Halloween Unconventional Challenge

I used to watch Project Runway religiously before we got rid of cable.  I loved the unconventional challenges.  The creativity always blew me away.  How could anyone make anything out of dollar store items?  And who would want to???  Well, these crazy people, that's who.  We started with anything we could find that was red from the dollar store.  Cups, dish drying racks, buckets, flashlights, anything.

 Then, in true Project Runway fashion....it was chaos for a couple days.

Glue guns, velcro, yelling, crying....complete chaos.

But I'm proud to say, we "made it work." :)

 And this little twerp couldn't be happier.  Even his sister, Merida, approved.

2nd Annual Hansen Halloween!

We had so much fun last year, that we just had to do another Hansen Halloween Craft Extravaganza!

This year, the aunts, cousins, Grandma and our newest official member, Jess, decided to try our hands at potion bottles.  We had a great time just hanging out and chatting while we worked.

We started with a bunch of empty bottles we collected from various places.  I bought a lot of really old ones off ebay for all of us to pick from.  I decided to drip hot glue from the top of a couple of mine.  Once they are painted, they look like melting wax.

Once the bottles were prepped, we spray painted them.  We had all kinds of colors: black, white, purple, metalics, etc.  Once they were painted, we added labels we mostly found off the internet combined with Halloween scrapbook paper, embellishments and corks from Hobby Lobby.

We love the final results!!!  I only got pictures of a few sets, but here they are:

First Ashley's

And Shereen's

Grandma Yo-Yo's

Even the kids got into some potion action!  Here are Axel's, Lizzy's and Saylor's.

Here are Callie's

And finally mine.  Since I'm a Harry Potter nerd, all my potions are from HP.  I have Essence of Dittany, Draught of Living Death, Acromantula Venom, Felix Felicis, Wartcap Powder, Amortentia, Veritaserium, Mandrake, and, my personal favorite, Skele-Gro.  For the Skele-Gro, I used the same hot glue technique as on the other bottles, but I added little plastic skulls and bones that I had found at Michaels.  After that, I painted the bottle off-white and dry brushed a little brown over the top to make it look old and dirty.

Mom got a jump start on us and created this amazing display for her upcoming work party.  She's going to be a creepy candy lady.

She made all her own labels, of course.  Show off!  ;)

After taking mine home, I put them in the front room with the rest of the Halloween treasures.  While we were making potion bottles, I decided to also make these books (which may have to be next year's project).  I used the tutorial I found on Pinterest here.  In the tutorial, she uses paper towel, but I used tissue paper instead and it worked great.

Here are a couple more pics of the books.  We are definitely doing this next year!



Halloween Mantle

Love my Halloween mantle this year.  Everyone seemed to love the painting.  All I did was paint on clear cellophane and tape it over our normal painting.  Turned out great.

This Or That?

I was in charge of the activity this week for Young Women.  We were welcoming two new girls into the group so I wanted to plan some kind of get-to-know-you game.  I found a couple ideas online and decided to combine them.

 

First, I took a bunch of tongue depressors and wrote two words, one on each end, which the girls would have to choose between.  Some examples were "Chocolate" or "Vanilla", "Cats" or "Dogs", and "Facebook" or "Instagram".  I also took some yarn and wound it into a ball.  The container is just a No. 10 can wrapped in washi tape.

 

I tied the end of the yarn to my wrist and picked a stick.  I can't remember the exact stick I picked, but lets say it was "Fame" or "Money".  I chose "Money".

 

The next step was to ask who agreed with me.  Everyone who agreed raised their hands.  I then threw the yarn to someone with a raised hand.  They put their had down, wrapped the yarn around themselves and threw it to someone else with a raised hand.  This continued until no raised hands were left.  At that point, the person with the yarn chose another stick and the game continued.

Pretty soon, the yarn had woven quite a web illustrating that we are all connected in some way.

 

I was pretty nervous going into the game.  I figured everyone would love it or it would be a huge flop.  Surprisingly everyone had a blast and really enjoyed themselves.  It was great getting to know everyone a little better and it was a perfect introduction for the new girls to the group.

 P.S.  You may want some scissors on hand for the end!