A Googly Eye Pumpkin & Brain Cupcakes

So if you know me at all you realize that we don't truly celebrate Halloween. Instead my family may or may not participate in a "Fall Festival" with or without costumes, and then the actual night of Halloween we lay low in our home with pizza, goodies, and a family movie. However this year we were put into the position of not being able to gracefully opt out of Halloween activities without it reflecting poorly on my husbands position. So I tried to get in the spirit of things without being to creepy. What I came up with was a variation I saw on a painted pumpkin and then some super basic cupcakes decorated like brains.

So the first thing I tackled was the painted pumpkin. This was a decoration for my Husband's car, which is the vehicle we will be using at "Trunk or Treat". His car happens to be a metallic blue, so since I am a matching freak, I used blue and black as the theme for all his trunk decorations.
If you want to try your hand at one of these, the project is cheap and doesn't require much. Here's what you will need:

• Pie Pumpkin
• Googly Eyes
• Acrylic Paint
• Sponge Brush
• Hot Glue Gun & Sticks

I had seen these in a magazine where they had spray painted pumpkins black or white and then glued googly eyes to them. However I have not had the best experience lately with spray paint, plus I wanted it to be sparkly blue which I couldn't find. So instead I bought a 67cent bottle of sparkly blue acrylic paint at Hobby lobby and used a sponge brush to apply it generously.

I then allowed it dry some, and then applied another coat. I even placed it upside down on a glass and painted the bottom.

After allowing the entire pumpkin to dry completely for a couple hours, I used a hot glue gun and applied googly eyes in random spots.

I thought this little guy turned out fairly cute and he cost me less than $4 total!

I then attempted to make Brain Cupcakes for the Bake Sale that we are having in conjunction with the Trunk or Treat. This cupcakes simply consisted of Red Velvet cake mix cupcakes, and grossly dyed cream cheese frosting. (Please ignore my washing machine in the background! It is simply the only spot in my whole house at night that I can get a decent picture:P)

I had seen the concept online in a couple places, and basically all you do is take your cupcake and then a icing bag with a large round tip and place two lines down the center of the cupcake, with squiggly lines on either side to fill the reminder of the cake. Mine weren't quite as nice as many I had seen online, however the cream cheese icing I used was very soft. So the icing wasn't holding it shape well. However my taste testers (Gilly & Gidey) said they were perfect;)

So while I hope we go back to our quiet home celebration next year, I did enjoy trying my hand a few things I wouldn't have otherwise had an opportunity to do. Happy Fall Festivities!