Fall – Page 2 – Our Beautifully Messy House

Pumpkin Suncatchers

October 7, 2015December 3, 2015 Porter 2 Comments

How sweet are these PUMPKIN SUNCATCHERS? They brighten up our kitchen windows and, hung beside some glue ghosts, they’ve quickly become my favorite Halloween decoration in the house!

This project evolved while L and I were making it. (I love when that happens!) Originally we were just going to paint some mason jar lids, tie a ribbon on and call them “pumpkins.” Once I realized they’d be hanging in the kitchen window, I had a eureka moment…I knew that turning our pumpkins into suncatchers would be too easy and too perfect! I just love the bright and sunny colors!

Materials needed:

mason jar lids
orange acrylic paint
plastic container (berry containers work great!)
Sharpie markers
green ribbon
green pipe cleaners
scissors
hot glue gun

*Notice the plastic container, hot glue gun, and markers are not pictured here…they surprised us in becoming “needed materials” half-way through the project!

First, have your little ones paint the mason jar lids orange.

After the lids have dried, tie a ribbon in a double-knot around the lid.

Next, cut a pipe cleaner in half. Wrap it around a thin marker or pen to make a curlicue.

Gently wrap the pipe cleaner curlicue around the knot at the base of the ribbon.

Now for the suncatcher part! Cut the lid off your plastic container and remove the label if there is one.

Have your little one color the plastic lid with Sharpie markers. L did some in solely “pumpkin colors” while the others she colored freely, using every color of the rainbow. (It’s important to use permanent markers, washable will rub right off and won’t work!)

Use the center part of a jar lid to trace rounds on the colored-plastic. Cut the rounds out and make sure they fit into the pumpkin lids. You may have to trim the sides a bit and cut a piece out where the ribbon will lie.

Next, with just a few dabs of hot glue, glue the colored-plastic in place. All done!

Hang your PUMPKIN SUNCATCHERS up in a bright and sunny window where everyone can enjoy them! Adorable!!!

Pumpkin Jar Craft

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015 Porter 6 Comments

I am so excited that October is finally here and we can start doing some Halloween crafts around our house! This PUMPKIN JAR CRAFT was inspired by the Jam Jar Fairy Houses we made last Spring. It’s a very similar concept! While many people think hot glue guns are just for gluing things together, we like to use them to add texture to our crafts as well. The hot glue gives our pumpkin jars a true, warty pumpkin appearance! I love the way they look with and without jack-o-lantern faces, in the day and at night! Too cute!!!

Materials needed:

jars, various sizes
hot glue gun and glue
acrylic paint
green, glitter spray paint
battery-operated tea lights

First, decide whether or not you’d like jack-o-lantern faces on your jars. I really liked our mixed…two with, one without. If you’re putting a face on your jar, carefully do that first with the hot glue gun. One great thing about hot glue gun glue: if you make a mistake, simply let the glue cool completely, then peel it off and start again!

Next, fill in the spaces and go around the jar with long, vertical stripes of hot glue. It certainly doesn’t need to be perfect…no two pumpkins are ever alike!

After the glue has cooled completely, paint the inside of the jar yellow, where the face shines through.

Now, paint the exterior of the jar orange. We painted ours with a mix of yellow and orange to give the pumpkins varying hues. Be careful around the face!

The pumpkins without jack-o-lantern faces are perfect for your littles to paint!

As the jars dry, spray your lids with glittery, green spray paint. Do this outside or in a well-ventilated area. If you don’t have spray paint, green acrylics would work fine too!

After the lids have dried, screw them on top your jars and your pumpkin jars are complete! Now for the fun part…find a place to display your pumpkins for everyone to enjoy! At nighttime, place a battery-operated tea light inside each jar to bring your pumpkins to life!

Are they cute or what? Enjoy!!!

Pumpkin Pancakes (GF)

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

I came up with this PUMPKIN PANCAKE recipe years ago and it remains a favorite in our house! Every Fall I wait for that first cold and rainy day and we have pumpkin pancakes for dinner! Paired with some bacon and homemade, baked apples, the meal couldn’t be more cozy, more filling and it couldn’t be easier to make! L likes to eat hers with her hands…with a couple apple slices folded inside of a pancake it’s like a little taco! At times, I’ve made three or four huge pancakes, layered baked apples in-between, and served this up as a Pumpkin-Apple Cake! Such a yummy side to a fall soup or stew!

