Giant Halloween Poster

Halloween is just around the corner. How do you like to decorate for Halloween? I like to keep it simple and affordable. My Halloween decorations also focus a lot on black and white, with hints of orange. My new favorite Halloween decoration is this Giant Halloween Poster. This poster is so easy to make. SO easy. First snap a picture of your resident ghost.

 

Then all you need to do is take the photo on a USB drive or on your photo card and head to your local Staples. There you can print off an Engineer print. Engineer prints are kind of spectacular. They print off fast and they are really cheap. Engineer prints are paper prints and they are only available in black and white. I printed off the largest size, 36x48. The print cost lest than $8.  Now our resident ghost is larger than life and ready to haunt our halls.

 

I enhanced the poster with some giant wood letters painted black. Saying, "BOO" of course.

 

 I hung up the poster with some washi tape and I added a few other black and white Halloween decorations.

 

You too can have your own Giant Halloween Poster. All it takes is a photo and an engineer print.

Easy Trick-or-Treat Bag

Halloween is almost here. Costumes. Candy. Trick or Treating. All the fun stuff.  Getting everything ready for Halloween is not always so fun. Don't fret! This Pillow Case Trick or Treat Bag is easy to make.

 

When I was growing up, my brothers and sisters and I could be found running around the neighborhood on Halloween dressed up and toting the pillow cases off our pillows. Pillow cases were the best things for gathering massive amounts of candy. We just threw it over our shoulder Santa Claus style. We were more than happy to just use the pillow case off our bed.

I thought I could steal the pillow case idea, but amp up the cuteness just a bit. I decorated the front of the bag with heat transfer vinyl. You could also use paint, fabric markers, or fabric. I made this image in Picmonkey. I saved it to my computer and then imported into my Silhouette software in order to cut the image from vinyl. You could also print off the image and  use it as a freezer paper stencil.


 

 If you want to import the image into Silhouette, here is how you use it with vinyl. Import the image into your Silhouette files. Bring up the image.

 

Select the trace function. Then pick the Select Trace Area. Drag a box around the entire image. Then pick Trace Outer Edge.

 

Drag away the original image and delete it.

 

Before you cut anything in heat transfer vinyl you have to mirror flip the image.

 

Cut out the image. Set it aside. Now that we have the image ready, we can prep the pillow case. Fold over the top of the open end. Iron.

 

Sew around the hem, leaving an opening to thread through the fabric. I used a fancy stitch option but a regular stitch does the job.

 

Pull off the negative of the vinyl. Iron on the image.

 



For the bag tie, use a piece of fleece. I cut it to a 3 1/2" by 52" strip.

       
Using a safety pin, thread through one end of the strip all the way around. Then thread the other end through the opposite way. Once both ends are through, knot the ends. Now you have a drawstring bag.  

 

Not just any drawstring bag. A really fun and perfectly festive Easy Trick or Treat Bag.

 

Happy Halloween!

Donut Forget You Are Special

We recently had an activity at church with our young women all about how special we all are. We played a game that was an object lesson based on the book You Are Special by Max Lucado.

After the game we talked about trying not to judge other. We also talked about not letting what others think bother you. The only thing that matters is knowing who our Maker is and how special we are in His eyes.

Since I think every activity needs to have a handout and/or food, I made a handout to give to each girl. I bought some donuts and put them in a cute paper bag. I made a tag to go on the front of the bag.

These tags could be used for a Sunday School class, a school classroom, or for anyone needing a little reminder of how special they are.

print off HERE

Young Women Faith Garden Dinner

I have the amazing privilege to be in the presence of over twenty amazing young women on a weekly basis. I get to be in their presence, plan activities for them, support them, and learn from them. 

Over a month ago while checking my Instagram feed (follow along with me @larissa_anotherday), I saw a magical image of an orchard dinner by the always inspiring Stephanie Nielson (Nie Nie Dialogues). Right away I knew I wanted to do something like that for my girls.

