Kids Crafts | How To Make A Thanksgiving Garland

Kids' Craft: How to Make a Thanksgiving Garland by Rachel Paxton

If your kids get bored this Thanksgiving, put them to work making a colorful Thanksgiving garland to help decorate your home for the holidays. It is easy to make, and your kids will love tracing, cutting it out, and putting it together. You may even already have the supplies you need laying around the house!

This craft is suitable for ages approximately four and up. Your child will need to be able to trace and cut out shapes with scissors.

Supplies needed:

Orange, yellow, red, brown construction paper
Fall-themed cookie cutters
Pencil
Scissors
Hole punch
Yarn

Get out your baking supplies and see what you have for fall-themed cookie cutters. We had a pumpkin and a fall leaf. Craft stores usually have a good selection of holiday cookie cutters to choose from.

All your children need to do is use a pencil to trace the cookie cutter shapes onto the construction paper and then cut them out with the scissors. If your child wants to, he or she can layer several pieces of construction paper on top of each other and cut out more than one of the same shape at once.

Next have them use the hole punch to punch a hole into the top of each shape.

They will then cut a length of yarn, tie a knot on one end and then string the shapes onto the yarn. Their Thanksgiving garland is now ready to hang!

This craft project is suitable for any holiday! Use your cookie cutters to make holiday garlands for any occasion.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of What's for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For more recipes, gardening, organizing tips, home decorating, holiday hints, and more, visit Creative Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com/.

Looking for a New Crafting Chair was Easy Using MyReviewsNow.net | Enter Their Giveaway

This is a compensated post written by me on behalf of MyReviewsNow.net. All opinions are 100% mine.
I really need a new chair for my crafting table.  The one I have is not the right height and it is very uncomfortable to boot.  When I am doing my crafting I am in my chair for hours at a time, especially when I have a big project I am working on.  You know how that goes!

I was having a tough time deciding on the right chair.  I couldn't find anything locally so I started hitting the internet.  But with all of the different sites, it was crazy trying to find and read reviews on the product until I found myreviewsnow.net

This site is pretty cool.  It lists out categories and you can browse the category and look at the reviews on particular products.  It made finding a good chair pretty easy.  I liked that there are a lot of different items there.  Shopping online just got a bit easier!

Oh and I got to enter their giveaway that they are holding on their Facebook page.  It is super simple to enter.  All you have to do is like their facebook page and tweet out "I love to #shopathome online!" for your chance to win a $350 Kohl's card.  Now I know I could sure use that for my craft projects.  Couldn't you? Make sure you see their  official rules before entering.

Now that I founf my perfect chair, I am getting back to my crafting table a lot more often!

Candle Molds For Your Candle Making Hobby

Molds For Your Candle Making Hobby
By Carmen Lake

Candles are becoming more popular today. They can be used as a decoration, that's why candle making is becoming a hobby by many these days. It is very easy and fun because there are many candle molds available in the market and they come in different shapes, sizes and designs to suit your taste.

In making beautiful candles, you should need a wax and a mold. There are different types of molds to choose from and they come in different shapes, sizes and designs. Because of its durability, versatility and ability to resist the heat, aluminum is the most commonly used molds by the candle makers. Having aluminum as the mold for your candles, you will be able to have a smooth and perfect finish candles. Cleaning the molds is not a challenge, you just have to put the molds in the oven upside down and place a baking paper underneath it so when the wax melted it will directly go on the baking paper. You also need a releasing agent for candles to be removed from the mold.

If you want a flexible one for your molds, you can select from silicone, polyurethane or latex. Polyurethane molds have limitations in terms of stretching and it can also give your candle a certain smell and you also need a special agent to remove your candle out of the mold. Those flexible molds are used in making taper or pillar candles. Silicone on the other hand is expensive but very versatile and it could give you the best candles. You don't need to worry about removing the candles out of the molds because you can stretch it to the limits and they do not leave parting lines too. Latex molds were popular until other much better molds have been introduced. If you want to make your own special design molds, you just have to paint it with coats of liquid latex.

Cheaper molds are generally made from plastics, that's why they can easily become brittle after some use. But on the bright side, they are more affordable and can be cleaned easily with just soap and warm water. Just remember, before using it, to keep it dry to avoid forming water bubbles on the candles. For beginners, cheap plastic molds are good to practice on. But for those who want to improve their skills and making it a business, buying better candle molds is recommended.

The author of this article is interested in candle making. For more information about candle making molds try visiting the site on candle making.