You’d never know that the pancakes are low-fat. If you want to make them completely fat-free, replace the eggs with 3 egg whites. You can’t even tell the difference! We make our pancakes with an all-purpose, Gluten-Free flour and they come out just fine. Go ahead and use whatever flour you fancy though…they’d be good with a whole wheat variety or your regular, unbleached white flour.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash of ginger and/or nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup plain, fat-free yogurt
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 box raisins (2 oz.) optional
3/4 cup milk or water

Mix dry ingredients thoroughly in a large mixing-bowl w/ hands or spatula.
In a separate bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin and liquid ingredients. Beat well.
Make a small well in center of dry ingredients and slowly beat in the liquid ingredients. Beat until contents are thoroughly mixed, but not too long. Add additional water to desired consistency. Stir in raisins with a spatula (optional).

Spray a large skillet lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Put over medium heat. Pan is ready when water droplets quickly sizzle and evaporate.

Serves 2-3. Yummm!!! Enjoy!!!

White Picket Fairy Fence

August 18, 2015September 24, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

Well, I couldn’t show you how to make a Craft Stick Fairy Door without telling you how to make a WHITE PICKET FAIRY FENCE to go with it! The fence is simple to make and looks adorable out in the fairy garden!

Materials needed:

small craft sticks
regular-sized craft sticks
wood glue
Q-tips
white acrylic paint
acrylic sealant

First, lay out your sticks…4 small craft sticks in the middle with 2 regular-sized ones on the ends. If you don’t have small craft sticks, just cut some regular-sized one’s in half. The two craft sticks on the ends are left long, so that you can easily stick them into the ground, keeping the fence upright!

Next, think about where two craft sticks that will lie across the other ones will be and use a Q-tip to put wood glue in those spots across each stick. Lay the craft sticks on top of the glue and press to secure.

After the glue has dried, paint the picket fairy fence white.

Finish up with a coat of acrylic sealant spray.

Now for the fun part…while sneaking a fairy door into your neighbor’s garden, add a little white picket fairy fence as well! Gently push the ends of the fence into the soil. Enjoy!!!

Craft Stick Fairy Doors

August 16, 2015September 28, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

It’s no secret that we LOVE making fairy/gnome things at Our Beautifully Messy House…fairy houses, fairy furniture, fairy doors, gnome doors, flower fairies, fairy folk…need I go on? We just can’t help it! What I love the most about making fairy doors and gnome doors is surprising people with them! L and I made an abundance of CRAFT STICK FAIRY DOORS this week as we prepare to spread them around the neighborhood. Of course we enjoy surprising our friends and close neighbors, but what I really love is putting them on strangers’ front porches and sneaking them into their gardens! We rarely get to see people discover the fairy and gnome doors, but the surprise, the magic in it all makes L and I giggle for days! We’ve had a great time making these craft stick fairy doors…aren’t they the cutest!?!

Materials needed:

crafts sticks (big, small, colored, any or all)
wood glue
Q-tips
buttons

Optional materials:

acrylic paint
sealant spray
wire & nails

First, lay out your craft sticks in a door shape. If you have colored sticks, your kids will enjoy playing with patterns!

Using a Q-tip, put wood glue onto a small craft stick and carefully lay it across your door. If you don’t have small craft sticks, you can always cut a normal-sized one in half! It’s best to put at least 2 sticks across, but you can play with the angles and directions that you put them. Remember, fairy doors don’t have to be perfect!

If you don’t plan to paint your door, you can glue a button-handle on now too!

After the glue has dried a good bit, flip your doors over and smear wood glue all across the back for extra support. Let them dry for a few hours or overnight.

Next, if your craft sticks are plain and you want to, paint the doors. We especially like to add glitter paint to ours…helps the fairies and gnomes find the doors of course.

After the paint has dried, glue on button-handles if you have not done so yet. We like to spray our doors with some acrylic sealant as well…makes the wood a little more durable outdoors and gives them a more finished look.

Now for the fun part, hide them around town…or give them to friends! These would make an adorable party favor for both kids and adults! Enjoy!!!

5 Rainy Day, Bouncy Ball Games

July 21, 2015September 24, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

It wasn’t a “rainy day” here today, but it might as well have been! L was having fun, being a kid, over the weekend and ended up with stitches in her forehead…so, no swimming for the week while temps are in the upper 90s. Yuck! We had a ball this morning though (every pun intended) playing with a little, sparkly bouncy ball and some paper cups…kept us entertained for hours! You really could play these games anytime and just about anywhere!

