Halloween Trophy - Try # 1

Just wanted to give an update on one of my halloween projects. My first trophy "redo" is just about done. I like it but I'm not crazy about it yet so I will keep tweaking. I found a little doll at a flea market for $.10 so I wrapped her to look like a mummy and put a nail in her foot to place her on top of the trophy I took apart and spray painted black. I still have to make the name plate but for now I just wrote it on the front. I think I'm going to add some cobwebs and spiders too. The next one I'm trying will be a skull head or skeleton. Check back.

Halloween School Craft #1

My dd teacher asked me if I could come up with some halloween crafts the kid's could do on Fridays in October.

The first craft we did last Friday was Felt halloween Chair Covers.

What you will need:

Felt (Orange, Black, and White)

Fabric Glue

Scissors

Design Sheet(optional)

Name Tag(optional)

Here's what you do:

At least a week before:

1.) Measure chairs...add 1 inch to width and add 1 inch to heighth to get size of felt you will need.

2.) Buy felt (I bought 4 1/2 yards and it made 25 chair covers)

3.) Buy "accent felt" I bought 1 1/2 yards each of black and white(I think I could have gotten away with 1 yard for 25 kids)

4.) Draw some simple designs for the chair covers to give children some ideas(if you are dealing with older than 1st grade you can probably skip over this step) I included my designs(please disregard my drawing skills :) )

5.) Buy at least 3 bottles of Fabric Glue

6.) Make sure teacher has scissors for all the children.

7.) Sew Chair Covers(use a 1/4 inch seam allowance to make sure they will fit over chairbacks. (I suggest making one prototype and taking it into school to make sure it fits before sewing all of them.) - If you don't know how to sew or just do not want to take the time you could just fold the felt over the top of the chair and punch holes in each side and thread ribbon through and tie together to hold the cover on the chair.

8.) Cut "accent color" squares of felt for each child.

9.) Make copies of your designs for each child(or you could make one posterboard and place it in the front of the classroom.

9.) Package 1 chair cover, 2 pieces of felt(white and black), and a design sheet in a bag or ziploc for each child so you can pass the items out quickly.

Once your in the classroom:

10.) Explain to each child what they are making. Place your prototype on a chair so they can visualize.

11.) Pass out your bags of supplies and scissors to each child.

12.) When ready to glue have them raise their hand and glue for them. You put the glue on the back of their pieces and let them place them on their chair cover. Make sure the chair cover is facing the right way before gluing down.

13.) Place a sticker or safety pin a sheet of paper with the child's name on the chair cover and place somewhere in the classroom to dry.

14.) Clean Up and Take a Deep Breath you will probably need it :)

I hope you enjoy this idea. Check back next week for our next classroom craft idea.

Halloween - Button Costume - This time with Instructions

I have had several emails asking me for more details on how to make the button costume I made for dd a few years ago so I thought I should elaborate:

Here's what you need to make your own button costume for your little cutie this year:

2 green floral wreaths

fabric of choice

cardboard

yarn

hot glue

safety pins.

Here is how I did it:

1.) Hot glue fabric around the 2 green floral wreaths. You can use whatever size you want. (I took my dd to the store and held them up to her to determine which one "fit" the best)

2.) Cut 2 pieces of cardboard into circles that will fit snugly inside the floral wreaths.

3.) Cut 4 holes into the cardboard circles for the button holes.

4.) Wrap fabric around the cardboard and hot glue in place. Then cut out the fabric out of the button holes.(I cut them in an X shape and hot glued around the hole). Make the cutout the same size as the opening and they should fit snugly into the wreath opening. If your not comfortable with that use some more hot glue.

5.) Place button up against the person that will be wearing the costume to measure how far down you want the button to come down on them.

6.) Make 2 shoulder straps by taking a length of 4 inch black fabric(or whatever color that will match her shirt), fold length of fabric in half and sew straight stitch down the sides(you could use ribbon if you do not want to sew).

6.) Use a safety pin to pin the straps to the back of each wreath. That way it will be easy to take on and off when needed.

7.) Take yarn and thread it through the button holes and your done. (Mine didn't look too pretty on the inside but you couldn't see that part.)

8.) Optional: glue buttons all over everything that is visible...shirt sleeves, pant legs, hair scrunchies, shoes...go wild.

8.) Now go take your cutie trick or treating and count how many times people say Look isn't she/he cute as a button.

