Spice Roll (pumpkin)

This is a Pumpkin Roll, if I call it a pumpkin roll nobody in my house will eat it, so we call it a spice roll. My husband doesn't even want me to call it a pumpkin roll, he says pumpkin roll just doesn't sound good. You know all that mushy orange stuff you pull out of a pumpkin when your a kid and your going to carve them. But mix it with sugar, cinnamon and a cream cheese filling and you have fabulous. My daughter asked me what I was making and then she looked at me and said "I want to know what it is really called", teenagers are so funny, NOT.

Spice Roll

3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
2/3 cup of canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of flour
1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Pre-heat the oven to 350

degrees. Beat the eggs and
sugar until blended. Stir in the
pumpkin, baking powder, soda,
cinnamon, salt and flour. Spray

a 15" x 10" cookie sheet with an oil spray, cover it with a sheet of waxed paper, spray it again. Pour the batter into the pan and spread it out. Sprinkle the pecans on top and tap the pan to make the pecans dig into the batter. Bake for 15 minutes, remove the pan from the oven, flip the pan onto a cotton dish cloth, remove the wax paper and roll loosely, pecan side down, let cool.

Filling

8 ounces of soft cream cheese
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 tablespoons of soft Parkay butter
2 cups of powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese and butter together. Stir in the vanilla and powdered sugar. This should be slightly stiff, if not add more powdered sugar

After the roll is cooled, slightly open and spread the filling onto the roll. Re-roll. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for a few hours.

A Fairy Skirt

Take a skirt you all ready have and transform it into a fairy skirt. I took a black ribbon and tied strips of purple tulle onto it. I tied on a few black ribbons, made two silk flowers that clip on and a fairy wand. This skirt is worn over the black skirt but it is not attached so the black skirt can still be worn to school. The clips can be worn on the skirt, on her shirt or in her hair. The wand is just for fun.

Boo Bags

Have you ever forgotten your child's Halloween bag? Even though it's their bag, you forgot it and you will NEVER be forgiven. Well, I've done this a few times, so to help the mummy's out we have made BOO bags. We had these at the Church Festival and the kids love them, and we have fun making them. The first two bags use markers and an ink pad for a thumb print spider. The Trick or Treat bag is stamped with a circle sponge, let dry and color in the rest. the Crazy Cat uses scrap paper and google eyes. It's that easy and the bags are really cheap. You could draw a skull and call it Face Book. Pumpkins, Ghosts and Goblins, OH my.

Super Easy Cookie Pie

This is the easiest pie I have ever made and it tastes like Heaven. Heaven, this must be Heaven. This is a great recipe to let little hands help.

Cookie Pie

1 bag Chips Ahoy Original Chocolate Chip Cookies (not the soft ones)
1 cup of milk in a bowl
12 ounces of Cool Whip
Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

Dip each cookie into the milk and shake the excess milk off. Place one layer of cookies into a pie dish. You will have to break two or three cookies to fill in the layer. Cover with a layer of Cool Whip. Repeat two more times. Drizzle the chocolate syrup on top. That's it, now just refrigerate.

*Make sure you shake the cookies or you will end up with milk puddles in your pie dish.

*Just think of all of the cookies you can try with this recipe.

Wicked Shirt

I saw this image on canvas and thought to myself that would make a cute t-shirt. You can see it at youcanmakethis.com. I used Tulip Slick paint that has a fine tip and it is just like writing with a pen. The large spider has sequins on the back and a black button head. The two holes in the button make it look like it has eyes..... spooky. This would be a good shirt to wear if your too old to "Trick or Treat", I myself think you are never too old to "Trick or Treat".

Fall Leaves

I needed some leaves to tie onto bags at our Harvest Festival so I searched on the computer and found some patterns at cathiefilian.blogspot.com. Her leaves are very pretty, she gives you two sizes of leaves and her leaves are made using material and stiffener. The kids at Church will be helping me so were using construction paper, wax paper and jute twine to make ours. I like the wax leaf the best, just take a large piece of wax paper and fold it over lengthwise. Open it up and on one side of the paper take fall colored crayons and with a pencil sharpener start peeling away at the crayons letting the peels drop across the wax paper. I used two shades of orange with a little brown thrown in. Fold the other side of the wax paper onto the crayon peels. With paper towels under the wax paper and on top take your iron that is set on medium heat and iron the wax paper until the crayons melt. The colors will seep through so make sure you have plenty of paper towels. Let the wax paper cool, trace and cut out the shapes. The dark brown large leaf really brought out the colors in the wax leaf. Punch two holes and tie a bow using jute twine. If these tags were for Thanksgiving I might use raffia to tie the bow and add a Thankful tag. I did use some scrapbook paper on these but the ones the kids will make will be from decorated construction paper and they will have a Scripture tag on them.

