Posts for May, 2010
Scary Halloween Cupcake Decorations
The resurgence of the delicate little cupcake over recent years has brought an interest in cupcake decoration which is far more fanciful than just adding icing and a scattering of sprinkles. And what better time than Halloween for anyone to use their imagination and skills to come up with some imaginative scary cupcake decorations?
Would Halloween feel right without the spiders, bats, ghosts and witches of folklore…? To start the ball rolling here are a couple of ideas that are easy to put together but effective — scary spider and bat attack.
What you will need for these decorations are cupcakes made with your favorite recipe, butter cream icing, a few large black jelly beans, licorice bootlace, licorice strap and food coloring in red and orange, plus white decorating gel. The quantities will depend on how many scary cupcakes you plan to decorate.
To make scary spider cupcakes prepare your cupcake top with butter cream colored with red food coloring. In the center of the cupcake place a large jelly bean for the spider body. Cut a further jelly bean in half and place the cut side facing down at one end of the body. This will be the head. Add a couple of dabs of white decorating gel to form eyes. With licorice bootlace cut eight pieces to form the legs. Rather than placing the licorice flat on the cupcake try arching each leg from the body to form a little half loop. This will make the spider look as though it is ready for action rather than having been squashed on the top.
For bat attack cupcake decoration ice the cupcake with orange colored butter cream. Place a black jellybean in the center. Cut licorice straps to form the wings of the bat by scalloping one side of the strap and rounding one end of the other side for wing tips. Place this on either side of the jelly bean. With the white decorating gel, dot two eyes at one end of the jelly bean. Make a couple of fluffy clouds with the decorating gel.
Let your imagination run wild both with ingredients for decorations and with the designs — why not let your scary Halloween cupcakes form a table centerpiece? Ask the kids for their ideas and make it a fun family affair. Cupcake decorations work well for the kid in all of us, young and old, and Halloween is a good time to let the child in us out for a bit of fun.
Construction Birthday Party Food Ideas
To make everyday food fun, create food signs that look like road signs to identify each food to coincide with your theme. We’ve got truckloads of construction food ideas to help you create a construction birthday party or a Bob the Builder party that is sure to be dynamite!
Roadside Munchies
10 Orthodontic Marketing Tips When Decorating Your Practice For …
It’s quickly approaching that time of year again…
Time to get into the mood and gear up for the holidays. The 4th quarter has three holidays that are major marketing targets; Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas for referring offices. It is the perfect opportunity to be “ExtraOrdinary” for your patients and referring professionals.
PIE or “Presentation Is Everything” is not an innovative or new marketing concept, but one that has withstood the test of time. Unfortunately, many practices do not utilize the full potential of this basic marketing rule of thumb, especially when busy, causing marketing efforts to slide. Consistent marketing efforts need to be employed all year round. Marketing efforts implemented in the past were the impetus for current success. Failing to maintain your marketing plan and moving forward, by raising the bar, will invariably reduce momentum and jeopardize future success.
Kids and adults of all ages love a fun, high energy atmosphere when entering your practice. “ExtraOrdinary” word of mouth viral excitement that creates reasons for patients and family members to talk about you is all part of a sound marketing plan. Providing a fun holiday atmosphere for patients and their families is time consuming, I know, but well worth the effort when marketing your practice.
Here are 10 tips that will help you make your office presentation easier:
1. Staff should always be on the lookout for cool office decorations. Buy one unusual office decoration for each season that will withstand the test of time, every year. Build upon and continually refresh your collection. Over time, it will become memorable.
2. Look for sales at the end of the season for the following year. You can find great Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations when you least expect it.
3. Mail order catalogs have unusual decorations and ideas. Suggest team members keep the office in mind when they are thumbing through catalogs at home or in the office.
4. Martha Stewart Magazine and her holiday decorating books are a great resource for unusual ideas. She provides resources and templates to construct decorations and themes. Pick an idea that you can create once and then store away for years to come.
5. If you don’t have time, hire your decorating out… Do it Right Contact you local high school art department, ask patients, or find a mom that would like to exchange services for a portion of treatment.
6. Have the entire staff participate in decorating. Make a party out of it with food and drinks supplied by the practice. The job will get done faster and it is no longer a chore.
7. Combine Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations together when decorating. Remove the witches, bats and spiders after Halloween, but leave the pumpkins and fall decorations till after Thanksgiving, when the Christmas decorations go up.
