One Beautiful Life

A SAFE Paper Pumpkin Craft

I am volunteering at Abby's school for Fall fun tomorrow.  I will be leading children in a craft!  This year, we will be making the above paper pumpkins.  Are they not simply, really, adorable?  And, they are SO easy.  I am blown away with how cute they are and how simple they are to make which is a WIN WIN in the classroom.  You can get the full tutorial here on how to make them.  And you will want to bookmark that blog for sure.  Just sayin.

This is what I did for the project last year.  And let me just tell you about that little craft.  It blew up in my face!  Yep.  I went to the dollar store and looked diligently for a book that would be appropriate to use pages from... thought I found one.  I bought black frames.  Very affordable for a class of 8.  I then gathered leaves from around my home and took in my little box of paint and a hair dryer (for fast drying purposes which came in VERY handy).

I was drying the last child's picture when a parent of one of the children, who happens to work there, came in with her precious gift her son had anxiously already given to her.  The teacher walks it over to me with a look on her face of half horror and half hysterics and asks me to "skim" over the page.  My heart immediately started pounding like a race horse.  I took it in hand and started skimming and right by the edge of the leaf were the words &*%#@*#  &*#@!**.  I sucked my tongue down my throat and thought I would be forever banned from classroom crafting.  Scarlet letters for "Crafting Witch" flashed before my eyes!  Abby's teacher, being the sweet friend and woman of God that she is, had already grabbed her camera to catch my expression of pure horror.  I must find it and add it here so you can get the full affect.

After laughing, apologizing with every inch of my being, and recovering my breath, we calmly started asking the children to bring us their beloved artwork so we could just "check them" and be sure they looked right.  We found 6 of the 8 with @#$&^*! on them!  We had to come up with some reason to redo them which some of the kids were thrilled about since that meant they got to return to paint but some were simply confused at why we were not keeping their first master piece.  M-E-R-C-Y.  After the horror has died down, it has become one of the greatest crafting stories of the school's history.  For that, I am proud... I think.

So needless to say, in all loving kindness, I was asked not to use any book pages this year!  LOL  For details on the above "dangerous" craft, go here, and attempt at your own risk!  And please feel free to share your crafting horror with us!  Really.  It will make me feel better.

 And lastly, because we LOVE to celebrate Fall, the beauty of transformation and harvest, here is another very cute craft you can do for your home, with your kids or with friends.  HERE is where you can find the wonderful details of this very cute creation.  You really should also bookmark her site, she is amazingly talented.  She includes templates and supplies and all the yumminess needed.

Embrace the beauty of Fall today.  God is showing off the wonder of transformation everywhere.  Rest of winter is on the way.  Be blessed dear friends.

Much love, Dawn