a sampling of fall and Halloween crafts

Here in my house we do crafts of some kind several times a week. The kids adore crafting and making a mess and the results are always cuter than cute. Even when they're supposed to be spooooooky. I have been terrible about documenting the process of our crafts. I have three toddlers with whom I need to be "all hands on deck" or they'd end up creating a disaster along with their cute little craft. Hence, it leaves me without a hand to photograph the actual making of our crafts. Before I sent the finished works of art home today with the kids I took a photo of their creations. All of these crafts were easy enough for a two year old to do with some assistance and the preschoolers can do them independently given step by step directions.

At the back are the toliet paper tube Frankensteins. This is an idea I got from the site No Time for Flash Cards. A wonderful site for crafts and books and songs. this craft requires a toliet paper tube, two gogglely eyes, two golf tees, scissors, green paint and black marker or crayon. First the kids colored the top 1/3 of the tube black. Next they painted the bottom portion green. The older kids fringed the green guys hair themselves but I did it for the little ones. Then have them draw a line for a mouth with little slashes going through it for the stitches. Glue on the eyes and let them push the tees through each side. So cute...it's scary. :)

I have one little fabric decoupage pumpkin in the back as well (the others were already sent home). These were very messy to do but the kids enjoyed mucking about in the glue. We used styrafoam pumpkims from the craft store as our base. You will also need glue (lots), orange fabric snipped into small pieces, and a paint brush and small plate. I poured a good amount of glue onto the plate and had the kids paint portions of the pumpkin a little bit at a time. They should then cover the gluey pumpkim with pieces of fabric. We found that once a small area was done, it was best to paint over the fabric with more glue to paste down the edges. Continue doing this until the pumpkin is completely covered with fabric. These looked really cute grouped together.

The cheesecloth ghosts are simple and fast but require an overnight drying time. Some of the kids had yet to put eyes on theirs. For the ghosts you will need cheesecloth (cut into pieces that will fit over your form), stiffy or liquid starch, black felt, a metal bowl and something to form your ghost around. I used a soda can with a ball of foil on top. This ghost is so easy and they are so much fun. You can even hang them by sewing some fishing line through the top. Here go the directions...pay attention because it really is that quick. Pour the stiffy in the bowl. Take one piece of cheese cloth at a time and dip it into the stiffy in the bowl. Mix it and slosh it around till it's good and wet. Squeeze it out and then open it back up. Drape the damp, not dripping!, cheesecloth over your form. We used two pieces of cheesecloth for each ghost. And that is it. Let it dry overnight. The next day cut two eyes out of the felt and glue them onto your ghost. I love how these guys look all together. Ours were small but you could make these whatever size you'd like. It'd be real cute to have them all different sizes.

And the little gummy pumpkims are adorablely yummy. The gummy pumpkins are made with orange gummy fruit slices. Each pumpkin uses 9 orange slices. You'll also need plastic wrap, a half cup measuring cup, and some green tape. Line the measuring cup with a piece of plastic wrap. You want it to be good size as you'll be wrapping it around the finished pumpkin. Next begin standing the orange slices in the measuring cup with the rounded edge touching the sides of the measuring cup. Continue placing them into the cup until you can't squeeze in another. Then place one more right in the center. Pull the plastic wrap around the candy and out of the measuring cup. Twist it and wrap a piece of tape around. Cut off any excess plastic wrap. These are fun to bring to a party or as party favors.