Fall Kids Craft

I don't do kids crafts that often, but they're really easy and I love having an excuse to make them. If you like this fall kids craft, be sure to let me know if you want some epic hand turkeys in two weeks! Today, I will be making cute decorations made out of plastic bottles. 

All you will need is an empty water bottle, colorful paints/paintbrushes, and accessories!

To start, simply paint your water bottle completely. Take off the lid, because I made those a different color to correspond with each theme. For my pumpkin, I painted the whole thing orange with a green lid, and for the tree, the whole thing brown with the lid a fall color like yellow, etc.. 

The only other thing to do now is add the accessories! For the pumpkin, I used a glittery green pipe cleaner and wrapped it around the lip of the bottle then twisted the ends like a vine. For the tree, I glued two fake fall leaves to the lid (be sure not to use hot glue! It melts the plastic like crazy). 

That is all! I could definitely see my nephews making these, with supervision of course. We used them for the pins at a ring toss game at our Trunk or Treat! I definitely reccomend checking these out, because all of the materials I used, I already had at home!

Frozen Hairstyles

Happy fall to you all! Today I will be sharing with you how to do some hairstyles from the movie Frozen. These are the coronation hairstyles, but are my favorite compared to the other, simpler braids.  Perfect to go with Halloween costumes!

For Elsa, all you must do is a loose rope braid on the heavy side of your head, then continue the Rope Braid, and tie it off with an elastic. Following that, wrap your braid into a side bun (optionally wrap a blue ribbon into the braid) and bobbypin it. Also, SpinPins work great for buns!

For Anna's coronation do, (if you have bangs, skip this step) section out a piece of hair in the front of your head, and just pin it temporarily there for a second. Now, gather all of the hair in the back and twist it into a loose bun. After that, swoop the section of hair in front into a faux bang, like done in my Faux Hairstyles blogpost. To finish it off, take a green ribbon, tie it into a bow with long ends, and pin it below the bun!

That's all, they're a lot easier than they are made out to be! Most of the Disney Princesses have their hair down, but if you have any suggestions let me know! If you're being Cinderella or Rapunzel this year, I have tutorials for those too!

Fall Crayon Candle

Hello, my fellow crafters! Today, I will show you how to make a candle, upon request from a good friend of mine ;) I made it orange and yellow, and tried to make it smell somewhat like cinnamon so it could be considered a fall craft. This is more of an adult craft though, so be sure to have a parent help with the majority of this craft.

Before you begin, you'll need two glass jars (we used baby food jars),  many crayons (we used a 96 pack because it comes with multiple shades of each color and the more you have, the bigger candle you'll have), a wick/birthday candle (I couldn't find a wick at the store I went to so I just used a birthday candle, but I know you can get some for cheap at Walmart, which I'll probably do next time for a more authentic look), a cooking pot, a stove, oven mitts, tongs, and a skewer.

To start, gather all of the crayons you want to use (I used 5 yellow, and five orange for a small candle) and peel the labels off of the crayons, then brake them into little pieces and put them in one jar. I did one color, then did the other color so it won't mix and turn brown, but I'm not sure that would happen. Oh and by the way, the second jar will be stained, so don't use a food container, etc.. Anyway, I put the orange crayons in the glass jar, and filled the pot with water, but not too much that it would be taller than the jar. Once the water boils, carefully place the crayon jar in the boiling water without the water overflowing into the jar. I believe it is referred to as a double boil.
Use the skewer to stir and somewhat mash the crayons until they're all completely melted. Then, with your tongs and oven mitts, take the jar out of the pot and pour the melted crayons into your second jar. (If you have a wick, glue it to the bottom of your jar and wrap it around a pencil laying across the top of the jar to keep it in place. Be cautious when pouring, because if you get it on the sides, it won't come off and it will look sloppy. After that, stick the candle in while it is still wet and just hold it for a few seconds so it doesn't lean if you're not using the wick way. Now if you are melting multiple colors, this is the time. Since the first color is in the real jar, use the other jar that is stained to melt the other colors. Try to rinse it out, but it won't all come out, so just melt the other color on top of it, and remember, they will be combined in the candle anyway. Again, carefully pour that into the jar when it is melted.

Then add a little cinnamon, vanilla, or any smell stuff you want to add. Whatever it is, it has to be strong because the crayon smell is overpowering. Let that dry, then I added some twine across the lip.  This is a really cool craft, and I'd like to perfect it even more in the future since it was just a few ideas from me and my mom and we didn't know how it would turn out. It turned out well though and I'm super excited for you all to try it! Also, to use your stained glass jar, just place an LED candle in and turn it into a luminary!

Thermal Notebook

Hey guys. So today I am going to show you a craft I saw on YouTube and have been wanting to do this for a while, but because of school, and such, I haven't gotten around to it until today. Although were no longer doing back to school blogs, it's cool enough to count for Halloween. Here we go! It is a thermal notebook, so it changes color due to heat.

All you need is a notebook, black acrylic paint, a paintbrush, paper towels, and Liqud Crystal Thermochromic Ink, which you can purchase from SolarColorDust.com (you only need the $10 container. I got the $25 one because it was the only one in stock, and I used less than half of it). 

To start, open your notebook to the first page, then flip it upside down, so there is nothing under the cover. This is just to prevent anything happening to your pages. Put paper towels between your notebook and the table you're working on, so you don't spill on the furniture. Now, paint the cover black. It has to be completely black for the color to show, so do multiple coats. 

Once that has dried, depending on what bottle your ink comes in, (mine came with a dropper, but the smaller ones come in a syringe) squirt the ink directly onto your cover, and paint it on lightly and in one direction (either horizontal or vertical). Let it dry completely (DO NOT MESS WITH IT! IT WILL SCREW UP THE WHOLE THING, THEN YOULL HATE IT!!!!), then if necessary, do multiple coats. 

That is all! If you put it on too heavily or you touch it before it's dry, it will look weird, which is the odd blob in the middle of mine, but it still works as long as it is no longer white. If it doesn't dry a greenish color or black, etc of some sort, the color won't change, so rub it off like mod podge and fill it in again.

If the color isn't as vibrant, put the notebook in a ziplock bag, then put it in the freezer for about five minutes, then take it out of the bag and touch it. It'll work then ;)

I hope you like this craft! It was somewhat hard when it doesn't dry evenly, but it worked out, and I'll be able to play with it in history class, so it'll be nice! Try it out!