Perhaps the most quintessential tradition of New Year’s Eve is the champagne toast, but what about everybody who doesn’t participate in a sip of bubbly? Whether you’re under age or prefer to abstain, you deserve a fun and fancy drink to toast with at midnight. That’s why we love a good mocktail—or cocktail without alcohol. With a well-stocked mocktail bar, you can mix and match ingredients to create tasty kid-friendly drinks.

 

Image via Eat Drink Pretty

 

In fact, we think all these fun possibilities are even more delicious and interesting that traditional bubbly. With a few basic ingredients, you can make so many combinations. Use your creativity to whip up some yummy drinks that’ll have all your guests saying, “Champagne who?”

 

To create well-balanced mixed drinks, you need a few key components—mainly something bubbly and something sweet. Of course, you don’t need carbonation, but it is New Years, after all. Customize any ingredients you want to make your bar more sophisticated (cucumber, black currant, fresh herbs) or childproof (orange slices, fruit punch, crazy straws). Here are the key components to creating a fabulous mocktail bar:

 

- A bubbly base: Ginger ale, sparkling cider, Sprite or Sierra Mist, seltzer—these clear sodas are the perfect vehicles to add a little spritz to your glass. Pick your favorite or have a few kinds available.

 

- Juice: Orange, cranberry, pineapple, lemonade, peach nectar… these fruity liquids add sweetness and pack the flavor punch for your mixed drink. Stock as many as you like, but a good base is usually three different options.

 

- Fresh fruit: Whether it’s muddled or used for garnish, fresh fruit is delicious and gives your glass a festive touch. Doesn’t it just feel fancier? Berries and citrus are usually best—raspberries, blackberries, lemons, and limes, etc—but feel free to try any other favorites.

 

*Another fun tip: Try freezing berries to create a tasty alternative to ice. They’ll keep drinks chilled without watering them down and look prettier, too!

 

- Fresh Herbs: This is optional, and perhaps for the more adventurous, but some fresh herbs can really bring your mocktails to the next level. Mint, thyme, basil, and rosemary all add deep and complex flavors to an otherwise simple drink. If you’re looking to ease your way in to adding a little green to your glass, try starting with mint.

 

 

Image via The Kitchn

 

These kid-friendly bar basics will ensure tons of fun drink creations. Let the little ones play mixologists and come up with their own delicious concoctions. Keep in mind you can always tailor this to your friends’ and family’s preferences. If you’d like some recipes on hand, here are a few great suggestions:

 

Rosemary Citrus Spritzer from The Kitchn

 

Rudolph’s Nose from NCADD

 

Cranberry Kiss from Eat Drink Pretty

 

Strawberry Crush from La Fuji Mama

 

Alcohol content certainly doesn’t have the market cornered on festivity. Upgrade your cup of soda or juice this year and make a fancy drink worthy of starting the New Year with. Cheers!

Did you know gingerbread houses became popular in Germany during the 1800s after Hansel and Gretel was published? That’s pretty spectacular considering that in the fairytale, the beautifully edible house is used to lure two abandoned children into a witch’s trap. One wouldn’t think that makes a great selling point for creating confectionery cottages, but it seemed to really catch on and become a Christmas tradition. After all, that witch was on to something—she knew Hansel and Gretel couldn’t resist an enchanting gingerbread house… how could we expect anyone else to?

 

 

Image via Shopgirl

 

This tasty craft comes in an array of sizes, shapes, and levels of difficulty. For those who need a bit of a head start, there are kits available to help create the basic structure. Others love starting from scratch and baking their own gingerbread. Some people take gingerbread houses so seriously that they create life-size structures or participate in competitions. Whatever your approach, this is definitely a fun and delicious activity to try on your own or with the whole family.

 

 

Image via Worth Pinning

 

 

Image via Land O Lakes

 

And don’t feel limited to gingerbread! Some folks have started branching out and using other delicious treats to build their homes’ foundations. Try pretzel rods to create the effect of wooden logs. Or use rice crispy treats to suggest stones or stucco. These houses can be as elaborate or simple as you want. Don’t underestimate the beauty of simple gingerbread and white frosting. For those who like a little more opulence, grab colorful candies and make a full-on edible estate! Piped icing, nuts, cereal, and candy canes also make excellent decorating supplies.

