Pumpkins Made From Biscuits?

 

The final beauty shot is at the end of the post! 

Have you ever heard of wooden joiner biscuits? They're used in joining two or more pieces of wood together and they're sold in hardware and home improvement stores, usually near the tool that cuts the grooves into the side of wood planks where they get inserted. They have a pattern pressed into them that's designed to hold glue and then swell. This is what they look like and can cost anywhere from $8-10 for a bag of 100. 

They come in a few different sizes, but for this project, I used the biggest size which is a number 20. I saw a video online how you can make mini pumpkins with these biscuits, so I tried it.  I started out gluing the pieces together as shown in the photo. Some crafters paint their biscuits first, but I didn't. Each side of the pumpkin requires 5 biscuits. 

Then I glued the two halves together to complete the pumpkin. I used wood glue for this, but you can use hot glue also. I decided I didn't want the embossed design and number 20 showing so I thinned out some spackling compound, brushed it on, let it dry and then sanded each piece smooth. This is an extra step you don't need to do if you don't mind the pattern showing. 

I painted them all with a vintage white because
I wanted this color to show through the top color when I sanded them. 

Here they are with color added and I sanded them to give them that weathered, chippy look. 

For the stem, you can use a cinnamon stick or an actual stick from a tree, but I had these cardboard tubes that were centers from the rolls of dog poop bags I use. I have been saving them, hoping they might come in handy for something. I cut the top at an angle, filled the angled tip with some spackling compound, let it dry, painted it, then glued it to the inside of the pumpkin. 

And this is how they looked finished up to this point.

I also did one with decoupage using a napkin with fall colors. 

I made a few more in different colors, added some floral wire that I curled around a pencil to make a vine and then tied on a bow to finish them off. How cute are these?

This was a fun little project and now I have sweet little gifts to give out in the fall. 

First Week of School Down And Some Rocks.

Although I've been back at work since August 7th, this past week was the first one with students. They started on Monday, the day of the eclipse. Turkey sandwiches were on the menu, so we didn't have to cook, which was great. We originally planned for the kids to have sack lunches to take outside for the big event, but they ended up eating inside and going out afterwards. 

We spent a lot of time the two weeks prior cleaning and decorating the cafeteria. My manager had some tension style curtain rods and we made up paper banners to hang in the windows. I created the one above. Our new assistant manager made this school bus banner below. She is crafty too.

Our theme this year was emojis, so we each made one with our likenesses. lol. 

And we put more around the cafeteria for fun.

So being back at work means less time for painting rocks. I have 7 weekends until the fall pop up market to get more inventory made. I have about 35 rocks so far, but I'd like to have 50. Yesterday I put on Pandora and got busy. I made one rock for inventory and also got some done for hiding. It's been a long time since I hid any rocks. My hubby even got into the action. Here are some we made and placed around town yesterday.

Some simple love rocks made using Frog tape and assorted glitter nail polish.

These are strawberries I had started a long time ago, but never got around to
putting the seeds on. I used paint pens instead of a brush which worked out better.

These are hubby's rocks. He really got into making and also hiding them.
I even added him as a member of our rock group.

And this is the rock I made for my fall market inventory. I love how it came out.

Punkins!

I made this gator last weekend. He's pretty cool.

And this is a book of spells I made two weekends ago. Yes, it's a rock. I found it in a pile of
dirt that was being dug up for a drainage project in our local park. It's really bumpy on the back, but
the shape just screamed out "I'm a book!"

So that's what's been going on in my world lately. I have some Furry Friday catching up to do, so maybe I'll do a pet post soon. Have a great Sunday!

Furry Friday and freaky fruit!

Yes, it's a combo! First up is the furry part. I got some free small baking pumpkins. They weren't very pretty, but I put them in front of the house for decoration. I also figured that with all the squirrels around, they'd probably get eaten. To my surprise, a furry creature was attracted to one of them right away. It grabbed it by the stem and hauled it off to chew on it. Was it a squirrel? No! It was none other than my dopey dog Zoey.

After she gnawed the stem off, she tried to eat the pumpkin.

This same dog has pulled out all my solar lights and destroyed them.

Luckily she doesn't do damage like this in the house. She started going for another pumpkin, but I gave her a stern "No!" and she left it alone. For how long though? That is the question! 

And now for the freaky fruit.

It's a twinana! Two bananas joined together. Never saw that before! 

So tomorrow is Halloween. I don't have anything planned. I bought a small bit of candy to give to the neighbor kids that I know. I'm going to visit them and drop it off as I've decided not to give out candy at night. We're in a huge development and we've been told that kids come by the busload to trick or treat. We can't afford to buy candy for a lot of kids, nor do we want Zoey getting freaked out by all the strange people coming to the door, so we'll be sitting this one out. 

Work is still really busy. I'm in bed as early as 6:30 from exhaustion. Ebay and Etsy have died off for the last two weeks. I sold one pair of shoes and got a notification yesterday that the customer is returning them because they don't fit. Darn! I haven't been listing. No time. Not much inventory either and, as usual, I won't be selling after Thanksgiving. I take a holiday break and start up again in January. And turkey day is coming up fast! 

Thank you to all of you who read my lunch lady poem and commented on it or passed it along. I never expected it to be published, so that was a little exciting. I think we hit the 50 day mark at school, so only 135 more to go! I'm really happy it's Friday! Have a safe and happy Halloween!