Halloween Lunch Bags }{ Tutorial

With the 31st of October just around the corner, I feel like everything is excuse to do some cute Halloween-y craft. This one is easy, perfect for the little ones in your life, and made with simple materials you can find in almost everyone's home.

So let's get crafting.

What you need:

• paper lunch bags
• construction paper in white and black for the mummy (and for the vampire as well)
• glue
• scissors
• crayons and markers for adding details (optional)

What you do (for the mummy, the easiest one):

1. fold the open end of the lunch bag down about 1/4 of the full length (see picture)
2. fold the bottom so that both sides are going down (see pictures)
3. cut out shapes from the constructions paper: white and black circles for the eyes, a crooked mouth, some longer strips of white construction paper.
4. Glue the strips of white paper all over the bag with the top folded down; lastly add the eyes and mouth. 
5. For other characters like the vampire or the owl, this is where you'd add some extra details with crayons or markers (e.g. blood on the fangs).

The steps are the same no matter what character you make, but the shapes you cut out and the construction paper colors are different obviously. I can also imagine how easy it would be to do a Frankenstein one, or a skull. What Halloween monster/character would you make?

Glittery Spider Webs }{ holiday crafting

Ready for a "why didn't I think of that" moment? At least that's how I felt when I saw this idea on Pinterest (originally on Redbook). So easy. Why didn't I think of that?

We did this with a 4 year old and a 7 year old, and it was a hit with both. It was also messy and a bit hard for them to get it just right. So we helped. The hardest part is waiting for the glue to dry.

Materials:
glue
glitter
wax paper
patience

What to do:

1. Cut a piece of wax paper larger than you want the web to be and place it over some cardboard.
2. With glue, draw a spider web on the wax paper - start with 8 straight lines, like you're cutting a pie into 8 equal pieces; then draw curved lines connecting the adjacent straight lines to each other. Look at the picture to see what I mean.
3. Cover the glue in glitter. This was hard for the kiddos to do thoroughly, so we helped by shaking the cardboard and wax paper around a bit until all the glue was covered.
4. Wait until it's dry (3-4 days) and carefully peel the web off the wax paper.

The cool thing is that you can use the technique to make all kinds of designs. Sooo many glittery possibilities...

Are you ready for Halloween?

Little ghost garland }{ tutorial

Do you know one reason (among many) I love Fall? There are so many excuses for crafting and inspiration kisses your face as soon as you walk outside. I'm glad my husband isn't a jealous guy.

With a little one in my house, Halloween is one of these excuses to go crazy creating stuff, costumes, decorations, what have you. We can always use a new item to put up for the season, right? And we do end having so much fun doing it together as a family.

This project I'm sharing is a quick and easy one that we did last weekend - a garland of little ghosts that you can hang anywhere.  N. had a great time with this one. The ghost faces were easy enough that she could do some of them on her own, and she loved the results. She actually kept a few of the ghosts to play with.

What you need:

• scraps of muslin
• styrofoam balls
• string
• brushes and paint

Steps:

1. Fold the scrap in half (or a piece of rectangular muslin you cut), then paint the face near the fold.
2. Place a styrofoam ball under the top, behind the face you painted. Tie the fabric tightly just under the ball with the string.
3. Repeat with as many little ghosts as you want. 
4. Once you have your ghosts, place a long string through the knots under their heads and voila. Now all you need is to hang it up anywhere you want.

Happy Halloween everyone!