Host and Hostess Gifts

 Staying with family or friends at Thanksgiving or Christmas? Here are a few simple ideas for holiday hostess gifts you can bring to say you appreciate them letting you be their houseguest. 

1. Something Useful

A kitchen host gift item might be appreciated if your host doesn't always have large groups in their home. A serving platter or spoons, pretty napkins, hand soap, cheese knives, a cake stand, oven mitt, or a nice big bowl (preferably full of something yummy.)

2. Something Edible

Speaking of food, if you live close enough to your host you will probably already be bringing a part of your Thanksgiving meal. Bring a special Thanksgiving dish you're famous for.

If freshly cooked food is not practical, you can still bring goodies along in your suitcase. Some ideas are non-perishable items like boxed and wrapped pies, chocolates, candy, cured meats, an herbal tea sampler, fancy olive oil, etc. If you don't have room in your luggage, order online and have your gift arrive while you are there.

3. Something Decorative

Candles are probably one of the most popular host/hostess gifts. You could try doing something personalized, like making your own label for the candle to make it more special, or try some of these other ideas: A vase of flowers, a centerpiece (real or fake), pillowcases, a tablecloth, or a warmer for all those candles. We found this cute customizable candle on Amazon.

4. Something Fun

Bring an after-dinner game or activity. A get-to-know-you game might be appropriate, or another game if you already know each other really well. Some good games for crowds require more planning than buying, like charades or home-made pictionary.

 A relaxation gift for your host to use after everyone is gone is another idea, like a spa set, a gift card for a foot rub, a book to read, or a soft blanket. 

Your host will be grateful for your thoughtfulness even if you don't spend a lot, especially if you add a thank you note to your token of appreciation. Happy travels!

Let us know what gift you decide on in the comments below 🙂.

DIY Halloween Cemetery Sign

If you've seen the movie Hocus Pocus, you'll know the witches can't set foot on the hallowed ground of the local Salem cemetery. The Old Burial Hill sign is huge in the movie. We made a scaled down version to attach to a purchased garden arbor. 

We were hoping to be able to download an accurate depiction from an online source, but we couldn't find anything with good enough resolution to work with. Instead, we found a closely matching font at dafont.com: Wizards Magic.

We typed the words we wanted into LightBurn and cut the letters out of 3mm thick plywood.

The original plan was to have the letters on beams, like they are in the movie, but we decided that this option wasn't stable enough. Our letters weren't made of metal, like on the real sign.

Instead, we cut out a piece of wood to match the arc of the garden arbor. We just laid the arbor down on the plywood and traced it before cutting it out with a jigsaw.

We spray painted the letters gold and painted the arched wood black on both sides. We then drilled holes at the top of the sign for attaching it to the arbor. 

When gluing the letters to the wood, we opted for the good super glue. This stuff is great. The cheap super glue tubes often clog up or get glue all over your fingers. This Loctite super glue doesn't clog and doesn't come out too fast. Get the good glue!

The final step was using zip ties to attach the sign to the arbor using the previously drilled holes. Make sure your arbor is sturdy, so your cemetery sign doesn't fall over on any trick-or-treaters.

We laser cut letters and shapes for our own and customers' signs all the time. It was fun using the Wizards Magic font. Happy haunting!

 

5 Dice Games for the Family

We could all use a little less screen time. Why not bring back family game night? You don't need a lot of supplies for these game ideas. Just dice! And maybe some paper and a pencil if you really want to keep score.

1. Lady Bug Dice Game

This one is easy. Use one die to roll for the body parts of the lady bug and then draw it. The first roll needs to be a 6 for the body and the second needs to be a 5 for the head. The rest of the numbers can be rolled in any order. Four for each wing, 3 for each leg, 2 for each antennae, and 1 for each eye. This is a good cooperative game where there doesn't need to be a winner.

2. Farkle (our family just calls it The Dice Game)

You'll need 2 or more players for this game. It's simple to learn, but still strategic. Each player rolls six dice to try to get the following combinations. If they player doesn't use all the dice in his combination, he may use the remaining dice to roll again. If he rolls another combination, he keeps the points. If not, he loses all the points he gained on that round. Whoever gets 10,000 points first wins!

5 = 50

1 = 100

3 of a kind = face value x 100 (e.g. 3 Fives = 5 x 100=500)

4 of a kind = 1000

5 of a kind = 2000

6 of a kind = 3000

Straight (1-6) = 1500

3 pairs = 1500

2 sets of 3 of a kind = 2500

One variation is that if a player uses all his dice in combinations, he may continue his turn with all six dice again, but he will still be risking all his points from that turn. Remember to keep score!

3. Buck Dice

First, have each player roll a die to see who gets to choose the Buck. The player with the highest number rolls one die again. 

Whatever number he rolls is now the "Buck."

Play continues to the right of the first roller with each player now rolling three dice. 

Each time the Buck number is rolled, it's worth one point. 

If you roll a Buck, you may roll all three dice again. If you do not roll a Buck, your turn is over. 

The first player to 15 points wins.

In a variation of the game, a player gets five points if they all three of their dice are Bucks in a single roll.

4. Threes (High or Low)

For this game you will need five dice. Before you start, decide on how many rounds you want to play. 

Roll all 5 dice. You must keep at least one on each roll. 

You must keep all 3s. Threes are worth zero points, and all other dice are worth their face value. 

Continue to roll until all your dice are used. 

If you play Threes High, then the highest score wins. If you play Threes Low, then the lowest score wins. 

5. Ship, Captain, Crew

You'll need five dice and two or more players for this game. A player must roll a 6, 5, and then a 4 in that order in as many rolls as needed. The two remaining dice are his score or cargo.

