part of the contact paper is facing you. 

Cut a brown tree trunk and place it on the contact paper. Add a few limbs.   

Continue adding smaller branches and twigs until you're happy with the shape of the tree. You'll notice my pieces are not cut evenly, which totally doesn't matter. You may also notice I got some fingerprints on the contact paper. That doesn't matter either. 

Layer red, orange, and yellow tissue paper and cut out stacks of teardrop-shaped leaves. Attach the leaves to the tree. Don't forget to add a few that have already fallen!

Next, layer a sheet of sky blue tissue paper over the entire design. I strongly recommend getting a helper for this. I had Trevor hold the top of the tissue paper taut while I smoothed the bottom section into place. I worked my way up, pausing halfway to snap this photo...

... then smoothed the rest of the tissue paper in place. This is how it looked, cropped to get rid of the door and surrounding glass. The fingerprints aren't visible. 

You can leave your artwork on the window as is, or you can take it down and trim the edges, which is what I did. When I hung it back up, I put the tissue paper side against the glass where it is protected. Did you notice it was mirrored from before?

I'm taking tomorrow and Friday off from blogging. I'll be back on Monday with another tissue paper craft tutorial. Happy Thanksgiving!

Splatter Paint Fall Trees

After sharing so many splatter-painting backgrounds, it's time for a splatter-painted foreground. Rather than the thumb-across-toothbrush technique, I used a different method to achieve the dots and drips. It was so much fun!

Splatter Paint Fall Trees

Materials:

• watercolor paper
• crayons (brown, black)
• acrylic paint (blue, orange, yellow, red-brown)
• two paintbrushes

Steps:

Use crayons to draw bare trees on the watercolor paper. I drew four trees, each with plenty of branches and twigs, then added a bit of shadow with the black crayon. 

Thin the blue paint and use it to create a wash of color on the entire paper. These bits of sky will show through between the leaves of the tree. Let the paint dry. 

Put the painting into a cardboard box. I have a designated box I use to contain the mess when splattering, misting, dripping, and spraying. Hold one paintbrush in each hand. Dip one paintbrush into the red-brown paint, then tap it on the handle of the second paintbrush. This will cause small flicks of paint to splatter down. Experiment with the quantity of paint on the first brush, where you tap on the second brush, and how far from the paper you hold the brushes to get different sizes of splatters. Concentrate the splatters along the base of the trees and in the branches, leaving the space along the middle of the trunks and above the branches relatively unsplattered. You may need to rotate the paper to accomplish this. 

Without cleaning your brush, switch to orange paint and use the same technique to add splatters. Switch to yellow, building up the layers. When you have a good amount of splatters in the two main sections of the painting, use a pouncing motion to fill in any gaps between the leaves on the ground. With the same pouncing motion, do the same to add leaves to bare branches (if desired). 

It's up to you how many leaves you want on your finished artwork. I kept going until I liked how the trees looked. 

This really is a ton of fun to do. There's something very satisfying about seeing drips of paint transform into leaves. 

Fall Colors Bookmark

Check out my new bookmark, inspired by fall leaves. 

I made it to answer two questions: 

• Does a white gel pen write over acrylic paint? (Yes.)
• Does using a tassel maker improve the tassel-making process? (Yes.)

I like trying new techniques on a bookmark because you really can't mess it up. Worse case, you paint over it and try again. Or you live with an ugly (but still functional) bookmark. Fortunately, this turned out exactly as I'd hoped. Affiliate links below. 

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Fall Colors Bookmark

Materials:

• watercolor paper
• Folk Art acrylic paint
• white Gelly Roll pen
• Crop-a-Dile Big Bite
• yarn
• Bucilla tassel maker

Steps:

Dot a generous amount of yellow and orange acrylic paints on a piece of watercolor paper. Gently spread them with a pouncing motion until you are happy with the colors. The surface should be smooth, without lumps of paint. Let the paper dry completely. 

Cut off a piece the size you want your bookmark to be. Doodle leaf patterns in different directions using the gelly roll pen. 

Use the Crop-a-Dile to punch a hole at the top of the bookmark. 

Follow the directions on the tassel maker to make a 3" tassel, then attach it to the bookmark. The folks at Plaid sent me the tassel maker to try. I wasn't sure that I needed it, as I usually just use my right hand to wrap the yarn for the tassel. But I discovered that the tool does indeed make the process easier. It's no surprise that using both hands to tie off the tassel is easier than having one hand literally tied up during the process! 

Tomorrow I'll show you what I made with the paper that was left after I cut off a strip for my bookmark. 

Paper Plate Washing Machine Craft

A big part of my job at Fun Family Crafts is scouring the internet to find clever and creative craft tutorials to feature. Because we only publish crafts that include tutorials, I can't feature a craft that doesn't have a materials list and an explanation of the steps to make it. When I come across a craft without a tutorial, I first attempt to contact the creator and convince them to add a tutorial. Unfortunately, this is rarely successful, particularly if the post is old and/or in a foreign language. When that happens, I make my own version of the project and write up a tutorial. 

Such is the case for this clever paper plate washing machine craft. The post is in Korean; I hoped when I ran it through a translator there would be a tutorial, but there wasn't. So I took the idea and put a fall twist on it. 

Paper Plate Washing Machine Craft

Materials:

• 9" plain paper plate
• markers
• 11" x 14" drawing paper
• tacky glue

Steps: 

Draw and color articles of clothing on the non-eating side of the paper plate. (I know it looks like I used the eating side, but it's an optical illusion.) 

Outline the edge of the plate and the center section with black. Add a black half-circle handle and some black motion lines. Then color the area behind the clothes with blue to indicate moving water. 

Set the paper plate on a piece of drawing paper and draw the washing machine around it. I started with a large square that was slightly bigger than the plate, then added the feet and then the vent at the bottom right. Then I added a rectangle on top with the various dials and knobs. The final step is to glue the paper plate to the drawing paper. 

I drew fall-themed clothes, but you can adapt this for any season or holiday. It would be really cute with Santa and the elves' clothes at Christmas, or swimsuits and towels during the summer. There are a lot of fun possibilities!