FF-Fall Memory Game and other tid bits

You guys have had some really great ideas so far for freebie fridays, and I'm definitely going to use some of them. If you haven't yet entered my first giveaway, you can find it here. It ends next Friday, November 5th.

So, for today I've put together a little Turkey Day game to keep you, or the kids, busy while you wait for food :) But, for those of you who may not celebrate Thanksgiving, I've tried to stick kind of close to fall themes. You can download it here. (It's mainly dark brown, but it would print well in black and white if you don't want to use color).

 The three year old buddy and I had fun playing it last night. He did fine for awhile but the 18 matches may have been a little much for his attention span. He was pretty excited about me pulling out the pennies though. He grabbed a hand full and said, "money, money, money" mimicking Ham on Toy Story. I had a good laugh. So if you're playing with preschoolers, I might recommend playing the opposite way: start blank and have them find the matching images and cover them with tokens. That seemed to work better for the buddy.

In other news, I've finally cleaned up my crafting space enough to dare show it to you! But, for your enjoyment, here is the "before" aka. regular look, I'll post the "after" on Monday. (and by "after" I mean the clean, spruced up, want-everyone-to-think-it-always-looks-this-good version).

I promise I didn't make it look worse than normal. I honestly went in and just took a picture. It's terrible, I know.

Halloween Crafts: Last Installment (probably)

Alrighty, here are a few more fun Halloween crafts the buddy and I have been up to.

SPIDER HANDS:

These were a lot of fun, but quick. His favorite part was probably the googly eyes. He LOVES googly eyes.

I found the idea at blessedmommyblessedwife. You can find her fun idea here.  

PIPE CLEANER SPIDERS:
We can't get enough of the spiders. This one would have been better if I hadn't used the hot glue gun. They're weren't too many things the buddy could do because most of it involved the hot glue gun. Next time we  will just be patient and wait for normal glue to dry :) He has had a blast playing with them after we were done though. This one I didn't use a tutorial for, I just made it up as we went. 
 

Q-TIP SKELETONS

The buddy had the most fun drawing the face with markers on this one. And surprisingly he didn't want to use googly eyes (must have known skeletons don't have eyes!) This time we used elmers glue! Find the fun link to do this at Andiland here.

Sneak Peek: Camera

Sunsets are my favorite, but with all the trees here and kids who go to bed early I rarely get to see one. I 've got to document it!

So I thought it would be fun to do a couple little "sneak peeks" into stuff I use. I always love reading about that on other people's blogs and so I thought I would share as well. I don't have a nice DSLR camera, although I would LOVE one (hint hint hunny). For now I use a Cannon PowerShot SX100 (which are actually on sale this week at Target-at least in Ohio-no I'm not getting paid to say that, I just have a little addiction to checking their weekly sales). Anyway, I really like it for a point and shoot. It's an upper end point and shoot, or was 3 years ago when we bought it, and it has a few nice features like macro. It works, that's most important, eh?

what are you going to be on Halloween Night?

Here are the costumes in the works. Any guesses? I still have a little black skirt to sew up.

Unfortunately the hunny and I aren't feeling the creative juices ourselves. So for the now the plan is not to dress up. Sad I know. 

First Ever Giveaway

Okay, so I'm kind of stoked to have 100 followers. really. I know, I'm lame. But I thought we could all celebrate with a little giveaway. So here are the goods:


A festive little rosette brooch



I call this a star paper note. They look really cool hung up, or laying flat. . . plus they fold up into a cute little package.

And the alphabet plus some of 4.25 x 5.5 ABC cards. Use them for cute signs, banners, frame them, use as flashcards. The colors are red, orange, yellow and green, but the orange is pretty red. You just never know with those printers . . .


Anyway, so you know you want these. Here's how to enter:

*GIVEAWAY ENDS NOVEMBER 5, 2010
*unfortunately open to US and Canada residents only.



1. {required} leave a comment telling me what you would like to see as a freebie friday.


For extra entries (leave a comment for each):

2. Become a follower (or tell me you already are).
3. Post, tweet, or facebook about the giveaway with a link back.


*Make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you!

FF- Squirrel & Oak Silhouettes

The little buddy LOVES squirrels. He likes to chase them whenever he sees them at the park. That's just about every time. It's fun to have them around. I didn't grow up in a place with large bushy tailed squirrels and so it's a bit of a novelty for me too. They're just kinda fun, and make me think of fall.

I thought I'd share some of the squirrel love with this 4 x 6 inch squirrel image and an oak leaf to boot! They're part of the forest animal silhouettes grouping. (The other 3 I'm selling through etsy- don't hate me). Perfect for framing in those glittery frames you've started, I'm thinking gold or green . . . of course I can't use the orange ones now that I said I would. Anyway, get the goods here.