Scrapbooking | Beach Lovers 12x12 Scrapbook Layout Idea

Back in early September my husband and I went down to the Jersey Shore and spent a week in our Ocean Front Condo. As usual...we had a fabulous time! I made this 12x12 scrapbook layout using one of those Page Kits that I purchased at PaperWishes.com and wow...it was super easy and super quick to make this layout. I rarely purchase page kits so I thought I would try one out.

I used a 12x12 background sheet that is done in a tropical island paradise theme. The page has a tone on tone tropical print and then down the right side it has small tropical postcards for the border. The page kit also came with some embellishments and alphabet tiles but I didn't use the embellishments but did use the alphabet tiles after I matted them onto chocolate brown cardstock and trimmed them down so that each alpha-tile had an 1/8" brown border. I used them to spell out BEACH LOVERS which is the title of my page. (see photo for placement).

I then had 2 photos of hubby and I sitting on the beach so I cropped them both down...photo of hubby is half the size of the one of me and I matted them onto light blue and chocolate brown cardstock, leaving an 1/8" border around each mat. I then put them onto the layout with the photo of hubby overlapping the photo of me. I had some beach theme'd Dazzles (purchased from Paper Wishes) and used the 2 tropical floral Dazzles after I placed them onto teal blue vellum and trimmed around the outer edge of the Dazzle. I used glue dots to put them onto the layout.

I didn't do any journaling as the page was busy enough with the postcard border down the right side. I did take a fine point brown scrapbooking marker and wrote the date & place inside one of the little postcards. Overall, I was pleased with the quickness and ease of use of this scrapbooking page kit from PaperWishes.com.

Book Review | The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Natural Soaps

Today I am doing a book review for you and the book I am reviewing is called "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Natural Soap" by Sally W. Trew and Zonella B. Gould. The soft-cover book is ISBN 978-1-61564-022-5 and the book retails for $14.95.

Synopsis: Lather up! The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Natural Soaps spells out everything new soap-makers need to know to create all kinds of natural soaps. In this helpful guide you get a rundown of the ingredients, safety equipment, molds, and other must-haves for creating your own soaps. Step-by-step instructions for creating cold and hot process soap, liquid soap, shower gel, laundry soaps, shampoos, and more! There is an explanation of SoapCalc and how it can help you formulate soap recipes. The book explains to you ways to color your soaps with liquid colorants, micas and other natural colorants. There are tips for taking your soaps to the next level with swirls, layers, embeds and other fun ideas. There are over 35 recipes for making natural soaps, plus tips on creating your own unique combinations.

My Review: This soft-cover soap making book contains 194 black and white pages. The book starts out with explaining to you the basics of natural soap-making and then goes into the oils, butters, fragrances and essential oils. In chapter 4 they explain to you what SoapCalc is which is very important to know so that your soaps come out properly. Then the books goes on about how to build a soap mold or how to use pre-purchased soap molds and then explains to you all of the important stuff you need to know about Cold Process Soaps. In chapter 7 they go into what hot process soaps are and how to make them. Chapter 8 has numerous cold and hot processed soap recipes which look really easy to use. The rest of the book covers goat milk soap, liquid soap and then goes into some creative ideas on how to make some fancy bars of soap! The back of the book has a nice Glossary and explains to you how you need to have your soaps labeled due to FDA regulations.

The book is a nice comprehensive book that is jammed pack with information that all beginner soap makers need to know. I think even an experienced soap maker would enjoy reading this book and having it in their collection. I found the book to be an easy read and had easy to understand directions throughout it. I am really excited to have this book and in a few weeks I am going to try my hand at some soap making!!!

I would like to thank the PR Company that I am working with for sending me the soap making book to review for all of you! It is a great book!

Disclaimer: Shelly Hill has personally reviewed the product listed above. Shelly has not received any monetary compensation for her review. Shelly did receive a free product to try out so she could evaluate and use it for her review. Her thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your opinions may differ. The Passionate About Crafting Blog is not responsible for delivery/shipping of giveaway items won from this blog nor are we responsible for mis-use or injury caused by items won from this blog.

Quick and Easy | Halloween Pooh Bear Scrapbooking 12x12 Layout Idea

This ia great beginners layout for someone who is just learning to do scrapbooking or for someone who likes quick and easy pages. This layout was made a few months ago by my daughter and it features my little grand daughter in her Monarch Butterfly Costume.

She did the layout in the 12x12 format and the background is a simple sheet of white cardstock. Using wavy edge scissors, she cut out a strip that measures 1" wide by 12" long and ran that at the top of her page to add interest. She used a Trick or Treat page title at the top and centered it on her black cardstock strip.