8. Even though Christmas and Hanukah are religious holidays, to a child, holiday spirit is everything. Always decorate your office for the holidays. To make it really festive, consider hiring a professional holiday decorator to transform the outside of your office into something magical. It is a great transparent community marketing strategy that will make you “ExtraOrdinary” in your area from Thanksgiving through the end of January.
9. Throw out old or damaged decorations. If you wouldn’t use them at home…don’t use them in the office.
10. Pack decorations in color coded plastic storage containers, by holiday, to protect your collection, prevent mildew, and make it easier to quickly find the decorations for each holiday.
The PIE principle also applies to your referring dentists. Most specialty practices target the same holidays for referring dental deliveries. Your goal is to make sure that your gift outshines and supersedes your competitors, as well as other specialists. This will take some create thinking. Referring practices can’t help but compared gifts when they are all being delivered at once. Make yours memorable, or better yet, consider making your Christmas delivery in January. It will be unexpected, appreciated more, and set you apart from the other gifts bombarding referring practices all at once.
Great marketing strategies always include PIE for the Holidays!
10 Orthodontic Marketing Tips When Decorating Your Practice For …
Halloween Village Display Ideas
A Halloween village is very similar to a Christmas village except for the different items, characters, and ambiance of the display. Building one is a fun way to decorate for the holiday that adds beauty to your home and creates a conversation piece. It’s also a means of collecting items that you will treasure for many years to come. Let’s briefly go over some of the things that characterize Halloween, and as we do so we will get some ideas about what to include in our village.
Halloween is a holiday that falls in autumn in the northern hemisphere. It’s also a time of harvest. So first you may want to get a few trees with colorful leaves as well as some bare ones. Then you should add other items such as a scarecrow, a few bales of hay and some fruits like apples. Oh, and what is Halloween without carved pumpkins or Jack O’Lanterns?
Halloween is the time of the year when ghosts, goblins, and other scary creatures roam the earth. So a haunted old house is definitely a piece to include in your Halloween village display. You may also want to place a few gravestones near the house. Then you will want to find a few little ghosts, vampires, bats, and spiders along with cobwebs.
Halloween is also the pagan new year, and it’s associated with witches. Although most real life witches are not bad people, for your Halloween village display you may want to add a scary looking witch with a cauldron and a black cat.
Depending on how you set up your Halloween village display, you can either include a couple of ghost ships if it’s by the sea or otherwise, you can add a ghost train that goes around the spooky village. Yes, you want to create a spooky atmosphere all over. So you should use dim lighting and maybe add some eerie sound effects.
My little daughter and I love Halloween and we are going to build a Halloween village this year. We’re both really excited about the idea. I have purchased a few of the items mentioned above and we will put everything together in early October. We plan on adding new pieces like houses, trees, and creatures every year so that our collection continues to grow as new ideas and new items come up.
I hope you have learned some tips on how to create a Halloween village. But don’t limit yourself to the ideas mentioned here. Use your own imagination and create a display that’s to die for.
Easy, Low-Cost DIY Costume Ideas for Halloween
Let’s face it, not everyone can afford to spend a lot of money on elaborate Halloween costumes, especially if you’re living on a fixed income. Likewise, not everyone can afford to spend a lot of time making them either, especially those without sewing abilities. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could create your own costumes with little time or money invested? Well you can. In fact, there are numerous costume ideas that can be created yourself for next to nothing. Better still, there’s little or no sewing involved. All you need is a little imagination and some creativity, something most of us already have tucked away somewhere inside us. And if for some reason you don’t have it, I’m sure the kids do.
An interesting way to come up with ideas for costumes is to keep a trunk or box somewhere handy and fill it with miscellaneous items. This can help spark the imagination. For instance, load it up with old clothing, fabric of varying lengths, pantyhose, fashion accessories, artificial flowers, pipe cleaners and other craft supplies, aluminum foil, yarn, old sheets or curtains, etc. Nearly anything can be used. Instead of traditional Halloween bags for candy, use other items related to your costume and store them in the ‘imagination box.’ For example, you can implement items such as old pocketbooks, pillowcases, garbage bags, baskets, doctor’s bags, small backpacks, or even diaper bags.
Ever since my kids were old enough to participate in trick-or-treating activities, I have made their costumes. Once Halloween approaches, I begin asking them what they would like to be. Then I scour the house and our box of goodies to find whatever I might already have on hand, making a list of the items with which I need. Generally, these few items can be purchased at the local thrift shop or dollar store so there usually isn’t too much money invested in the project.
