Are the kiddos are at home and in need of entertainment? - making ornaments is a fun way to spend time together. Get involved as a family, turn on some holiday tunes and have some creative time. If your tree is getting too full of ornaments, I'm sure Grandma & Grandpa and Aunties & Uncles would love some for their tree's too!

#1: Half Eaten Gingerbread Men

I first came across this ornament design by Noodle-Head.com "Half Eaten Ornaments". I love this take on making Gingerbread Man ornaments with a laughable approach. These will definitely be on my list for next years projects. One of the simple details here is using a red button with white yarn/string to make them look like peppermint candies. Genius! Original pattern by Elsie Marley here.

This is a perfect way to dress up your house for the Holiday's and might even be okay rolling over in to January. You can also include the kids! Instead of making real, edible gingerbread men make these up and let them decorate them with puff paint (aka "frosting"). You can also add embellishments such as buttons, ribbon and rick rack to give them a little extra cuteness. Just glue any extra's on.

SUPPLIES:

- Gingerbread Man Template (Two sizes are included in the PDF Template and Instruction download)
- Large Brown Paper Grocery Bags
- String, Twine, Ribbon or Raffia Swag
- Something for tracing. I like to use white chalk. If using something permanent, trace on the non-showing side.
- Sewing Machine (although you could hand-stich each, it would be a lot of work!)
- Stuffing (100% Polyester Fiberfill - any cheap kind)
- Puff Paint - I mainly use white, but that's your prerogative
- Optional Embellishments: Rick Rack, Ribbon, Lace, Buttons...etc.

PREP.

Paper Bags: Cut down the middle of ONE side (on the crease). Then cut around/off the bottom of the bag and discard.

Templates: If you are using a permanent marker/pen, trace on the printed side of the paper so that it won't show when you put them together. I personally like to use white chalk and trace right on to the showing side. I also trace and cut them a little fatter than the template.

Trace as many as you can fit, reversing the pattern to make them fit better. You will need TWO cutouts for each final gingerbread man.

Because I am going to start doing a number of small scale sewing DIY projects for you soon I wanted to open that can of worms with a little bit on Fat Quarters. So that you understand the layout and where a Fat Quarter actually comes from, see the diagram below.

So, what is a Fat Quarter? Traditionally, a Fat Quarter is a 44" x 36"  piece of material cut in to quarters making each quarter 18"x22". Fat Quarter's are most commonly used is in the quilting world where they generally use a quilt-weight cotton which in most cases will measure 44" wide, but sometimes measures 42" wide (which would make your Fat Quarter 18"x21"). There are also Fat Eigth's, but I won't get in to too much detail about them here. Getting Fat Quarters out of a yard of fabric is super easy, here is a tutorial to help you out.

This is a super-fast, easy ornament project almost anyone in the family can participate in. It is also a great way to recycle all the burned out lightbulbs collected over the year(s) (start saving in January for this project next year). If you don't have a stash of burned out bulbs start asking your family, friends and neighbors.

What You'll Need:

- Old Lightbulbs (normal size)
- Wooden Craft Balls (hardware or craft store)
- Scrap Fabric (for scarves)
- Rafia or Twine
- Wire (baling wire, craft wire, hanger wire - anything you can bend and twist easily)
- Paint (acrylic) & Brushes: White, Black, Orange and any other colours you may want.
- Hot Glue Gun & Glue

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree! Much pleasure thine COLOR can'st give me... So much so that there are over 200 Christmas tree colors in the COLOURlovers Library. Below you will find common varieties of trees used in North America & Europe as "Christmas trees," and colors extracted from, or inspired by, them.

As we move into mid-November, it's officially time to declare my favorite time of year: cooler temperatures and long coats, multicolored scarves, gloves, and hats to go with it! It's a great time to redecorate the home, change the colors of your bedroom, or go shopping for a new sweaters for yourself, the kids, or possible Christmas gifts...who knows what you may find?

This week on What's Crafty on Etsy, we'll look at all kinds of fun items for winter to help you get yourself into the spirit.

If you like modern design but feel white walls are just too plain, perhaps I have just the thing for you. Etsy user designedDESIGNER has a variety of wall decals for sale to suit rooms of all sizes and colors.  This set, called "Birds in the Urban Forest", comes with six trees, birds and loose leaves for you to arrange as you wish. The price beats wallpaper (which is so last century anyway). If you have a baby's room to decorate, there are some precious options as far as that goes as well.

"It was really an accident," Cecelia Webber admits in an interview with Modern Luxury, "I shot a nude figure against a black background and thought it looked so much like a petal I just went with it."  And thus started her journey as a professional artist in hopes of dispelling much of the world's view of nudity as either "something erotic or disgusting," as she puts it.

Her work consists of only the naked human body, often her own, photographed in the most peculiar of positions then painstakingly overlaid using Photoshop to form the familiar shapes of petals, stamen and stem. So familiar the shapes are and so acutely formed that at first glance it is hard to tell that you're looking at naked people. Lastly, but always first in our book, she saturates the forms with stunning color. Her work pays great homage to nature: the beauty of the human figure and the shapes and colors that connect all living things.

We are all so so impressed with the pattern designs that folks are creating with Seamless!

I've been collecting new fabulous patterns (templates) each month. Have a look and add your recent pattern designs in the comments.

Original Pattern By: Gwenwhyfair

Original Pattern By: thisgirldesigns

I'm a last minute decorator. Every year I see the note and huge reminder on my calendar to decorate for Halloween starting October first. And every year October flies by and I'm scrambling to decorate the weekend before Halloween if not the day of. And every year I swear I will decorate next year on October first so that I can enjoy my fun decorations for the entire month; not a week. This year wasn't any different than any other year and I'm back to square one with promising myself to be more on the ball next year. Something tell's me the cycle will not change, but I can always hope right?

So here's a fun, less-than-an-hour project for you to do on Halloween weekend!

Supplies:

– Cardboard (cereal boxes with thinner walls works perfect)
– Black Paint or even Chalkboard Paint
– Jute Twine (any length of: rope, ribbon, twine, etc. you feel like using)
– Chalk or White Paint
– Ruler
– Box-Cutter or Xacto Blade
– Heavy Duty Paper Cutter (optional, will make it easier)
– Corner Cutter (scrapbooking punch-out / optional)

Warning! : The colors below may cause sweating, irritation to the eyes & mouth, the forming of sad, scared, awkward looking facial expressions, and the gratuitous exhibition of machismo. Be careful not to touch your eyes or your ...er...more sensitive areas after handling. Now, the hottest colors in the world.

Chili Peppers

The spicy heat of peppers is measured in Scoville Heat Units. This scale measures the amount of Capsaicin the chemical compound that stimulates chemoreceptor nerve endings in the skin, especially the mucous membranes. In other words it makes that stuff hot.

To give us an idea of the Scoville scale, Pure capsaicin (the active component in peppers) is a 15,000,000 - 16,000,000, you don't want to eat or even get near that. If your using pepper as a weapon or deterrent you'll want at least 5,000,000, which is what is used by law enforcement in pepper spray. On the other side of the scale we have bell peppers at 0 units and Tabasco red pepper sauce with a rating between 2,500 & 5,000 units.

We start of with the hottest peppers in the world and work our way down through some of those with less heat but still packed with hot colors.

Tambako the Jaguar

Naga Jolokia / Bhut Jolokia

Scoville: 855,000 - 1,075,000 | This is the hottest chili in the world.