Make and TakesIdeas and Crafty Tidbits for Home, Family, and Fun

I’m excited to announce a brand new Art Shoppe opening in Utah just in time for the holiday season. Tom and Lucy’s Art Shoppe is a boutique featuring artists and crafters in Utah. My friend Pamela and I have started this boutique to help provide a way for crafters to sell their handmade goods to the local community. We love Handmade!

For the location of the boutique, we’ve acquired a beautiful home in Lehi, Utah centrally located between Highland, Alpine, Lehi and American Fork. With the home showcasing 60 vendor’s, come shop in an cozy homey atmosphere where shopping will be easy, fun, and creative.

Mark your calenders: November 21st 9:30-7:00 & 22nd 9:30-5:00 (weekend before-Thanksgiving). Bring a friend and shop, laugh, chat, and have some fun. Get those Christmas lists ready to find the perfect gift for someone special.

Check out Tom and Lucy’s Art Shoppe Blog for more details about the show and what our vendor’s will be selling. There will also be giveaways to win from fabulous vendors at the Shoppe.

If you’re interested in being a vendor, please leave a comment, visit the blog, or email tomandlucysartshoppe@gmail.com. Let us know soon as our spots are filling up.

I’ve come across some great sites recently and need to share. The first few links are for fun giveaways to be had and a great online shop.

• Giveaway for Blurb - create your own book with Blurb from Natalie’s Sentiments
• Giveaway for a Yummy Cookbook - this site makes me drool with yummies from Satisfying My Sweet Tooth (hurry and enter, today’s the last day)
• Mom-Prenuers Shop-a-Thon - supporting women and mom entrepreneurs from Tip Junkie

I love Halloween, have I said that yet? So many crafts and decorations to make and do. Here are some great ghoulish links with fun crafts and projects for Halloween.

• BOO in the Neighborhood - send treats to neighbors and they keep passing it on from Skip to My Lou
• Halloween Bingo - Fun Halloween bingo game from A Feathered Nest
• Candy Corn Garland - I love all things involving Candy Corn from Sue Harris
• BOO Pumpkins - easy pumpkin craft from Bless Our Nest
• Green Halloween - how to stay “green” this Halloween from D Goddess

I’ve taken this fun idea from Goody-Goody for fabric wrapped letters, and turned it into a Halloween decoration. I cut strips of black and orange fabric and using hot glue, wrapped it around wire. I’m having so much fun with these letters, I plan on making some for every holiday.

We love to make these fun Candy Halloween Houses. These turned out to be the best we’ve made yet. My son really gets into it. At first glance you may not know what he’s got going on, but there’s a story behind every piece of candy with graves, boobie-traps, and a cannon. For how-to instructions and the best recipe for sticky frosting, visit last year’s post.

Have fun being haunted by these creepy candy houses!

We can’t get enough of spider crafts at our house. The kids love playing with the yarn and wrapping it around everything. (I’ve even have another Spider Web idea coming next week.) These spider webs are easy for the kids to lace around and we love those plastic spider rings, perfect for spooky crafts.

Supplies for Lacing Spider Webs:

• yarn
• scissors
• hole punch
• circle paper - preferably cardstock
• plastic spider ring - you could make your own spider from yarn or pipe wire as well

First, take your circle paper and punch holes around the edge, as far or close as you want. The more holes, the more web you’ll have.

Cut some yarn, fairly long to lace around the whole circle, and tie it tight at the top through the first hole. Now lace your yarn through each hole. We tried to stay going in a circle to end back up at the top, but you’re welcome to go crazy and lace in any order.

Now you’ll need to attach your spider somewhere in the yarn. You’ll loop him through your yarn on the way to another hole. If you want the spider to slide the best up and down it’s web, attach it before the last hole, then it doesn’t get stuck.

Once you go through the last hole, tie the yarn together in a knot and it’s ready for hanging. Have fun lacing these spider webs, and try not to get caught. For more lacing fun, check out Little Birdie Secrets Lacing Card Tutorial.

We’re getting stuck on these fun Sticky Spider Webs. As we throw our flies at the web, we try to see if they’ll get caught or if they can get out and fly away.

Supplies for Sticky Webs:

• Glue Dots - you could use glue dot strips or double sided tape
• dark paper - preferably cardstock
• white crayon
• flies - not real ones! we used black yarn pieces and paper bits

First, draw your web. I like to use white crayons on dark paper so it shows up and looks like a spider’s web.

Then place your glue dots all over. It sort of makes it look like there’s dew on the web. We used a little double-sided tape too. Then cut some little yarn pieces for flies. We also made some flies from rolled up black paper. If your glue is really sticky, I thought maybe to use raisins as bugs.

Now get your flies out and ready to launch. Let ‘um “fly”! It took a few times to get them to stick, those pesky flies just didn’t want to be caught. Have fun getting icky and sticky.

This cheery pumpkin is a fun card for Fall time. Whether you’re having a party and need invitations or wanting to decorate your home with something homemade, stitch up this cute Pumpkin Greeting Card.

Supplies: Everything is available at your local craft or fabric store.

• Punching Awl
• Pattern for Pumpkin to punch: Download this pattern, then print it out: Pumpkin Stitched Pattern
• Cork board: For punching holes in card - found at kitchen or office store (try a cork hot plate)
• Thread: I usually use DMC floss, with all six strands
• Needle: Cross-stitch needle #26 for 18-22 count fabric
• Cardstock: white piece, accent color piece, folded card piece
• Envelope: white envelope that measures, 4 ½ “ x 5 ¾ “
• Glue: Glue stick, glue dots, spray glue is recommended

Instructions: For complete instructions on Punching, Stitching, and Gluing this card, please visit my Basic Instructions Post.

Laurie from Tip Junkie posed this fabulous question in her “Talk to me Tuesday” post, Who’s your blog crush? I thought it was so funny to think of it that way, but I TOTALLY have crushes, (don’t worry Jordan, they’re just blogs!)

Here’s some of the blogs I’ve been crushin’ on lately, I couldn’t narrow it down, so I’m linking to a few.

• Navel Gazing at its Finest: laugh out loud, pee your pants funny
• Crazy Mom Quilts: darling quilts and fabulous how-tos
• Simple Mom: helping me make life simpler
• Bakerella: love to eat sweets

• Thanks to Lynne for crushing on me!

What blogs do you have a crush on?

Here’s some of the fun Halloween things we crafted last year.

BOO Board with Mod Podge

Spider Stitched Greeting Card

Pumpkin Pie Glass Etching

Thanks to all who entered in for some yummy Rhodes bread. I made sure to count in all the subscribers and links back to this post. One lucky entry was chosen at random with Random.org. #73 Michelle is the winner of a Rhodes Bake-n-Serve Gift Basket. Congrats and enjoy cooking in the kitchen.

For everyone else, there’s more gift giving to be had over at Rhodes. Enter your Best Rhodes Recipes and you could win your own baking gift. So you better get baking!