 

 

Image via Cake Central

 

What gingerbread house approach is your favorite? Clean and simple, cozy and colorful, or grand and luxurious?

Winter may not technically arrive until December 21^st, but once November ends, it seems that everybody begins embracing the holiday season. One of the biggest and most recognizable symbols of winter is undoubtedly snow. Now, no matter where you live or what the weather is like, you can bring a little snowfall inside your home with two different, fun decorating techniques.

 

For both of these tutorials, you’ll need a sewing needle and thread or fishing wire. The first technique also requires white paper and scissors. For the second, you’ll need cotton balls and glue (optional).

 

Image via Paper & Stitch

 

The first technique is a classic with a twist. Paper snowflakes have been around forever, but usually you see them taped to windows. For a crafty update, try turning those paper flakes into a curtain of snow by hanging them in strands. First thing’s first: grab some white paper and cut out circles in different sizes. Trace things like plates, bowls, and cups for variation.  Then fold each circle and cut shapes to create snowflakes. You’ll need a lot of snowflakes, so feel free to get the whole family involved! Once you have your snowflakes, take a needle and thread and sew them together in strands; just a few stitches per flake will do it. Try varying the sizes for a more haphazard look. Once each strand is the length of your window, hang it from a curtain rod (or tape it to the head of the window) until the window’s width is covered. The resulting effect: falling snowflakes. Gorgeous, right?

 Image via

 

Next up—a real oldie, but a goodie:  the cotton ball technique! This uses the same concept as above, but requires zero scissor work. Cut a piece of thread the length of your window and knot one end and thread the other. Separate your cotton balls into different sizes; puff some up so they look bigger, break others into equal parts and roll them so they’re smaller. String the cotton balls onto your thread, alternating the sizes for a natural look. Underneath each ball as it’s threaded, either make a knot or dab a tiny bit of glue so it stays in place. Be sure to leave space between each cotton ball so it resembles falling snow. Once one thread is full, hang it up, start your next thread, and repeat until the width of the window is covered. Again, the whole family can get in on the fun and the decorating will go that much faster!

 

Both of these delightful DIYs bring a little winter magic inside your home. Which technique are you excited to try?

If Thanksgiving had an official dessert, it would definitely be pie. Pumpkin, apple, pecan, and so on… most Thanksgiving dessert courses involve more than one option. As you work on finishing up those leftovers, pay homage to this humble hero of the dessert table with this fun bottle cap pie craft. These pint-size pies are easy to make, versatile to display, and best of all… zero calories!

 

Image via

To get started, you have a few different options with materials to use. No matter what, you’ll need bottle caps to serve as the pie tins. As far as filling, you can use polymer clay, beads, felt, paint, glue, or anything else you think will work! Just as there’s an infinite variety of pies, you have many choices in how to create these mini versions.

 

Image Whimsy Love

Start by creating your crust. Press down tan colored clay or glue in felt, then trim the edges. Teeny tiny beads work perfectly as a berry filling (blue for blueberry, red for cherry, etc). If you don’t have beads, you can roll out your own with clay. Using clay is also great if you want to customize shapes for peaches or pecans. For a more solid filling, such as custard or pumpkin pie, use one larger piece of clay. Finally, add some lattice detailing by cutting very thin strips of felt, or again using clay, and any other details you’d like, such as whipped cream or a garnish.

 

Image via

There are a ton of possibilities, so have fun creating your own crafty recipes. These little desserts make adorable magnets, ornaments, or napkin ring decorations (just glue on magnets, rings, or ribbon to the backs), perfect dollhouse accessories, or just a sweet adornment anywhere you choose!

 

What was your favorite pie or dessert at this year’s Thanksgiving? What’s your all-time favorite?

As you’ve probably heard, this year’s first night of Hanukkah falls right on Thanksgiving. This is an incredibly rare overlap in the Hebrew and Gregorian calendar that will only happen once in a lifetime. In fact, double holiday has unofficially been dubbed Thanksgivikkuh!

 

For those celebrating both holidays, it can be a lot to prepare for at once. As you get ready for Thanksgiving next week, don’t forget about Hanukkah!