I hand drew some black bats and cut them out and she used 2 of those on her layout. We used a glow in the dark gel pen and gave them glowing orange eyes. She used one photo in the layout and cropped it down to the size she wanted. She mounted it onto black and orange cardstock leaving an 1/8" edge and rounded all of the corners. She used my Cricut machine to cut out her BOO letters from orange cardstock. She also used my Cricut to cut out a dark green leaf and she used that as her exclaimation point along with a dark green circle that use obtained by using a hole punch.

I gave my little grand daughter a Halloween card that featured Winnie The Pooh so we cut him out and sprayed him with archival mist. She then mounted it to her page on the right side. She used a ghost cardstock sticker in the bottom right corner.

Happy Scrapbooking!

Best Golfer Ever

This guest post from Lenny Mcknight

Brian is the best golfer I’ve ever seen, period, and it’s really lucky for him that we live on a golf course. I feel like all the time he just leaves (and sometimes leaves the door open which is why we got a Home alarm sensor and heads out to the green to practice putting or chipping or something and that dedication is what makes him so good. I mean, clearly he’s got some natural talent or he wouldn’t be where he is but with three scholarship offers from great golf schools and the likelihood of going pro when he graduates? How many 18 year olds can say that for themselves? Brian is a great kid outside the links, too, and he’s always getting good grades and being respectful to his friends and his teachers. I don’t know how we got so lucky having one child and it turning out like him but if I had it all to do over again I’d do it exactly the same way! Brian is the best son we could ask for!

Kids Crafts | How To Make Fall Leaf Placemats

Fall Leaf Placemats by Rachel Paxton

Making placemats from fall leaves is a fun activity for kids of all ages. Even toddlers will have fun collecting leaves and creating their own placemat. For this craft you will need:

Roll of contact paper
Fall leaves
Scissors

This activity is very inexpensive. The only item you will have to buy is the contact paper, and you can pick this up for about $5 a roll. One roll will make many placemats.

Have your kids go out in the yard and collect some fall leaves. Have them look for a variety of colors and shapes. If the leaves are dry you can use them right away. If they are wet, let them set on a piece of newspaper to dry before you start the craft project.

Before you sit the kids down cut some pieces of contact paper into the shape of placemats. I used the width of the contact paper for the width of the placemat so I would only have to make one cut for each placemat. You will need two pieces of contact paper for each placemat. You can make the placemats any size you choose.

After the contact paper is ready, sit your kids down at a table and have them spread out the leaves in the center of the table. Give them a piece of contact paper with the backing paper removed. Let them arrange their leaves on the sticky side of the paper. After they are happy with the arrangement of their leaves, take another piece of contact paper and carefully lay it on top of the leaves so that the sticky sides of both pieces of contact paper are together. Carefully use your hands to smooth out any bubbles or wrinkles. You won't be able to get them all out, but don't worry, a few wrinkles will not be noticeable when you are done.

When you are finished you can use the scissors to trim around the edges to make sure they are all even and straight. This is an easy project that can be completed in about an hour. Remember the younger the child, the shorter their attention span, so if you are making very many you may end up finishing them yourself! My toddler boys spent about 15 minutes on theirs and they had a great time.

Don't forget to proudly display your fall leaf placemats on your Thanksgiving table!

Photos of finished fall leaf placemats: http://www.crafty-moms.com/fall-leaf-placemat.shtml

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com/.

How to Crochet a Purse for Fashion Dolls and Barbies

Today I would like to share with all of you how I make little fashion doll purses for my grand daughter to use with her Barbie dolls. You only need a little bit of scrap yarn, a pair of scissors and a size F crochet hook. (or smaller crochet hook). We used 4-play acrylic yarn to make the one shown above.

You will simply chain 10-12 stitches to obtain the width guage that you want your purse to be. You will then single crochet in the second chain from the hook and in each chain across. Chain 1, turn and single crochet in each chain across. We did this for 5 rows, fasten off, hide ends and then we made a second matching piece. Both pieces will be in the shape of a rectangle. We then placed both pieces together and single crocheted 3 sides together and chain stitched 20-22 stitches for the purse carrying handle.
You can use this same technique to make square shaped purses, round purses, rectangular purses and even oval shaped purses and you do it all for about .04 cents (if that) per purse by using scrap yarn. I made 8 of these in less than 90 minutes for my grand daughter in a variety of shapes and colors and she loves using them with her fashion dolls.

Quick and Easy | Baby Shower Party Favor Ideas

A few weeks ago I attended one of my nieces baby showers and her mother had made these adorable little girl theme'd baby shower favors so I wanted to share them with all of my craft blog readers.

