I love this idea of using brooches as gift toppers from Laura of Bugs and Fishes. It's a fun way to add a little extra gift to your gift and include something that won't be thrown away. I also love how she's used yarn in place of ribbon - so lovely!

Sarah James at Instructables is a tireless force when it comes to holiday eats (and food photography, holy delicious!). Behold her candy apple tutorial!

More than a step-by-step tutorial, I like to hear about a crafter's process in creating a new project. I love to hear the stories of how they brainstormed, sketched, scavenged and came up with solutions to their crafty dilemmas. Such is the case with Pam's post over at Gingerbread Snowflakes as she shares her large scale advent calendar. She talks about tackling this project that has been in her head for almost a decade, and walks us through how she slowly took that idea and executed it, using mostly supplies she had on hand. She even shares some tips on a new favorite craft supply that you get at the hardware store! I love following her process, and she's done a beautiful job of sharing not only the technical steps she went through to create the calendar, but also her loving story of how she was finally able to bring this back burner idea to fruition.

You'll be surprised to see how simply this decorative felt ornament starts out when you check out the tutorial for making it on Zakka Life. A few circles of felt are transformed into this intricate-looking design.

Now that Halloween is over, I feel like the holiday season is ready to begin. I love all the cooking and baking that happens this time of year, but most of all I love how the family gatherings always end up in the kitchen. I'm going to help you get ready for the first big one — Thanksgiving — by providing you with recipes and tips throughout the whole month of November.

I'm lucky that as a young bride, my mother-in-law gave me some excellent tips when it was time for me to host my first Thanksgiving. I especially appreciated her tips on how to roast a turkey. She introduced me to brining, something I had never before heard of, but I knew that the turkey I had eaten at her home was the best I'd ever had, so I followed her advice. Here is my twist on the brine recipe she first gave me as well some great tips for roasting a flavorful turkey. Anyone who's ever eaten my turkey says it's the best they've ever had. And it's all thanks to my mother-in-law. I'm lucky to have such a sweet one!

The leftover turkey carcass from this recipe makes the best homemade turkey broth, but you'll have to stay tuned throughout the month for that recipe, along with ideas for your side dishes and our family's favorite pumpkin pie recipe.

Looking to add a personal and crafty touch to your holiday table? Be sure to check out this tutorial from the folks at ReproDepot. I love the effect of the trim around the edges. See how they create it here.

The folks at Nice Package have a new tutorial showing how to turn plain metal-rimmed gift tags into stylish, more personalized tags with simple supplies you likely have on hand. They've even provided a free download of vintage images and prints in case you want to save time or don't have images of your own you'd like to use.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is watching A Christmas Story and laughing hysterically (even after all these years!) This embroidery from Flickr user glazedangel101 immediately caught my attention. I love all the details from the movie, like the soap, the bunny costume and - of course - the very awesome leg lamp.

Diane Gilleland's latest e-book venture is Crafty Tree Trimmings, a collaboration with a group of top crafters who have created a collection of ornaments that reflect each of their strengths and unique styles. Included in the collaboration are Susan Beal, Linda Permann, Kayte Terry, Betz White and Patricia Zapata. A portion of each book sale is being donated to Project Linus, a "nationwide charity that collects handmade blankets for children who are suffering from serious illness, trauma or are otherwise in need."

It's finally Dia de los Muertos, or, Day of the Dead. I've lit the candles on my shrine, and reflected and celebrated the lives of my loved ones who have passed on. This year the holiday has been particularly rewarding due to the crafty energy that I put into my altar. I have loved looking at the images and stories submitted to the Crafty Chica Challenge, there are truly moving pieces of art posted. The special emotions and memories that have been shared in the flickr pool are just amazing. Enjoy life, everyone!

I'm not sure who decided that Halloween cupcakes, cookies, and regular-sized cakes were a good idea for Halloween, but I'm not the one to buck tradition, especially when it involves frosting. And creative decorating.

So over the years I've made quite a few graveyard cakes, and in recent years I've branched out to spider cakes, ghost cakes, jack-o-lantern cakes, and dirt cakes. I do, however, refuse to make a litter box cake, no matter how many times I get sent the photos, links, and recipe. Apparently, imitation cat poop is where I draw the line.

Ive figured out that donating the majority of the cakes to the local Halloween Carnival helps reduce sugar consumption. Well, until my kid wins a cake in the cakewalk and brings it back home. But at least I tried!

Here are some hints for making fabulous Halloween cakes, if you dare!

