Tea Towel Challenge!

This week we're taking on another challenge, this time the idea is to upcycle this cute and colourful fruit print tea towel from Tiger into something completely different!

We each have the exact same tea towel and have been working away in secret on our projects ready for the big reveals. Be sure to check back on Wednesday & Friday to see the results!

In the meantime we'd love to hear your ideas, what would you turn this colourful tea towel into?

Skye & Erin

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Sweet & Savoury Pumpkin Seeds

Happy Halloween everyone! We hope you have a perfectly spooky day whatever you are doing, and we hope you've enjoyed all of our Halloween posts here at Eight & Sixteen.

This recipe may not be spooky, but it is great for making the most out of your pumpkins! Toasted pumpkin seeds are a very yummy snack and can be flavoured in tons of ways.
I've chosen a sweet and a savoury combination for my pumpkin seeds, and they were both super tasty.

Ingredients based on seeds from one large pumpkin:
Sweet:
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
Savoury:
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

First you'll need to scoop out the seeds from your pumpkin and rinse them thoroughly. Be sure to remove as much pumpkin flesh as possible. Place your seeds onto a tea towel and rub to dry them off.

Place your seeds in a bowl, add your flavourings and mix well. Spread out evenly on a baking tray and bake for around 45 minutes at 150°c. Check every 15 minutes and mix the seeds around on the tray; if you don't do this (especially with the sweet variety) you'll find that the seeds stick to the tray.

Once baked, leave to cool and sprinkle a little more of your chosen flavourings on top if needed. Enjoy!

We'd love to hear from you if you give this recipe a go - use the hash tag #eightandsixteen to share your photos with us!

Skye

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DIY Simple Spider Decoration

If you're looking for a quick and easy last minute Halloween project today's DIY could be perfect for you! This creepy spider garland is really simple to make, takes no time at all and is a great way to surprise your guests as they arrive.

To make your own you will need: clear beading thread, plastic spiders (I picked up a pack of 72 from Pound World) & a glue gun

Simply use a hot glue gun to apply a line of glue to the underside of the first spider and lay on your clear thread to secure it in place. Repeat this process until you reach the desired length & you're done!

As you can see I've chosen to display my spider decoration along a banister but you can also use them on doors, across fireplaces, on tabletops, windows - wherever you like!


We'd love to hear from you if you try out this or any of our other DIY projects - use the hashtag #eightandsixteen to share your photos with us!

Erin

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Skye's Pumpkin Decorating Challenge Results

Pumpkin decorating without the mess of carving seems to be a popular approach for Halloween this year; Erin and I hadn't discussed our challenge plans but we clearly think along the same lines!
It's easy to see why this is a popular alternative to pumpkin carving as it's much easier and holds so many possibilities.

I wanted to try and create a more subtle Halloween theme with my pumpkins - think The Night Circus - and I also wanted to keep the budget to a minimum.

Luckily, I found these spray paints in Poundland, and they're great! I picked up silver, gold and copper but my local shop had black and white too. I'd definitely recommend them as spray paint is usually expensive, and these have held up brilliantly.
I fully sprayed a few of the pumpkins, and then also tried spraying just the top of one so that the paint dropped down the sides of the pumpkin for a splattered effect. I also tried a two tone combination of gold spray paint on the bottom half of one pumpkin, and then copper covering and dripping down the top. This didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, but I think it has a Snow White poisoned apple vibe about it!

Once the spray paint had dried, I used black and white paints and a black sharpie marker to decorate the pumpkins. I went with bold polka dots, subtle dots on the dripping pumpkin, and then black and white stripes on the smaller pumpkins.

I love the look of these pumpkins clustered together, and even better when draped with my Ping Pong Ball Pumpkin Lights; they definitely make the flat feel ready for Halloween :)

We'd love to hear from you if you give this DIY a go - use the hash tag #eightandsixteen to share your photos with us!

Skye

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Erin's Pumpkin Decorating Challenge Results

On Monday we introduced our Halloween inspired pumpkin decorating challenge and today I get to share my results! Right from the start I knew I wanted to try and use items that I already had in my craft stash to decorate the pumpkins, unintentionally making an extra challenge for myself. In the end I managed to do this using paints, felt, jewellery wire, Mod Podge and even nail art gems!

My pumpkin design was initially inspired by various Pins featuring bats and other animals attached onto the surface of plain coloured pumpkins to create a 3D effect. As someone who is terrible at pumpkin carving I loved the idea of being able to create something 3D without having to cut into the pumpkin at all.

Next came the idea to not just leave the pumpkins one colour but to create a backdrop for the bats to fly against. I had decided I didn't want to completely cover up the natural orange of the pumpkin and so settled on a sunset and contrasting silhouette background which allowed me to incorporate it.

Overall I'm really pleased with how the pumpkins turned out and think they would be perfect for indoor display on windowsills, by fireplaces or as table centrepieces at your Halloween party, however I wouldn't recommend placing them outside in bad weather! Here's a little bit more about how I achieved the final designs...



I started off by mapping out the landscape design onto the surface of the pumpkin using a trusty FriXion pen. I then used chalkboard paint to black out these areas, choosing this type of paint as I thought it would adhere best to the surface. It also gave a nice matte finish once dried, adding to the final effect of the design.



Next I used acrylic paints mixed with Mod Podge (to help them stick to the surface) and sponge brushes to create a sunset effect on the top half of the pumpkin. As I mentioned above I wanted to try and include the bright natural orange tones of the pumpkin's skin so a sunset seemed like the perfect way to do this.



For an extra final touch I used Mod Podge to stick on a few tiny nail art gems to represent stars in the evening sky. Then finally I added on the felt bats that had originally inspired the whole idea. After cutting out the bats I used jewellery wire to attach them onto the pumpkin. To make sure they were secure I used a wooden skewer to first pierce holes into the pumpkin's surface then threaded the wires through these and the outer layer of the pumpkin.

For my second pumpkin the process was exactly the same except this time I opted for a cityscape style silhouette, which with the bats I think feels very Gotham!



We'd love to hear from you if you try out this or any of our other DIY projects - use the hashtag #eightandsixteen to share your photos with us!

Erin

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Pumpkin Decorating Challenge Week!

What would an October full of Halloween inspired projects be without pumpkins? This week we'll be introducing our new 'challenge week' format and will each be sharing our own pumpkin decorating ideas. Look out for Erin's finished pumpkins on Wednesday followed by Skye's on Friday!

We'd love to hear how you're planning to decorate yours this year - use the hash tag #eightandsixteen to share your photos with us!

Skye & Erin

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PinTest: Ping Pong Ball Pumpkin Lights

Today's PinTest has been one of my favourite so far, and is based on a simple Christmas fairy lights hack that you can see here.
I decided to use this method to create some super cute pumpkin Halloween lights; this is a cheap and relatively quick project and is a great way to add some spooky decor to your home!

All you need to recreate this DIY are some fairy lights, enough ping pong balls to cover the lights (I needed 40), a black sharpie marker and a scalpel.

First, mark a small cross on your ping pong balls with a pencil. Then using a scalpel, very carefully cut through the ping pong ball over the cross. Note: Use some blu tack to hold your ping pong ball in place whilst you are cutting.

Next, take your sharpie marker and get drawing on the opposite side of your ping pong balls to the crosses you have just made. I went for classic pumpkin designs but you could draw anything spooky!

Carefully push your ping pong balls onto your fairy lights through the crosses you made earlier.

Repeat until all of the fairy lights are covered - and you're all done!

We'd love to hear from you if you give this DIY a go - use the hash tag #eightandsixteen to share your photos with us!

Skye

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