Halloween Stuff...

It has been crazy busy this month.  My house is not decorated for Halloween.  Muffin Tin Monday has been no existant in our house.  We have not been crafting lately.  I can hardly stay on top of dishes & laundry as it is.  I am sorry for my lack of posting, but I am sure that things will settle down & I will be back shortly.  I do have a few ideas floating around in my head.  But, I will leave you with a few past Halloween posts....

Spookley Square Pumpkin

A Monster For Your Monster

Pumpkin Garland

Paper Plate Mummies

Tissue Ghost

Is It Halloween Yet

 Paper Plate Spider

Five Little Pumpkins

Egg Carton Spiders

Egg Carton Bats

Egg Carton Pumpkins

Ooooooooo...Muffin Tin Monday

Today's Muffin Tin Monday theme is Halloween/Fall. I have to admit...I got carried away! I found so many fun ideas that I couldn't choose...so I used all of them! We had a FUN lunch!



Top Row: witch hat (crescent roll w/ cinnamon & sugar), witches finger (string cheese & airhead finger nail), Frankenstein brownie (recipe linked a few posts down)

Bottom Row: witches broom (pretzel sticks & fruit roll up), Ogar's Q-tips (marshmallow/sucker sticks/PB), Mummy (hot dog wrapped in a crescent roll), ghosts (strawberries dipped in white chocolate), & spiders (olives)

AND...



Hot chocolate with eye balls (mini mallows & mini chocolate chips)

The boys LOVED this one. Kaden laughed & laughed about the Ogar's Q-tips. It was so gross that I knew the boys would appreciate it. I gave them honey butter to dip their witch's hat in. Yum! We may have to repeat a few things this week to keep it festive!

Check out other muffin tins at:

Spookley the Square Pumpkin

We read Spookley the Square Pumpkin today, so we made our own Spookleys. We talked about the pumpkins & their shapes & why Spookley is different.

A Monster for your Monster

I saw these cute brownies over at CONTROLLING MY CHAOS. I made mine with mint frosting & a chocolate ganache. I posted the directions on my other blog...SIMPLY COMPLICATED.

Pumpkin Garland

We were watching Pooh's Heffalump Halloween movie & I noticed that there were some really cute simple pumpkin & ghost garlands. I felt inspired! I used a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter to trace the shape. Kaden {5 yrs old} cut out his own pumpkin. I helped Preston {3 yrs old} cut his out. Then, I cut out a few extras.



We cut out triangles & circles for the eyes & nose. Then we cut out mouths. Preston only wanted mean mouths! Then they glued them on.



Once they were dry I glued them onto a string. I did ours double sided because it is in a walkway between the kitchen & family room. The boys were so excited to show their Daddy! I love having their decorations around the house. It makes me happy!



I am linking to Friday Showcase. Check out the other great ideas by clicking on the button.

Paper Plate Mummies

With Kaden having short day on Wednesdays...it is a good day to do a craft. Today we made mummies. Almost every night the boys want to read Where's My Mummy?



Here is what you need:



black paint
paint brush
paper plate
large google eyes
glue
glue dots (or you could just use glue)
white paper
newspaper (to keep the table clean)

Paint the backside of the paper plate black.



Once it is painted...set the plate aside to dry.



While your plate is drying...tear your white paper into strips.



Using the glue dots (or just glue) stick the eyes onto the plate.



We put glue all over the plate to start with. That way we had a good start to stick the papers on (& for the most part I could control the mess a bit).



Start to place the strips onto your plate. As you layer, you will need to add some more glue.



It doesn't matter if the paper goes off of the plate. I just trimmed it down after they were done.



Here is the finished product.



I am linking to Friday Showcase. Check out the other great ideas by clicking on the button.

Tissue Ghost

Preston's preschool class made these cute little tissue ghosts today & I just had to copy! We could really use some ghosts! They are so easy! I made a practice one in less than a minute! I took step by step pictures, but my camera or card malfunctioned & gave me corrupt files...so you only get the finished product. Isn't it cute though?