6 = ship

5 = captain

4 = crew

After the first player gets his ship, captain, and crew, he may throw the other two dice as many times as he likes to increase his score. However, the subsequent players also get to roll the same number of times to try to increase their scores. 

Whoever has the highest score at the end of round wins.

Have fun playing these dice games with your family and friends! Let us know how it goes in the comments section below.

Personalized Entertaining for a Crowd

If you like to plan ahead, then you're already thinking about family and friends visiting for the holidays and wondering how you are going to feed and entertain them. 

When our family and friends visit, we like to make them feel special with personalized or custom experiences when we can. (Some years we are just happy if we don't burn the turkey!)

One year we got matching plastic Christmas cups from Target and used our Cricut to cut out vinyl names. It wasn't expensive, but each little cousin had their own cup with their name on it, and they thought it was awesome. Plus, it saved a lot of washing up. 

For a classier option, try mugs or glasses with names.

One of our favorite wood lasered crafts we've made for Thanksgiving dinner is personalized napkin rings. These are something we use year after year. They function as napkin holders and place cards. 

If your family and friends are staying for an extended time, a personalized pillowcase would look great on their bed (or air mattress.) If you don't sew, don't worry. Amazon has got your back.

For reunions, T-shirts might be the way to go. Assuming you know everyone's size.

We have a fairly large extended family, so one year we got draw string bags for everyone at the reunion--no sizes necessary. We later personalized the bags with names written nicely in permanent marker.

Let us know what special things you decide to do for your family in the upcoming holiday season in the comments section! 

Easy Black Flame Candle and Sign

This candle, similar to one from Disney's Hocus Pocus cost about $6 to make and took about half an hour. We started with a simple flameless candle from Walmart ($5). If you've seen Hocus Pocus, you know that the Black Flame Candle isn't actually black. It's cream colored with designs on it. The flame is black. 

If you end up making this with a real candle, we advise you not to light it. You never know what will happen.

We found this excellent art on Pinterest and changed the color of the drawings to be more similar to the dark red color from the movie. Find the original post at  https://www.playpartyplan.com/hocus-pocus-candle/.

After printing it on sticker paper, we used a clear sheet of vinyl on the front of the sticker paper to make it more durable. We used this kind of vinyl. It's the same kind we use to coat our sticker sheets, and it works quite well, even outdoors.

The next step was burning real candles. We used two little votives and poured the melted wax from them down the sides of our flameless candle to make it look more realistic.

And there you go! Just like magic!

To go with the candle, we also made a sign. In the movie, Max reads the sign out loud. Even though you can't really see the sign in the movie, we imagine it looked something like this. Lightburn is our design tool of choice when we are using our wood laser.

We laser burned the sign onto 3mm cherry plywood, and then glued it to a piece of scrap wood from an earlier project to make it look more like a museum sign. Some Danish oil gave the plywood a nice finish.

Next step, put our candle and sign on display for Halloween next month!

One Download, Three Halloween Crafts for Kids

If you clicked the link for the free download, it's at the bottom of this blog post. If you want to see the cool things you can make with the download, keep reading.

We used our x-Tool laser to cut our Halloween shapes out of wood. It would be just as easy to cut them out of felt or paper on a Cricut or other similar machine. If you're really dextrous, you can print the file up and use scissors!

For our first project, we painted the ghost, boo, pumpkin, witch hat, cat, and bat, and turned them into a garland for a mantle. We used used craft paint, and the pieces are just taped to the string with small strips of duct tape.

We added some extra bats between each shape.

Our second simple craft was a bat mobile! Not the drivable kind.

We used the Happy Halloween sign and the same string from the first project (which came from the dollar store) to hang bats from the spiderweb. 

We kind of cheated for the third craft, because we already had a frame, but if you have an extra frame lying around, you can do this too. Put a photo of your child in a frame and have them decorate it with paper, wood, or felt Halloween shapes. If you print the shapes out, the kids can do all the coloring themselves.

As promised, here are the downloadable freebies. Enjoy!

If you would like actual wood pieces, you can order them from our Etsy shop at  

https://bisonandbobcatstudio.etsy.com/listing/1776330372

Click on this link for a JPG:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o5ffucN-yBvj89nd4GchSq6mfcMxeB8M/view?usp=sharing

Click on this link for a PDF:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ow0J2p901LSs9ry7WphXeKxYKbmOUwcI/view?usp=sharing

Click on this link for a SVG:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZbEbsz9spFZwVYwf1JZCn4cE2c4iAhTp/view?usp=sharing

 

Mini Haunted House DIY

This mini haunted house would be a cute addition to anyone's Halloween decor. It is made from just one 12"x12" piece of 3mm plywood and cut out on our x-Tool diode laser.

We started with a simple house cut plan that we downloaded from another Etsy shop owner. Then we added our own Halloweeny elements in LightBurn, swapping out a moon and a cat for windows and adding some bats as well. We also added a "Happy Halloween" message to the roof along with some magical stars.

All in all, it was a fun, quick Halloween luminary. We decided to stick with the natural wood, but you could certainly paint it if you wanted to. We will probably make more and paint those!

The only kind of hard part about building this house was supergluing the pieces together. Having two people gluing would solve that problem, and result in less sticky fingers.

The base and roof were not attached to the house walls to make it easier to put a candle inside. We used a real candle, but it was quickly evident that an LED candle would have been a much better idea. Fire + wood = Halloween hazard.

It looked so good and spooky in the dark. Can't wait to make another one. Maybe we will change the shapes and put a "BOO!" on the roof this time. There are so many fun possibilities.