If you end up making this costume I would love to see your version. Leave me a comment if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Hope

Chalkcloth Gift Tags

Turns out chalkcloth gift tags are very easy to make. All you have to do is buy some chalkcloth, some double fold binding tape and some eyelets. Cut the chalkcloth into a rectangular shape. Sew on the binding tape on both of the short sides. Cut to fit. Then sew the binding on the long sides. If you doing a bunch of them at one time just daisy chain them through with the binding tape. Punch a hole into one corner of the chalkcloth with the top of a pen. Then hammer the eyelet in. Thread a ribbon through and you have chalkcloth gift tags. Reusable and very cute. I will be using these for Natalie's teachers this year for their Christmas Gifts. Try it you'll like it :)

Halloween Party Game #1

Each year at our annual Halloween party we try to throw in a few "new to us" carnival type party games. Here is the first idea I'm throwing around for this year - Pumpkin Punch Out. The idea is to have DH cut out a big pumpkin out of wood and I will paint it Orange and Green and screw orange plastic cups to it to let the kids punch a number to get a prize. Here is a pic of the idea in it's prototype stage minus the big wood pumpkin. Here's how I did the test phase:

1.) Buy a pack of orange Solo Cups(or any color you prefer)

2.) Fill cups with Green paper crinkles and a small halloween prize(make sure the prize is soft or there is lots of crinkles on top of it to cushion little hands when they hit the cups. There is lots of squeezy skeletons, eyeballs, rats, etc you can buy for halloween.

3.) Take parchment paper and cut into a strip big enough to cover the top of the cup and at least 2 inch down the cup.

4.) Place the parchment paper on top of the cup and take a rubber band and place it over the top of the parchment paper to "attach" it to the cup. Make sure all sides of the parchment have rubber band to hold it down to the cup. The further you can go down the better. Have fun testing it out some with your kid or yourself.

5.) Stamp or draw on halloween images or numbers onto each cup.

6.) Step right up and hit the cup and get a prize

For the actual party version I will add one extra steps:

before step 2 above I will screw each cup into the wood from inside the cup at the bottom.

I hope you enjoy this quick and easy halloween party game!

Halloween Sweets Table

Have you seen this halloween sweets spread by Amy Atlas? If not you should go to her blog to check it out in detail. - http://amyatlas.blogspot.com/2009/09/celebrate-magazine-feature.html I have looked at it about a million times now. I'm going to attempt a version of a halloween sweets table for our halloween party this year. So without further ado here is my first item I'm going to put on our halloween table. It's quick and easy and I think very cute. I'm going to try and stay with the orange, black, and white just like Amy did but I'm going to do different items and a different background. Please check back throughout October as I will be posting my other ideas and eventually my complete sweets table. Let me know if you like this idea or can think of a way to improve it. I took the donut box that I bought the individual wrapped donuts in and wrapped it in orange wrapping paper. I turned the box upside down and stuck dowel rods though it. Then I took white powdered donuts and placed them on the skewers. Then as you can see I topped them with the cutest little peeps Ghosts. I only did one for my prototype but with all the skewers filled in I think it will be very cute for one of my white elements. If you are doing a version of this sweets table please let me know so I can check out your blog.

Halloween Trophy

Why did I buy these trophy's at Goodwill the other day for $.97 cents each? That's what the cashier asked me anyway. LOL! I told her I had a vision for these trophies for my halloween party. Because of some of the weird things I buy at thrift stores I wonder if the cashiers talk about me after I leave? Probably but oh well I'm going to have some fun Best Costume Trophies this year for our halloween party. I had to take these puppies apart quick before DH saw them and said are you insane? Why did you buy trophies at Goodwill? So I quickly unscrewed both trophies after my "before" pic was taken. They came apart very easily. Then I was going to spray paint the body of the trophy but it was pouring the rain so I went with plan B---acrylic paint. It worked o.k. but I think I'll put a spray coat over the top to finish it off. Then I have 2 options I'm going to play with for the top of the trophy. One is I'm going to tear off the arm off the baskeball player and wrap him up like a mummy for the top or I'm going to take a skeleton and a dowel rod and put the skeleton on the top. Check back later to see the end result.

Halloween Photo Op Wall

I saw an idea on StacyClaireBoyd.blogspot.com website. It was so cute I wondered how I could incorporate it into my halloween party. So I went on a hunt to Goodwill, Union Mission, and Salvation Army. I found several wonderful frames(see pic). I then went to Walmart and bought some black spray paint. I plan on getting hubby to get wood or drywall and find some white with black print wallpaper and cutting some holes for the big frames and putting spooky looking pictures in the other frames. I will use this so the kids can take pics together in their halloween costumes. I can't wait to see it all done. This may sound silly but I think I've seen something similar done somewhere but I can not find it anywhere. I might have just dreamed it after I saw Stacy Boyd's version because I'm kind of weird like that!!! :) I'll be sure to post the finished product when I'm done. Total Costs for frames and paint so far $14.00. You can check Stacy's wedding photo wall out here - http://stacyclaireboyd.blogspot.com/2009/07/family-portrait-wall.html