Countdown to Thanksgiving - Pilgrim Hats and Turkey Sandwiches

Today's Countdown to Thanksgiving Craft is a simple one, but might be something you may not thought of making before.  A few years back I was low on time before Thanksgiving, but wanted to make some sort of centerpiece for my table.  I realized I had a new unused clay pot on hand. I also had some styrofoam cups. I decided to pull out my craft paint and turn them into pilgrim hats. I painted both the pot and cups black, and then let them dry. While they were drying, I cut white paper strips for the hat band, and buckles out of gold cardstock.   Once the paint was dry, I put the bands and buckles on the hats with a little glue.  That's all there was to it. I told you it was simple.  I filled the pot with mini gourds I had on hand, and placed it in the middle of the table.  I added some names on the cup hats, and used them as place cards.  Hmm.. I might have to check my Thanksgiving boxes and put them back out again this year.

The recipe I am going to share with you today is also pretty simple, but my kids loved them when they were younger.  We used to eat turkey sandwiches that were actual turkeys. 

I cut the crust off the edges of the bread, but it is not necessary.  I also used a circle cookie cutter to cut out the turkey's head.  You can use whatever bread you would like, but I found wheat bread or whole grain bread gives it more of a turkey color. 

I cut colored peppers into slices to make the turkey feathers.  I also cut out a small triangle for he beaks, and small slice of red for the  wattle. 

Make the sandwiches with the ingredients of your choice.  For the best flavor, you would probably want something that goes well with peppers like chicken salad, turkey, cheese, or tuna. 

Once you choose your filling, add the feathers by placing one of the ends in between the two pieces of bread.  I used small cranberries for the eyes, but you can use raisins, grapes, anything small and round.  I attached the face pieces to the head with a tiny dab of cream cheese. 

They make cute appetizers, or a kid's snack. 

Savings tip of the day... 

If you are looking for a good deal on a Christmas Tree,  Michaels currently has 50% off ALL of their trees while supplies last.  They call this sale The Big Tree Spree.  

If you are not yet a Michaels rewards member you currently can sign up, and get $5 in rewards when you spend $25.  There is also a 30% off coupon on their website, that you can print and use.  When I go shopping at craft stores, I use a coupon every time I go. 

Another great deal going on right now is Oriental Trading Company currently 

has free shipping on any order for a limited time (though some restrictions apply according to the website. 

Use the code PS544 for the free shipping.  

 

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Countdown to Thanksgiving - Thanksgiving Place Cards

If you are looking for a Thanksgiving craft that actually serves a purpose, how about making Thanksgiving Turkey Place Cards. 

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links

 For this project you will need brown, orange, and red craft foam, and pipe cleaners in various colors for the feathers.  

To make the turkey body, cut out one peanut shape in the size turkey you would like, and two tear drop shapes for the wings.

Using a hot glue gun, glue two google eyes, a beak and a wattle on the smaller the turkey's head. 

Cut the pipe cleaners in half, and then wrap them around a pencil to make a spiral feather. 

Cut a yellow or orange pipe cleaner into for even pieces.  Next wrap one of the pieces around a second piece with the ends pointing down.  Repeat with the other two pieces of pipe cleaner.

 

Glue the feathers and the legs/feet onto the back of the turkeys body.  

Attach the wings to the front of the turkey's body.  Cut a rectangle out of white paper and and slide it in place underneath the wings.  I did not glue down the paper so I would be able to change the names out each year.

If you have leftover craft foam, you can use the pieces to make Turkey Treat Boxes.  (I buy the small plastic containers at the Dollar Tree) 

 

To make the turkey head, cut out a smaller peanut shaped body and face and glue it to the front of the treat box.

To make the feathers I cut pipe cleaners in half, and then folded the halves. I attached them together in the color order I wanted by twisting them together. (see the top picture) Once they were all attached, I folded them all together and twisted all the ends.  They were much easier to attach in one piece.  You can glue the feathers to the top of the lid, or the back of the box, whichever you prefer.   You can see both ways in the first picture of the treat boxes. 

I do have printable place cards and several Thanksgiving Games available in my Etsy Shop if you prefer to not to make your own.  

Today's Saving Tip of the Day

Dollar Tree has $5.99 flat rate shipping through November 9th with the code FESTIVE.  

They also have updated DollarTree.com so it is much easier to find all the new Dollar Tree Plus items on the site.  If you are not able to use the shipping deal, remember you most items are available to be shipped FREE to your local store.

Tomorrow I will have a special Thanksgiving snack that is cute and healthy.. Hope to see you there.  

