- fresh, whole carving pumpkin. You have to go pretty big with these, so I found a place that was selling them per pumpkin, not per pound. I can eyeball it better now, but the first time I took my teenager with me and held pumpkins up to her head to make sure I wasn't buying one that was too small. The trick is to find a pumpkin tall enough that it can touch your shoulders. Too short, and not only will it slide around, but the top of your head will be taking the entire weight of the pumpkin, which is HEAVY!
- pumpkin carving tools. Yes, I use those cheap-looking mostly-plastic carving kits that all the big-box stores sell, but, um. Those pumpkin carving kits are the bomb! Not only are they easy to use and give super accurate results, but my family has been using the same cheap tools for probably over a decade by now. If you gave me one of these nice stainless steel and wood pumpkin carving sets, though, I wouldn't be sad...
- autumn apparel. Jeans, boots, and flannel shirts look suitably autumnal.
- head protection (optional). The Jack-o-lanterns really are quite heavy! To provide a little padding and avoid getting pumpkin guts on your hair, you can opt to wear a washable fuzzy beanie or a shower cap.
- wagon (optional). We walked down a local trail for a bit to find the perfect autumn scene for our photo shoot. A folding wagon made sure we didn't have to lug Jack-o-lanterns in our arms while we hiked!
Sunday, September 17, 2023
You Should Take Pumpkinhead Photos
Sunday, September 10, 2023
Pumpkin Pounding: A Halloween Project for Small Children
This tutorial was originally posted on Crafting a Green World way back in 2009!
Encouraging my children's independence is VERY important to me. Not only is it easier for me to parent two small children who can pour their own milk and put on their own coats and carry their own balance bikes up and down the front porch stairs, but it's also a priority in my parenting that my girls see themselves as capable individuals who can handle challenges and perform the meaningful work of day-to-day living.
Because of that, carving pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns can be a really frustrating experience.
I do permit my children to cut with sharp knives (with supervision), but not to use them on something as thick and unwieldy as a pumpkin. Although there are around-the-house materials that make pumpkin carving an activity more appropriate for small children (subject for a later post), my girls' favorite Jack-o-lantern craft is something that we call pumpkin pounding.
Pumpkin pounding is a hands-on activity that uses real tools on a real pumpkin, and each of my girls was able to do it with help at age two, and independently by age three. The best part, however, is that in the end, depending on how enthusiastic a pounder your kid has been, you end up with a real, live Jack-o-lantern for sitting on the porch steps and popping a candle inside.- field pumpkin that's not too round. You want to be able to sit it on its various sides, as well as its butt, and not have it roll all over creation.
- hammer. You can lay out a variety of hammers for your kids to experience, but the best tool for them is one that's as light as possible but has the widest hammer head
- nails. Again, lay out a variety to try out, but the best ones are as wide as possible with the widest head
- knife and scraping tool and whatever else you'll need to cut the top of the Jack-o-lantern and scrape the insides
Saturday, September 2, 2023
Homeschool Science: How to Grow a Pumpkin out of Another Pumpkin
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
The New and Improved Way to Press Flowers in the Microwave
I spent years pressing flowers in the microwave using the supplies that I had on hand--a terra cotta plant dish, a Pyrex bowl, and paper towels.
But when my Girl Scout troop also wanted to learn how to press flowers in the microwave, I realized that what's good enough for me is not NEARLY good enough for them! They needed proper materials and a clearer method.
A trip to the town's ReStore scored me a whole troop's worth of unglazed terra cotta tiles at something like ten cents apiece. And simply substituting white typing paper--even the back sides of used typing paper!--turned out to be a much easier method than using paper towels, with a cleaner-looking result, as well.
So here's the new and improved way to turn your microwave into a flower press!
You will need:
- two unglazed terra cotta tiles. The larger the better, as the size of the tile is the limiting factor in the size of flower you'll be able to press. The tops should be completely smooth.
- plain typing paper, several sheets. Recycle used typing paper, as long as at least one side is blank and clean.
- freshly-picked flowers. I think the ones that have a distinctive front and back are most easily pressed, but you do you!
My tiles have gotten dirty because the backsides of the paper that I've been laying against them has had printing on it. It won't affect the flowers, though, and they'll wash clean. |
While a third person grates cheese, ahem. |
Sunday, November 13, 2022
Holiday Crafts: Leaf-Carved Pumpkin
Saturday, October 29, 2022
Pumpkinheads, or, Put on a Jack-o-Lantern and Take One Thousand Photos
This photo shoot was so fun, and I am so happy with the photos! And afterwards, our pumpkinheads joined the rest of our Jack-o-lantern family:
I've longed for years to buy more of those carvable fake pumpkins to add to our menagerie, but the big-box stores eventually realized how awesome they are and they've been stupid expensive for a while now. I bought them yearly when the kids were small, though, and those kid-carved forever pumpkins are my favorites, so I'm pretty stoked to have a new type of magical Halloween memorabilia to display next year!
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
The Foolproof Way to Make Poured Teacup Candles
I have finally locked down THE foolproof way to make perfect poured candles from any wax type and in any heat-proof container.
The secret weapon is a drill!
Up to now, I'd always been stymied by the process of choosing an appropriately-sized wick for both the wax type and the container dimensions. If your wick is too small, the candle will tunnel, look awful, and eventually just pathetically peter out. If your wick is too large, the candle will burn way too hot, smoke and sputter, and potentially crack the container and set your house on fire.
Neither is ideal.
So, here's the secret: you pour your candle wax into the container of your choosing, just as if you're making the candle, but you DO NOT ADD A WICK.
