31 Days Series: Day 23

Terra-Cotta Jack-O-Lanterns

Great party Halloween party favors!  You can get all sizes of pots at Michael's. I got the three smallest sizes and they were $.59, $.69, $.89 a piece.  If you can't find terra-cotta pots you can use small plastic ones.  The paint won't stick as well or show up quite as well but we gave it a try anyway just to see. (pic below)

Supplies:

-mini terra-cotta pots

-yellow craft paint

-fine tip black marker

Directions:

1. Add a Jack-O-Lantern face to your pot with the yellow paint.

2.  Let dry.

3.  Outline the face with your fine tip black marker.

4.  Put some Halloween candies in your Jack-O-Lantern. 
**After some trial and error (that's why only one of the plastic pots got photographed) I found the easiest way for my children (ages 4 & 5) to make the face, was for me to draw it on with the marker first then let them paint inside the lines with the yellow paint.  Then after they painted, I went back over the lines again with the permanent marker. You can decide what's best for your kids depending on their age. 

Here are our terra-cotta pots.

This is the plastic one.

Idea from:  http://crafts.kaboose.com/pumpkin-jack-o-lantern-pots.html

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 21

 Pretzel Skeletons

Let the kids make an edible craft today. The supplies needed are used in several of the snacks so hopefully you will have them all already in your pantry.

Supplies:

-peanut butter/almond butter

-rectangular crackers (we used graham crackers)

-pretzel twists, sticks, rings

-chocolate chips (we used regular and mini)

Directions:

1.  Spread the peanut butter on one of the rectangular crackers.

2.  Using your pretzels, make a skeleton shape on top of the peanut butter.

(You will need to break some of the pretzels into smaller pieces.)

3.  Decorate faces with chocolate chips or other small edible items. 

Adapted from: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/appetizers-snacks/mr-bones/

31 Days Series: Day 19

 Paper Plate Ghost

This is a great craft to do at a party.  If your kids are older, they can do everything for themselves.  If you have younger ones, you can pre-cut the face, streamers and arms and they can glue them on. 

Supplies:
-white paper plates (2 per ghost)
-white streamers
-black construction paper
-white construction paper
-ribbon, string or yarn
-hole punch
-scissors
-glue

Directions:
1.  Cut 8 pieces of streamer and 2 arms (from white construction paper).
2.  Glue streamers and arms to the backside of one plate.
3.  Glue the other paper plate to the backside of the first one (covers up with mess).
3.  Cut out two eyes and a mouth from the black construction paper. Glue them on the to make a face.  **If you want to make a two sided ghost, give the other plate face too.

this is my four year olds ghost :)

Idea from: http://cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-party-ideas.html

31 Days Series: Day 16

 Yummy Fingers

A healthy Halloween snack!  Great snack for after school or to have on the buffet table at a party.  Just remember to serve with plenty of baby carrots so your "fingers" won't get eaten!

Supplies:

-You can use store bought ranch dressing/dip or make you own with this easy homemade ranch recipe.

-carrots-washed and peeled (5 for each bowl-4 long ones and 1 slightly shorter one)

-almond slices (1 per finger)

-small bowl

Directions:

1.  Put your ranch dip into the small bowl.

2.  Place 5 carrots in dip, standing up

3. Put a dap of ranch on the ends of the carrots.
4.  Place an almost slice on each dab of ranch.

Idea from:  http://spoonful.com/recipes/carrot-finger-food

31 Days Series: Day 9

 Pumpkin Pumpkin Muffins
You can involve the kids as much as you want to on this one...they can help you with every step from baking to decorating or you can make it and have a yummy little snack waiting for them after school.

Supplies:

-Pumpkin muffins (or you can use any kind of cupcakes).  We used Gigi's Pumpkin Muffins recipe.

-Icing-you can make your own or use store bought.  We bought the orange Halloween icing but it wasn't orange enough so I added a few drops of food coloring to make it more "pumpkin orange."

-Pretzel sticks

-Green M&Ms (we used mini ones)

Directions:

1.  Bake your muffins (or cupcakes) and let them cool.

2. Top the muffins with the orange frosting.

3.  Stick a pretzel stick in the center of the muffin. (We broke our sticks in half so they wouldn't be too long.)

4.  Take a green M&M (mini or regular depending on the size of your muffins) and place in the icing right beside the pretzel rod "stem." 

Adapted from:  http://www.midwestliving.com/food/holiday/easy-halloween-sweets-snacks/?page=6

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!

Follow me on Facebook! 

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

31 Days Series: Day 1

SPOOKY EYES BUCKET

When I came across this idea it said to get a plastic sand bucket and paint it black.  Then to cut out eye shapes from yellow construction paper and glue them around the bucket.  I came up with some ideas I thought would be easier for my 4 and 5 year old but you can decide what would work best for your children.  We had paint and paint brushes so all I bought were the two buckets.  Total spent on this project was $2.  If you don't have any paint or brushes, you can also buy these at the dollar store.

Supplies:

-black plastic bucket (we found black cauldrons at the Dollar Tree)

-yellow paint

-black paint

-paint brush

Directions:

1.  Apply some yellow paint to your child's thumb and let them put their thumb prints on the bucket. (Two thumb prints together to make a pair of eyes) Do this all over the outside of the bucket. After the prints dried, we needed to add another layer of yellow.  You might want to do the thumb prints one more time or you can go around with a paint brush and fill the prints in so the yellow is a little thicker. (I went around with a paint brush.)

2. When yellow paint is dry, take your paint brush, dip it in some black paint and make little dots for the pupil. 

3.  Allow black paint to dry.

That's it...you have a Spooky Eye Bucket to use for Trick or Treating or just for holding a snack.

I read somewhere that if you use sand paper on your plastic bucket, the paint would stick better.  That's why you see all the scratches.  If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have done this.

This is Harper's bucket.  She did the pupils all by herself.

Here's what we did with our buckets...fun popcorn holder for a movie night.

Adapted from:   http://crafts.kaboose.com/spooky-eyeball-bucket.html

My 31 Days for the month of October...

 My girls love making things, whether it be a craft or a fun snack.  I always scour the internet and magazines looking for fun but easy things to do with them, especially close to holidays. Many of the things I find are super cute but I need to be Martha Stewart to attempt to make them or have to go buy tons of things that I probably won't be using again just to make them.  Well this year I decided to do 31 EASY snacks and crafts for the month of October with my girls and thought I'd share them with you to enjoy with your little ones!  Some I found on the internet, some I found an idea but changed it around to make it easier, others are ones my children have done at school or that I remember doing as a child or teacher.  I did each and every one of the snacks and crafts with my two girls so if you have any questions, please let me know.  I hope you enjoy and I'd love to hear any feedback!!  Come back tomorrow for Day 1!

*There is a craft later in the month that calls for rectangular tissue boxes (2 per child) so if you want to do that craft, buy the tissues now and use them through the month (there are several crafts this month that need stuffing and tissues can be used) that way you will have empty rectangular boxes ready!

*Next time you buy eggs, get the ones in a cardboard carton.  We will use that in another craft this month.

Overview of the month:

• 11 activities are snacks 
• 13 are crafts 
• 7 are a snack/craft combo 

 Here are a few other Halloween activities if you have elementary age children.  My almost 6 year old has really enjoyed the word searches and both of my daughter's have enjoyed doing the Halloween Mad Libs.

Printable Halloween Word Searches

Printable Halloween Mad Libs