For the pink plastic baby shoe party favor she purchased those at her local craft store and then used a perm. marker to write the baby girl's name on the bottom of the shoe. In the center is a piece of mesh tulle and she wrapped up silver and pink colored Hershey Kisses in that and tied it shut with a pink satin ribbon bow. The final item is a pink plastic umbrella that is filled with small candies and she simply printed out a tag that says "Thank You" and tied that onto the umbrella with pink satin ribbon.

These are excellent ideas for baby shower party favors...especially for those who are not too crafty or don't have a lot of time to invest into making other types of party favors.

Kids Crafts | Paper Plate Scarecrow Craft Project Idea

Paper Plate Scarecrow Craft by Rachel Paxton

Kids love scarecrows, and fall is a great time to do scarecrow crafts with your preschool aged child. With a paper plate and some other items you may already have laying around your house, you and your child can create this scarecrow craft in no time.

Supplies needed:

Paper plates
Google eyes
Brown construction paper
Orange construction paper
Raffia
Red pipe cleaner
Craft feathers
Scissors
Rubber cement
Glue gun (optional)

Note: Many of the above items can be substituted with things you might already have. For instance, you can use felt or craft foam instead of construction paper, or straw or shredded paper instead of raffia. Your child could also draw the face with markers instead of gluing it on.

To get started, cut several pieces of raffia about 3-4 inches long. This will be the scarecrow's hair. Next glue the raffia to each side edge of the plate, toward the top. The hat will cover the top edge of the hair. I chose to use hot glue for this step and did the gluing for my children. The hot glue works the best to get the raffia stuck on there quickly.

Next use the scissors to cut a hat out of brown construction paper. You can make any shaped hat your child would like. If your child is old enough to cut out a shape, draw the hat on the paper for him and let him cut it out himself. Then have your child brush some rubber cement on the back of the hat and glue it on top of the scarecrow's hair.

After you have the hair and hat in place, have your child brush glue where the eyes will go and have him stick the eyes on. Next cut a small triangle from the orange construction paper and have your child glue the nose on the scarecrow's face.

Next cut a red pipe cleaner in half, have your child shape half of it into a mouth, and then have him glue it on the scarecrow. Last but not least, have your child place some glue on the end of a feather and have him slide it under a corner of the scarecrow's hat.

That's it! Your preschooler will be so proud of his scarecrow, he won't be able to wait to show it to everyone!

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com/.

Fabulous Kid's Craft Kits From Klutz ~ Product Review

Today I would like to talk to you about a company and their products which I think are absolutely fantastic and these craft products and kits are perfect for kid's birthdays, school crafts, scouting crafts, holiday gifts, party favors, you name it...these children's craft kits are fabulous!
The craft kits are made by a company called Klutz and they make a large variety of kid's craft kits like jewelry-making kits, rubber stamping kits, face painting kits, needle craft kits, painting kits, drawing kits, window art kits and so much more. Trust me...they have hundreds of craft kits that they sell and most of them are really unique ideas! One of the things I appreciate in regards to these kits is that you can purchase "refill supplies" after your children use up the supplies that are included in each kit.

My Review: Today I am reviewing 3 great craft kits by Klutz. First up...the Stamp Art craft kit that contains the spiral bound book, 1 clear stamping block, 64 clear stamps, black ink pad and 3 double-sides colored pencils (six total colors). This kit's clear stamps are done in a variety of shapes and the book & instructions teach you how to put the shapes together to create pretty flowers, various animals, sea life, aliens & planets, foods, zoo animals, etc. The directions are very easy to follow and it teaches you step by step how to do this. I sat down to do this with my 10 year old nephew and we had a blast! Check out this cute sea life CRAB that we made together? Isn't he cute? It took us less than 10 minutes to stamp him and color him in.We also got to review the Pom-Pom Monster Salon craft kit which includes yarn, pom-pom maker, wiggle eyes, foam facial features, ribbon bows, tube of liquid glue, various card stock cut-outs to accent your pom-pom creatures and more! I spent about 10-15 minutes reading all the directions in the book and then got busy making this adorable purple pom-pom creature. I named her "Purple Peter Eater" LOL and check out those shoes! I made the purple pom-pom first, glued on the wiggle eyes and pink tongue and then finished up gluing on the purple sneakers and lime green hair bow. Super cute and so easy to make! You can make several pom-pom animals, creatures, etc. just with this one kit and everything is included but the scissors!
Finally...we got to review the new Twisted Critters craft kit which is super fun! The kit comes with over 70 different types of pipe cleaners in a variety of colors along with the spiral bound instruction book. The book teaches you step by step how to make various creatures & animals using the included pipe cleaners and rolling them, twisting and attaching them to one another to create these special designs. We had a blast with this kit with my 10 year old nephew and 11 year old god son!