Let the wax rest for 48 hours, then get a drill and literally drill a hole for the wick directly into the wax. Insert a wick, light it, let the candle burn for an hour, and see how you like it. You can pull the wick out and replace it, drill holes for additional wicks, repour wax over the top of the candle to start over, etc.
There is no way to mess up the entire candle, yay!
I did a lot of wick tests for the poured teacup candles that my Girl Scout troop wanted to make. I wanted a wick size that would work for most sizes of teacups, AND I was really hoping to use the multi-pack of candle wicks that I found at Goodwill for 99 cents, because I'd already spent quite a bit on the beeswax.
Unfortunately, this is what my first wick test looked like:
- I gave up on the idea of a 100% beeswax candle in a teacup. Beeswax burns so hot that I decided that it's just not an appropriate candle wax for a teacup candle, which narrows quite dramatically. I couldn't free myself from the intrusive daydreams of some kid's teacup candle getting too hot, exploding into their face, and then setting their house on fire.
- I embraced the idea of multiple wicks! Test burning a wick from the Goodwill pack let me measure the diameter of the melt pool, which makes deciding on the number and placement of additional wicks a lot easier.
The candle on the right is perfect. The middle candle, after a few more burns, did build up to a full melt pool. The candle on the left is still tunneling down that original melt pool, mostly, I think, because the bottom wick is butting up against the wall of the teacup.
And here's how it looks to have teacup candles in your life!
Overall, I think this was a decently teenager-friendly project, and I'm satisfied that this is about the most foolproof method around for pouring teacup candles. The kids talked about making candles for holiday presents, so we might revisit this in a few months. Otherwise, I'm thinking that sand candles could be a fun project for a camping trip!
P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, road trips, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!
Thursday, August 4, 2022
Decoupaged Pressed Flower Greeting Cards, and a Real-World Practicum in First Aid
My Girl Scout troop's Folk Arts IPP meeting is a wrap!
Alas, for I did not meet my goal. At one point I asked the troop to start cleaning up after soapmaking while I went to see if the beeswax and coconut oil were completely melted for candlemaking. I swear I was gone for approximately fifteen seconds, but I came back into the room to the following:
KID #2: "I see blood."
NAME REDACTED (bleeding profusely from the head and dripping blood onto the floor) begins to fall over.
KID #3: "I don't feel well."
And scene!
I also can't say that my first aid administration went perfectly, because how do you situate a kid when her head is bleeding so needs to be elevated, but she's also losing consciousness so her feet need to be elevated? Do you just prop her up like a little pretzel with her butt on the ground and her head and feet jacked up? Keeping her conscious felt pretty important so my co-leader and I put her feet up high and her head just on a pillow, but I'll clearly have to ask more scenario-specific questions at my next re-certification.
But the good news is that the injury was actually just a side quest, and nobody actually got injured during either the cold-process soapmaking (during which the kids wore long sleeves, gloves, and face shields) or the poured container candlemaking (which, tbh, was pretty chaotic, so I think we just got lucky).
We did get a chance to press flowers in the microwave, but our first aid practicum used the time previously intended for decoupaging our flowers, so we'll save that for another meeting.
But until then, I was left with SO MANY flowers that I'd already pressed to give the kids plenty to work with, and since I'm uninterested in figuring out how to safely keep pressed flowers in my already overburdened craft supplies storage, later that week I snookered my own kids into helping me decoupage them, in the process further refining my almost perfect technique.
And now that technique IS perfect!!!
My old method for making pressed flower bookmarks came from this tutorial, which came from a magazine article, which came from a vintage Boy Scout manual. All of them called for decoupaging the flowers first onto waxed paper, and then using the method of your choice to adhere the waxed paper to a more structured paper.
My incredible innovation is just to... ditch the waxed paper. Decoupage the pressed flowers directly to the material of your choice, saving yourself a step and, I think, improving the overall look of the finished product. I also changed out the glue to one that dries stiffer, which I think makes the work sturdier and requires fewer top coats.
To test out this innovation, the kids and I made SOOOO many greeting cards! Will has a ton of thank-you notes to write and we're out of nice cards, so this was a good chance to replenish our stash.
To decoupage your own pressed flower greeting cards, you will need the following:
- pressed flowers. I do have a new and improved microwave pressed flowers tutorial coming up, but until then, my original microwave pressed flowers tutorial does work well.
- backing material of your choice, ideally one with structure. I used this hemp watercolor paper and this Strathmore watercolor paper, and of the two I preferred the hemp paper. I really liked how the off-white color and visible fibers add to the overall look.
- single ply of the cheapest disposable tissues you can find. If your tissues are multi-ply, separate them into the individual sheets.
- clear school glue. I used Elmer's clear school glue leftover from Syd's slime-making phase.
- paintbrush. A stiff paintbrush works better than a soft one.
- matte medium. I use this Liquitex matte medium. It's weirdly expensive, so I think you could play around with cheaper sealants, too.
1. Cut and fold paper to make greeting cards.
2. Arrange pressed flowers on the greeting card front.
Queen Anne's Lace |
This part is really fun! It was definitely assisted by the huge stash of flowers I'd already collected and pressed. Seriously, I took trips to the local parks to take little snippy-snips of the wildflowers growing there, waded around vacant lots next to strip malls, and sacrificed many of the lovelies from my garden.
Rose of Sharon |
But having such a large selection of flowers to choose from made that completely worth it!
3. Use clear school glue to paint a single ply of tissue paper over the entire card front.
Rose of Sharon and fern |
Queen Anne's Lace |
Rose of Sharon |
4. Trim the tissue paper and add embellishments.
Chamomile |
It's that Queen Anne's Lace from Step 2! |
Chamomile from Step 4 |
Fern |
Rose of Sharon from Step 2 |
I still need to make matching envelopes for these cards, but then they'll be ready for thank-yous!