Nov 23, 2022 | DIY Crafts, DIY Holiday Crafts, DIY Projects, Thanksgiving
Cute Candy Cornucopias are a yummy Thanksgiving table decoration! A quick and easy Thanksgiving craft that’s fun for all ages!
A cornucopia, also known as The Horn of Plenty, is a traditional symbol of the fall harvest and is closely associated with Thanksgiving. The horn-shaped baskets are a symbol of abundance and nourishment and are often depicted as overflowing with newly harvested fruits and vegetables. Our candy cornucopias puts a sweet twist on the classic horn and are filled to overflowing with candy pumpkins, fruit jellies, candy corn, and marzipan fruits!
THANKSGIVING CRAFT: CANDY CORNUCOPIA

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE A CANDY CORNUCOPIA:
- Paper Cones (pre-shaped or formed from stiff cardstock)
- Brown Crepe Paper Streamers
- Fringe Scissors
- Glue Stick
- Candy – Candy Corn, Candy Pumpkins, Fruit Gems, Marzipan Fruits

Start by using the fringe scissors to create a fringed length of crepe paper – you’ll need about 7′ for each cornucopia.

Starting at the base of the cone, use the glue stick to attach the fringed tissue to the cone, overlapping each layer slightly. (Just pretend that this green crepe paper is brown, mmmkay?)

When your entire cone is covered in crepe paper, allow the glue to dry completely before rolling the tip of the cone up. Tip: Use a marker to help you roll the tip to create a tighter and more nicely shaped roll! Simply roll the tip of the cone around the marker, hold, and release!

Fill the paper cornucopia with all of your favorite harvest candies, and place on the center of your Thanksgiving table for a sweet holiday centerpiece! It’s perfect for the kids table, but I’m sure that the adults would love it, too!
Nov 22, 2022 | Dinner, Main Course, Poultry, Recipes, Thanksgiving
ACTIVE TIME 20 minutes TOTAL TIME 4 hours 45 minutes plus at least 12 hours brining
This foolproof Thanksgiving turkey recipe produces a holiday centerpiece that is excellent in every way other whole turkeys often fall short: It’s full of flavor and juicy as heck, thanks to an easy dry brine. And cooking the turkey on a rimmed baking sheet, not in a deep roasting pan, is great for all-over browning—just be extra careful as you remove it from the oven so that the drippings don’t slosh over the sides.
You’ll start by administering that dry brine, a simple mix of kosher salt and brown sugar, at least 12 hours before you plan to cook the turkey. If you can manage it, a full two days uncovered in the fridge will make your brined turkey even better. We swear by dry brining, which ensures a well-seasoned, tender, juicy turkey, over wet brining, because the latter can be messy and waterlog the bird.
After the turkey goes into the oven, you’ll whip together a quick glaze with vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, honey, and a few aromatics. The recipe calls for fresh rosemary, but if you have another hearty fresh herb on hand, like sage or thyme, feel free to use it instead. Brushing, rather than basting, will help ensure every inch of the broad turkey breast gets an even lacquer, which means more crispy skin to go around.
This roast turkey recipe demands patience, so plan accordingly. Once the bird hits the optimal internal temperature (highly recommend getting your hands on a meat thermometer if you don’t already own one), it must rest out of the oven for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour so that the turkey juices have time to redistribute. Don’t cover it in aluminum foil or anything else—doing so will cause all that hard-earned crackling skin to go limp. Trust us, it’s fine: the cooked turkey will not go cold. Use the time to put the finishing touches on your green beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and the other side dishes for your Thanksgiving dinner (or to consider all the things you’ll do with your leftover turkey in the days to come).
If you’re still not convinced that this is the perfect roast turkey for you, try your hand at our garlicky spatchcock turkey, or roast your turkey in parts for breast meat and turkey legs cooked to their particular optimal doneness.
Ingredients:
8–10 servings
½ cup Diamond Crystal or ¼ cup plus 1½ tsp. Morton kosher salt
1 Tbsp. light brown sugar
1 12–14-lb. turkey, neck reserved for gravy, giblets discarded, patted dry
12 Tbsp. (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
¼ cup sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. honey
4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
3 sprigs rosemary
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 2×1″ strips orange zest
Preparation:
Step 1
Place salt and brown sugar in a medium bowl and work together with your fingers until incorporated. Place turkey on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. (If you don’t have this setup, place your turkey on a V-shape rack set inside a large roasting pan.) Sprinkle dry brine all over outside and inside of turkey, patting to adhere and nudging some into crevices. You won’t need all of the dry brine, but it’s good to have extra since some of it will end up on the baking sheet as you season the turkey. Chill bird, uncovered, at least 12 hours and up to 2 days.
Step 2
Remove turkey from wire rack and rinse baking sheet and rack if needed (turkey will most likely release some liquid onto pan). Line baking sheet with 3 layers of foil and set rack back inside. Place turkey, breast side up, on rack and tuck wings underneath. Let turkey sit at room temperature 2–3 hours.
Step 3
Place an oven rack in middle of oven; preheat to 450°. Using your fingers, loosen skin on breast. Work 4 Tbsp. butter under skin, spreading evenly over both breasts. Smear outside of turkey with another 4 Tbsp. butter.
Step 4
Tie legs together with kitchen twine and pour 1 cup water into baking sheet.
Step 5
Roast turkey, rotating pan halfway through, until skin is mostly golden brown all over, about 30 minutes.
Step 6
Meanwhile, cook vinegar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, garlic, orange zest, and remaining 4 Tbsp. butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until bubbling and slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to lowest setting and keep glaze warm.
Step 7
Reduce oven temperature to 300° and continue to roast turkey, brushing with glaze every 30 minutes and adding more water by ½-cupfuls as needed to maintain some liquid in baking sheet, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of breast near the neck registers 150° (don’t worry; the temperature will continue to climb while the bird rests), 65–85 minutes longer. Skin should be deep golden brown, shiny, and crisp. Transfer turkey to a cutting board and let rest at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour before carving.