Overall Impression: We love the craft kits from Klutz! I love that almost (if not everything) that you need is included with the kit. Each kit has a large instruction book that is spiral bounds and is really easy to read & understand. These kits are great for kids of all ages and I think even adults will enjoy them. As a crafter myself, I really appreciate the ease of use and the cute things you can make with the Klutz kits!


I would personally like to thank Klutz for allowing me to do a product review for their company and for hosting a giveaway here on the Passionate About Crafting Blog.

Disclaimer: Shelly Hill has personally reviewed the product listed above. Shelly has not received any monetary compensation for her review. Shelly did receive a free product to try out so she could evaluate and use it for her review. Her thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your opinions may differ. The Passionate About Crafting Blog is not responsible for delivery/shipping of giveaway items won from this blog nor are we responsible for mis-use or injury caused by items won from this blog.

Scrapbooking Quick and Easy Halloween 12x12 Scrapbook Layout Idea

I love scrapbooking for various holidays and scrapbooking for Halloween is no exception. A few months ago I finally got around to scrapbooking this layout which features my little grand daughter dressed up in her Monarch Butterfly Halloween Costume.

I used a preprinted Halloween background paper that I purchased at Joann's in the 12x12 size. It had these cute pumpkins running down the left border of the page. I cropped down my one photo, rounded the corners and mounted it onto black cardstock, rounded the corners and mounted it onto orange cardstock. I left 1/8" border on all photo mounts. I then used glue dots to attach it to the top of my page.

I used my Cricut machine to cut out my BOO letters from orange cardstock on the #2 setting. I then did the shadow effect and cut them out again from black cardstock and then glued them together. I mounted my letters near the upper right of the page using a fine tip glue pen.

I purchased a premade file folder that had FALL LEAVES printed on it and used that to hold my journaling. It was really plain looking so I added my own black and white check pattern ribbon across it along with a hand drawn black bat that I hand cut out. I gave my bat glow in the dark orange eyes. I did my journaling and tucked it inside the file folder.

I purchased a few Halloween 3-D embellishments of ghosts, bats and a moon that had glittery sparkles on them and mounted those onto my page near the bottom left. I think this page turned out great!

Dig, Drop, Done Flower Bulbs Presents Curbside Chaos Contest!

This is a compensated post written by me on behalf of Bulbs. Dig, Drop, Done. All opinions are 100% mine.

I love planting flowers all around both of the properties that we own. We own a large older home that we rent out and then we have our townhouse that we live in. Both of our homes have nice sized back yards that are beautifully landscaped. At the large rental home we have 4 flower gardens and 1 large vegetable garden and now we want to add a 5th flower garden in the home's front yard.

I was browsing around online and found Dig, Drop, Done and you can visit their site right now to learn more about them. What I love about their flower bulbs is that they are simple to use: simply dig a hole, drop the bulb into the hole and you are done! You can walk away and do the next one! Easy! They have a "meet the ladies" section on their web site and you can meet Marcy the Super mom, Juliana the Fashionista and Evelyn the Empty Nester. Since I have no small children at home, I identified with Evelyn.

The site has a Garden Guru Tool on the bottom left of the page where you can enter your location, pick the type of bulb you want to grow and then check out their handy dandy planting guide which gives you further instructions on how to plant the bulb in your own location. I love that tool!

These bulbs are not just for gardeners, anyone can use them and you can even grow them inside if you want! (great for apartment dwellers!). My sister actually has a centerpiece on her large wooden farmhouse style table that consists of a large crystal glass vase filled with several unplanted flower bulbs. It looks so pretty and definitely gives her home some country charm!

How would you like to win a $5,000 yard makeover? Sure you would! One lucky winner is going to get some one on one time with Taniya Nayak and a yard makeover! Check out the Curbside Chaos contest and then please visit www.digdropdone.com to learn more about this fabulous contest going on right now! It is really easy to enter, just upload a photo of your yard that needs some beautiful attention and fill out the contest entry form today!

Plus if you share on Twitter about the contest @TaniyaNayak for every Twitter Tweet/Share Dig, Drop, Done will donate $1.00 to Rebuilding Together, a great non-profit agency that helps preserve affordable home ownership! yeah!

Good Luck and I hope you win!

3 Fantastic Kid's Craft Kits by KLUTZ | Review

Today I would like to talk to you about a company and their products which I think are absolutely fantastic and these craft products and kits are perfect for kid's birthdays, school crafts, scouting crafts, holiday gifts, party favors, you name it...these children's craft kits are fabulous!
The craft kits are made by a company called Klutz and they make a large variety of kid's craft kits like jewelry-making kits, rubber stamping kits, face painting kits, needle craft kits, painting kits, drawing kits, window art kits and so much more. Trust me...they have hundreds of craft kits that they sell and most of them are really unique ideas! One of the things I appreciate in regards to these kits is that you can purchase "refill supplies" after your children use up the supplies that are included in each kit.

