DIY Kooky Owl Cups

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CVS4FantaFun#CollectiveBias

Halloween is nearly here so you better believe my home is covered in fun, festive fall decor. With plump little pumpkins gracing our TV stand and lovely little leaves decorating our front step, it's officially as close to autumn as Florida seems to get.

While I'm craving a bit of a bite in the air, I'm allowing myself to indulge in other fun parts of Fall lately; I've been spending time crafting, snacking on anything orange like pumpkin flavored treats, Fanta Orange Soda, and gummy candy corn, while I'm also spending lots of time blogging...

Lucky for you, that means I'm sharing a tutorial today and what we're crafting up makes sipping down a large glass of Fanta Orange Soda a hoot of a time!

These little owls are an awesome way to add some fall decor to your table setting and since they are hand-crafted, you can personalize each mug for each guest attending your dinner! What's even better, these mugs are top-rack dishwasher safe and so completely perfect to give as a gift when hosting a holiday party! Personalized painted owls for each guest, made with multi-surface paints are the perfect way to treat each guest to something truly unique when you have friends over, fill these cuties up with some Fanta and you're definitely in for a good time!

Want to make a set of these adorable little owl mugs for yourself?

You'll need:
4 glass mugs
Multi-surface paint
Paint brushes
Fanta Orange Soda

Personalizing these mugs is an easy experience, just keep things basic. Make the front circle on your owl buddies into a heart shape, add eye balls in the shape of circles, add beaks in the shape of diamonds, wings in the shape of an uppercase U. Add a layer of paint to the bottom of each mug for fun...

As you can see in my step-by-step photos below, it's best to keep things as simple as possible!

You can even add some tail feathers for your friends that love shaking their tail feathers at holiday get togethers! Whether you customize the owls for friends or make a set to keep for yourself, these cute little buddies are the perfect way to add some fun fall items to any kitchen! You could even get a little wild and host a painting party with friends and you each could customize your own mug, the possibilities are endless and the owls that will be created will be fabulous!

Once your owls are finished being personalized, you'll want to place them in an oven at 350 degrees and allow the paint to fully set (about 30 minutes) and then turn off the oven and allow the cups to cool, or follow the instructions on your paint tube to be sure the paint sets correctly!

Once the cups are cool to the touch, you are cool to serve up some Fanta Orange Soda! Add some colorful straws and napkins and you've got a party on your hands!

Now that I've shared how I crafted up one of my favorite DIY projects ever, I'd love to hear what kind of fall fun you are planning this year...? Will you be attending any parties or hosting any shindigs? Don't forget to add Fanta Orange Soda to the fun - you can grab a bottle at CVS for a great deal, everyday!

For all Your Thirsty Lil’ Monsters, save on Fanta 2 Liter Bottles - Get 4/$5 at your local CVS!

Make Halloween Snack Time Fun with Cyclops Cookie Monster Pudding Snacks

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SnackAndGo #CollectiveBias

Life has been crazy lately, with a lot of time spent on airplanes, less sleep, more work, and several meals consumed inside airports... but in the middle of the chaos, I've been blessed with the chance to spend a tiny bit of time with my nieces and nephews. Hanging out with the little guys and gals in my family makes me think about how much fun this season is from their perspective. Specifically, I've been thinking about how amazing Halloween is from their point of view, especially after hearing my niece talk about monsters and her favorite princess...

She has so much imagination, I just felt inspired by her creativity. So today I'm super excited to share a fun and imaginative way for you to treat the little monsters in your family! Everyone loves to laugh a little during snack time so you might as well surprise the little boys and girls in your life with a delicious little cyclops cookie monster pudding treat that will make giggles go on for hours.

What do you need to make these cute little creatures?

A printer, cardstock, tape or glue, and scissors

Snack Pack® Pudding Cups in Vanilla, Chocolate, Chocolate Vanilla Mix, and Butterscotch

NABISCO Go-Paks! in all the best cookie varities including TEDDY GRAHAMS Honey Graham Snacks, Mini OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, CHIPS AHOY! Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies, NUTTER BUTTER Bites Sandwich Cookies, and Mini OREO Golden Sandwich Cookies!

Reddi Wip Original

Toothpicks

Gummy Eyeballs

These little babies are easy to make, just print off the ghoulish grins printable here and the monster getups (pudding cup wrappers) printable here and here. Take the time to cut all of these little grins and getups out and tape them onto the cups, have fun decorating and combining!

When ready to serve, add a thick layer of Go-Pak cookies to each Snack Pack pudding.

Add a swirl of Reddi Wip and top off your monster creation with a creepy cyclops eyeball or make your monster into a true freak of nature with three instead of one!

Now it's time to gobble up your cookie monsters before they get you! Enjoy!

Don't you think these adorable little creatures are the perfect way to surprise a little monster in your life? You'll be happy to find out they are a super affordable way to spread some Halloween cheer as well and you can grab everything you'll need in one quick trip to Walmart!

With a delicious combination of ingredients, each only costing a $1, you can't go wrong; plus, if you grab this coupon you'll really be racking in the savings!

Plus these cute little creatures can be made into the perfect size by mixing two pudding cups into the Go-Pak container as well. The printables fit around the NABISCO Go-Paks! well and they still look absolutely adorable, but now you can eat even more of the deliciousness!