For safety reasons, I prefer to use make-up or face paint as opposed to masks. You can easily make your own out of food coloring and corn starch. This is not only safer than using masks, but it’s also cheaper, easier to apply, and comes off just as easily with mild soap and water. A simple cream can be made with one part corn starch and two parts food coloring to create the desired shade for your costume. Apply to the face with your fingers just like foundation. And with a few drops of red food coloring and a little corn syrup, you have home-made blood for those ghoulish costumes.
One year my daughter went as a witch. It isn’t as difficult as you might think to come up with creative ways of putting this outfit together. In fact, they can be as easy or difficult as you can handle. For the witch ensemble, I simply used a tattered black dress and a witch’s hat my daughter already had. I mixed up some green face paint and added a wart with an eyeliner pencil. For her hair, I used some fiery, red-orange yarn that I attached to the hat with Velcro. Add a small broom and there you go.
Another year, she was a butterfly. The butterfly was fashioned together by cutting a pair of wings out of some cardboard, which I decorated with multi-colored pieces of felt (you can also use aluminum foil and decorate with sequins, glitter, etc.). The body of the butterfly consisted of nothing more than a black sweat suit; however, a dark-colored leotard should work just as well. Wings can be attached in whatever way is easiest for you. They can be sewn onto the back of the sweatshirt or fastened with elastic bands fitted around the child’s arms. You could also try using Velcro for felt-covered wings. This not only sticks to the felt but to the shirt as well. Add an antennae headband and, if desired, some face paint. The headband can either be purchased from the dollar store for a couple bucks or put together yourself using an ordinary black headband with black pipe cleaners attached.
I transformed my son into a lively jack-in-the-box one year. This idea came about through my own childhood memories. My mother also made a lot of our costumes growing up. Aluminum foil would incredibly become a tiara, a wand, or antennas. Lacy curtains would suddenly become flowing gowns. Her creativity was amazing, and one costume in particular stood out above all others–a kitchen table. She had taken a simple cardboard box, cut out a hole in the bottom, and slipped it right over my head. After draping a tablecloth over the box, my protruding head became the centerpiece with a carefully placed ‘hat’ made from a pair of pantyhose and artificial flowers.
And from this kitchen table costume, another one was born–the jack-in-the-box. It uses the same ‘box’ concept and originality. I simply took a box, decorated it, and attached it to my son with suspenders (can use elastic as well). On one side of the box I fashioned a handle. He wore dark sweatpants and a regular long-sleeved shirt that I attached ruffles to. I painted his face to mimic that of a joker.
A few years back, my kids decided that they wanted their costumes to match. We looked around the house and soon enough found ourselves with a cowboy and an Indian. For the cowboy, my son donned a cowboy hat and boots, a western shirt, blue jeans and a denim jacket. All of which we already had. To accessorize the look, I tied (loosely) a red bandana around his neck and fastened the holster (complete with toy guns) around his waist. Once again, these were items that we already had on hand.
My daughter, of course, was the Indian. Her costume was also something we had just lying around. I took an old brown pillowcase and cut a v-neck hole in the bottom that was large enough for my daughter’s head to fit through. I then cut two more holes in either side for her arms. I hand-stitched designs around both the neck line and bottom of the ‘dress’ and with a pair of scissors, I carefully cut slits along the edges to give it a frilly look. If you don’t sew, that’s ok; you can easily use fabric paint to decorate the dress instead. To set off the dress, my daughter wore braided pigtails with a feathered headband around her forehead. The only item I purchased for this was a pair of moccasin slippers from the dollar store. To hold all their candy, my son carried a pillowcase ‘loot bag’ while my daughter used an old harvest basket lined with an orange towel.
Ever had the option of dressing up for work with the most original taking first prize? This one worked for me. Once again, I borrowed the idea from my mother, giving it my own twist–a tomato plant. For this costume, I wore a dark green leotard with green hose and slippers. I found a dark green table skirt and simply cut out holes to allow me to both slip it over my head and run my arms through. I pinned some green artificial leaves onto the leotard and table skirt along with little tomatoes made from Styrofoam balls that were painted red and topped off with green stems (you can also use tomato pin cushions found in craft stores). I finished it off with a green beret full of leaves. By the way, I took the prize.