With the help of ALL the wonderful women I serve with, we pulled of a magical evening of Faith for our girls. 

Our evening was centered around the idea of having faith and not fear. We wanted to have an inspiring night that helped the girls prepare and plan for a new school year.

We had access to the perfect spot.

We set up three long banquet tables and covered them with white tablecloths. We had a varying collection of white plate, glasses, and silverware that all came from the adults. I loved how the mix-match dishes gave a vintage feel to the evening.

We also hung cafe lights over the table. We luckily had a canopy of trees to attach the lights to. The lights gave such a magical feeling to the night. They were also bright enough that when it got darker we could still see everything.

We used flowers and jars/glass vases as centerpieces. We used baby's breath, inexpensive daisies, and fresh cut hydrangeas from my front yard. We had a variety of mason jars and glass vases. Again with the idea of mix-matching. Then I just varied how I put the flowers in all the containers.

In Stephanie's original image on Instagram, the girls were wearing white shirts and they had on flower crowns. Wearing white shirts fit with our themed Faith Night and I just adored the idea of flower crowns. We told the girls ahead of time to wear white shirts. We made simple baby's breath flower crowns. Using baby's breath allowed it stayed affordable.

When the girls arrived, we gathered them away from the table and gave them an introduction to the evening. Then we led them to where the table was. The oohs and ahhs were so heart-warming. We gave them each a flower crown and had them sit down.

Don't they look so very beautiful??

We ate before the message.

The menu was so simple and easy. We had rolls and salad. Each adult there brought a different kind of salad. With such an easy meal set up, it was easier for us to focus on creating the environment and it allowed us to sit down with the girls and eat together.

We ate and talked.

It was simply magical. I have used that word a lot in this post, but there really is no other word to describe it.

After everyone was done eating, we had a special message about faith versus fear. We listened to a beautiful message about relying on Christ when we face all the decisions and experiences of life. I feel that we all came away with a little more resolve to have faith over feeling fear.

I am so grateful for all the women who helped create this special night. I am also very grateful for these beautiful pictures that were taken for us by my friend's SIL. She was able to capture the spirit and the beauty of this evening and allow us to forever keep this memory with us.

Vanilla Cake Apple Crisp

Before I introduce this very lovely Vanilla Cake Apple Crisp, let's just chat about Fall.

I love Fall. I love pretty much everything about it. Seriously. I am really trying to think about what I don't like about the Fall.  I am drawing a blank.

One of the activities I enjoy the most in the Fall is apple picking. When we lived in Ohio, every September we would drive out to our favorite fruit farm to pick our favorite apples. Which, of course, were Honeycrisp apples.

We went out with friends. We took pictures. We loaded up the trunk of our car. We blissfully ate apples while we picked. I miss our Ohio apple picking days. I find it funny that it was only after we left those glorious orchards that I found the delights of making applesauce.

We may not have our Ohio fruit farm, but we still have access to some yummy apples. Oh, and we are four years into our very own apple trees so there is that. We even had about 7 apples this year. One of them was ginormous.

I just can't wait for the next 5-10 years when we have ourselves our own little orchard. We even threw in a pear tree just for kicks and giggles. Until our orchard is all mature, we have been very lucky to have people offer to let us pick the apples from their trees.

We pick like maniacs. No on is exempt from tree climbing and picking.

Once we have canned all the applesauce I can handle, we always have some apples left over. Most the time we just eat them. Sometimes I just full on embrace Fall and bake something with them.

This year I made this little lovely. This Vanilla Apple Crisp was SO, SO very yummy.

There is an added little flavor bonus found in the crumb topping. P.S. Isn't the crumb topping just the very best. It is definitely my favorite. My secret yum factor weapon was a box of vanilla cake mix. The flavor it added was insane. It was the perfect compliment to the apple mixture. The most perfect apple crisp was born.

If you love Fall, then you should probably do yourself a favor and make this little bit of Fall in a bowl. AKA apple crisp.

Print Recipe HERE

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