Maybe you plan on hosting a Halloween get-together or you're a teacher with a class of 30? Surprise everyone with something delicious and adorable, without spending much at all! Kids of all ages will love these little monsters and since everyone will turn into a cookie monster after eating one of these delicious treats, make sure you make enough for everyone to have seconds - including yourself!

So tell me, how do you spread Halloween cheer? Are you the type to play a trick or do you love to treat your family to terribly terrific treats? Tell me all about your Halloween festivities in the comments below...

Monster Magnets for Halloween - Decorate Your Fridge with These Frightful Creatures!

Sometimes I like to make silly little things, I guess because it makes celebrating the holidays a little more fun... or maybe it's because I'm truly a kid at heart. Regardless, there are a few holidays I get a little bit more excited about than others; I bet you can guess which holiday I'm super excited about currently though... With Halloween just right around the corner, we are getting the house in the spirit. Bowls of candy and little crafty pumpkin decor are littering my house currently and I love every bit of it.

Are you ready to get your house into the holiday spirit? Today, I want to share a super simple craft that definitely will bring joy to your home. Who knows? Maybe you can even spread the joy and share a few of these little monsters with your friends and family!

That's right, I said little monsters! I made little Monster Magnets to decorate our fridge for Halloween and you can make a set too! Don't fret if you aren't the crafty type, they are super easy to make and actually functional since they are made with clothes pins!

What will you need to make these? A Handful of clothes pins, a rainbow of acrylic paints, paint brushes, and magnetic tape.

You'll start this project by painting a base coat on each of your little monsters (clothes pins). Primary colors, funky Halloween colors, girly pink shades, whatever you prefer - be sure to paint every nook and cranny on the clothes pin. Let your base coat dry for at least 30 minutes.

Next you'll want to add the details to your monster. Make one with tons of tiny little eyeballs, make a few with googly eyes, or make them all into cyclops'... it doesn't matter where their mouths, noses, eyes, etc are because they are supposed to be goofy and silly. The wilder and sillier, the better, in my opinion. Once all the monster details are completed, let the paint dry for at least another 30 minutes.

This last step in the monster creation process is the easiest. Paint a thin layer of modpodge in either gloss or matte to seal the paint on your clips and then cut a small piece of magnet tape off of the roll. Cut that piece in half longways and stick it to the back of your clothes pin.

Now your creation is complete and ready to hang in the kitchen, not only around Halloween, but all year long - especially if you have a few little monsters running around your home! Hang good grades, amazing drawings, reminders for upcoming events, and more from these cute little creatures!

Now that I've shared a super simple and fun way to add some monstrous fun to your home, I'd love to hear what your favorite part of Halloween has been so far this season! Tell me all about your favorite recipe, costume idea, or anything else that comes to mind int he comments below! I can't wait to hear about it...

DIY Painting Inspired by MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AvengersUnite #CollectiveBias

When I heard that MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron is now out on disc, I knew I had to go out and buy a copy ASAP. See, if you didn't already know, we are pretty big fans of The Avengers in this house.

While we were hunting down The Avengers: Age of Ultron on Blu-Ray, we ran into the costume section at Walmart! With every costume you can think of for so many different age groups, my hubby and I were like kids picking out candy! We saw all kinds of MARVEL character costumes at great prices but we finally decided that it'd be super fun to have Hubby dress up as the Hulk!

Once we chose a costume for him, we were on our way to the back of the store where we were able to buy a Blu-Ray 3D, DVD combo of The Avengers: Age of Ultron! We grabbed a few snacks on our way out the door and we were on our way home!

On the way home, I was having a closer look at the cover of the movie and I was inspired. Such great talent, such fun colors - I don't normally paint things like this, but I knew I had to let my creative juices flow... That's when my mind was made up, I wanted to make minimalist versions of "shields" for each of my favorite Marvel Characters!

Good news, though! Not only did I decide to paint a MARVEL inspired piece of art for my home, I know there are other Avengers fans out there so I decided to share a step-by-step painting tutorial! Now you can make a MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron shield painting of your own!

The first step is tracing a hexagon onto a canvas in pencil, with however many "shields" you want to make and maybe a few extra spots for color shields.

Once your hexagons are traced, it's time to start sketching the minimalist versions of each character.
I chose to work with Hulk, Vision, Captain America, Black Widow, Ultron, Iron Man, Thor, and Hawkeye - basically the best characters!

In case your wondering how I sketched each item, here's an example:

Once each character is roughly sketched, apply a background layer of paint. I went with silver, black, and white and blended slightly - allowing for a tonal, textured background.

After the background is painted, it's time to grab a smaller brush and work on the details of each character. Painting the simple Hulk sketch purple and green, making sure the Black Widow circle is painted around the logo, Captain America's shield needs to have a white star in the middle, etc. Slowly filling in each characters logo with the correct colors. Here's a collage of my step-by-step process...

Once the entire painting is filled with color, you'll want to outline each shield with white and/or silver and add little details with white and silver paint. Adding little lines to make things feel textured, like the outside of the hexagon shields.

Sign your name to the bottom of the painting and your creation is complete.

Now sit back and re-watch The Avengers: Age of Ultron and feel free to admire your artwork anytime you please!