• For glowing eyes on the Ghost Cake, use halves of egg shells, rinsed off and dried. Then place a sugar cube in each half of the shell, poor a very small amount of lemon extract on the sugar cubes, and light that sucker. Don't leave this unattended!
• For the ghosts on the Graveyard Cake, I've used cut-and-slice cookie dough, cut out sugar cookies, and lollipops wrapped in white cloth. Whatever you've got around will suffice.
• For legs on the Spider Cake, find some Pockys, which are delicious cookies from Japan. I've found them at Cost Plus and specialty grocery stores. I also thought Pirouette wafers might work, or maybe even Twix bars.
• For all the cakes, don't be afraid to substitute Skittles for M&Ms for Reeses Pieces for Gummy Bears. Most anything will work when seen in context -- you're bound to hear "Oh, those are the spider's eyes," or "Oh, little bears are lining the walkway, how spooky!" (As opposed to, "Why did you use Skittles instead of M&Ms? That doesn't work at all!")

It's easy and fun to create adorable edible pumpkin decorations in no time. Just use delicious almond paste, or marzipan to sculpt as if you were working with clay. Almond paste just blanched almonds and sugar, ground into a paste. Marzipan is almond paste, plus flour. Either one will work perfectly for this project. I chose to use almond paste because it tends to have flecks of color in it from the skins of the almonds, while the candy dough of marzipan is more often pure white. I wanted the flecks because I think it lends some extra realism to the final pumpkin. Use the decorations on cakes, or just serve them as their own yummy treats. Once I covered an entire chocolate cake with pumpkins, pears and apples. Make them ahead of any event, and then store in the fridge for up to one week.

For more inspiration, check out the Quick Craft article in Craft Magazine, Vol. 5.

Cathe Holden's Vintage Wooden Spool Advent calendar has me swooning. I love the idea of having a spool rack out in the main part of our house as the center of a daily countdown to Christmas. She's even provided downloadable numbers and tabs to glue to the spools for writing messages or clues. On top of all that, she shares alternatives for displaying the spools as well as a list for other ways to use them. Fantastic!

My Day of the Dead shrine has officially taken over my house! The smell of flowers, tequila and chocolate is unescapable. Each day I've worked on it and added to it, and it's finally covered in the nostalgic personal touches that represent my family and loved ones who have passed away. I will continue to be inspired, and have even more to share as the month goes by. I hope that you will also create a Day of the Dead shrine for our Crafty Chica Challenge.

My aesthetic is all about color, texture, and visual excitement. I packed every inch of my shrine with treasures. There is beach glass, rose petals, candles, seashells filled with quinoa and seashells filled with chocolate. My husband's grandfather's zippo, a candleholder from my beloved aunt, salt and pepper shakers and old spoons from my grandma, and of course, booze!

The beautiful mermaid skeleton bride is from Mexico, brought back from a trip by my sweet friend Leandra. I love it's creepy/pretty look.

The big black and white tile is also from Mexico, brought back by my grandfather. For as long as I can remember, my grandmother kept that tile on the hearth, with a big houseplant sitting on it. I've placed it on the altar and set out 4 shots of tequilla on it. Another traditional offering that I included is tobacco. There is an old cigar that's practically broken apart, but it's perfect for my shrine. The offerings can be anything that you think your ancestors and friends would enjoy and be comforted by. But in the end, I think creating this project is a comfort to me, and to the living who go on every day with fond memories.

Fall is here! Decorate for the season with fresh flowers that are blooming right now. I used marigolds and mums to create two garlands. They are perfect for autumn weddings, Day of the Dead shrines, Thanksgiving, or just because you want to bring some warm colors into your home. They are easy to create, and if you purchase the flowers living from a nursery, you can plant your leftovers!

My Day of the Dead shrine is taking shape, and so is the Crafty Chica Challenge! Please submit photos of your personal and crafty shrines for a chance to win some really great prizes. My take on the celebration is far from traditional, but I wouldn't change a thing. I started with gathering supplies and prepping the space. Then yesterday I made some glitter clothepins to hang photographs of my friends and family. Today I'm sharing the fresh and colorful flowers. I used roses gladiolas, zinnias, mums, amaranth and other wildflowers from the Occidental Farmer's Market. Working with the flowers is one of my favorite parts of building this shrine.

To prepare the flowers, I removed all the leaves from any part of the stems that would be under water and gave each flower a fresh cut. I will re-cut the stems of each arrangement every few days and change out their water to give the flowers the longest vase life. The set up for the shrine includes some glass vases, but I also put flowers in a gravy boat, my grandmother's Bauer juice pitcher, and a tiny teacup. To get the zinnias to fill the wide mouthed gravy boat, I used a cage frog. It has wide spaces for holding the stems at any angle. The holder stands the flowers up so that it takes fewer blooms to create a dramatic look.