My Review: Today I am reviewing 3 great craft kits by Klutz. First up...the Stamp Art craft kit that contains the spiral bound book, 1 clear stamping block, 64 clear stamps, black ink pad and 3 double-sides colored pencils (six total colors). This kit's clear stamps are done in a variety of shapes and the book & instructions teach you how to put the shapes together to create pretty flowers, various animals, sea life, aliens & planets, foods, zoo animals, etc. The directions are very easy to follow and it teaches you step by step how to do this. I sat down to do this with my 10 year old nephew and we had a blast! Check out this cute sea life CRAB that we made together? Isn't he cute? It took us less than 10 minutes to stamp him and color him in.We also got to review the Pom-Pom Monster Salon craft kit which includes yarn, pom-pom maker, wiggle eyes, foam facial features, ribbon bows, tube of liquid glue, various card stock cut-outs to accent your pom-pom creatures and more! I spent about 10-15 minutes reading all the directions in the book and then got busy making this adorable purple pom-pom creature. I named her "Purple Peter Eater" LOL and check out those shoes! I made the purple pom-pom first, glued on the wiggle eyes and pink tongue and then finished up gluing on the purple sneakers and lime green hair bow. Super cute and so easy to make! You can make several pom-pom animals, creatures, etc. just with this one kit and everything is included but the scissors!
Finally...we got to review the new Twisted Critters craft kit which is super fun! The kit comes with over 70 different types of pipe cleaners in a variety of colors along with the spiral bound instruction book. The book teaches you step by step how to make various creatures & animals using the included pipe cleaners and rolling them, twisting and attaching them to one another to create these special designs. We had a blast with this kit with my 10 year old nephew and 11 year old god son!

Overall Impression: We love the craft kits from Klutz! I love that almost (if not everything) that you need is included with the kit. Each kit has a large instruction book that is spiral bounds and is really easy to read & understand. These kits are great for kids of all ages and I think even adults will enjoy them. As a crafter myself, I really appreciate the ease of use and the cute things you can make with the Klutz kits!

I would personally like to thank Klutz for allowing me to do a product review for their company here on the Passionate About Crafting Blog.

Disclaimer: Shelly Hill has personally reviewed the product listed above. Shelly has not received any monetary compensation for her review. Shelly did receive a free product to try out so she could evaluate and use it for her review. Her thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your opinions may differ. The Passionate About Crafting Blog is not responsible for delivery/shipping of giveaway items won from this blog nor are we responsible for mis-use or injury caused by items won from this blog.

Halloween Candle Making: 3 Fun Projects for the Holiday

Halloween Candle Making: 3 Fun Projects for the Holiday
By Jason Kinech

Halloween is like almost all of the holidays: it makes people start to get crafty. Those that never touch construction paper are all of the sudden instant Martha Stewarts, desperately trying to out-craft their neighbors. Unfortunately, this usually results in excellent attempts, but with sometimes pitiful results. So how do you ensure that your spooky candles turn out well? Start simple!

Instead of immediately going for the bleeding skull candle, start with much simpler candle making projects that are just as appropriate for Halloween. To make it easy, here are 3 dead simple projects that you can do:

The Mini Pumpkin Tea Light

Alright, I'll be honest. There is actually no candle making involved in this particular project. However, it costs less than 2 dollars and you can make as many as you want to. All you need is a mini pumpkin (3-4 inches), a tea candle, and either a candle carver or a biscuit cutter. You could also just use a knife or screwdriver.

First we need to pick out a good mini pumpkin. No need for perfection here, we just need something that is going to be level and easy to work with. Next, choose your weapon! Whether you choose the candle carver, knife, or screwdriver, the goal is the same: cut out a circle the same size as a tea light candle.

If you aren't exactly sure on size, just cut a little bit off of the pumpkin so that it is level, then rest the tea light on top and trace around it. This will give you a good indication of the exact size area that you need to cut. Cut straight down then just chisel out inside the circle with a screwdriver, butter knife, or an actual chisel. Remember: safety first! Please be careful whenever using anything sharp. Once you have the area chiseled out for the tea light, drop it in and light. These make great gifts of the neighbors, or you can set up out along your driveway on trick or treat night.

Pumpkin Pie Floating Candles

This project is very easy and goes quickly. Even better, you'll actually be doing some candle making! We're going to make 3 scents: cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin. When all 3 are lit it will smell almost identical to a fresh pumpkin pie. Of course if you don't feel like making 3 different candles, you could easily just blend the scents together.