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Countdown to Thanksgiving - Turkey Napkin Rings

One of my favorite Thanksgiving crafts that I think I have ever made and shared are my Turkey Napkin Rings.  They are a lot of fun to make and really brighten up the table.  I used cardboard paper towel tubes to make the rings, just in case you are wondering. 

I painted the tube dark brown, and then once it was dry cut it into 6 pieces for an inch and a half each.  I used cardstock in fall colors for the rest of the turkey. 

I used circle punch to make the head. I free hand cut a diamond for a beak, and a comma like shape for the wattle. For the feathers I cute bigger longer diamond shapes with rounded sides for the feathers. I used five feathers for each ring. 

I used hot glue to put the turkey together.  You can leave the feathers plain, or draw around the outside with black marker like this one. 

 

The width of the paper towel is the perfect size for a rolled up napkin.  

In today's Countdown to the Thanksgiving, I have a BONUS CRAFT 

We had a Thanksgiving tradition in our house. When the kids were younger we make Thankful Turkeys.  I would cut out a turkey shape and feathers.  They entire family would write on the feathers what they were thankful for that year, and then I would display them around the house.  I still have many of those turkeys in our memory boxes.  

If you would love to do this tradition but do not want to have to cut out the turkeys, I have a premade kit in my Etsy Shop.  

In addition to the Thankful Turkey Craft Kit , you may  also be interested in the  printable Thanksgiving Games that I have in my shop that the entire family can play. 

** this post contains affiliate links 

Money Earning and Savings Tips of the Day 

My favorite way to earn extra money for the holiday season is by selling my printables on Etsy.  If  you have been trying a side hustle like selling your own printables,  I love the course I took by Gold City Ventures.  You get so much out of this course including free templates, a wonderful Facebook group (which I am still a part of) and so much more.  Their course is open through midnight tonight. If you would to like more without committing to the course, they have two FREE resources.  The first is a Free Ebook about seasonable printables, and the other is a Free Workshop. If you have questions about this course, or making printables, drop me a message.  

Today's Saving Money Tip is in another area that I love... Making Crafts.  

I received an email from Michaels.com.  They have several FREE holiday workshops and courses going on in the next few weeks both online and in person.   They are currently in the middle of the 12 Days of Making Holiday Cards (Nov 1-12), but will also have the 12 Days of  Kid Club Winter Workshops (kid's crafts for age 6+)  Online they have two classes coming up.  How to make a luxe Christmas tree, (11/8 at 3 pm CT) and a wood burning class (11/15)  If you are interested in any of their free and paid classes check their website.    One of my favorite gifts I received from my daughter was a beautiful painting she made me in a Michael painting class. It has been hanging on the wall for many years.  

I have more Thanksgiving crafts and holiday tips coming tomorrow.  Hope to see you there! 

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It's the Dare to Share Saturday Party

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

Thank you everyone for your birthday messages.  It ended up being a fantastic weekend! Instead of waiting to share all about it here in this party post, I shared about it in my post Halloween Weekend and More a few days ago. I included more pictures and details you if you would like to read about it. 

Also this week I shared a post about a website that I love to use for many of my projects called Creative Fabrica.  There are so many things on the site available for crafters, designers and even teachers, which you can read about in my post Why Creative Fabrica is an amazing site for creatives.  

I use Creative Fabrica for most of my graphics in my Etsy Shop.  I have added several new Thanksgiving listings, and some new Christmas listings as well.   One of the items that I think  will do pretty well this year is Letters from Santa for kids who are both naughty and nice.  (I wish I had these when my kids were younger) 

Earlier today I started a new series called Countdown to Thanksgiving. I used to do something similar years ago, but have not been able to the last few years when I was working full time.  In this post I shared how to make this Turkey Pumpkin, and also some Shopping/Saving Tips that you might find helpful for the holiday season.   

 Also if you were interested in taking the Gold City Ventures Printables Course I mentioned last week during Dare to Share, it is open for enrollment now until November 7th.  

Now that I have shared what is new with me and the blog, it is time for you to share.  It is time to get the party started.  Link your posts and HAVE FUN!  

 

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Countdown to Thanksgiving- Turkey Pumpkin Centerpiece

 

Back a few years ago, before I was working full time, I used to do a holiday countdown where I would share a daily craft or recipe for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The last few years my schedule did not really allow me to keep up with a daily schedule, but this year I am working a home, and able to do a countdown again. 

Each day (at least each week day) I plan on sharing a Thanksgiving craft. Many of them are crafts you can do with your kids, and display on the holiday. 

