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Jamieson Diaries

Married | Mother | Millennial

All Posts, Dear Diary, DIY, Holiday

DIY (No Carve) TMNT Pumpkins

October 8, 2015 Leave a Comment

Last year I did my first ever, DIY no carve pumpkins, by making three minions from the movie Despicable Me. After I finished the minions last year, I decided I wanted to make this a tradition by finding cool characters to recreate each year. This year, while on Pinterest, I saw a picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a no carve pumpkin project. The picture I originally saw was a little more in-depth, because they didn’t only use paint. They used actual material for the eye masks. The other bummer was there were no instructions on how to make it, only the picture. So, using the picture, I decided to give it a try by free-handing what I thought needed to be done. I can officially say I’m satisfied with the results! I’ve had a few people ask me how I made the pumpkins so I wanted to share the instructions and steps with all of you who would like to give this a try this Halloween. You will need:

4 pumpkins

2 cans of green spray paint

2 oz. bottle red paint

2 oz. bottle blue paint

2 oz. bottle orange paint

2 oz. bottle purple paint

2 oz. bottle black paint

2 oz. bottle white paint

1 variety pack of paint brushes

Black permanent marker

*Helpful Tip: If you live near a Michaels, download the app on your phone to use the coupons to save on your purchase*

Day 1:

  • In an open area (preferably outside or in an open garage) spray paint all four of your pumpkins until they are completely covered in green. I recommend doing two to three layers of paint so the paint doesn’t make a drip look on the pumpkins. Let the pumpkins sit outside (or in the garage) over night to dry.

Day 2:

  1. Place your pumpkins somewhere sturdy (I used the floor and/or dining room table) to paint the eye masks on. Put a garbage bag or large piece of cardboard underneath the pumpkins to make sure the paint doesn’t stain wherever you are painting. Now you will paint each pumpkin a different mask color. If you don’t trust yourself to free hand the masks you can always use a folded piece of paper to make your lines even on the masks. Give the masks about an hour or so to dry and do at least one more layer of paint on the masks so they’re dark enough. Depending on the paint you use you may have to do more than two layers.
  2.  Now that your masks are dry, you will notice there is a black line underneath each pumpkin for the “shadow” of the nose. Use your permanent marker to draw this line underneath the mask. You can use black paint with a thin paint brush if you prefer. I used the permanent marker because I could be a little more precise and it dries extremely quickly.
  3. Now take your white paint and draw the mouths on THREE of the pumpkins. It will just be a white area in the shape of the pumpkins mouth, but we will use the black paint later to draw in the teeth. If you know a little about the TMNT you will notice each facial expression matches their personality. Take your time doing this part. I looked at the picture after each brush stroke to be sure I was doing it correctly. Once you have painted the first white layer for the teeth, wait about 20-30 minutes and add one more layer so that the teeth really stand out. There is a picture underneath step 5 showing you what they should look like.
  4. Michaelangelo (the orange one) is different from the others when it comes to designing his mouth. His tongue is sticking out. Using the permanent marker OR black paint, draw a thin line almost resembling a smiley face on the pumpkin. Now take your red paint and draw a rounded out wide tongue on the pumpkin. There is a picture underneath step 5 showing you what they should look like.
  5. While you are waiting for the “teeth” to dry, draw in the eyes. When drawing them think of making two triangles lying on their sides facing each other. Wait about 20 minutes and do another layer to make sure the eyes stand out. Your pumpkins should look something like this: TMNT1
  6. Once the eyes have dried, using the permanent marker draw the outline of the pupils on each pumpkin. Then, using the black paint, fill in the pupils.
  7. Now you will use your black paint again to fill in the details for the teeth on each pumpkin. Refer back to the original start picture so you are able to recreate every detail and line for each particular pumpkin. Take your time doing this step so you don’t mess yourself up and have to start over.
  8. Put your pumpkins in a dry place to dry overnight.

The following day you should have pumpkins that look like this and are ready to be placed outside to be admired by your neighbors, and strangers in passing. I hope you guys enjoyed doing the DIY Halloween project as much as I did! Share pictures of your finished pumpkins in the comment section below 🙂

IMG_3436

Brie <3

[10.08.15]

All Posts, Dear Diary

My Old School “Man Crate”

July 21, 2015 Leave a Comment

If you are like 99.9% of the world, we love the nostalgic feeling of going down memory lane in our lives. Particularly, our childhood and what made it so special and different from other generational childhood memories. I was recently contacted by the community manager for a company called, “Man Crates“, after she read my blog post from a few months ago titled “90’s TV Show Theme Songs“, to contribute ideas towards an old school create idea. Man Crates is a company who specifically concentrates on putting together “out of the box” creative gifts for men. We all know how difficult it can be to think of an anniversary, birthday, or Father’s Day gift for the special men in our lives, and this company has made life a little easier for all of us. What is even more unique about their gifts is, instead of being wrapped up or put in a decorative bag like most presents, the gifts are shipped inside actual crates with a personal crowbar to open them. Which is where the name “Man Crates” comes from.