As with most candle making projects, we're going to start by finding and preparing the mold. To make floating candles I usually just use a heat proof bowl and only pour the wax about.5 to 1 inch thick. This makes for a candle guaranteed to float without any problems. Just rub your heatproof bowls with some vegetable oil to make sure that the candle releases easily.

After your molds are prepped you're ready to focus on the scents. For the cinnamon and nutmeg candles you'll just add the fresh spices to the wax, so those are easy. The only scent that we need to make is the pumpkin, and it is much easier than you'd think.

Simply warm about a cub of vegetable oil in a saucepan to about 100 to 150 degrees, it shouldn't be hot. Next, wash and peel the skin from a pumpkin then add it to the oil, you want about a cup of peelings. Let it steep for about 10 minutes, and then remove from the heat. If possible, let it sit for a week at room temperature (optional, but will result in a much stronger scent). If you don't do a whole week at least let it sit overnight. Then just strain out the solid pieces and you're left with your own pumpkin oil.

To make your floating candles just melt enough wax for all 3 candles, then sprinkle cinnamon into one mold and nutmeg in another. Shake them around to let the spices coat evenly in the mold, then dump out any extra. Just pour in the wax, then set your wick in the center (using pinned wicks with a tab). This little cheat means that you don't have to actually mix the scents in with the wax, saving you a step.

After the cinnamon and nutmeg candles are poured, add about a tablespoon of your pumpkin oil to the wax and mix thoroughly, then pour into your third mold. Let these all cool then float in water and light. Since you didn't add color this can really confuse your friends (everyone is used to pumpkin candles being brown), enjoy!

The Bleeding Candle

This Halloween candle making classic isn't as difficult as you'd think, and we're going to stick with our trusty bowl molds. Ideally, we want molds that have a smooth bottom as well; you'll see why in just a moment. But first:

Prepare your molds! I know; big surprise. Rub a little vegetable oil on the inside of one of the bowls and on the outside of another. Melt some white wax to the proper temperature and pour it into the first bowl, then insert the second bowl until there is only a 1 inch gap between them, and let cool. After it has cooled, remove the inner bowl; this will leave you with a white shell.

Melt and pour red wax until it us.5 inch below the top of the shell, then let cool again. Last step! Pour a final layer of white to cap the red (the wick should have been placed into the red pour), and let cool a final time. For a real bleeding effect drill holes up through the sides of the candle so that the melting red wax can escape.

These are just a few basic Halloween candle making ideas, but you can do almost anything you can think of. Get creative! Make a snowman from pumpkins, made a bleeding pumpkin, or even experiment with cookie cutters to make fun Halloween tarts. Once you've made a few that you're proud of, light them and show them off!

If you need specific candle making instructions just check out our free guide on how to make candles, and have fun!

Scrapbooking | Stay Cool At The Pool Scrapbook Layout Idea

Hubby and I spent a week down at the Jersey Shore last month and these photos are of us enjoying the afternoon in the hotel's outdoor pool which is beachside! I wanted a clean and uncluttered layout and I think I accomplished that. This layout is in the 12x12 format.

My background sheet is a piece of light blue textured cardstock from Scrapbuck.com I then took a piece of light blue print scrapbooking paper (yellow & blue tiny blocks) and trimmed it down by removing 2" off the top and 2" off one side. I then took a piece of textured yellow cardstock that I got from Scrapbuck.com and used that as my mat around the printed blue paper. I left a 3/16" border around the printed paper so that the yellow cardstock frames it. I used double-sided tape (also from Scrapbuck.com) to apply that on top of my solid blue textured cardstock background sheet and I off-centered it (more of a gap on the left side than the right side).

I had 3 photos that I wanted to use and I cropped them down, matted them onto the textured yellow cardstock and then onto solid light blue textured cardstock (all from Scrapbuck.com) and left 3/16" of border around all mats. I printed out the words STAY COOL onto yellow textured cardstock using my computer in a fancy font and them matted that with the light blue textured cardstock for my title block. I had a pack of Phrase Cafe Epoxy Vacation Stickers that I also got from Scrapbuck.com and I placed the blue water splat on top of the O in the STAY COOL title. From that same epoxy sticker pack I put the green water splat on the left-side of my layout over-lapping both the photo of myself & of hubby in the pool. There was a epoxy sticker in that pack that said IN THE SUN which I placed on the bottom edge of the photo of hubby in the pool to add some accent.
I had a cardstock sticker in light blue that said FLOATING so I mounted that onto yellow cardstock and then light blue cardstock (all from Scrapbuck.com) and put that title under the photo on the right side of the layout. Finally, I took the round epoxy sticker that says RELAX on it and put that under the FLOATING title/tag.