 A few times a week I will share a holiday recipe that you can make for you friends and family.  I will be sharing a recipe from my blog, and feature recipes from the Dare to Share round up posts. 

 A new thing I am going to add this year since there are so many of us dealing with the affects of inflation on our budgets, I am also going to share a shopping deal or two that you might not know about.  The holidays are coming up very fast, so we could all use ways to save some money when we can. 

** this blog post may contain affiliate links  

Today's Craft of the Day 

As you are putting away your Halloween craft supplies, if you find you have craft pumpkins still on hand, we can use them to make some Turkey Pumpkin Centerpieces.  

I love using the craft foam pumpkins from the Dollar Tree. While they are no longer available online, their website still has some different types of crafting pumpkins available,  if you are need any for your Thanksgiving crafts.     Whichever pumpkin that you choose to use, paint it the color of the turkey you are making. I chose to use a dark brown.  

 Cut a peanut shaped turkey head (body) out of craft foam.  Make sure it is the right size to attach to your pumpkin.   I then glued on the face using google eyes, a craft foam orange heart and a little red swish for the wattle.  (or is it snood, I always get confused LOL)  I then glued it to the front of the pumpkin. 

I cut the feet out of orange craft foam and glue it to the bottom of the pumpkin. 

I used a variety of colors of craft foam to make the feathers. You can make little snip around the shapes, to make them look like feathers.  Arrange them how you want and glue them to the back side of the pumpkin.  

Add a couple of craft foam wings, and your Turkey Pumpkin is complete. 

Your Turkey Pumpkin is ready for Thanksgiving!  He would look really cute as part of a table centerpiece. 

Now onto the money saving tips I saw in the past day or so. 

Do you have an Aldi nearby?  It is one of my favorite places to shop for my groceries.  They are currently advertising that they are rolling back their Thanksgiving essentials prices to 2019 prices.  I am pretty excited because this will help our food budget.  While I was there last night, I saw they currently had turkeys for about $1.09 a lb. (it may vary by area) 

Another way to save on Thanksgiving groceries right now is by using Ibotta.  I use Ibotta all the time and earn money back on groceries I am already buying anyway.  They currently have cash back on many Thanksgiving essentials, and if you redeem sixteen offers by Nov 18, they will give you an offer for a free turkey!   If you do not have the app yet, you can check out the Ibotta App Here. 

One last saving tip that I just found out today.  Over on Oriental Trading they are currently offering FREE Shipping on orders of $49, and $10 off orders of $69 using the code CE224644 at checkout.  They offer many Thanksgiving craft kids, and decor, and have some Early Bird Black Friday deals for 50% off right now. 

If you hear of any great deals, money saving tips, let me know in the comments.  

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Why Creative Fabrica is an Amazing Site for Creatives

As many of my frequent readers may know, I am a person who wears many hats. Not only am I a blogger, I am also a teacher, tutor, Etsy shop owner, crafter and a mom. When I started this blog, my kids were young and loved having themed parties.  Now that they are older and busy with their lives, I still love to plan themed parties, but my focus has changed a little bit.  

I spend my time teaching and tutoring kids, and making printable digital designs for my shop. 

Today I would like to share with you about a website that I truly love to use on a regular basis, for all areas of my life. It is called Creative Fabrica.

I use this site to make many of my digital printables for my Etsy shop by using clip art and fonts from their site. I have used Creative Fabrica for a long time, and it is my go to resource for my designing and other needs.  What is so cool about Creative Fabrica, it has so much available on the site that you can use it for just about everything you want to make, not just making digital files.

There are so many things that they offer on Creative Fabrica, many of which you can access for free. If you are a crafter,  you can find and download Free SVG Files that can be used with cutting machines to make craft projects.  Do you like to do embroidery?  If you do, they have a large amount of Free embroidery Patterns available for you to use.  

They also have free fonts that are perfect for all kinds of occasions, crafts, celebrations, and projects (like making party decorations :)).   

In addition to all their free resources you can find templates, mock ups, teaching resources and more.  I told you it was an amazing site!

One of my favorite Halloween listings in my Etsy Shop is my bundle of Halloween Gnomes that are the perfect size to be framed as decor, or in a tiered tray. When I created these designs, I got the original gnome clipart bundle from Creative Fabrica.    

I then went to Canva and used the clip art and turned them into my own designs.  If you are wondering if you are allowed to resell something that you create, yes you are!  Creative Fabrica does offer commercial use licenses with their products. They do require that you need to make a new unique design if you are selling your design, and not resell the product as is.  Just make sure to read the license, and make sure to follow what it says to do.

