Oogie Boogie Pudding Cups

Last year I wanted to make some Oogie Boogie treat cups out of chocolate. You know the little chocolate bowls that you can make using a balloon dipped in candy melts? Yeah, well that didn't go so well. Apparently I didn't let the candy cool enough because the balloon popped, spraying melted candy all over my kitchen. Even a year later I am still finding dots of chocolate in the weirdest places. Second attempt only worked a little better. The balloons held up, but the chocolate went on too thin and dried all cracked and ugly looking. At that point I said to hell with it and moved on to making those Halloween shaped peanut butter buckeyes that were such a hit last year.

For me, it just isn't Halloween until we incorporate a new Nightmare Before Christmas craft into the mix, and while I did the glowing Jack pumpkin last year, this year I wanted to try my hand again at an edible that wasn't going to make a mess or cause frustration. Instead of messing with chocolates and molds, I decided to pull out my crafting vinyl and cut out Oogie Boogie's face. I then stuck the cutouts onto some glasses and filled them with green pistachio pudding and called it a success.

If pistachio pudding isn't your thing, you could always tint vanilla with some green coloring. And, if you prefer Jack Skellington over mean old Oogie, you could fill the cups with vanilla pudding and plaster on Jack's face instead. Or, do them both for a fun party mix.

Since Oogie is filled with all kinds of nasty critters, you could even mix in some gummy candy worms and bugs for an extra fun treat!

Using my Silhouette Cameo, this was a 5 minute craft. You certainly don't need a cutting machine though since there is very little detail, you could cut these by hand fairly quickly. I picked up my vinyl sheets at Michael's for under $2 each.

Also, if you are planning a Halloween party, you could pass out some homemade burlap Jack Skellington treat bags.

I made these about 2 years ago using some black burlap sacks that I found in Target's $1 spot. I cut out Jack's face with some silver glitter heat transfer, ironed it on, then boom. Another craft done in under 5 minutes.

If you have a Gordman's close to you, they usually have Nightmare Before Christmas socks for under $2 a pair that make great treat bag fillers and 5 Below usually has NBC pencils, nail polish and stickers that are great party favors too. Your guests will be delighted and probably start singing "What's this? What's this? I can't believe my eyes! Oh, I want it, oh I want it, oh I want it for my own"... Happy Halloween!

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Shine Bright Like Jack Skellington

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 I've mentioned a time or two how much I hate carving pumpkins, so each year I pull out the paints and other mixed media and get my craft on. I was browsing Pinterest for a little inspiration this year and came across the new trend of using glow-in-the-dark paints on pumpkins and thought, YES! What a brilliant idea! So, off I ran to Hobby Lobby to pick up a bottle.

This 8 ounce bottle ran $7 on sale, but you could get it for $6 on a week they don't have them marked down and you use one of the 40% coupons. If you don't have a Hobby Lobby close by, you can get Glow-in-the-Dark Paint on Amazon.

If you know me, you know that I love all things Nightmare Before Christmas. Seriously, it looks like Tim Burton stops by and barfs up all things NBC all over my house each Halloween. I've been wanting to do a Jack Skellington pumpkin for the past few years, but honestly thought it was a bit too trendy. I mean, just look at Pinterest and Facebook and I'm sure at least one of your friends has turned their white pumpkins into good old Jack in recent years. But, once I had that glow paint in my hands, I knew how I could get my Jack pumpkin fix and be a little original. Allow me to present this year's painted pumpkin:

Glowing Jack!

What you need for this project:

1 white pumpkin
glow-in-the-dark paint
Jack Skellington face cut out of black vinyl (affiliate)
craft brush
(primer- optional, but highly encouraged!)

I would definitely suggest prepping your pumpkin with a coat of primer. I didn't use it and ended up using a lot more of the glow paint than necessary to get the entire pumpkin covered properly.

Apply a thin layer of the glow paint to the pumpkin. Allow to dry. Repeat as necessary until you test the pumpkin in the dark and are satisfied with the results. (I used 5-6 coats of glow paint, but I think if I would have used primer, it would have been good with 2.)

I cut Jack's face on my Silhouette cameo, but if you don't have one, you can also use a craft knife to cut out the shapes. Or, you can print his face onto paper and use scissors to cut out the shapes to use as a template, then paint on the face with black craft paint.

Now, place Jack under a bright light for a few seconds, turn off the lights, then sit back and enjoy your project!

Did you carve or paint your pumpkins this year?

Fun Fair Cookies

I am not a mom who greets her kids with cookies after school. I am lazy when it comes to cookie baking, and about the only time I do it is when there is a function we are hosting or attending. Each year the school fun fair asks for cookie donations for the cookie walk. Last year my kids and husband begged me to make my yummy soft batch chocolate chip cookies because they wanted to win them for themselves (You know, because they never get them at home haha!). So, I slaved away in the kitchen all day long, packaged them up in boring ziploc bags so no one else would pick them before we had a chance to win them, and sent them in. The night of the fun fair, around and around my kids went trying to win a pack of cookies. After many attempts, Allison FINALLY won! Woo Hoo! She walks over to the cookie table and what does that stinker do? Bypasses MY cookies that she begged for and picked a different, pretty packaged bag of cookies. Yes, my cookies were still up there. She deliberately chose not to take them. Pft! But guess who had the last laugh? I did. I giggled and giggled when she pulled her prized cookies out of the bag, only to find the bottoms completely black from being burnt! Then I giggled some more when I watched some other lady eating my cookies later and telling her husband how good they were. Lesson learned. Stick with what you know is good kid!

This year I didn't take any family requests. I decided to make Jack Skellington sugar cookies, which are also very delicious! Some of you have already seen these on Instagram, but for those who haven't:

These were gone before my family had a chance to win any, but I did keep a few for us to enjoy at home.

I also made a few special cookies, one of them dedicated to a dear blogging friend. I find it's much easier not to kill him off like his cat. Instead, I made some sweet revenge cookies. (I did not send these in to the school. Something told me they probably wouldn't appreciate a batch of voodoo doll cookies.)

Pat Hatt, here's lookin' at you kid!

There were a few fabulous scarecrows in the competition too, and Allison didn't win, but that's ok because the one that did put in a lot of effort into hers.

If my child wasn't in the running, Uncle Si Scarecrow would have gotten my vote though:

Do you bake cookies for your family "just because"? What is your favorite kind of cookie?

Jack Skellington Halloween Tree

I bought this tree a few years back with the intentions of finding some really cool ornaments for it. After browsing online and at our local stores, I came to to conclusion that the Halloween ornaments that are currently sold suck! I really wanted some cool Nightmare Before Christmas ornaments, and the ones that I found were awesome, but they were just too big for my little tree.

So, I decided to make my own. I bought some small white bulbs from the Christmas section at Michael's, grabbed a black sharpie marker, and thus, Jack Skellington bulbs were born.

Add a few purple and black mini bulbs, and now I am happy with my spooky tree.

 

Do you like the Nightmare Before Christmas? Did you make any Halloween crafts this year?