Wine Cork Pumpkins

I had a friend recently invite me over for lunch. Not only was there yummy food when I arrived, but a surprise craft she had been dying to try. I walked in and in front of me was a table full of autumn leaves, wine corks, hot glue guns, stamps, ink pads, and crafts supplies as far as the eye could see! I was in heaven! There could have easily been a heavenly autumn light shining down from above onto the table with crafty angel voices singing... does this lady know my love language or what?  She wanted to make wine cork pumpkins!

Wine cork pumpkins are a perfect little addition to your autumn/harvest decor

My friend let me know she had been dutifully drinking wine (for several years I hope, as she had THREE gallon sized bags of corks) and tucking the corks away for just such an occasion.

Leaves, and corks, and glue guns, oh my!

There were many to choose from.  The red wine corks had nice shades of purple, some pink, some brown on the tips of the cork.  The white wine corks had stayed their original light tan color.  We separated the corks into two piles, the red wine and the white.  

If you love wine and crafts, this wine cork pumpkin is right up your alley!

We were using some pictures off Pinterest for our inspiration, as some looked a bit pentagonal (angular instead of round edges) and we picked out one that had a more rounded look using the following pattern:

5 corks in a row
6 corks
7 corks
7 corks
6 corks
5 corks

I picked out an array of corks with different colors.  She had some stamp pads in plum and orange colors to help "enhance" any of the corks that needed an extra splash of a harvest color tint of our choosing.  I lined up my first row of five and simply started using a line of hot glue to connect the corks to each other.

I tried to pick a good mix of reds, purples, natural, and then one "enhanced orange" using the stamp pad

The glue gun makes fast work of the stacking.  Now onto row two which has six corks.  

Mixing up the colors a bit so it makes a random pattern of different fall shades

Rows 3 & 4 are seven corks long.  I sort of laid them out in front of the project to continue that "random" pattern where the same color isn't next to itself, but to mix and match all the shades throughout the same row, and not lined up with the color in the row below it.  It's like wine cork Sudoku.

When gluing between two corks I ran two lines of hot glue, one on each cork below for better adhesion

The interesting thing here is, the first three rows interlock with each other each time you add a new row, however the second row of seven is actually stacked directly on top of the row below it.  This will give you a more rounded pumpkin in the end, but be sure to use corks around the same size so they don't throw off your row height.

I love how the different shades are working out here, some light, some dark, some purple, some orange

The next row is back to six corks. I am not only gluing the new cork to the two corks below it, but a third line of glue to stick to the cork next to it.

Almost done with our cork pumpkin!

The final row is the same as the first with five corks.

It's turned out very cute!

Now, you get to gussy it up with some finishing touches. I chose an exceptionally cute cork without any blemishes to be the "stem" of my pumpkin. We also glued some realistic plastic fall leaves she had (branches from the dollar store).  A few of the branches had little acorns on them, so I thought that made a nice little touch.

Wine cork pumpkins could become all the rage

For a last little topper she surprised me by pulling out some raffia ribbon (looks like straw ribbon) that helped give it a rustic, yet finished the look.

The finished wine cork pumpkin!

Here was her finished design:

So adorable!  I love the yellow leaf here it looks very real, plus her stem has a top that looks great

We decided to try them out on a shelf she already had.  They went really well with her existing decor. 
 

Wine cork pumpkins in their natural habitat....

This was such a fun little project to do over a lunch visit! They would make a great little display for your entry table or fire place.  Make a set in different sizes, and display together. It could also be a cute little gift for a friend or a thank you give for a hostess.

 
I put mine right on the entry table as soon as I got home, and it fit right it.

Wine cork pumpkins rock.

 
So get some friends together, drink copious amounts of wine (or start saving up your corks from now on) and do a little craft project together. Bringing the world closer one craft at a time!

Enjoy!

Halloween Cookies

It was conferences this week at school.  That means the girls had half days, (more like super short 2.5 hour days) and we had some extra time on our hands in the afternoons to have a little fun.  We came across these Halloween inspired chocolate chips at the grocery store, and thought we could do something creative with them.  We succeeded!

Ooo spooky fun PURPLE cookies!

We had only just started whipping up our regular cookie recipe: the Nestle Toll House one on the back of the bag (with 2 small alterations which I will share in a moment), when my oldest suggested we dye the cookie dough orange or purple.  We went with purple!  I, myself, who has loved making rice krispie treats all the colors of the rainbow from my teenage years on up, had never once in my whole life, ever thought to dye chocolate chip cookie dough.  

...And a child shall lead them...  Genius!  

Nothing more perfect to bring out the orange and black colors in the chocolate chips than amping them up with that other fun Halloween color of purple!  Here are the chips.  We found them in the baking aisle or sometimes they will have a holiday baking section in the grocery store.  The orange colored chips are actually orange flavored, and the others are the regular semi-sweet.

The orange chips add a nice flavor to the cookie!