Nov 21, 2022 | DIY Crafts, DIY Holiday Crafts, DIY Projects, Thanksgiving
Grab some print out our funky looking turkey leaf craft template and let’s make this wonderful fall activity.
Our fall craft template is great for kids of all ages (perfect for preschool and kindergarten), although you can just as easily make this project without the template.
Fall is abundant in wonderful (and free) crafting materials… There are a whole lot of fun things you can create utilising leaves of all colours (have you seen our leaf lion?).
We love picking leaves, it almost feels like we never have enough (although we have way more than we’ll ever use) and we love creating with them even more – be it crafts for display such as this turkey craft or all kinds of fun decorations.
For this particular project, we were grabbing maple leaves in all colors. This project will look fantastic with any color although I must say, yellow and red leaves turned out the best! Naturally you could even color the leaves or add some texture to them with markers to take this crafty project idea to a whole new level.
Ready? Print out our template (you can find it at the end of this tutorial) and let’s get crafting!
How to Make a Leaf Turkey with our Turkey Leaf Craft Template
What you need:
- our printable template (you can grab it at the end of this tutorial)
- leaves, lots of colorful real leaves
- paper (heavier paper is best, regular paper will be OK too)
- coloring supplies
- scissors
- glue
When it comes to decorating, glitter glue is always welcome!
Or Follow These Step by Step Instructions with Pictures
Print out our template. We recommend printing on heavier print paper as it will withstand the wetness of the blue better and won’t wrinkle. Regular paper will be OK too.
There are two pages included, one with only one turkey on it that can be used as a base (you can skip this one) and one with two turkeys for kids to color in and cut out.
Color in the turkey. We used markers to color it in but any coloring medium will be fun to use – crayons, chalks, coloring pencils…
Once colored, cut out the turkey and it’s feet.
Take the other sheet of paper, with the turkey craft base and apply a generous amount of glue on the tail area.
Alternatively you can also apply glue on the leaves only.
You can cut of stipules of the leaves, or just leave them as they are.
Stick the leaves on the turkey template.
If you want a multi-colored turkey tail, we recommend you make the base with larger red leaves, and place smaller yellow leaves on top of them.
Continue sticking leaves on the template, adding glue either on the leaves or on the base as you go.
Once happy with how the turkey tail is starting to look, glue on two turkey feet on the base (you can also glue them directly on the colored body, whichever feels easier).
Take the colored turkey body, apply a generous amount of glue on the back.
Press the turkey body to the base.
Give the glue some time to dry.
Voila! You’ve made a fun looking turkey with our Turkey Leaf Craft Template.

