Lisa Storms

super hero costume for dogs

If you enjoy dressing up your pet for Halloween, here is a super (pun intended) easy costume idea I made for Fiskars to craft up yourself.

Holly loves to hang out by the front door to see all of the kids when I'm handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, so I decided she needed a cute costume to wear, too. Plus pets in costumes just plain make for adorable photos.

You can view my full costume tutorial with photos over at Fiskars here.

And speaking of easy Halloween projects, stop by the eighteen25 blog here for instructions on how to craft up my Jack O'Lantern Nilla Wafers.

Want more Halloween inspiration? My previous Halloween posts can be viewed here.

pom pom clown wig

I had this vision of a clown wig made from yarn pom poms and had no idea how it would actually turn out. I ended up going for it and love the results!

It's super easy but takes time to craft up all of the poms. You can buy little gadgets to make the poms, or there are all kinds of tutorials out there to craft them up on your own.

I do it the old lazy way by wrapping it around your fingers (these poms ranged from about 75 to 100 wraps depending on the kind of yarn), pulling off carefully, knotting another piece of yarn around the center, and cutting through the loops.

Then you end up with a shaggy pom you'll need to give a haircut to round out.

Next I hot glued them in stripes onto a knit cap. I had no idea what I was doing ...  just started gluing them in rows and then tried it on my daughter. Once on, I could see a couple of spots that needed to be filled in, so I glued in two more poms. And that was it! Don't you love it when your vision comes to life?

Clowns are fun costumes because you can raid your closet and put together the wackiest stuff you can find. I actually took an old tutu I made for her years ago that I somehow managed to hold onto (you can see the old tutorial here) and replaced many of the tulle strips with more colors of the rainbow and threw in a little black, too.

Now to start planning for next year's costumes. =)

frankenstein treat printable

With Halloween quickly approaching, I wanted to share a cute printable I made for an event we are attending. I wanted to keep these rice krispie treats super simple, but feel free to embellish further.

Here's all you do. Make a batch of classic rice krispie treats, but add in green food coloring before stirring in the cereal. Allow to cool fully and cut into 2 x 2 inch squares.

Push in two edible eyeballs onto each. You can get these at the craft store, or I know I've even seen them at Walmart in the party section. I ordered mine online somewhere long ago.

Add each square into a 3 x 4 inch Wilton treat bag. Again, these are at the craft store or Walmart.

Print out the bag toppers here being sure to set it to 'no page scaling' when printing so they will be the correct size. Fold the top of your bag in and over once and staple folded topper on. The back of the tag will be plain white in case you want to add names, etc.

And that's all there is to it. I hope these are helpful to someone =).

halloween ramekin snacks

Halloween is a great holiday for adding in fun embellishments to treats and desserts. I like serving snacks both at home and parties in little ramekins for individual servings. I buy them at my dollar store in packs of five for a dollar.

Here are a few ways to add spooky eyes to a vanilla yogurt snack. Add three raisins for a ghost face. Add a slice of a blueberry layered on a slice of kiwi for an eyeball. Or add green grape halves with a chocolate chip inserted into a carved out center for a pair of eyes. Add the rest of the cut up fruit on the side for a well rounded snack.

Easily add character to jello ramekins for a fun dessert. For monster jello, stir up jello after it's set and add mini marshmallows with pupils drawn on with an edible food marker. Pour orange jello right into a ramekin to set and add a simple chocolate chip jack-o-lantern face before serving.

It doesn't take much to add a little fun to snacks and desserts for parties or for everyday Halloween fun =).

mad scientist costume

It's driving me crazy not being able to share this year's costumes as I have not yet finished them, oy. So I thought in the meantime I would share my oldest son's from last year since it's one of my favorites.

You have to check out this brilliant brain tutorial I found online here. While you're at it, you should check out the entire blog where it came from as there are lots of very creative ideas.

I didn't make mine bloody as my son isn't into that, but it makes for quite a mad scientist costume when paired with dish gloves, safety goggles, and a lab coat.

While I'm at it, I'll re-share my youngest son's costume from last year which is also a favorite. You can find my full tutorial for it over at Fiskars here.

And more costume ideas can be found here.

flip top monster boxes

I absolutely love flip top boxes. It probably has something to do with colorful memories of crayon boxes from childhood.

Here is a set I made for Fiskars that I turned into monsters for Halloween treat boxes. Super easy and cute with limitless possibilities! You can find the full tutorial with photos here.

Lots of fun Halloween stuff to share this week! Check out my previous Halloween ideas here.

halloween game with free printable

The old "peeled grapes for eyeballs" classic has become my favorite go-to activity for Halloween gatherings. This year I decided to kick it up a notch and make a reusable box set that I had as much fun crafting as the kids will have playing!

Can you guess what recycled item I used for these? It's something we go through very quickly this time of year in the Storms household...

You can find my full tutorial with step-by-step photos over at the BasicGrey blog here.

I also shared a free printable over there for the labels, too!

Halloween is my very favorite crafting holiday, so check back all next week for lots of fun and spooky ideas...

football ... and owls

Are you ready for some football? With the first big football weekend upon us, I wanted to re-share a Super Bowl party I created for Fiskars last season in case you are planning some fun festivities soon! You can find the full party, photos, and directions here.

With the start of school, I am also sharing some school lunch ideas over at SheKnows. Can you figure out the theme of this lunch? You will likely be surprised. You can find full photos and directions here.

And earlier this week I shared some free, printable miniature candy bar wrappers for Halloween over at Eighteen25 as part of their annual Spooktacular taking place all month. Be sure to check out all of the other cool Spooktacular projects, and you can find my wrappers here.

I admit to having an owl addiction ... and "owl" be back soon with more fall fun! =)

halloweek: owl treat boxes

Next up for Halloweek is a printable to make my owl treat boxes featured in the October issue of Scrapbooks Etc. magazine.

Page 1 of pdf template is here.

Page 2 of pdf template is here.

Print the design onto the back of your cardstock (so the lines will be hidden inside). Cut on solid lines.  Score and fold on dotted lines.  

Check out the entire party here at Scrapbooks Etc. for lots more Halloween ideas such as bat straws...

... and fun spool crafts...

... and best costume ribbons ...

... and invites and decorations.  See you tomorrow for more Halloween fun =).

halloweek: jack o' lantern smiles

It's Halloweek here on my blog!  I plan on sharing an easy Halloween project each day this week.

So you may know that I have an obsession with mustaches on sticks.  I can't explain it, but I own it.  This has led to an obsession with just about anything on a stick.  I've done Santa mustaches and  snowman noses for holidays before and figured for Halloween a Jack O'Lantern smile would be appropriate =).

These sticks are fun for parties or photo props.  I'm including a printable here in case you want to get in on the sticky fun.  You can either trace it onto black craft foam as I've done here or print the solid version straight onto white cardstock to cut out.  Then just glue to a thin wooden dowel.

Solid printable pdf here.

Outline version pdf here.

And as always, feel free to email me if the download doesn't work (first try hitting refresh) and I'll send it to you directly.  See you tomorrow! =)