Then we mixed our dough.  We only happened to have the neon food colors, so I was not sure how that would turn out... but shazam, the dough did indeed turn purple!  By the way my two secret "enhancements" to the Toll House recipe (in making a double batch) are as follows:  Add 1/2 cup extra flour, and 1 tsp extra vanilla

Ooo purple-y dough!

Then we plopped them on the cookie sheet as normal.  Oh I guess I do one MORE thing different in the cooking department as well.  When I use these sturdy half sheets pans with the handy dandy silpat mats (love them!!), I will bake these at 350º for 13 minutes exactly.  The original recipe calls for 375º for 10 minutes but I was tired of brown edges and soft centers. 

With the lower temp of 350º and the slightly longer bake time and they came out perfect for us.

Mmmm cookies

After that all you need is a nice cool glass of milk and a stack of your purple spooky treats to enjoy.

 
The neon color dye made this a light purple shade.  I'd love to try it again with a few drops of regular red and blue to attempt a darker shade.

 
It sort of reminded me of the back of a sting ray creeping through the ocean...

 
See what I mean?  I don't know if you've ever seen a sting ray before up close, but they are huge, glide-y... almost alien-esque.  Some of these above are as big as dinner tables, and although we were told they were friendly and snugly like "big cats"... All I could think about were they were over-sized wasps with killer tails.  Did I mention I kissed one?? I was told it was 7 years of good luck if you do.

Hubby and me kissin' sting rays in Grand Cayman Island

Sure.. I look "happy" in this picture... but would you believe I'm terrified!?  Standing chest deep on a sandbar with ocean currents knocking you over and your last known instructions were "do NOT STEP ON OR SWIM OVER A STING RAY"... careening through your head... Right after this pic I high-tailed it back to the boat, having to navigate past 12 other huge stings rays just to make it back safely.  Why did I go off on this crazy sting ray tangent just now?  Because sting rays scare the crap out of me, and purple chocolate chip cookies oddly now remind me of them. Especially Halloween themed cookies, which should be scary too!

All in all it was a fun way to slightly change up a regular cookie baking afternoon with some newfangled chips and some revolutionary fun cookie dough colors.  I have to thank my 8 year old for the inspiration.

Friendly Skeleton Snacks

Well, last year, my preschooler was doing a 5-week study on the different parts of the body.  We were assigned snack on the week they were learning about the brain and the spine.  Given my desire to coordinate a fabulous snack with the weekly theme (all while trying to impress students, teachers, and other parents alike), I went searching for something body related.  Only trouble was, googling "brain" and "spine" food images do not conjure up anything remotely appetizing.  I did find some inspiration over at the "Wants and Wishes" blog, however, it included some messy chocolate covered gauche brownie and a bamboo skewer.  Since sharp, pointy objects and 4.5 year olds don't go together all that well, I came up with this easier version.  Not only would these work for a preschool body lesson, BUT they also are the cutest little friendly skeletons that would work for a school snack or after school craft for the kiddos.

Friendly little brains and spines - how cute is that?

Luckily, you only need a few things to make this little craft/snack come to life:

Marshmallows
Yogurt or white chocolate covered pretzles
Food dye ink pens

Plus cellophane and twist ties. 

First get out your marshmallows and your food dye pens.  I got a pack of 5 colors at Joann's in the cake decorating section for $9.  Using the 40% off coupon you can get them for around $5.  Draw on some happy faces.  By the way, the first time I tried to do this, I attempted a more "accurate" skeleton face with just the black pen.  Let's just say the ink ran a bit and made the face turn out a little too spooky.  You don't want your food to look like it could jump off the table and latch onto your neck, right?  Yikes.  Get ye behind me, evil marshmallow head!

unintentional creepy ghoul.

If you DO want yours a bit more spooky, then by all means use just black ink.  Since we were making these were for the small fry, I opted to make green-eyed happy faces.

The happiest disembodied heads you ever done seen!

After you make your heads, all you need is a small stack of the yogurt covered pretzels (we found ours in the bulk section at Winco).  It turns out five stack up pretty nice, and are sturdy enough to stand up without tipping over.  At first I bought some tall 1-inch narrow cellophane bags (usually meant for large chocolate dipped pretzel rods), thinking the skeletons would stack up nicely inside.  However, they were too small for the pretzels to fit in laying down flat.  I ended up tearing out a small rectangle of plastic wrap for each skeleton and wrapping them up the old fashioned way, with the marshmallow balanced on the top.  Then when you seal them up with the twist tie, everything will stay together in one nice stack.

Awwww adorable!

After that, just make as many as you need to give one away to each child in the class.  As you can see, we made a little army of happy skeletons.  The kids absolutely LOVED these!  Not to mention, yogurt covered pretzels are my daughter's favorite snack.  Win and a win again!

The teacher, Ms. Cindy, (who is a BIG fan of themed snacks) was excited, nay giddy about our cute little spines and brains. By the way, the kids thought we had used sharpies on the marshmallows at first, so be sure to let them know it is food dye.  Just thought I would pass these along to you for the month of October.  These would make a great little snack to take to school!  Enjoy.