Materials needed:

bouncy ball
paper cups

Game #1 (our favorite!): Catch the Ball

This can be a one person game or multi-person game.
One person drops the ball, bouncing it on the ground, and everyone tries to catch it in their cup. This is a great activity for little ones to learn and practice hand-eye coordination!

Game #2: Find the Ball

This game can be played various ways. You can perform the classic challenge, where you hide the ball under one of three cups and move them all around. The other person watches and then guess which cup the ball is underneath. Or, you can have 5 or 6 cups laid out, upside down. One person turns their back on the game, while the other person hides the ball under a cup. It’s fun to move the cups around into various shapes and patterns as well, while hiding the ball.

Game #3: Stack and Find

Take turns stacking the cups and hiding the ball inside. The other person is left to guess which cup the ball is in.

Game #4: Bounce into the Cup

Put the cups out onto the floor. Take turns tossing or bouncing the ball, trying to get it into a cup. Getting it into a cup isn’t too hard, but doing it gently enough so the cup stays upright is!

Game #5: Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Sit facing each other, with your feet touching, making a diamond-shape with your legs. Drop the ball, bouncing it in front of both players. Each person tries to cover up the ball, catching it underneath a cup. This game reminded me of “Hungry, Hungry Hippos”…hence the name. Enjoy!

What other games do your kids like to play involving bouncy balls?

DIY Toy Catapult

July 16, 2015September 24, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

What kid (or adult) doesn’t love launching things through the air? This DIY TOY CATAPULT takes only minutes to put together and your kids will play with it for hours…days even! I love how kids naturally experiment while playing with this toy. Even as young as three, L was moving the can (the fulcrum) around, placing the balls in various slots, and went on to launch her toy parachute, as well as her shoes! So much fun!!!

Materials needed:

yard stick
can of food
egg carton
scissors
hot glue gun
permanent markers (optional)

Things to launch:

ping pong balls
pom poms
-cotton balls
DIY Pocket Parachute
plastic figurines (fairies, dinosaurs, army men)
marshmallows or cereal (to catch in one’s mouth)

First, cut your egg carton in half.

Using a hot glue gun, glue the egg carton onto one end of your yard stick. (Don’t worry…when your kids are done playing with their catapult, the egg carton and glue should peel right off the yard stick! I take ours apart every time we’re finished playing with it!)

Next, number your egg carton slots and your ping pong balls. This step is optional, but it makes it easy to keep track of what ball goes the farthest and which slots you’re putting things into…especially if you’re launching multiple balls at once!

The set-up of your catapult is easy…just place the can on it’s side in the grass (keeps it from rolling) and place the yardstick on top. Fill the slots with your projectiles!

Now, time to play!!!

Launching balls…

Parachutes…

And L’s shoes…

What will you all send flying through the air???

If your kids like the catapult, they’ll definitely love making POCKET PARACHUTES…another “make something from nothing” craft! Enjoy!

Fairy Doors and Gnome Doors (#2)

June 30, 2015September 24, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

After making a fairy door out of sticks and hiding it in our neighbor’s garden last Summer, L and I thought we’d spread the fairy love a little farther this year…we’ve been making FAIRY DOORS and GNOME DOORS and hiding them all around town! It’s so much fun surprising the young and the old — just imagine the look on anyone’s face when they’re out in the garden and suddenly discover a teeny, tiny door that wasn’t there before. Ha! These fairy doors are so simple to make and all you need is rocks, paint and clear sealant (which is optional). To draw a little more attention to the fairy doors, we like to leave a tiny button or painted rock trail as well.

Materials needed:

medium-sized rocks
acrylic paints
clear sealant spray (optional)

After cleaning any dirt off your rock, start by painting on a door.

Next, add some windows, if you have room.

If adding any glitter paint, apply that next. We like to paint a little glitter over our windows.

Next, outline the door and windows carefully with black paint. Add a doorknob as well.

Now for my favorite part, paint connecting black lines on the rock, resembling a stone wall.

If you’d like to add a flower pot or lil window box, add one now.

Finally, finish with some green vines, leaves, and flower details.