I also took a tiny zinnia and two little flowers from my yard and put them in a very small container. I cut the stems to less than 1 inch so that they wouldn't throw off the balance of the ity bity vase. This little treasure is actually from Iran, but its shape and color fit right in with my chaotic theme and colorful theme. All that's left to complete the vision is the addition of my nostalgic mementos, offerings and candles!

Today I started working on my shrine for The Day of the Dead. It's very rewarding to put my creative energy towards a tribute to my friends and family who have passed on. I am thrilled to share the process of creating it, as part of the excitement for the Crafty Chica Challenge! I was introduced to the tradition 11 years ago by my mother-in-law, who always creates a spectacular altar. She maintains a smaller version year round, and I often reflect on it when I visit.

The first step I take is to gather materials. I collected some fabric to cover the space, purchased flowers from the farmer's market, and tied garlands out of scraps. Then I dug out all the photos I have, and mementos of my loved ones, including door knobs from a relative's home in Ohio, the lighter that belonged to my husband's grandfather, seashells from my grandmother, and little treasures such as feathers and butterflies. The skulls are a crucial part of the traditional Day of the Dead altar. I found sage, incense and candles as as well.

To build the bones of my altar, I've stacked up books to add height in the back, and then covered the entire thing with a table cloth that was used by my grandma. This will allow me to have varying heights, and a lovely lace motif.

Then I hung the garlands. I love how festive they look! Draping them at different lengths creates a ton of visual interest. And voila! All that's left is to decorate, and then add the offerings like cornmeal and liquor and candy skulls! Tonight I'll sit down and sift through the old photographs, reliving all my favorite memories. That's just about the best part, right? Tomorrow I'll begin the adornments, and share photos of course! And please, include your altars in the Crafty Chica Day of the Dead Challenge!

I love the clever way Merrilee of mer mag created these charming paper Jack-O-Lanterns. She's cut them out paper snowflake-style to create symmetrical, fun faces! See her blog for all the steps.

Claudine Hellmuth shares her tutorial for putting together a Halloween village made from paper. I love her trick for giving the houses a nice spooky shape. Check her blog to see how she did it!

Craftster has a blog post with information on crafting for Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. I love this dish towel made by Craftster user la la laurrenn! It's made for a holiday dish towel swap, and it's just beautiful.

It's not too early to start some Christmas home decor projects, especially if they are of the knit variety. These charming felted Christmas trees from Whitney at The Purl Bee are just the thing to try.

Don't be confused by the title - we're not talking superheroes here. Actually, kids can feel like superheroes when they scavenge through the recycling bin to find the materials to make this fun and quick-to-assemble bat mobile. Ellen from The Long Thread shares not only how to assemble the mobile, but also provides a pattern to use for the bats!

Anjeanette at Roots and Wings shares a pattern and tutorial for making these fun felt Jack-o-Lantern pencil toppers. They would make a great class gift for kiddos, or - if you are feeling industrious - a nice candy alternative for handing out on Halloween!

Regina of Creative Kismet hand carved these stunning Day of The Dead stamps. The detail is amazing, and the cards she's made with them are fantastic. Be sure to check them out to see all the variation she created with just this small group of stamps. If you're feeling inspired to try your hand at stamp carving, she also has a rubber stamp carving tutorial!

It's Rachel's birthday! Happy Happy Joy Joy! In that spirit, here's are three stunning garlands that I would love to use to decorate her house! The first is a stained glass garland from Pamela Angus in France, the second is a sweet tutorial by Anna Maria Horner, and the third is an epic and popular fabric flower garland from Dolci Odille.

For more party madness, check out Ga-Ga for Garlands on Flickr.

A few years ago, Monster Crochet shared a skeleton antimacassar she made for Halloween. She's just released the charts for creating your own skeleton antimacassar in knit, crochet or cross stitch. This would be a fun project to tackle to count down to Halloween, but I imagine you'd need to get started right away!

First off, don't panic. Yes, that is a Christmas tree you see in the picture above. However, we're not getting in to holiday craft panic mode just yet. Pam of Gingerbread Snowflakes has started a few Christmas in July posts, and this one really caught my eye. She shows how to make these mini piñatas using a slight variation on traditional paper mâché. In her tutorial, the mini piñatas are used to make an advent calendar, but I could see these being also used for loads of events throughout the year.

Just in time for the 4th, here's an adorable fireworks animation by PES.

Crafty Chica Kathy Cano-Murillo shows how to do this super fast 4th of July paper swag banners using patriotic scrapbook papers.