Chances are you already have several items laying around that can be used for a DIY Bubbling Cauldron.  Whether it is a plastic Halloween cauldron you have purchased or you have a fun bucket of some sort that can be converted to one.  With a few supplies, you can easily convert it to a spooky cauldron filled with a realistic looking witche’s concoction that is sure to be enjoyed by all.

Items Needed for DIY Bubbling Cauldron ~

• clear ornaments – different sizes
• craft paint – green, orange, yellow, rust/bronze, black (depending on your color scheme)
• paint brushes/sponge of various sizes
• half or full styrofoam ball (depending on size of “cauldron”)
• hot glue gun
• hot glue
• cauldron or bucket
• cut paper sacks if your bucket is larger to help fill space
• string lights or fairy lights

Additional Items to Complete the Look ~

• spider webbing
• spider
• witch
• Potion book …Check out this post for easy to follow decorations on making your own potion book …Click here for Halloween Spell Book directions!

Before I move on with the easy to follow steps, I want to take a minute to tell you about this great group of crafters I am involved with.  Every month, Julie from Sum of Their Stories blog, presents a theme for us to create a substainable craft.  This month’s theme is Tradition.  For those of you who know me, you are already aware of how much I love traditions.

A long standing tradition that was handed down from my mom is decorating for the holidays.  We always have the tried and true decorations that were brought out every year…some purchased and some crafted.   However,  we would also make new decorations to add to the ongoing collection.  Halloween was very big at our house and I have such wonderful memories of everything about the month of October.  This fun DIY Bubbling Cauldron is a super fun craft that I will now be adding to my annual display of everything spooky!

How to Create Your Own Bubbling Cauldron ~

We had an antique bucket that has been moved from space to space to space in our garage over the years.  I had to laugh because when I brought it in and set it next to my other supplies, my hubby asked, “Well, you aren’t going to ruin that cool bucket are you?”  First of all…RUIN?  😉 Second of all, I quickly replied, “What plans did you have for this bucket…did you even know we had it?”  He laughed and agreed!

1. Run lots of hot glue over the rim of the bucket, letting it ooze down the sides as it wishes.  (If you are using a plastic cauldron, you can paint it first if you wish to give it a “rusty” look.
2. Once the glue has dried, you can paint it with your desired paint colors to look like the concoction inside is boiling over.  I used different brushes and quickly realized I preferred the sponge brush as it gave it more of a “soupy” look.
   
3. Once the paint has dried, fill the bottom of your bucket with paper sack strips (if needed) and then place the stryofoam ball or half ball on top of papers.
4. Place your string of lights all around the stryofoam ball.  *I tried several different types and colors of lights.  The colored light strand that blinks became our favorite.  It seems to have a more realistic hot brewing look to it.
5. Remove the clear ornaments from their boxes and take the tops off of each one.  (side note…I couldn’t throw those away because I am POSITIVE I will find a use for them later!  Can you say CRAFT HOARDER! 🤣)
   
6. Start placing the bulbs around inside the cauldron, putting a bit of hot glue on each one to secure them.  Once your have the inside top filled with “bubbles”, start dripping them down the sides.  After you have them all glued together you should be able to lift the whole thing up as one unit.  This makes it easy if you need to change out your lighting.
7. Complete the look with spider webbing, a big spider, a witch and of course that Potion book I mentioned earlier.

Find the Items Here ~

If you are a craft hoarder like me, you may already have all of the items needed to make this DIY Bubbling Cauldron.  Many of the items can be found at the Dollar Store if needed.  I love this because I try to share crafts that aren’t expensive to make.  Let’s talk about the vessel for your cauldron first.  The plastic bucket can work perfectly, but get creative and look around for something you may already have.  Flower pots could be a great idea to be converted!

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Here are some handy links if you need to purchase any of the items online:

*Be sure to measure your cauldron size before choosing the size of ball.

October Sustainable Craft Challenge ~

Back to the monthly challenge.  Listed below are the awesome ideas that my fellow bloggers created for the Tradition theme this month.

Julie from Sum of Their Stories ~ Vintage Doily Afternoon Tea Embroidery Upcycle

Terri from Our Good Life ~ Halloween Scenes on Thrift Store Paintings

Gail from Purple Hues and Me ~ DIY Paper Mache Pumpkin Centerpiece

Mel from Decor Draft Design ~ DIY Halloween Haunted House Sign

Jo from A Rose Tinted World ~ DIY Halloween Bowling Game

Be sure to check out each of their posts for some amazing ideas…you are sure to find something new to create!

Come back and let me know how your crafts turn out….looking forward to hearing from you!

Happy Crafting ~

Mimi 

Can you smell that?  The cozy scent of warm cookies filling the whole house?  One of my favorite holiday activities is making and decorating Christmas cookies.  When my kids were younger, they would each invite a friend over for a day filled with creating Christmas cookie masterpieces as well as playing fun Christmas games.  Fast forward to 2021, these kids are now adults and yet we still get together every year for a Christmas Cookie Party!