I have found balloons to be quite useful for costumes; however, they should only be applied to those of older children or adults. Once again, safety is important and balloons tend to pop easily and small children can accidentally try to eat the balloon pieces. Balloons are inexpensive and come in a wide variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. You can create one-of-a-kind costumes with hardly any work involved. Imagine a bunch of grapes (like that from Fruit-of-the-Loom). Choose a purple sweat suit or leotard and attach purple balloons carefully with small safety pins. Add some ivy vines and top it off with a matching hat full of ivy leaves. This could also be used for other berries as well with appropriate colored sweats and balloons. For instance, you could try raspberries, strawberries, or blackberries.
Then again, why not go out as Mr. Bubble? Wear white and use some white balloons to instantaneously become soap suds. Accessorize with a scrub brush and a hat or bag made up of bath materials such as sponges and empty shampoo, bubble bath, or soap containers. When you apply balloons to any costume, however, try not to put any on the backside. This could make it difficult to sit down.
Other interesting costume ideas might include a scarecrow using denim bib overalls, a plaid or flannel shirt, rope or twine for belt, a straw hat, gloves and boots. Stuff all the pockets with straw. Turn an old sheet into a ghost. Create a hobo from some old clothes and add a hat. Paint the face with a five o’clock shadow and fashion an old hankie to a stick. What’s autumn without leaves? Use a dark-colored sweat suit (with hood) and pin silk leaves all over it. Walk around carrying a rake and gather candy in a leaf bag.
Remember, a little imagination can go a long way; and best of all, it’s free to use.
Make an Easy Cowboy Costume For Halloween!
With Halloween just around the corner, now is a great time to start creating easy to make costumes for your kids. Why not make a cute western costume perfect for little cowboys or cowgirls! Just saddle up your creativity and before long partner you can make an easy and cute costume for little ones in your bunk house!
Start by making a fringe buckskin vest. Get a large paper bag from your local grocery store. Lay it flat on the table. Cut a whole on each side of the sack about 2-3 inches from the top. (This makes armholes. Adjust where you cut and how big you make the armholes according to the size of the child.)
Next cut in a straight line up the middle of the back of the sack to the top. Then cut out a spot for the neck at the top of the sack. Along the bottom of the sack, cut fringe. You can then use paints, stickers, markers, crayons, or fabric to decorate the vest. (You could involve your little trick or treaters to be by letting them decorate their own vests!)
Purchase a bandanna for a neck scarf or make your own out of fabric that you purchase. Buy enough to fold your piece of fabric into a triangle to tie around your cowboy or cowgirl’s neck. Have your child wear denim pants or a denim skirt and a white t-shirt. You could also add a belt out of fabric or one that the child may already have in their closet.
Purchase a cowboy hat at your local thrift or dollar store. You can add more bandanna fabric to the brim of the hat if you like.
There you go! To get even more authentic, you could purchase a pair of cowboy/cowgirl boots from a thrift store but tennis shoes would work too. Add a stick horse and your little dude is ready to ride the range at school in the Halloween parade or trick or treating door to door!
6 Outdoor Decor Ideas For Your Outdoor Living Area
Many of us enjoy the outdoors. That is why many homes now are designed with some sort of outdoor areas like decks, patios and porches. Decorating these areas can make them more inviting and welcoming. The following are some simple ideas to help you get started on decorating your patio or porch. Below are some outdoor living decor ideas that you might want to apply for your outdoor area immediately.
If your outdoor area is a bit sunny and planting trees around it for shade may take some time, you can try putting up a shade instead. All you need is a canopy. Put it up and you get instant shade that immediately makes your area a great place to hang out.
An outdoor area will look great in the evenings if you have candles at hand. Get several votive candles in glass jam jars or purchase some inexpensive tea light holders from your home improvement stores. These candles when hung and placed around the patio will create a romantic atmosphere for you and your loved ones. It will be a great place to just relax and enjoy each other’s company.
If you have a gazebo or patio with a trellis, use it as part of your outdoor decorations. You can easily slip in strands of holiday lighting in the trellis and you will get an intimate place to sit in the evenings. The trellis also acts as a great backdrop to your outdoor holiday decorating. Yes, the outdoor area should not be forgotten when you are decorating your home for Halloween, Christmas or Thanksgiving. This will make these areas even more exciting.
With a garden around your deck or outdoor living room, you can get inspirations for decorating right from Mother Nature herself. Take a look around you and see the colors of the flora. Use these colors in your outdoor decor. Find similar hued outdoor rugs. Choose cushions in the same complementary colors. Pick planters in similar greens or browns. This will make your outdoor living room lovely and perfect.
