Halloween Felt Ghouls: Last Minute Easy Craft

I was sitting here yesterday trying to decide what would be the easiest, least expensive, last minute Halloween craft. At first I was going to use construction paper, and you certainly could, but I really like felt so much better.

These are such cute little ghouls and they can literally be made in a few short minutes! So if you need a last minute craft for the kids, or just want something that can be made during a Halloween party, try these little guys on for size.

Oh, and they double as finger puppets too!


Last Minute Felt Ghouls for Halloween

you will need

felt: orange, white, purple, red, green or black
hot glue gun
black felt for eyes and mouths
felt glue
scissors
white paint pen or white craft paint
paintbrush (you only need the handle end, so a pencil eraser could work too)

What you do

You can precut shapes so that the kids can just roll them up and trim, or give them half sheets of felt and let them roll them up themselves and then trim them. If you cut them first, just cut out a fan shape, then roll. Secure the cone shape with hot glue. You can use felt glue, but they will take longer to dry and you will have to hold them closed while they do, thus adding time to the craft.

Trim the bottoms so that your cones stand up by themselves.

Cut out simple eyes and mouths from black felt and use felt glue to adhere them to your ghouls.

Dip the handle end of a paintbrush into white paint and dot on some eyes if you like. You can also use a paint pen. Let dry.

That's it, you're done! Happy Halloween!

For a text only (no craft photos or commentary) printer friendly version of this craft project, click here

Bleeding Place Cards for your Halloween Party

If you are hosting a Halloween party for kids, especially kids 5th grade and up, they are really going to love these place cards. They are quite simple, kids will just need a little patience to allow the paint to dry, so be sure to start very early in the day or even a day ahead. I've even included a couple of fun Halloween type fonts that you can choose from. If you have one on your own computer, by all means use that. :)

Bleeding Place Cards

you will need

foam stamps (spider, bat, etc)
5"x7" card stock, one for each place card
acrylic craft paint: black, white, yellow, red
pencil or pen
2 black Sharpies, one fine and one medium point
Halloween letters

What you do

Fold the card stock in half lengthwise, crease neatly. Choose a foam stamp for your place card.

Coat it generously with black paint.

Press it, paint side down, onto one of the upper corners of your place card. To remove, lift straight up so that you don't smear any paint. You will need to let this dry before moving on to the next step.

Print out these fonts, enlarge them on your printer if needed. You can either cut out the letters that you need, or just move the paper around as needed. I recommend cutting them out. Place the lettered paper over your place card and position them where you want them to appear on the card. Use a pen or pencil to trace around the letters.

This will create an indent in the card underneath. Now use your fine tip Sharpie to trace the indented lines. Use the medium point Sharpie to fill in the letters.

Now you will need to check the consistency of your paint. In my experience, most acrylic paints are at good consistency when new but will begin to thicken as they get older. To test your paint, put some in a paint palette and dip your paintbrush in. Pull the brush out and hold it up. Most paints will be thick enough that it will not drip off the brush. You want it a little thinner, as you do want it to drip, but not quickly. Thin the paint with a little water and keep testing until the paint slowly drips off the brush.

Stand the place card up on its ends and place a heavy drop of red paint at the crease, leaning toward the front of the card. If it doesn't drip, just add a little bit more onto the first drop until it begins to drip down the front of the card. Repeat until you have the affect that you want.

When the drips are all dry, this will take several hours, you can use a toothpick to add eyes to you card's creatures.

See? Easy peasy!

For a text only (no craft photos or commentary) printer friendly version of this craft project, click here

Halloween Eyeball Pin

I know I seem to be blasting everyone with Halloween crafts today, but I just realized the big day is is this weekend and I don't have all these posted yet! So many ideas, so little time. :-/ These fun eyeball pins make great gifts for friends, teachers, or Halloween party guests. Make a whole bunch at once and hand out at the door as guests arrive.

To simplify things, use those round sponge stampers to add the eyeball instead of having to freehand it. I'm a freehand kind of gal, so I often have to remind myself to include those types of tips. After painting my wood circle white and letting it dry, I used a Sharpie to draw the center circle which I then filled with blue paint.

Eyeball Pins

you will need

2" wood circle
acrylic craft paint: white, black, blue, red
toothpick or red thin tip marker
black Sharpie marker
acrylic sealer or glaze
pin backing
white craft glue or hot glue

What you do

Paint the wood circle white and let it dry.

Use Sharpie to draw a circle in the center then paint that blue, leaving the black outline around the blue. Paint a small black circle in the center of the blue one. Paint (with a toothpick dipped in red paint) bloodshot lines, or use a red thin tipped marker. Let everything dry and spray it with sealer. After the sealer has dried, glue the pin back to the back of the eyeball.

For a text only (no craft photos or commentary) printer friendly version of this craft project, click here

Craft Stick Mummies (and Ninjas??)