Another popular item in my shop was also created by using Creative Fabrica's fonts. The title font on my Mother's Day Questionnaire printable is Back to Valentine Love , and the smaller font on the questions is Bebas Neue. They were part of a free font bundle that was available for a limited time. If you sign up for their email list, you get a daily email with day's freebies, and chances to win different prizes each day.  The prizes are really nice too. Some of the prizes have been for things such as Silhouettes, Cricuts, and other items that help you create your amazing crafts and creations. 

As I was writing this post, I received my Creative Fabrica Daily Gift email. I look forward to receiving my daily emails, because they make it feel like it is Christmas every day.  In each daily gift you receive a free font, or free font bundle, a SVG cut file, and a clip art design. I am super excited with what I received today, which was a Farmhouse Halloween Clipart Bundle, and Crafty Christmas Font Bundle, and a chance for a Vinyl Bundle Giveaway. Each daily gift is only available for 24 hours and they change daily, so make sure to download them when you can so you don't miss out on some fantastic savings.  So if you want to receive daily freebies, make sure to opt in to the email list.   

You may also be wondering how to keep track of your downloaded freebies.  It is actually quite easy to do.  You can create a free Creative Fabrica account where you will see all the products you have downloaded for free, and the paid ones you may buy.  They often have unlimited downloads, so if you can't find your file and need to download it again, you can easily do that. If you are looking for something specific like a graphic or font, you can find thousands of items by using the search bar.  I found so many cute graphics that I didn't know existed this way. Creative Fabrica often has amazing sales, sometimes as much as 90%. 

On my blog, I like to share products and websites that I know well, and really believe in.  Creative Fabrica is definitely one of those things.  Why not check it out today.  

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Halloween Weekend and More

If you saw my Dare to Share Party post that I shared on Friday, you saw that this past weekend was my birthday. What I am not sure I mentioned is it was also my boyfriend's birthday just a couple of days before mine. We love celebrating our birthdays together.  It was such a great weekend, I thought I would share more about it in a stand alone post. 

You may see me mention going to a Friday night dance with my friends in some of my Dare to Share  posts.  This weekend was the annual Halloween Dance. It is usually the largest attended dance of the year, which was definitely true this year.  

My friends and I were color coordinated, but did not realize it until we saw the pictures. LOL!  This year I was Little Red Riding Hood.  I did not know it was going to be such a popular costume this year. There were five of us wearing a version of Red Riding Hood. 

Last year my boyfriend and I went as Beauty and the Beast. I loved my dress, but it was really hard to dance in because it was way too long for me. We did win 2nd place in the couples costume contest though. 

This year, once I found my Little Red Riding Hood costume, we were trying to find a wolf costume for him. It turns out there are not that many out there that are not very expensive, or too hot to dance in.  At the last minute we found a sloth costume at Walmart. It wasn't his favorite costume ever, but it was easy to wear, and most people thought he was a wolf anyway.  😄

Another tradition we do every year is have a Sushi dinner on our birthday weekend.  We were staying at a friend's house, and not near our usual go to restaurant. We tried a  place that was new to us, and it was delicious! 

We received a free appetizer for being first time customers, and free dessert for our birthday. 

The next day, we stopped and had our annual Birthday Party shakes.  These shakes are way over the top, but so much fun. 

I also had time to visit with my now grown kids. I had my free Red Robin birthday meal for lunch, and then we went  to a local cider mill.  We thought skeleton wagon was really cool.  Did you notice the baby skeleton? I missed it at first. 

On Halloween night, I went trick or treating with my bonus daughter.  I got a walking tour of around the neighborhood. There were a few houses here that go all out.  Even though I am not a fan of scary stuff, this house was definitely my favorite. 

Hopefully you had a fantastic Halloween too! 

Now I am going to share something with you that is definitely a TREAT, and not a trick.  Do you remember when I mentioned the Gold City Venture E-Printables Course in my Dare to Share Post, well they opened their doors to the course today for a limited time. (Nov 2- Nov 7) 

  

 If you have ever thought about starting a printable Etsy shop, I highly recommend them.  I have learned so much from this course, and it is one of the most affordable courses out there. In addition to the modules where they teach you step by step how to make printables, open an Etsy shop and more, they also have a very supportive Facebook group, and several live chats every month.  Disclosure, I am an affiliate for this course, but I would feel the exact same way about it, even if I wasn't. I am so happy I took this course and started on my Etsy journey. 

If you would like to know more about printables, without jumping right in to the course, they have a free Ebook, and free workshop where you can learn more.  Tomorrow I will be sharing another creating resource that I am very excited about.   

 

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