Nov 18, 2022 | Corner, DIY Crafts, DIY Holiday Crafts, DIY Projects, Thanksgiving
This Apple Stamping Pumpkin Craft is such a fun harvest time activity for the kids! The kids will love the googly eyes!
Every year since my oldest son was born, my Mom, my youngest sister, and I have taken my kids to our local pumpkin patch. Sometimes Daddy has the chance to come along but it’s faithfully been the three of us for the past 6 years. It’s one of our favorite Fall traditions and every year the pumpkin patch has something a little different like burlap slides and pony rides to the yearly favorites like their pig races and corn maze.

This apple stamping pumpkin craft is such a fun fall activity for the kids and reminds them of their visit to the pumpkin patch. You really only need a few supplies to make these little guys. Not Fall season….swap out the orange paint for red or yellow and you have some cute little apple faces

SUPPLIES FOR APPLE STAMPING PUMPKIN CRAFT:
- Apple, cut down the center
- Orange Paint
- Googly eyes
- Brown & Green Pipe Cleaners
HOW TO MAKE APPLE STAMPING CRAFT
- Cut your your apple in half. Using a small paint brush, dab some orange paint on one half of your apple. Carefully press down on the paper. Touch up any unpainted parts with your brush if desired.
- While you painted pumpkins are drying gather your remaining supplies. We liked to use different size googly eyes 🙂 Cut your brown pipe cleaners into small stem sizes and twist your green pipe cleaners around a pencil to create a curly leaf.
- Glue on your stem and curly leaf. I personally used hot glue because my kids are impatient 🙂 but craft glue works too…it will just take longer to dry 🙂
- Attach little googly eyes.
Nov 16, 2022 | DIY Crafts, DIY Holiday Crafts, DIY Projects, Thanksgiving
I don’t know about you, but strolling around town this time of year, I find it hard not to be distracted by all of the beautiful colors and shapes of leaves that have fallen to the ground. It always makes me a little sad, to see such beauty go to waste. With this fun craft, you can breathe new life into those fallen leaves!
On your next nature walk or stroll outdoors with your little one, pick out some of your favorite leaves. Collect them in a small bag and bring them indoors. Press them between the pages of a heavy book for several days. Once the leaves have been pressed for a few days, you’re ready for your craft!
WHAT YOU NEED

- Pressed Leaves
- A black marker or paintpen
- A white marker or paintpen
- A sticky notepad
- 2 leather cords
HOW TO

Take a leaf or two and draw animal faces on them. You can even make a pair: how about a cat and a mouse?