So I fully intended to make and post these super easy craft stick mummies that make a great classroom or party craft. They're fast, use very few supplies, and don't involve anything intricate. Kids love them, and they are cute. Couldn't ask for too much more :)

But if you know me, I like color. 

White is so BORING, so I thought I would play around with my mummies today and add a little color. I'm thinking it probably would have been better to stick with purple or orange, but I chose pink and black. Why? Well, I was actually thinking along the lines of a "girl" mummy for the pink and then the black I just thought would look cool...

I'm not really sure what to think of these. I think they look like Ninjas. Hmm. Would be great for a ninja birthday party huh? Anyone having one of those soon? He he. Oh well, they're cute, they're easy, what's not to like. ;)

Craft Stick Mummies

You will need

jumbo craft sticks
felt, cut into 1/2 strips
2 small wiggle eyes
felt glue or a hot glue gun

Note: If you use hot glue, remember it's best for grown ups or older, more experienced kids to handle this. Hot glue is much faster, but it can definitely be done with felt glue. For this project I wouldn't recommend white craft glue because it soaks right through felt.

What you do

Glue wiggle eyes to the craft stick. Glue strips of felt around the craft stick, just don't cover up the eyes. Each time you come to the end of a strip of felt, stop it in the back of the stick and glue in place, trim if needed. This keeps all the odd cut bits at the back. ;)

Glue one last strip of felt to the back of the mummy and wrap it around the front as arms. Cross the arms and glue together, trim ends.

That's it, you're done!

To make this craft into a kit, drop a craft stick, two eyes and several strips of felt into a sandwich bag. Print instructions and tape to the front of the bag, or fold them and place them inside.

Would be fun at a party to stick the mummy craft kit into the Monster Treat Bags!

For a text only (no recipe photos or commentary) printer friendly version of this craft project, click here

Halloween Monster Treat Bags

I'm kind of on a monster kick this week. Halloween is almost here and I'm actually kind of bummed that it'll be over in a few days. Monster crafts are such fun, they allow you and your kids to be so creative! These treat bags are no exception.

Before I give you the instructions, here are some tips on adjusting them for time, ease of preparation, and/or age of your child.

AMANDA'S TIPS

1) Because the paint takes a little while to dry, you can either buy already colored bags, use white bags, or just skip the color all together. Another option is to paint them ahead of time.

2) I used construction paper for the facial features. You can certainly paint yours on, but that means more drying time. You an also use felt or craft foam.

3) The supplies I used to make these bags are generally things that most moms that craft with their kids will already have on hand. If you don't have any of these items, they are inexpensive and can be found at discount department stores such as WalMart or Kmart.

4) I used a glue stick for this project because it doesn't leave lumps and bumps under the construction paper like liquid glue can. You can certainly use white craft glue or school glue for this, just smooth it out with your finger before pressing the item onto the bag.

5) I used a glaze coat on these because paint not only looks dull, but does run the risk of being scraped off. It's optional though, and certainly not necessary for the finished product.



There are printable instructions here

THE INSTRUCTIONS

You will need

brown paper lunch bag
construction paper
glue stick
scissors
black marker
acrylic craft paint
spray glaze or acrylic sealer (optional)

What you do

Paint bag whatever color you like. Stand them up and let then dry. Add another coat and let dry again.

While bag is drying, cut facial features out of construction paper. You can use your imagination to make some fun eyes, mouths, and hair, or use the pattern I've created here.

Cut polka dots, squares, stripes, or any other type of decoration you would like to use for your monster.

Using your glue stick, decorate the bag using the stripes, squares, or polka dots. Be sure to cover the entire piece of construction paper with glue before pressing on to the bag so that none of the corners stick up.

Fold down the top of the bag so that you don't accidentally glue your facial features too high.

Use a glue stick to put facial features together before gluing them to the bag. For example, glue the blacks of the eyes to the whites, glue teeth to mouth, etc. Next, glue the facial features to the bag. Use a marker to add thin eyebrows.

Let everything dry, then if you like, add a coat of sealer spray. Let dry again and fill with treats. You can punch a hole through the top of the bag and tie with ribbon if you like.

Click here for a photo-free printable version

Juice Box Monsters

I've been meaning to make these guys for quite a while now.

Every time I pull out my craft supplies to make something, those empty juice boxes just keep staring at me. With Halloween almost here, I was running out of time, so I made them this morning.

There are endless possibilities with these guys, limited only to your imagination.

You will need

juice boxes
rice (or anything to give your monsters some weight so they will stand up)
zipper sandwich bags
tape
felt
scissors
hot glue or felt glue

The first thing you'll want to do is cut open the top of the juice box. Put some rice into a sandwich baggie, squeeze out the air and seal it. I didn't measure, just poured some in, but I would guess around 1/2 cup. Put the rice bag inside the juice box and reseal the top with tape.

