Mini Jack-o-Lanterns

If you waited til the last minute to get your Halloween pumpkin this year, you may think you don't have time to really decorate anything anyway. Not true! These mini pumpkin Jack-o-Lanterns are super quick and easy to whip up, you can have a whole army of them by Halloween night!

To make these easy mini Jack-o-Lanterns at home you will need:

One small pumpkin
one pair of plastic Dracula teeth (I found mine in a pack of 8 at Target in the dollar section. BONUS: they glow in the dark).
Carving tools
paint or marker

To start, measure your Dracula teeth to see how large of a hole you need to make in your tiny pumpkin to fit them inside. Decide where you want the mouth to be on your pumpkin, and then carefully carve out a space to insert the teeth. I have some linoleum block cutting tools from college, and I think they do a really good job of carving pumpkins, but you do need to be careful as they are sharp and can slip if you aren't paying attention.

Once your mouth hole is carved, you can remove any of the insides of the pumpkin you feel necessary and then insert the teeth. It actually looks pretty creepy just like this, stop here if you want!

Finish your Jack-o-Lantern by adding eyes, etc. with paint or permanent markers. Presto! A tiny Jack-O-Lantern complete with glowing teeth!

Ghostly Cupcake Toppers: 2 Ways

Halloween is quickly approaching and soon there will be all kinds of sweets that could use some spooky touches to get in the spirit. Here are 2 ways to make easy cupcake toppers and add a little Halloween spirit to a party!

Topper number one:

For this cupcake topper you will need:

Toothpicks
paper or cardstock of your choice
scissors
pencil
non toxic glue
glow in the dark paint (optional)
small paint brush (optional)
ghost pattern (you can also draw ghosts free hand)

Start by drawing or tracing your ghost shapes onto your paper or cardstock. You will need 2 cutouts for each cupcake topper (a front and a back). Cut out all of your shapes and then sandwich your front and back pieces around a toothpick, glue together and allow to dry completely. If you like, add a spooky face with glow in the dark acrylic paint (you could also cut out the eye and mouth shapes with a mat knife or hole punch). Add these little guys to cakes, cupcakes, etc. for a little extra spooky decoration.

Topper number two:

For this topper you will need:

one package of small suckers (I used Dum Dums)
small squares of tissue paper (I used white, silver and gold)
scissors
string

Cut out squares of tissue paper to layer together for your ghosts. I like using the silver and gold as an underlay for white, but you can use any color you like. Place the sucker in the center of your tissue paper squares and tie them around your suckers with string. The sucker will be the ghosts head, and the stick can be placed directly into your cupcakes. You can add faces if you like, but they look cute without them as well. Not making any kind of cakes? This is a great way to dress up your Halloween candy to make it a little more festive for the Trick-or-Treaters.

How do you like to dress up your Halloween treats?

If spooky snacks aren't your thing, you can also check out this fast and easy tutorial for gravestone garden markers, and don't forget to follow The Craftinomicon on your favorite social media sites so you don't miss any upcoming projects.

Washi Tape Tea Lights

I was feeling like "making" something tonight but wasn't really feeling like an all night project. Luckily I had some tea lights sitting around and just found this Halloween color schemed Washi Tape I bought last year. The two were fast friends.

I used some pretty standard small tea lights from IKEA, these have a yummy sort of vanilla/baked goods kinda scent to them so I like them a lot.

I used Washi Tape in 3 different widths, so not all of the original tea light container is covered in all my tea lights, but I kind of like that. It also gives you some wiggle room on where to place your washi tape. Just tape around the tea light container and you're done! Festive little tea lights with very little effort. As always, keep an eye on the candles when they are burning so you don't have any fire mishaps :)

What are your favorite washi tape projects?

Things I Love- September

Heart shaped yarn bomb I found on a walk through my neighborhood.

It is September already! I'm sure looking forward to weather that isn't quite so HOT, but beyond that there are lots of things I just love right now that I had to share with you. Also, make sure to look around at all the projects that have been going on here in the past couple weeks. There is lots going on this month as well, so make sure to check back or follow me on Bloglovin', feedly, facebook, etc. so you don't miss out on all the fun! Hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend!

How great are these watercolor paintings from Oh Gosh, Cindy! on etsy? I am partial to the one above from Moonrise Kingdom, but she has lots of other great ones. I think this one will be living with me soon.

I'm also loving this cake plate from H&M. You can shop online there now in the US, and they have some great home goods that the US stores don't seem to stock yet. I may get this for my birthday cake (yay October is coming soon-Happy Birthday to me!). These plates are smaller than a standard cake plate (luckily I have a 6" cake pan that might just come in handy).

Last but not least, my tiny balcony garden is still going strong! This little watermelon should be ready soon and I'm so excited about it! I also have some California Poppies in bloom and several lettuces and basil. Finishing off this garden season strong!

What are you all in love with this month?


I was not compensated for this post by any of the above mentioned shops. I just really like this stuff.

Shark Cupcake Toppers

Here is a great, quick paper craft to start off your Shark Week right! The best part is this template can be used not only to make the shark cupcake toppers shown above, but to make cute little shark cutouts for scrapbooking and other collage and art projects. You could also print out a larger template if you want to top a full sized cake!

To make these cupcake toppers you will need:

Shark template (found at bottom of this post)
decorative papers or cardstock
toothpicks (or larger skewers if topping a full sized cake with larger shark cutout)
scissors
glue

Begin by printing out your template (found at the bottom of this post). I recommend using a thicker cardstock to make tracing easier. Cut out your template and trace onto the paper of your choice. Scrapbooking papers are great, but you can also use colored printer paper, construction paper, old magazines, etc.

For a double sided cupcake topper, make sure to cut out two sharks of the same paper, one facing each direction, so that when glued together they match up with your design on the outside, as shown above.

Spread glue evenly onto the back side of one of your sharks. Place your toothpick in the desired location, and sandwich your other shark cutout on top, smoothing together evenly. Allow to dry before storing or using.

You don't have to limit yourself to using these as cupcake toppers. These would easily make a fun sandwich toothpick as well. Have fun and enjoy!