How to Stick it to Zero Patience Mommy

I am fully aware it's Tuesday evening. I checked my calender and there will be no confusion today. But I am going to fake like it's Monday morning and post the first of a week's worth of themed posts. This week at Hanging by a Silver Lining all the posts of the week will be How-Tos. Exciting, no?

Let me make one thing clear: I am under no impression that I know it all. I just thought it would be fun to share the few ideas I have with all of you. It might be difficult to fill in a week's worth, but I am feeling ambitious enough to give it my best shot.

Ready for the first one?

Remember how I mentioned that I was going to pull Fun Mommy out from the deep dark recesses of my closet and hope she had the gumption to outlast Zero Patience Mommy while the kids and I did a few Halloween activities? Well, Fun Mommy pulled through with style and very little yelling or growling. We had a grand old time painting, baking, decorating, and carving last Thursday. Cheers to Fun Mommy!

Here's the simple little craft we made:


I've been seeing these cute little popsicle pumpkins around town and figured "Hey! We could handle that. I even have a bag full of popsicle sticks. It's like it was meant to be!"

I'm sure it's pretty easy to figure out how to make these from seeing the finished product, but maybe I have a few craft-challenged readers who would like a tutorial. This one's for you guys!

I started by lining up several popsicle sticks together. Then I used my ever-trusty hot glue gun to glue two sticks on to hold the whole show together.



Flip the stick sheet over so the bottom is the side with the bracing "beams".

Dress kids in super cool garbage bag smocks to cut down on ruined clothes and let them show off their inner-Picasso's by painting the pumpkins with orange paint. My kids enjoyed this so much that they were literally singing my praises. Like that didn't make me feel pretty guilty for not tackling more paint projects in the past. Dually noted, Fun Mommy.


For the face...the examples I have seen of this project used cut out pieces of black foam. I already had a bunch of little wooden triangles from another project, so we just painted a few triangles black to make the eyes, mouth, and nose for our pumpkins. Use what ya' got!

After adequate drying time, I hot-glued the pieces on the pumpkin to make the faces. I also had some fake flower leaves that we glued on the back for the stem and leaves. We attached twine on the back too so the kids could hang their "ornaments".

This project really was so quick and easy that we were ready for more. So we did just that...more! Check out our cute little Frankenstein monsters!


P.S. I splattered black paint on my two popsicle stick creations and used mod-podge to seal the deal.


Stay tuned for tomorrow's post (that would be Tuesday in my little imaginary blog world) on How to Make Your Man Melt. Admit it...did your mind just skiff the gutter a bit? Naughty, naughty!