Next, line the bottom of the juice box up with the bottom of the felt. Glue the felt around the juice box, leaving the bottom open so that it can stand well.

For the dude with the big tube on his head, you'll want to wrap something around the top, I used chenille and trimmed the ends.

Another option is to fringe some hair first, before gluing the felt around the box. You can see I added a rectangle of felt to the top of the box since the hair won't cover the top on this one.

Now you are ready to add facial features. :)

Cut out some teeth, fangs, polka dots, stripes, whatever strikes your fancy and glue them to the boxes.

That's it! You're done! :)

Halloween Painted Jar Luminaries

This isn't the first time I've made luminaries for Halloween. Several years ago I made these painted Ghost Luminaries which are posted on FamilyCorner, these decoupaged Pumpkin Luminaries and this Candy Corn luminary which are both posted on Disney's Kaboose. Today I made some colorful luminaries inspired by the ones I saw on this cute blog called Not So Idle Hands. While Emily uses the decoupage method with strips of tissue paper, I opted for what I believe to be an easier, faster and less expensive method... paint.

Aside from the new luminaries I made (which I describe below), I also spruced up my others after unpacking my Halloween boxes. You see, hubby had the heat up so high today, and sometimes I swear I'm experiencing early menopause, that I just had to get out of the house. So I hit the garage. Hence unpacking Halloween boxes and doing this project.

To spruce up the Pumpkin Luminaries, which are decoupaged orange material, I used a damp rag to wipe them down, then I painted the yellow facial features black. Not sure what I was thinking when I did them yellow originally! Then I sprayed them with glaze.

You can see that the white ghost luminaries have been around for quite a few years. They are nicked and scratched, and I have lost several over the years to breakage, but these are still holding up. Each year I wipe them down and add another coat of glaze.

Over the summer I bought a couple of boxes of canning jars with the intention of canning. Well that didn't happen. So I opened a box, went inside and grabbed my acrylic craft paint, paintbrushes, and a dish of water and went to work.

One layer of acrylic craft paint was enough for these, but you can add another if you like.

Just be careful if you do, glass is picky about being painted and will peel if you don't allow the first layer to dry completely. Anyway, one layer gives you a nice rustic look, which I prefer, and you don't have to wait forever. ;)

You can make stencils out of cardboard cereal boxes like Emily did, she was even nice enough to post this pattern for her faces. I like to freehand my stuff, so that's what I did.

On a few I used a Sharpie marker to draw on the face, then I simply painted the facial features with black paint.

See that red guy on the right with the triangle eyes and the square mouth? He didn't make it. :( When I came back to see how they were doing a few hours after I sprayed them, he had somehow fallen off the edge and broke.

I painted the jar rims with black paint. Then let them all dry for about half an hour. Spray with glaze, I use two coats. Let dry for several hours.

After they've dried for several hours, you can have some fun displaying them. I use tea lights, I light them with a wooden skewer. I find it easiest to take a votive candle outside with me, light the skewer off the candle, then light the tea light inside the jar.

Warning - lots of pictures! I couldn't decide on my faves :)

Monster Light Jug craft

This is a really cute project for Halloween and it looks really cool lit up at night. Fill the completed jug with water then place a large flashlight or camp light behind it.

The light will shine through and create a really cool effect that kids will love.

To get the instructions, click here

Paper Bag Scarecrow craft

I always love to hear when someone (especially a child) has successfully made one of my craft projects. I received this email from a food blogger friend of mine, Katrina of Baking and Boys, the other day:

"Imagine my surprise when picking my sons up from cub/boy scouts at our church last night and after seeing some 8-11 year old girls with the cutest scarecrows they had just made. I decided they were so cute I'd try to find them online and make them with a couple of my sons. Lo and behold, I found them and guess who the creator is? Hmmm?


It's you! We'll be trying to make them soon! So cute!


Katrina"

Thanks Katrina! That made my day. Even though I make tons of craft projects I don't always get the feedback. So needless to say, this was very fun for me. :)

Well Katrina made it even more fun - her cute boys made the scarecrows and she sent me pictures. Aren't they just adorable (the kids and their crafts!)?!

"Taylor, Sam and I (okay, Sam didn't really help much, he's only 2), but Taylor--6 on Monday and I made two scarecrows yesterday. Cute as can be and quite simple. Taylor's is the one on the bottom of the one picture, he really did do most of the cutting and all the pen drawing and did a great job. He did all the gluing (of course, the the funnest part, right.)

Thanks for the fun ideas!


Katrina"

Thanks so much Katrina, Taylor and Sam for sharing these with me, I love them!

If you would like the instructions for The Paper Bag Scarecrow (<<-click the link) you can find them on Kaboose.