 

To start things off, why not try making a recycled cardboard menorah?

 Image via Chiro Mommy

 

You’ll need eight toilet paper tubes and one paper towel tube, paint, glue, decorating materials (stickers, glitter, whatever you want), and yellow tissue paper.

 

First, paint all of your cardboard tubes. Keep in mind that the taller one will serve as the shamash in the middle (if it’s a little too tall, trim it with scissors). You can paint them traditional Hanukkah colors (blue and white), Thanksgiving colors (brown, red, orange, yellow), a combination, or any colors you desire! Once the paint is dry, attach the tubes together with glue. Glue four tubes on one side of the shamash (paper towel roll) and four on the other. Finally, add decorations to your menorah!

 

Image via Making Friends

(Great alternative to paint: cover the tubes in wrapping paper or magazine pages.)

 

On the first night of Hanukkah, or the only night of Thanksgivikkah, display your creation proudly and use yellow tissue paper to create flames for the shamash and first candle. Add a tissue paper flame to a new candle each night of the Festival of Lights.

 

 

Image via Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish

 

Are you excited for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah to overlap? What fun ways can you think of to commemorate this unique occurrence?

Let’s keep the Thanksgiving momentum going with another fun turkey craft! If you missed yesterday’s variation, take a look here. Today’s turkey gets a beautiful, natural twist by using dried autumn leaves. It’s the perfect way to celebrate both the holiday and the season!

 

You’ll need leaves (dried and flattened), cardboard or brown cardstock, glue, and crayons. If you’d like to make some substitutions (synthetic leaves, googly eyes, construction paper, markers), go right ahead!

Image via Baby Center

 There are several ways you can approach this project, depending on your desired final product, so feel free to put your own stamp on it. Cut out a brown cardboard or cardstock circle for the turkey’s body. Then cut out a smaller circle to use as the head and glue it to the body. If you’re mounting this to a piece of paper, glue the body to your paper and leave a little space unglued at the top for leaves. Start arranging your leaves by sliding then behind the turkey’s body (in the unglued space) and gluing them down.

  Image via My Creative Stirrings

 If you’d prefer to leave your turkey freestanding, just glue the leaves to the back of its body. Finally, add some facial features to your turkey’s head—cut out leaves to make a beak and waddle and use crayon or marker to draw its eyes.

 Image via

 So cute, right? And it not only celebrates Thanksgiving, but really honors this beautiful time of year. Make sure to hang your turkey somewhere special as Thanksgiving approaches! What other Thanksgiving crafts are you looking forward to trying?

Thanksgiving is coming up in just about two weeks. Are you looking forward to it? This holiday combines a few of my favorite things—food, appreciating the little (and big) things, and family. That last one is particularly special because it’s probably what I’m most thankful for. That makes Thanksgiving the perfect time to try a craft that involves the whole family!

 

A traced-hand turkey craft is simple, colorful, and can include everyone! You’ll need scissors, glue, and either construction paper or cardstock in pretty fall colors (red, orange, yellow, green, brown, and dark brown).

 

Start by tracing each family member’s hand on a different colored piece of paper. You can use members of your household, or if you have relatives over, include them too! Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins… the more the merrier! Cut each handprint out and arrange them as feathers. You can do this by color or size—one option is to order them largest to smallest so you can see each hand.

 

For the body, cut out a brown circle; for the neck and head, you can cut out a bowling pin shape, or skip the neck and just cut another circle for the head if you’d prefer. Once everything is glued in order (head onto body, body onto feathers), you can add facial details—cut out a paper beak and waddle and use a marker or pen to create eyes.

 

Image via Pounds 4 Pennies

  Image via Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

 Image via Happy Home Fairy

 

And there is your teamwork turkey! Display it as is or mount it to a piece of paper and frame it. What a great way for the whole family to start celebrating Thanksgiving! What are you planning for the holiday?

One of my favorite snack foods has got to be the pretzel. It’s crunchy and salty, it’s tasty on its own, and it pairs well with both sweet and savory ingredients. You can dip it in chocolate or cheese and both will be delicious (just not at the same time… unless you’re really adventurous).

