My Thanksgiving Mantel & Decor

Boy am I ready for Thanksgiving. I can't help it. I just love all that great food. This year, for the first time, I will be hosting Thanksgiving at our home. As part of the holiday spirit we just have to have a colorful Thanksgiving setup. 

The wooden frame is a distressed picture frame with chicken wire that I use in my craft room, and I used a free printable for a Give Thanks banner to create my mini banner. I used this scenic fall picture on Pinterest for my small silver beaded picture frame.

The chalkboard art is a vintage mirror with the mirror reversed and painted with chalkboard paint - and the mirror is still usable! The printed subway sign is inspired by ExpressionsWallArt on Etsy.

We also thought it would be great to do a Thankful Tree this year. The girls are really enjoying it and it's a good reminder of what we have to be thankful for. Our tree is made from branch lights and our tags are scrapbook paper cut to different shapes.

 

What is your favorite piece of Thanksgiving decor? Don't forget to check us out on Remodelaholic.

My Halloween Vignette

I absolutely LOVE Halloween. It is the only time of year that I can comfortably put my dark and wild side out on display (without the concerned stares of visiting family members and neighbors). We have a year-round collection of Halloween paraphernalia displayed throughout our house, so I love being able pull it all together and really let it all hang out.

Our home has a very strange randomly placed tile window on one of the bare walls, so that is where I decided to begin. I gathered some of the items from our collection and started going wild.

I found some colorful pictures online of some of our favorite characters from classic horror movies. I wanted to add a lot of color to the top of the "window"so I found the brightest images, and couldn't resist the tattooed Bride of Frankenstein. I added them to a few black frames we have hanging around the house and hung them with black ribbon in offset lengths.

I picked up several items from the Dollar Tree, including the black and orange twigs, the cut-out bats and spiders, the cool mummy statue, the little skeletons an birds, and the supplies to make the Gothic votive candle holders (instructions are here). The glitter pumpkins are from Target.

I loved the skeleton terrariums I kept seeing on Pinterest, so I decided to add one to our mantel also. I grabbed a 5" glass candle stand that I had laying around and topped it with moss. Then I cut a tombstone from styrofoam and painted with silver craft paint. Once it dried I drew on a little design with permanent marker and added my character. Voila! I didn't have a bell lid, but it looks good to me!

Say cheese!

It was an easy vignette and the family loves it. My husband decided we're keeping it up all year! 

Pinterest Is A Time Suck!

I have a confession to make. I am a crafting addict. I love all things crafting -  including looking at new crafting ideas all day. Herein lies my problem - Pinterest is a HUGE time suck. Don't get me wrong, I love Pinterest and always find really cool ideas for crafts, decorating, and household shortcuts, and even welcome you to follow this blog on Pinterest @ParentingWithTattoos. The problem is, I wake up energized and ready to go on my next big craft project thinking "this will be the day I finish it - I just need to check this one quick thing..." and BAM. Two+ hours later (I'm being kind) I am so wiped out from looking at craft ideas that I no longer have the energy to finish the pile of crafts and furniture and endless crap sitting in my workshop. Half the time I don't even remember which project I was trying to start working on!

So I repeat - Pinterest is a HUGE time suck! In my efforts of Pinterest Rehab I am trying to now limit the amount of time I'm allowed on the computer during the day while I actually have time to work on projects. With the help and support of my family, I am trying to wait to get on the computer until later in the afternoon, OR limiting it to only 30 minutes of Pin-surfing before I get started on my day.

Does anyone else have this problem? How do you cope with your Pinterest addiction?

DIY Halloween Votive's With A Little Sparkle

If you're looking for an easy Halloween decoration that will add a little wicked sparkle, this is one is great and cheap to do - and it's one we'll use year-round.

Supplies
Two glass candle holders (Dollar Tree)
Two tall cylinder glass votives (you need ones with a flat surface and they're usually at the dollar tree)
Looking Glass Spray Paint
Halloween Stickers - mine were on sale at Michael's
Spray bottle with water
E6000 Clear Adhesive

I purchased most of my supplies at Dollar Tree, with the spray paint and stickers from Michael's. There really wasn't a huge selection of wicked Halloween stickers, but I liked these glitter skulls and spider webs.