Another way to add pizazz is to use hanging baskets. Hanging baskets of flowers or green foliage will be a great accent that can be used on your porch or your deck. You can even hang these in your gazebo. They will add a touch of the garden to your area.
You can even find great outdoor furniture to complement your outdoor areas. Sets of umbrella and tables with matching chairs look great on a deck. You can get the shade and enjoy cool lemonade while reading outside.
The outdoor area is an extension of your home. Outdoor home decorations can be fun if you know what to do and the satisfaction you’ll get from it is indescribable. By decorating your outdoor area, it will make it more inviting and homely.
Egg Carton Crafts – Creativity Out Garbage!
We normally dispose off the egg cartons in the garbage. Why not put them to good use and turn them into funky crafts? A good way is to make Halloween decorations from egg cartons. For that matter, these crafts can be used for any celebration. It is a fun activity, which kids enjoy very much, and helps you to bond with them while they explore their creative talents. Here are a few samples of what can be done with egg cartons:
1. Spooky Bats: Spooky bats can be hung outside on trees or in the house. You can involve your children in this activity. Take a cardboard egg carton or a Styrofoam one and cut out three cups, leaving them attached side by side. Cut out the front and back of the outer cups, these form the bat wings. Paint the carton black and stick on some beady eyes or draw the eyes with white paint. Make a hole on the top of the central eggcup and run a string through it. Knot up the end so that it does not slip out through the hole. Hang up the bat and watch it fly around in the breeze!
2. Creepy spiders: A creepy spider can be made from a single cup of the egg carton. Just detach one cup from the carton. Using the sharp point of a pair of scissors, cut out four small holes on each side of the cup. Put a pipe cleaner into each of the four holes and twist it so that it remains secure. These are the legs of the spider. Draw the face of a spider on the front of the cup and also paint the body. You may use black color to paint the carton and then decorate it accordingly.
3. Egg Carton Caterpillar: This is not strictly a Halloween craft, but it can be made to add to the novelty of the decorations. An egg carton caterpillar is very easy to make and most kids will love making it. You will require an egg container used for a dozen eggs. Cut out the carton in half, leaving six eggcups attached together. Decorate each cup with paint, glitter or sequins in the form of a caterpillar. For the first cup, draw a caterpillar face. Insert pipe cleaners into holes cut out in the first cup, to form antennae. Your caterpillar, or rather, bookworm is ready to crawl around!
Egg carton crafts can be made very easily with a little imagination and ingenuity. It is a good way to get children interested in arts and crafts making and discover their creative talents in the process.
An Easy Way to Create Your Own Halloween Window Silhouettes
If you are on a tight budget this year you will find many individuals find it a good thing to learn how to create your own Halloween window silhouettes rather than to buy Halloween decorations.
You will find that there are a lot of Halloween retailers that have a huge selection of attractive Halloween decorations such as smoke machines that create a spooky atmosphere, light up decorations and inflatable Halloween decorations. You may be able to find some cheap Halloween decorations but even then on many of our budgets we cannot afford to purchase these.
The truth is, simple can still be spectacular. By creating your own decorations you can save a lot of cash, but you can also create your own creative scene. In this guide, I will provide simple instructions on how to create Halloween window silhouettes.
The first thing to do is hop on you computer and look up all the different Halloween designs. You will need to find one that serves as your base template when creating your Halloween window silhouettes. Some examples include:
1: Black Cats2: Broomsticks3: Candy4: Ghosts5: Ghosts6: Monsters7: Pumpkins8: Scarecrows9: Skeletons10: Spiders11: Black Cats12: Witches13: Zombies
Once you have elected the designs that you want to use, simply print them out. You will likely stumble across images that print out in color. That is no problem at all. You may simply color in the image with a black crayon or a black marker.
Then, you can scan the image and print the saved scan out. If you do this, you will need to cut out the designs and then place them with tape or another type of adhesive.
However, if you do not want to mess with cutting everything out and place them on the window with an adhesive, use transparent film paper. You can print them out on regular printer paper, but try to get the black colored images in this case.
All you do with the transparent film paper is rub it across your arm and create an adhesive. You will be surprised at how well it sticks to your window.
The end result is you will have great looking Halloween window silhouettes, and without the aftermath. It only takes a few minutes to do, and you will have some great looking customized Halloween decorations.