For the turkey, rabbit, and deer check out my etsy shop! For those three type FreebieFriday in the notes to seller box and get a 30% discount. enjoy!






Oh, and in case you're wondering, I'm hosting the downloads through a different place, hence the different link destination.

glittered frames

I LOVE silhouettes, and what better way to showcase them for Halloween, or Thanksgiving than with glittered frames? I pulled out a couple of old ugly frames. . . a little spray adhesive . . . a little fine glitter . . . a couple silhouettes. . . wala. Fairly quick, simple but a great little pop! I think I'll swap them out for some turkey appropriate silhouettes after Halloween. *One note about spray adhesive. Move the frame to a new paper before putting the glitter on-otherwise it will stick to all the glue on your newspaper . . .

paper pumpkins

Inspired by the paper pumpkins at delia creates' the buddy and I tried it out. We didn't do marble painting though-I didn't want to wait for it to dry. We just used scrapbooking paper instead. The little buddy LOVES cutting with my paper cutter so it worked out well. Instead of pipe cleaners, we used a little piece of a stick and some green foam which we glued to the top of the brad. (that way we can unfold them and store them for next year). Another fun and quick Halloween activity for the little buddy. He was so excited to put it on a shelf. We'll really know if it was a success if he tells daddy about it when he gets home.

FF- Halloween Games

I'd planned to do candy bar wrappers today. But they were boring. And, really, whose going to spend the time to cover all their candy bars with little Halloween sentiments? I wouldn't. So I bagged it and moved on. Hopefully these are more fun-they were more fun to make that's for sure. So here are four little Halloween activities for varying age levels.

Print them out, cut the page into fourths and you've got four little 4.25" x 5.5" activities. I tried them on the little buddy, he's almost 3 1/2, to see how much he could do:


the first one was pretty easy for him once he knew what to do



the second one he struggled figuring out the differences on the first two rows-not obvious enough-but he picked the "pumpkin" out of the skeletons very quickly. By the fourth row I'd lost his attention span, obviously.



the third activity was beyond him, as I suspected it would be. He had fun coloring it though!


I didn't even attempt the fourth one, the maze. I knew he wouldn't get how to do it, much less be able to figure it out. Maybe in a few years. In the mean time I'll have the hunny take a gander at it! Well, enjoy!



As a little side note update: google groups, which is currently hosting all my freebie friday downloads, has decided to stop hosting documents. This is the last one I will post through google groups. But I WILL still have a freebie friday.

All of this to simply say, the freebie friday's up through this one will still be available until the beginning of February. After that, all downloads previous to October 16 2010 will no longer be available for download.

construction paper

I think October requires ATLEAST one halloween craft with construction paper doesn't it? The little buddy had a lot of fun putting together the faces while I cut out pumpkins as fast as I could just to keep up with him. (next time cut the pumpkins out in advance).

Best parts about these:

simple & easy

fun

teach position of eyes nose & mouth

good tool for teaching shapes

try it!

FF- Candy Corn Halloween Invite

Whats better than candy corn at Halloween? A candy corn themed party! (with a little chocolate thrown in of course:) Use this candy corn themed invite to get the party started!

Invitations are printable on a letter size sheet (I'd recommend cardstock). Invitations measure 5x7 with 2 per page. Enjoy!

bronze butterflies

The sister I idolized growing up has opened her very own etsy shop! Go check Bronze Butterflies out. She makes one-of-a-kind jewelry, so there will always be something different and unique. Perfect stocking stuffers as Christmas looms ever closer!

shoe fetish birthday cards

I thought these would be fun for a shoe loving friend's birthday. I'm currently making cards to give to a friend to donate to the Festival of Trees. These turned out so fun, I'm having a hard time wanting to part with them! Pictures will have to do eh?

FF- Candy Corn Cupcake Toppers

And the Halloween Candy Corn Cupcake Toppers have arrived. Not planning on making cupcakes for Halloween? That's okay. There are so many fun things to do with them! Here are a few ideas:

tags
stickers
scrapbooking or card embellishments
mini garland
turn them into a matching or go-fish game
buttons as seen on Whatever Dee Dee Wants.

As always they print on a letter size sheet. Three designs, twelve cupcake toppers on a page each approximately 2 inches across. Get your free Halloween Candy Corn Cupcake Toppers here.

If you have any other great ideas for using your cupcake toppers please share!

*If you're looking for more fun Halloween Cupcake Toppers, check out my shop. Mention candy corn in the notes to seller box and get a 20% discount through the end of October.

enjoy!