Roll Out Cookie Recipe ~

Click Here to Print Recipe of Roll Out Cookies

In the early days I had a fun-filled day planned for all of the kiddos.  Memories of all of the kids rushing in after school all excited about the day’s events are still crystal clear in my mind!  The cookies would already be baked and placed all around the table.  Bowls of brightly colored icing  scattered all around within reach of their little hands.  Next come the paint brushes…you know the ones?  The inexpensive pack of multi-colored kid’s paintbrushes.  These served as the main decorating tool.

The Paintbrush Rule ~

If you ask any of those little bakers today, you will know the golden rule of cookie decorating.  The purple paintbrush goes in the purple icing bowl, the green paintbrush goes in the green icing bowl, the yellow paintbrush goes in the yellow icing bowl….you get the picture!  This keeps our colors fresh.    I guarantee you that when these said kids (now adults) read this they are laughing, as I am a stickler for this rule!

The small multi-colored paint brushes just like these work perfectly!

While I have included an easy link for you, I honestly try to gather the paintbrushes whenever I see them at the local Dollar Store or department store.  It is sometimes hard to find all of the colors you need, but collecting them over time usually proves to be successful…as long as you remember where you have stored them! 😉

Small ramekins like these are used for the many icing colors that they insist we have…ok, I insist too! 😉

The four primary colors are definitely not enough for this festive day!  You will need a lot of small bowls to make all of the icing colors requested.  It is much more fun if you let them create just the perfect shade of each color.  Once again those memories come rushing in, “Do you think this red is bright enough?”  “Should we do dark purple or light purple…or both?”  “Did someone make black…we need lots of black!”  “Ooooh, what about gray?”

The icing recipe itself is simple.  We have tried different recipes but have finally all decided this simple recipe is our favorite.  Printable version of the simple, but oh so good, icing recipe can be reached right here!

Cookie Cutters ~

We all have our favorite cookie cutter.  I continue to add new ones to the mix, but nothing melts my heart more than when I hear, “Wait a minute, did you make any snowglobe cookies?”  “Does anyone have a Christmas tree cookie they can share?” “What was this one??  A penguin, oh yea!”

Yes, sometimes the cookie shape is hard to tell what it is until you bring it to life with some color!  Other times they get broken and still get turned into a major work of art…thanks to Ali!  No, we do not have a Starbucks cookie cutter, but somehow she made the perfect latte cookie!

If I had to choose, I would say the snowglobe is one of everyone’s favorites…

It has been so much fun to watch their artistic ability change over the years.  However, no matter how beautiful they are, the taste is always the same…..delicious!  We are always careful to make an abundance so that everyone has plenty to take home and share….and to sample along the way.

When this tradition first began, the kids would start the afternoon out icing the cookies.  We would then move on to Christmas scavenger hunts and Christmas Bingo.  These activities ended with lots of festive prizes, of course.  I would send the kids home hyped up on sugar but exhausted from a fun-filled day!

The tradition has now moved to evenings as we have to schedule our Christmas Cookie Party around work schedules (that damn adulting thing always interferes!  😜).   We have a Cookie Crew text group that gets busy at the end of November working on the current year’s date.  The phone goes ping, ping, ping and voila…we have a date!  Now they all roll into the house with bottles of wine and fun Christmas gifts to share before we get to decorating!  Oh, did I mention the food?  Yes, we now have lots of savory appetizers as well.  Now instead of me sending them off exhausted and with full bellies the exact opposite happens….oh how the times have changed!

New Decorating Tools ~

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We have recently upped our decorating game.  As Ali put it best, “Oh Shel, this is a game changer!”  The addition of squeeze bottles brought a whole new way of decorating to our Christmas Cookie Party fun!  Wow, these are so much fun and allow for more precise decorating.

A cookie scribe is a pointy tool that is used to redistibute icing and make fun swirls on glazed cookies.  The ones below have cute snowflakes on the top for a Christmas theme.

There are also some super cute decorating scribes on Etsy too!  These festive gingerbread scribes by Equinox Pastry Supply are a definite plus for any cookie decorating party!

Addi demonstrates for us…

As the years go by, we add new little ones to the crew and continue making wonderful memories.  Had I known years ago how special this tradition was going to be, I would have urged others to do the same!

One thing I know for sure is that these girls will continue this tradition and that makes me a very happy Mimi!

Photo Gallery of More Recent Years ~

(Some year I will go back to my old files to add pictures from the younger years!)

Now everyone get out there and get to baking…..enjoy your Christmas season!  And to you, my precious Christmas Cookie Party crew…I love you…thank you for all of the wonderful memories…and cheers to many more!

Much love~

Mimi

P.S.  Check out a similar post I wrote about this last year (with less details), however there are some of the fun cookie cutter links included in this one!