Make pairs or groups of your animal leaves to tell a little story! For example, many of these leaves lend themselves to being made into baby birds. Draw googly eyes with the white and black marker, then add a beak.
I LOOK AT YOU AND YOU LOOK AT ME

I’ll help you set the scene for the story: take your brown leather cord and lay it across your paper to form a tree limb to let the birds sit on. One of the birds is just beginning to hatch! Take a larger, brown leaf and cut it at an angle so that it looks like the baby bird is coming out of it. Now it looks like one of the baby birds is learning to fly! Take 2 smaller leaves and glue them to his back. What happens in the rest of your story about these baby birds?
ONE NEVER KNOWS WHAT CREATURES ARE SWIMMING IN THE DEEP OF THE SEA

For this story, you’ll need to make a bunch of fish from your pressed leaves! Rotate them so that the stem is pointing either left or right. With your markers, draw eyes and fins. Then, add decorative scales to your fish. Lay down your piece of blue leather cord for the surface line of the water. Look at how many creatures are already swimming there! For a spin on the story, drop a fishing rod down into the water and see what happens…

For a fun matching game, pair up your fish! Glue each one on a sticky note and have your little one pair up the fish that are looking left with the fish that are looking right.

Want even more leaf crafting ideas? You could frame your favorite leaves, or make a flip-book with your favorite leaf characters. Happy Crafting!
Nov 14, 2022 | DIY Crafts, DIY Holiday Crafts, DIY Projects, Thanksgiving
My birthday often falls on Thanksgiving, and as a child, that meant that I got to replace turkey dinner with pizza! Now, I can’t imagine replacing such a delicious feast, but “kid me” was very grateful. Although I wasn’t a fan of eating turkey, I am sure I would have loved to receive a cute little turkey piñata! This year we are spending the holiday with my in-laws, and the cousins will be together. I thought it would be fun to make a mini piñata for each kiddo!

These little roasts could be filled with prizes and favors to occupy children during the long wait for dinner. It would also be fun to fill them with candy corn and treats to serve after the feast, for the non-pie-eaters. If these little fellows survive the day, you could definitely keep them for next year! Kids could look forward to finding a new surprise in their turkey each year. They could even be used as place cards, or around a centerpiece for decoration. If guests arrive before Thanksgiving Day, this would be a fun pre-Thanksgiving activity for all the crafters. So many possibilities!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• Paper-maché paste (1 c flour, 1 c water)
• 1-2” strips of newspaper or packing paper (newspaper is thicker and will make a sturdier piñata, but packing paper is plain, and doesn’t require as much paint for coverage)
• Clear tape
• Water balloons (3 per piñata)
• Mini Styrofoam eggs (2 per piñata)
• Scissors
• Box cutter
• Sponge brush
• Small paintbrush
• Paper straw (1 per piñata)
• Apple Barrel Paint (caramel and white)
• Paint palette
OPTIONAL
• Cookie cooling rack
• Wax paper
• Balloon pump
HOW-TO:

Step 1
Blow the first balloon up to full size to create the body. Blow the second two up about halfway, and then let air out until you have a nice round turkey “leg” that looks proportional to the body.

Step 2
Cut your paper straw into four 1-inch pieces, then line them up and tape them together in pairs. Tape the lip of the “leg” balloons to the straw pairs, and tape the wide end of a mini Styrofoam egg to the opposite end of the straw pairs. Finally, fold a piece of tape into a circle, and tape the legs to the body, slightly underneath it, and with the balloon end of the legs at the wider end of the body. Tape the lip of the “body” balloon down.

Step 3
Coat a newspaper strip in paper-maché paste, and smooth it out over the balloon “roast”. Continue to stick the paper strips to the roast until it is completely covered. Allow it to dry overnight, and then apply a second coat of newspaper strips. We did this step over wax paper, and dried the roasts on a cookie cooling rack.

Step 4
Once the second coat of paper-maché is dry, use a box cutter to cut 3 sides of a rectangle on the bottom of the turkey to make a door for filling with candy or prizes. You will need to be able to stick two fingers in to pull the balloon out of the turkey body. It should come out easily.

Step 5
Paint the turkey body “caramel” using your sponge brush. Mix a little bit of caramel paint with white, and use this mix to paint the “bone” on each leg. Allow the paint to dry, and then fill your piñata with paper shreds or confetti, and goodies!

Happy crafting and Happy Thanksgiving!!