Pumpkin Candle Holder

I saw a pumpkin candle holder similar to the one I am making but the construction paper was folded to the inside of the jar.... can you say fire hazard? I took a 1/2" strip of construction paper and wrapped it around the top where the lid screws on and let it overlap about 1/2", you might have to glue two pieces end to end if your jar is larger. I cut strips of construction paper 1/2" x 8 1/2" long and hot glued them to the strip that goes around the top. I folded it over the top, continue this until you reach the end. I cut a circle and hot glued it to the bottom so you wouldn't see the strips hot glued to bottom. Start by hot gluing strips on the opposite side to keep it uniform. Continue until you have all of the strips hot glued to the bottom. Flip it over and cut a leaf shape and two 1/2" x 8 1/2" strips from green construction paper. Run the leaf along the side of a pencil this will give it a curled effect. Take the strip and wrap it around the pencil tightly, this will give it a curly shape, repeat with the other strip. Hot glue these shapes next to the leaf. I used a 16 ounce pickle jar for this project and all of the sizes fit just right. Place a candle in it and it is just precious. This project is better left inside because the construction paper won't hold up to Texas humidity. I don't think this project will last past Halloween but that's OK, just tear everything off and use it for a Christmas project, it smells like pickles anyway.

French Toast Cupcakes

I found this recipe the other day but the site didn't have the amount on some of the ingredients so I Googled it. This is a fabulous cupcake, (my nephew called it Heaven) but I think it is more of a spice cupcake but then the kids wouldn't have tried it, so we will stick with:
French Toast Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1/2 cup of soft Parkay butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of Maple syrup
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1/2 cup of milk
1 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 cup of flour
Mix all of the ingredients, fill cupcake pans about half ways and bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry. I like to taste my batter and I was worried because this batter was awful but the cupcakes were great.
Icing
8 ounces of soft cream cheese
4 tablespoons of soft Parkay butter
3 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Beat cream cheese and butter, stir in sugar and cinnamon. Frost generously.

Wire Pumpkins

These are my new wire pumpkins
and they would look cute sitting on a counter or a desk. I used 20 gauge wire and a 4" piece of a branch that I cut from one of my trees. You will need 12-15 pieces of wire cut to 15" long. Criss-cross the ends about an inch and wrap it to form a circle. Hot glue the wire onto the stick, shape the wire to look like a pumpkin, cover the top stem with paper and spray paint the wire orange. Add a green ribbon and you have a pumpkin. 18 gauge wire would probably be best for this project but it is harder to work with because it is a thicker wire.

Door Knob Wreaths

I made 10 of these door knob wreaths for the Church Christmas craft booth that will be in December. I saw one that was a styrofoam wreath, bells and ribbon, and I just happened to have these vine wreaths someone had given me (I don't remember who but I am Thankful). I tied the bells on with jute twine and cut some strips of material for the bows, but it was looking pretty plain so I added the black tulle. Now my idea of Christmas is everything should be sparkly and glittery and they didn't have any of that so I found some shiny red wired stars and bells that give it that special touch I was looking for. My house is a country Christmas so I prefer the plaid one but the red poinsettia ribbon looks more like Christmas. If I can find some 2" Crosses I would like to add that to them as a reminder of the reason for the season.

Lil Old Scarecrow

This lil old scarecrow wouldn't scare
anybody but he sure would be cute sitting on a desk. He has an 1 1/2" head and poly-pellets inside to give him some weight. I hot glued a flat disk onto the bottom of the rod and his head to the top, I also hot glued the bottom disk to the center of the 10" circle for his body, I didn't want any beads slipping under the disk and making him a tipsy scarecrow. I used a Sharpie for the eyes and mouth, a brad for his nose, a little raffia for hair, and I added a small burlap patch and button. I loosely hand stitched about 3/4" down from the top, all the way around the 10" circle and gathered it together. I slowly poured
some poly-pellets into the sack (those darn things just fly all over the place), I knotted the opening and hot glued the sack to the head. You don't want any of those poly pellets escaping. I tied a jute rope bow around the outside just for cuteness. Give him some rosy pink cheeks and a flower on his hat and he's ready to just sit on your desk and smile back at you.