31 Days Series: Day 31

 Happy Halloween and I hope you have enjoyed making these crafts and snacks with your kids this month as much as my girls and I did!  One last snack idea...take some of the things you have left from making the snacks this month and throw them together for a quick Halloween snack mix.  (pretzels, candy corn, popcorn, gummy worms, almond slices, M&M's, Reeces Pieces, small pieces of graham crackers, etc.) Great to take to a Halloween get together or just a snack to keep on hand for the kids.  Here's the last craft for this month....enjoy!!

Monster Feet

 This craft is your chance to be as creative as you would like.  Make your monster feet unique as you are! 

Supplies:

-rectangular tissue boxes (2 per child)

-paint (whatever color your want your feet to be)

-sequins, pom poms, fake fur, whatever you like!

-glue

-craft foam for the claws (green or yellow are good choices)

Directions:

1.  paint the tissue boxes (you don't need to paint the bottom)

2.  Let dry.

3. Cut triangle pieces from the foam and glue them on for claws.

4.  Decorate your monster feet however you choose.

5.  Let the glue dry.

6.  Stomp around the house!

Here's how our feet turned out:

I put all kinds of craft stuff on the table and told the girls to have at it :)  I have to say, they were definitely creative!

Here's our Halloween snack mix:

I got the bowl at Dollar General for  $1 - $2.

 Idea from: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/monster_feet_craft.htm 

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31 Days Series: Day 25

 Halloween Candles

This is a fun and easy way to brighten up your Halloween decorations.
You can get glass candle holders in all sorts of shapes and sizes at Dollar Tree.  You can be as creative as you want to with this craft.  It can be as simple as wrapping tissue paper around the glass jar or you can take it a little farther and add Halloween shaped cut outs. Since my kids are 4 & 5 we stuck with the simple version :)

Supplies:
-glass jars (small mason jars or glass candle holders work great)
-tissue paper-white, orange, purple and/or black
-black construction paper
-candles to fit in your jars
-scissors
-glue (we used glue sticks)

Directions:
1.  Wrap your jar in tissue paper (use your glue to make it stick).
2.  Insert a candle.
3.  Light it!

If you want to get a little more creative click here for some templates.

Here are some decorative ideas from  Activity Village :
 Pumpkin face - use orange tissue paper and cut out a lantern face before wrapping around the jar.
Spider web - use white tissue paper, having first drawn a spider web onto it with black felt tip pen. You could attach a small plastic spider into the middle of the web for a 3D effect.
Bats - use white tissue paper. Cut a number of small bat shapes out of black construction paper and glue them to the tissue paper randomly.
Witch - use purple tissue paper. Stick on a selection of silver stars and add, towards the bottom of the jar, a black cat cut out of black construction paper.

This is what the girls came up with...a mummy, a witch, a jack-o-lantern and a ghost. Like I said, they are still young but you can be creative if you want to and get a little more decorative with yours!

Idea from:   http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/halloween_candle_jars.htm

31 Days Series: Day 22

 Hand & Footprint Ghosts

This is fun to do each year so the kids can see how much bigger their "ghosts" are from the last Halloween.  You can even use these ghosts to decorate the front of handmade party invites!  This is a craft that even the littlest member of the family can join in on.

Supplies:

-white paint

-black construction paper

-scissors

-black paint or black permanent marker

-glue stick

Directions:

1. Paint your child's hand or foot with white paint.

2.  Have them place their painted hand or food onto the black construction paper.

3.  Let the paint dry.

4.  Add eyes and maybe a mouth with your black paint or marker.

5.  Cut the "ghost" out and hang it up for a cute Halloween decoration.

I gave my girls the supplies and let them have at it :)

After doing this with my kids, I saw an idea on Pinterest to do this with each child's hand or foot print on a black painted canvas as a Halloween keepsake.  I just had to do it.  Here's how it turned out...

I also used this idea from Pinterest to paint my canvas:

Put push pins into the back of the canvas so it will be off the counter enough to paint sides and not get paint on the counter.

