Cutesy dutesy fall activities, here we come! I love doing any and all crafts that correspond with the seasons/holidays, but carving pumpkins is not my forte. I've tried my hand at carving pumpkins many times, but it never goes quite the way I planned! So, this year, I decided to try my hand at some sharpie pumpkins instead of the traditional carving - and boy am I glad I did. I am so happy with the way it turned out!
What You'll Need:
- Sharpies: It's best to get multiple + a variety of different sized sharpies.
- Medium Pumpkin (Or whatever size your heart desires!)
- Old Nail Polish (especially sparkly ones!)
- Printed Design - optional
- Vis A Vis or Dry Erase Marker - optional
To pick my design, I browsed through some fall-themed handlettering and calligraphy. Some of my favorites: {Happy Fall}, {Hello Fall}. You can pretty much choose whatever design you'd like! Similar to what you'd do for pumpkin carving, you can print out a design, trace it with a vis-a-vis or dry erase marker (these are erasable if you make a mistake!) and then go over your design with your sharpies! I decided to try my design free hand instead of using a traced design.
I recommend having multiple sharpies of each size because the sharpies start to dry out a little when coloring in the design. When they start to dry out, throw them in a cup upside down and use your other sharpies while you wait!
Last (and my favorite) step: adding the nail polish! I've hoarded about a million bottles of nail polish at this point and at least a quarter of them are goopy and difficult to use - but they're perfect for adding pretty accents to pumpkins! I used a gold polish to paint the entire pumpkin stem and parts of the lettering to add a nice sparkly touch!
Overall - I'm incredibly happy with the way my pumpkin turned out! So much so that I think I might be done with carving for good! Except I'll definitely miss munching on the pumpkin seeds while carving :) What are your favorite fall crafts? Have you tried sharpie pumpkins? I'd love to hear what you thought of them!
October in Photos ♥
Autumn is such a beautiful time of year - especially in October, when the seasons are just beginning to shift and the leaves begin to change color. It never fails to amaze me how perfectly the colors of autumn go together. I could try a thousand times to re-create the same vibrant colors in a photograph, but it'll never compare to simply stepping outside and snapping a photo of a tree or spending a fall afternoon in the park. I've always felt that pictures of my life convey so much more meaning than my words can even begin to describe. I could ramble on and on about how beautiful a leaf is or how adorable my cat is - but writing an entire paragraph might never convey a moment's meaning quite as clearly as a single photo can. So, here is my month of October - in photos. Enjoy!
Last Minute Halloween Costumes!
Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people who looks forward to Halloween and plans my elaborate costume for months on end - although I wish I was! In reality, I'm that person frantically googling super duper easy costume ideas on the night of October 30th and scrambling to put together a costume with whatever knick knacks I have lying around the apartment.
To help my fellow lazy friends out there, I've pulled together some of my favorite last minute Halloween costumes from all over the DIY/blogger interwebs! Even if I'm not feeling too creative in the moment, I know I can always turn to the Internet for some of the most creative, fun, and hilarious ideas.
1. Pigs in a Blanket: David and I went as Pigs in a Blanket for Halloween a couple of years ago and it has since been one of my all time favorite Halloween costumes! This blog post is even a little bit more complicated of a costume than what we created! We used dixie cups covered in pink paper for the noses, taped pink cardstock onto headbands for the ears, and then wrapped up in a cozy pink snuggie for the entire night. Bonus points for being the coziest costume ever!
2. Bachelor Contestants: This one's on my future Halloween costume list because it's just so darn hilarious and extremely easy to boot! Just throw on a cocktail dress, grab some friends, pass out a bouquet of roses and you're set! I am a complete and total bachelor-addict so this costume is just too funny to pass up!
3. Raining Cats & Dogs: This one is adorable! If you've already got a rain coat, rain boots, an umbrella, and stuffed animals, you're good to go! Finally, a use for the 1,000 childhood stuffed animals sitting in my closet :)
4. Smartie Pants: What I love about all of these costumes is that you don't have to spend too much extra money because you can create them with things that are already around the house. If you have a pair of glasses, a tie (or even better, a bowtie!), and some high-waisted pants you're already halfway there! Plus, if you love smarties like I do, this costume is an awesome excuse to buy an entire bag of them just so you can munch on them throughout the night :)
What are your plans for Halloween? Whatever they might be - stay safe and stay warm out there!