I found a great tutorial on, of course Pinterest, on how to create the look of mercury glass. I took the glass votives and covered the outside with painters tape to prevent the spray paint from touching the outside of the glass. I lightly spritzed the inside of the votive with water and then sprayed the inside of the glass with Looking Glass spray paint. The paint will pool at the bottom and you want to just roll it around inside the votive and let it dry.

Once the votive is dry, glue to glass candle holder to the bottom the votive using E6000 clear adhesive and let it dry.

To finish it off, place your Halloween stickers on the outside of your new candle holder. The adhesive on the scrapbook stickers I purchased worked great and they're hanging on really well. If you'd like to secure it better you can coat the adhesive side of the stickers with the E6000 adhesive or you can cover the sticker with Modge Podge.

A Date with Johnny The Skull

So, my husband’s birthday just passed and I have to say he has to be one of the most difficult people for me to shop for. The man has everything he could want or need. I hate giving birthday gifts that people “need”. He is a tattoo artist and only ever asks for supplies. It drives me nuts! So, this birthday I decided to try something a little more fun and quirky. We always say we need more family time and the other day I found the perfect gift to encourage that.

It’s the Johnny the Skull Electronic Game.  This is a great family time in the dark game and perfect for our quirky little family. Johnny the Skull is a skeleton that sees ghosts everywhere he turns and the player must help Johnny by shooting the ghosts. How fun is that!

I definitely hit a home-run with this gift. Not only is it a perfect fit for my husband, it was something we had never seen before, and to top it off the kids loved it too! Johnny is a foot tall skeleton that can sit anywhere with a head that spins 360° flashing ghosts all over the walls. The goal is for each player to take the included laser gun and shoot as many ghosts as you can. Being that this is a family game and our kids are pretty young, it was really great to see that Johnny has different levels of difficulty.

After dinner and birthday cake the whole family piled into the living room, turned off all the lights and started our first ghost hunt with Johnny the Skull. We had a blast! The ghosts were easy to see and the sensor was very accurate. Since it a projection from Johnny’s eyes, the ghosts will pop up on everything in the room – even on the players! I definitely give this little ghost a gold star. Although it's bit pricey ($35 when I bought it), it was worth the money.

The best part is, this cute little guy really fits in well with our home decor. Even if we don’t play very often – he looks great sitting on my fireplace.

The Rockin' Parents Guide to Back to School

So back to school is always a little exciting, a little stressful, and little hectic... and sadly I've only been doing it for 3 years. Does it get any easier? Well, this year I really wanted back to school to be fun for MJ and with our twisted little family taste princess stickers and a new dress wasn't going to cut it.

Here are some really fun ways to add a little twist and little smile for back to school.

Fun, Spooky and Edible

Ok, so this bento box doesn't look like something my kid would be too interested in eating for lunch, but she would definitely love the skulls and bones cut outs made from cheese.

Creepy Crawly Cookies

Every kid loves their cookies but these fossil cookies from Martha Stewart look like a blast to eat (although a little creepy).

Fruit With Attitude

I love this idea. Tattooed fruit. Really?! I've literally tattooed an orange and still never thought of putting temporary tattoo on the skin of a fruit. Amazing! This will actually work on most fruit too. (Flickr)

Rockin' New Lunch Boxes

What better way for your kid to say "don't touch my lunch money" then with a fierce new lunchbox like one of these from Apartmenttherapy.com.

Rockin' The Back To School Style

Every little back to school wardrobe for our family isn't complete without some skulls (MJ's favorite) and a rockin' leather jacket. The pink cuffs on this leather motorcycle jacket is to die for and Old Navy has some pretty awesome skull sports shirts this fall.

Here's Lookin' At You Hot Stuff

Here's to a little bit of eye candy before the week is out. Some old school hot Betties and beautiful tattoos. Enjoy!