As a person who was born in the late 80’s, 1988 to be exact, I am extremely nostalgic about the 90’s. From the TV shows, to the popular toys and food, it takes me right back to my childhood. Some of the memories are so vivid I can even remember what I wearing and/or where I was at the exact moment. If I was able to get ahold of any items from the 1990’s and I had to build my own Old School Crate from scratch, I would put these items in the crate:

1) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (movie)

TMNT

I was quite the tomboy when I was younger so if there is one movie I know for sure would bring back a rush of great memories it is for sure this one. I mean what more could we want at our age that was better than turtles who happen to be ninjas, fighting bad guys in the city, who ate pizza all day long? Exactly. There is nothing better than this image when you’re a child. Not to mention they were all named after Renaissance artists, which means not only was the movie entertaining, but it was also partially educational in teaching us about artists’ names we would learn down the road in school. Go TMNT!

2) Power Rangers (seasons 1-5)

PowerRangers

While on the topic of movies/television shows, Power Rangers was the all time classic TV show for our generation. Boys and girls rushed home after school to be sure we were in front of the TV to watch these amazing people transform into the greatest animals and dinosaurs, and kick butt to save Angel Grove from all of the bad guys. Especially those annoying putties! Okay, so I’m getting a little into it, but you get the point. The theme show music alone was enough to hype us up and want to jump off of our parents furniture doing kick splits and front flips.

3) Pokemon Cards

Pokemon Cards

Fun fact: I have known my husband since before we were old enough to remember meeting each other. This information is relevant because I remember being younger and him collecting Pokemon cards in a binder to keep them organized. Or as I should say, my husband, and every other little boy in our age group. I was not a die-hard Pokemon fan as most other girls, but I did watch it here and there. However, Pokemon cards/trading sessions were seriously like a well constructed cult that demanded you know the secret password, know all 2 million names of the Pokemon off the top of your head, oh…and be a boy.

4) Surge

Surge

There were plenty of foods and drinks in the 90’s that were very specific to our generation. However, I believe Surge is the one drink nobody could forget if they tried. The advertisement for the drink alone was enough to scare parents to not buy this drink for their children. But we all know how it goes; we took a shopping trip to the grocery store with Mom, we saw Surge, we asked begged for it and we were told “NO”, we asked begged even louder (added some extra whining and borderline tears for special effects), and eventually drove Mom crazy enough for her to say “PUT IT IN THE CART ALREADY”! Once we were home and able to drink it, Mom quickly realized the mistake she had made. Ahhhh, yes, childhood memories.

5) Sock’em Boppers

Sockem Boppers

I’m pretty sure ALL of my cousins and friends had these. I guarantee as soon as someone opened my crate the song from the commercial would get stuck in their head immediately. “Sock’em boppers! Sock’em boppers”! This was such a wonderful and terrible idea wrapped into one. Fighting wasn’t good unless you were fighting with big balloon like plastic bubbles wrapped around your fist as you threw several punches to someone’s stomach or possibly their eye. Either way, all that mattered was you had the time of your life while doing so. I wanted a pair very badly, but my Mother told me my Power Rangers gloves were enough. Now that I am a parent, I completely understand her thinking.

I hope this post has most of you going down memory lane and reminiscing about the 90’s. I know it definitely has me feeling quite nostalgic after thinking and typing it out. Maybe one day, if you or a loved one plans to send and/or receives an Old School Man Crate, some of these items will be in there to enjoy. If any of you order a Man Crate after reading this post, please leave a comment or send an email to me about your experience and if you recommend it to anyone else. I now know what I will be getting my husband for Christmas this year. Thanks to Alex for reaching out to me for my own personal ideas and sending me on a wonderful memory journey! 🙂

Brie <3

[07.21.15]

About Me

ABOUT BRIE:

Hey there! My name is Brie Jamieson. I've been a lifestyle + mom blogger since 2014. I'm Kris' wife. I'm Jordyn and Riley's Mom. And I'm Apollo and Chronos' fur-mama. We're a military family currently living in the burbs of Shreveport, LA. I'm a simple lady who loves God, family, food, and travel. If you'd like to learn more about me head on over to the "my story" page. But more importantly: Welcome to Jamieson Diaries!

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