 

Sometimes it’s fun to pick a favorite snack and then create variations on a theme with it. Here are a few different ideas for bringing Halloween flair to some yummy pretzel treats.

 

These pumpkin pretzels from Make Bake Celebrate are too cute for words! Chocolate-covered and dipped in sprinkles, they’re the perfect salty-sweet combination. Add leaves and stems with some piped chocolate for added detail.

 

Photo via Make Bake Celebrate

 

 

You can never have enough chocolate covered pretzels! For a fun variation on the same flavors, you must try these Frankenstein pretzels! Grab pretzel rods, green melting chocolate, black gel icing, chocolate kisses, and shredded coconut. With some simple assembly, you can make the perfect creepy cuties to compliment your bright pumpkin pretzels.

 

Photo via Simply Designing with Ashley

 

Finally, let’s finish up with a savory pretzel dish. With some pretzel sticks, string cheese, and chives for garnish, you can create the most adorable witches’ brooms. Cut up the string cheese to act as bristles, stick in a pretzel to be the handle, and tie on a chive if you like (you can skip this last part if you’re not a chive fan).

 

Photo via

 

Yum! These make perfect Halloween treats, but are also great festive snacks for any time—be it in the classroom, after school, or for a sleepover.

 

Which of these variations is your favorite? Do you have any other spooky snack ideas?

It’s not often you find art supplies you can also eat, but when you do… it’s sure to be a tasty crafting session! Because of their bright colors, Froot Loops are perfect for art projects. You can pretty much find an excuse to craft with them every time of year. Right now, try creating some autumn-themed pictures with subjects such as trees with changing leaves, pumpkins, maize, or apples.

 

For this project, grab some Froot Loops (and maybe Cheerios, depending on what colors your picture requires), glue, and some sturdy white paper. You’ll want a slightly thicker paper so it can handle the weight of the cereal. To round out your picture, you can also use paint and construction paper.

 

Before you start, take a pencil and create a rough outline of your drawing. If you want to use paint or colored paper, add it to your white paper first before starting with the cereal. Now, sort the colors you’ll need and arrange your Froot Loops on the page before gluing them down. Once they’re all glued, let the whole thing dry.

 

Finally, hang your fabulous picture up and eat the leftover Froot Loops!

  Photo via Putti’s World

 Photo via Musings of Me

 

Bonus! If you want to get a head start for Thanksgiving…

 Photo via Putti’s World

 

You could create one of the ideas shown here or try something new. Work on a batch of Halloween themed Froot Loops drawings this week. What are you going to create with your Froot Loops? Do you have a favorite kind of food to craft with? Or a favorite craft to make with food?

Pumpkin decorating doesn’t have to be dangerous or super messy (think knives, pumpkin guts, spray paint, etc). You can create unique, vibrant pumpkins with a few simple materials and some creativity.

 

When it comes to pumpkins and crayons, Alexa of The Swell Life really nailed it with two great decorating DIYs. Fun and colorful, both projects feature white pumpkins and a box of crayons. No carving necessary!

 

First off, how could we resist this DIY called the “Crayon Scribble Pumpkin”? All you’ll need to create your own are bright crayons and a white pumpkin (white displays color so much better)! This is perfect for kids of any age since there are no sharp tools or mess involved. Just grab your pumpkin and start coloring! Create a random colorful design, draw a face or picture, or work on an interesting pattern—there’s no limit to what you can do!

 

 

Photo via The Swell Life

 

For a fun twist with the same tools, grab some glue and a hairdryer for this next version. Take your crayons and this time, remove the wrappers and break them in half (you won’t need a whole crayon for this). Glue them around the top of your pumpkin (again, white shows the colors better) and apply heat with a hairdryer set on high. There could be some crayon runoff, so you’ll want to lay down a garbage bag or tarp under your pumpkin.

 

 

Photo via The Swell Life

 

You can customize your color palette—try orange and yellow for a candy corn theme, or purple and black for Halloween. For a really creepy version, try melting all red crayons—it’ll look amazing and dramatic for a haunted porch.

 

And that’s it! Two main materials, two great projects. Don’t forget to check out The Swell Life for tons more great pumpkin decorating projects. What fun ways do you like to decorate pumpkins? How would you customize these versions with crayons?