Once all your paint is dry, you can spray the rocks with a coat of clear sealant to make the fairy doors even more weather resistant. Permanent paint usually doesn’t wash away, but I always like to add a coat of sealant just in case.

Now for the real fun…time to hide your fairy doors and gnome doors. (Gnome doors go on trees, generally speaking.)

I like making some of our fairy doors to resemble our neighbor’s front porches and gardens…

Enjoy!!!

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk

June 15, 2015September 24, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

Making SIDEWALK CHALK is so fun and easy, I doubt we’ll ever buy it from a store again! I’ve seen multiple DIYs on making chalk, but they all seem to use toilet paper rolls lined with wax paper or foil…some big complicated mess. I decided to use our silicone molds (the ones we only use for crafts) and the chalk popped out easily, plus it took on some fun and funky shapes! HOMEMADE SIDEWALK CHALK can be made in less than 10 minutes, but it takes 2-3 days to set completely…so give yourself plenty of time!

Materials needed:

Plaster of Paris
tempera paints
water
silicone molds
paper or plastic cups
plastic spoons or craft sticks

First, protect your working area with some newspaper.

The recipe for sidewalk chalk is pretty simple: 50% plaster of paris, 50% liquid (water + paint).

You can measure it out precisely: 1 cup plaster, 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup paint; or you can do what we did and just “eye ball” it.

Fill up your disposable cups about halfway with plaster.

Add a good squirt of paint.

Then add water. And mix.

Once you have all your chalk mixed up, carefully pour it into the silicone molds.

If you want to mix colors, making a funky tie-dye effect, fill your mold about halfway with one color. Then carefully pour other colors on top.

Set your sidewalk chalk aside for a full day to dry. I suggest placing it near an air vent in your house to speed up the process.

After a day has passed and the chalk looks dry, gently flip the molds over and release the chalk onto some wax paper. (If the chalk is still moist, you can try drying the chalk with a hair dryer too.)

Once the chalk has been removed from the molds, put it aside for another day or two for the chalk to set-up and dry completely. (As you can see, our yellow mixture may have been a little too moist on our first try…it was still sticky when we took it out of the molds. We let the yellow dry for a day longer than the rest, and it colored just fine!)

Now, time to play!!! Aren’t the colors beautiful? Brighter than any sidewalk chalk I’ve ever seen!

Enjoy!!!

Giant Bubble Wands and a Homemade Bubble Solution Recipe

May 5, 2015September 24, 2015 Porter Leave a comment

Did you ever make these GIANT BUBBLES when you were a kid? My siblings and I loved making them way back when! Recently, we had a bubble kit given to us with a wand included, but it was too big for L to do on her own…so, of course, I had to brainstorm and make a wand she could use as well! The best part about it was we already had all the materials we needed. If you don’t have two rulers to use, two large mixing spoons or spatulas would probably work great too…anything with a hole at the end of the handle. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom for the HOMEMADE BUBBLE SOLUTION RECIPE. It’s better than any store-bought variety and takes only a minute to make!

Materials Needed:

2 plastic rulers
yarn, 3-6 feet long
binder ring, shower curtain ring, or a keychain ring
homemade bubble solution (See below)

First, cut the string to suit your size…the shorter the person, the shorter the string!

Next, thread the ring onto the string and tie both ends together with an overhand knot.

Thread a loop of yarn through the hole on one end of a ruler. Bring the loop up and over the opposite end of the ruler and pull it tight. (See pictures.)

Attach the other ruler the same way, leaving about 1 to 2 feet of yarn between the two rulers.

With the bubble solution in a large bowl or container, gently lower the yarn into the liquid. Make sure the yarn is soaked through.

Next, carefully lift the yarn out of the bubble solution. Slowly and steadily, spread the rulers apart while walking backwards. If there is a breeze, make sure the wind is blowing on your back.

To close the ginormous bubble, carefully bring the rulers together again. So cool!!!

HOMEMADE BUBBLE SOLUTION RECIPE

Ingredients:

warm water
sugar
dish soap

Materials:

measuring cup
Tablespoon measuring spoon
medium bowl or container
spoon

Put one Tablespoon of sugar into your bowl or container. Pour 200 ml of warm water on top of the sugar and mix until all the sugar is dissolved. Add 50 ml of dish soap (30 ml if using ultra dish-washing detergent) and mix. Finally, add 300 ml of warm water to the mixture and mix.

That’s it! This bubble solution is the best we’ve ever made!