Note: I did use adhesive foam dots to attach my title block (STAY COOL), the photo on the right and the FLOATING title block as I wanted to add some definition and dimension to my layout but you can certainly just use 2-sided tape or scrapbooking glue.

I then signed and dated my layout in the bottom right corner. I decided to do my journaling about our afternoon in the pool on the backside of the page. (yes...if you like clean looking layouts you can certainly journal on the back of the page!).

This layout took me approximately 35 minutes to make and I saved a lot of time by using my paper trimmer to cut down my photos and photo mats.

Scrapbooking | Wild Thing 12x12 Zoo Scrapbook Layout Idea

If you love inexpensive and quick 12x12 scrapbook layout ideas then I think you will appreciate this one because it took me less than 40 minutes to make because I used a pre-made photo frame, self-adhesive stickers, cardstock and a zoo theme'd cardstock tag.

I first started out with a sheet of 12x12 leopard print scrapbooking paper which I used for my background. I purchased a "Wild Thing" cardstock frame for .50 cents to frame my 4x6" photo of my hubby standing with black bear. I then matted that with some solid black cardstock, trimmed it so that an 1/8" border remained. I used 2-sided tape and stuck it onto my layout.

I purchased a pack of self-adhesive zoo animal stickers on clearance for $1.00 and used the bear and the tiger stickers from the pack and mounted each one onto white cardstock. I trimmed them down into block shapes, used black ink to ink around the edges and then matted them onto dark olive green and solid black cardstock, leaving an 1/8" edge around each one. To add some dimension to my page I used self-adhesive foam dots to apply them to my page. (see photo for placement).

I cropped down a photo I had of the CAPE MAY ZOO sign and matted that onto block cardstock, trimmed it so that only an 1/8" edge remained and stuck that under the photo of hubby and made sure it over-lapped the photo frame.

To finish up I took a zoo themed tag that says "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" from a Tagalongs (tm) pack and added some fiber through the top of the tag and placed it onto my page. I then dated my layout in the bottom right corner. I did my journaling on the matching page to this one which you can find in the scrapbooking section here on my blog.

Scrapbooking | Pedal to the Metal Toddler Scrapbook Layout Idea

Today's scrapbook layout is a quick and easy one which is great for beginners or for those who just enjoy quick & easy layouts. This scrapbooking layout was done in the 12x12 format and took less than 30 minutes to make and cost about $1.25 to make it.

The background is a printed sheet of scrapbook paper done in primary colors. We had one photo that we cropped down slightly and matted it onto yellow and blue cardstock leaving an 1/8" border on each mat. We took a cardstock preprinted block that says Dream A Little Dream on it and matted that onto yellow and blue cardstock. We then attached it to the right of our photo using foam dots to give it some dimension. We accented the block with a little yellow plastic clothes pin at the top that we simply just clipped onto the block.

The title block for the page measures about 3" by 7" in length and is made up of light blue, medium blue, yellow and dark blue scrapbooking papers layered together. We used letter stickers to make our title "Pedal To The Metal" and placed them onto the title block. Accenting the title block is a small square shaped brad that has a star on it. Journaling for the page was done in handwriting on the backside (yes...you can journal on the backsides of your layouts).

I like my daughter's layout but if it would of been my layout I would of sized-up on the letters on the title block to make them more visible.

Camping and Collecting Items From Nature to Use in Crafting

As you all know...I am a big time crafter and I love to make a variety of crafts using various different crafting supplies. With that said...I also have another love which is going out camping with my husband. He is a big outdoors person and loves to hunt, fish, hike and camp in the great outdoors...especially here in the North East.

Just recently we have been discussing purchasing a few canvas tents for the family so that when we go out hunting, fishing and camping our families can go along with us. These types of tents are fabulous for those who enjoy the outdoors sports as they are large tents that can be set up quickly and easily. They are also very easy to take down once you are done using them.

When we go out camping in the woods or near a lake I like to take some canvas bags along with me so that I can collect acorns, pinecones, dried wildflowers, wheat stalks, smooth river rocks, moss, seed pods and other goodies from nature so that I can use them in my crafting projects once I return home. It is amazing the things you can make from found objects in nature!

So the next time you are heading out to go camping...take along an empty canvas sack and collect some of the things you find outdoors while hiking, fishing and camping! Once you return home with your goodies you want to set them outside for a few days in sunshine so that they can totally dry out before you bring them indoors to use.

Have fun on your next outdoor camping trip!