31 Days Series: Day 14

 Lollipop Ghosts
Super easy craft and treat rolled into one.  These are great little things to let your kids make for their friends or for Halloween parties.

Supplies:
-lollipops (1 per ghost)
-tissue (1 per ghost)
-dental floss or white twist tie (we used dental floss)
-black permanent marker

Directions:
1.  Place tissue over the sucker.
2.  At base of the sucker, use floss or twist tie to secure tissue in place.
3.  Draw eyes and mouth on ghost.
4.  Share with friends.

31 Days Series: Day 4

 Egg Cup Treat Holders

Parents can make this craft for a special after dinner treat for younger children. Kids ages 4 and up can make it themselves (with a little help).  You can paint them whatever colors you would like.  My kids wanted to do white for a ghost, green for a witch or Frakenstein, black for a vampire, orange for a pumpkin, yellow for a glowing candle, and purple for a monster. As far as cost of this craft:  buy your next carton of eggs in a cardboard carton, you can get tissue paper, paint and wiggle eyes at Dollar Tree, you probably already have scissors and glue. So the biggest expense would be the candy, which isn't going to set you back too much.  You might even have some you've already bought...it's hard to resist all that yummy stuff every time you go grocery shopping :)

Supplies:
-cardboard egg carton with the cups cut apart
-paint in Halloween colors
-tissue paper in Halloween colors
-scissors
-glue stick 
-wiggle eyes (2 per cup)
-small Halloween candies (M&M's or Reeses Pieces or candy corn work great)

Directions:
1. Trim egg cups with scissors so they will have a neat edge.
2. Cut 3 inch squares from tissue paper.
3. Paint egg cups in Halloween colors and let dry.
4. Use glue stick to put a dab of glue in the center of a tissue paper square.
5. Glue side facing downward gently press center of tissue paper into center of the inside of the egg cup.
6. Glue two wiggle eyes on each cup. (if glue sticks don't hold them, try using white glue)
7. Fill with small Halloween treats.

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 Idea from:  http://crafts.kaboose.com/egg-cup-treat-holders.html

31 Days Series: Day 3

 Pumpkin Window Hangers

This is a very easy craft to make for all ages.  For the very young you can do the cutting for them and for the older kids, you can give them the supplies and let them go at it.  *There is hot glue involved so parents might want to do that part no matter the age of your child.  I got a pack of foam with 32 pieces (6 different colors), 10 pack of glitter glue (5 different colors), and a 12 pack of suction cups at Dollar Tree.  We already had a marker, pipe cleaners, hot glue gun and paintbrushes so this craft cost me $3 and I have PLENTY of the supplies we bought to do other crafts with. 

Supplies:

-orange foam paper

-green foam paper

-black permanent marker

-brown pipe cleaner

-glitter glue

-suction cups (1 per pumpkin)

-hot glue gun (If you don't have hot glue or just don't feel like fooling with it, use tape to attach the pipe cleaners to the back of the pumpkin.  I tried this to see if it would hold and they haven't fallen yet.  It's been over a week.)

-paintbrush

Directions:

1.  Cut out pumpkin shapes from the orange foam paper. You can do this ahead of time or let you kids do it, depending on their age.

2.  Draw lines on the pumpkin with the marker.

3.  Cut out two small leaves.

4.  Spread glitter glue all over the pumpkin.  I squirted some on and then let my kids spread it around with a paintbrush.  We glued our leaves on by pressing them into the glitter glue. (The directions I found said to use orange glitter glue but we had silver so we used that.)

5.  Cut a 4 inch piece of pipe cleaner and fold it in half, making a loop.

6. Hot glue the end pieces of the pipe cleaner to the back of the pumpkin.

7.  When all the glue is dry, hang the pumpkin by the pipe cleaner loop onto the suction cups and hang on your window.

Harper drew her own lines on her pumpkin.

I drew Palmer's lines on for her. She loved spreading the glitter glue all around!

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Adapted from:  http://crafts.kaboose.com/pumpkin-window-hangers.html