Cardboard and Popsicle Stick Haunted House

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Our apartment complex had a window decorating contest for a $75 prize.  You better believe I was crazy and spent way too much time on decorating my window.  Our maintenance guy was the judge so I knew he wasn't going to vote for something cutesy.  So I tried do make something cool/unique.  Unfortunately, my weeks worth of work wasn't enough to win the grand prize, BUT I was runner up and got $25.  The winner did an illusion that reflected a computer screen off of plexiglass to make it look like a ghost was walking around.  If you ever decide to get crazy and make a haunted house - here's a tutorial for you.

I used a bisquick box, but you could use a cereal box or something like that.

 Carefully take apart the seams of your box and lay it flat.

 Next draw a line across your box and score it with your scissors so it will be easier to bend.  This will be where your house stops and the roof starts.  Make sure that sides of your roof are long enough to reach each other. Then cut the folds (where I've drawn the red lines) down the the line.  Also the little tiny flay on the side can be cut off to the line as well. 

Okay.....now my husband wanted me to do a house that was skinner at the base than the top.  If you don't really care, I would not do it because it made it much more work in the long run.  But if you do want it that way, look at the picture below to see what I did.

 Fold the house back up and hot glue it in place.  Make sure to glue this little tab inside. 

 Seal the base with hot glue as well.

 This is what your house should look like at this point.

 Open up your flaps on the top.

 Glue your roof pieces together,

 Then trace the triangle to onto the other flaps and gut then out.  Then glue those in place.

 I added a chimney to mine.  This is what the piece for the chimney looked like.

 Then I started cutting up popsicle sticks.  Warning, this will ruin your scissors and your hands haha.

 Because the house was slanted this part was more time consuming because I had to cut the popsicles sticks at the right angle.  I made sure to over lap the popsicle sticks a bit and also ad in some inconsistencies to make it more spooky.  

 I added a crack to the house because the popsicle sticks weren't long enough to fit all the way across and I thought a crack would be cooler than just staggering lines like bricks.

 I used the popsicle stick ends for the roofing.

 Next I painted the house gray with black roofing.

 I then came back and added some distressing to make the house look nice and haunted by using a darker color of paint and wiping/blotching it off with a paper towel.  I also added a door, which was a piece of cereal box that I painted.

 Lastly I put it in my window with the hanging shrunken apple heads.  I added some dead shrubs, dirt and a wood-chip path to make the whole thing come together.

 My husband likes this shot because he thinks the reflection looks cool.  So I decided to post it as well.

If you end up making one, I'd love to see it!

Bath Foam Faces

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My daughter LOVED this.  I used the foam sheets that can be bought at any craft store, Wal-mart or even dollar store.  Then I cut out the different shapes needed to made a face.  For the eyes I used permanent marker to draw the iris and pupil since I didn't want to have to cute out more little circles, but I would recommend just using foam.....the marker still came off a little bit.  The great thing about the foam is that you don't need magnets, velcro or anything other than water to make it stick to the bathtub wall or onto itself!

She put the boys nose on crooked so he looked a bit like Pinochio ha.

Alphabet Handprint Art

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It's the post you've all been waiting for.....the WHOLE alphabet!  Here you go!

Like I mentioned before, there are some letters that you have a ton of options, so I thought I'd list a few other options I cane up with for the letters!  I'd love to see your handprint art!

A - Apple, Acorn, Aligator, Alpaca, Angel, Antelope, Ax

B - Bird, Bat, Balloon(s), Baboon, Baseball, Basketball, Bee, Boat, Broccoli, Butterfly

C - Crab, Cat, Cabin, Car, Camel, Camera, Castle, Caterpillar, Cow

D - Dinosaur, Dog, Deer, Dandelion, Donkey, Dragon, Duck, Drum

E - Elephant, Eagle, Earth, Eggplant, Elk, Evergreen, Eye

F - Fish, Fire, Face, Fireworks, Flamingo, Ferret, Fox, Frog, Fries

G - Giraffe, Gorilla, Ghost, Goose, Guitar, Gerbil 

H - Heart, Hamburger, Hat, Hamster, Helicopter, Hippo, Horse

I - Ice cream, Igloo, Iguana, Impala

J - Jelly fish, Jack-O-Lantern, Jaguar, Jester

K - Kite, Kangaroo, Key, King

L - Lion, Ladybug, Lamp, Leaf, Leopard, Leprechaun, Lightbulb, Llama, Lizard, Lobster

M - Mouse, Monkey, Mermaid, Monster, Moose, Money

N - Nest, Nose, Newt

O - Octopus, Orangutan, Ogre, Ox, Ostrich, Owl, Ox 

P - Peacock, Painting, Panda, Palm Tree, Penguin, Pig, Pineapple, Pine tree, Pumpkin

Q - Queen, Quail

R - Rose, Raccoon, Ring, Rooster, Rino, Rocking horse, Rocket

S - Spider, Sailboat, Starfish, Seaweed, Ship, Shoe, Skirt, Skunk, Soccer ball, Strawberry

T - Tree, Teapot, Tent, Tiger, Turtle, Tongue, Turkey, Taco

U - Umbrella, Unicorn

V - Vampire, Volcano, Van, Violin, Vulture

W - Whale, Wagon, Walrus, Watermelon, Windmill, Wolf, Wolverine, Woolly mammoth 

X - Xylophone, X-ray

Y - Yak, Yacht, Yarn

Z - Zebra, Zucchini, Zoo

ABC Handprint Art Part 5

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This is the last of our ABC Handprint art!  Yay!  I hope you enjoyed the different ideas we did.  For some letters there are a ton of choices and then a few there's really only one thing you can do, BUT the good news is that it is possible to make something out of a handprint that represents each letter of the alphabet.  I'll be posting ALL of the letters together so you can see the whole alphabet at once.