Here is what you need:

a small paper cup (dixie)
tissue or napkin
black marker
string or fishing line
scissors
glue

Put a thin layer of glue on the bottom of your cup. Place the tissue (or napkin) over the glue...center it the best you can. Draw a ghost face on your tissue. Poke a small hole in the top & thread your string through. Tada!!!! You have a stinkin' cute ghost!

I linked up to Showcase Friday. There are other fun links...so check it out!

Is it Halloween yet?

"Is it Halloween yet?" Are you sick of hearing that yet? I have to admit that I am. Everyday Preston (3 years old) asks if it is Halloween. I am not really looking forward to hearing that for the next 22 days. Don't get me wrong...I am excited too! Today the boys decided to make a Halloween Countdown. I was all for it!!! Preston has been VERY interested in my paper cutter (for scrapbooking). I measured out the paper & they cut it. Then, they went crazy making the links. Normally, I would have "led" the kids to make a pattern, but I have been working on letting them do their own thing. It is getting easier with each project!



I used a sign from the dollar store & hung the chain from it. We hung it on their door because it needed a little decor. The boys are so happy!!

Paper Plate Spider

As I mentioned below...Kaden had a friend come over after school. I needed a quick and easy craft to do with 2 five year olds & a three year old. This was PERFECT!! There are a few different variations on the internet. I wasn't as organized with my pictures as usual, but you get the idea.

You will need:

paper plates (one per spider)
eight strips of paper (cut your paper length wise)
large google eyes (2 per spider)
string (if you want to hang it up)
glue
crayons & markers

Turn your plate upside down & color the top.



Accordion fold the strips of paper & glue to the underside of the plate. (The side that you didn't color.)



Glue on your google eyes onto the colored side of your plate. I poked a hole in the middle of the plate & strung a string through it. The boys wanted to hang it from their beds.

Five Little Pumpkins

I was going through my Halloween decorations & came across The Five Little Pumpkins book. I also found some Jack-O-Latern fun foam that we used to make magnets last year. I had exactly enough pumpkin shapes left to make puppets to go along with the Five Little Pumpkins poem (or story). My shapes were already precut to make Jack-O-Lanterns. I bought it at Joann's last year...they might have something like it this year. You could also just cut your own shapes out of construction paper or fun foam.

Here is what you need:



I have include the poem at the bottom of the post so that you have it to go with the puppets.

Have your little ones assemble their Jack-O-Lanterns however they want. We did 5 for each kid to go with the poem.




Take your popsicle stick & put glue just on the top of the stick. Place your pumpkin face up onto the glue part of the stick. Let it dry.






Once they are dry...do a puppet show & have fun!



Here is the poem:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care!"
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun."
Oooooooooooooooooo went the wind and out went the light.
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Egg Carton Spiders

Today we made some egg carton spiders. They are the easiest of our egg carton friends (we made bats & pumpkins too). Here is what you need:



egg carton
black paint
paint brush
black pipe cleaners
google eyes
glue
scissors (not pictured)
string/fishing line (optional/not pictured)

Cut egg cups off of carton. You will need 1 per spider (we made 2 spiders). Paint outside of carton cup with black paint & let dry.


Once the paint has dried...poke 8 holes along the rim of the cup for the spider's legs. Four on each side. (I also poked a hole at the top because I wanted to hang the spiders from string.)


Glue the google eyes onto your spider & let them dry. Excuse the white all over the spider...we had a little one go a bit crazy for the glue!



Cut your pipe cleaner into 4 inch pieces. You will need 8 4-inch pipe cleaner strips per spider. After your eyes have dried on...stick one pipe cleaner piece into each hole. The picture is bad...sorry, but I love his little fingers. I had the twist & bend them a bit inside of the spider so that the pipe cleaners didn't fall out. A little loop at the end did the job.



Bend the pipe cleaners a bit to make it look more like legs. I just used some string that I had left over & hung them up.

Here is the finished product! I hung them up in the boys' room. How fun for them to have their very own homemade Halloween decorations in their room.

Egg Carton Bats

With both boys out of school for UEA/Fall Break, I decided to get some more crafting done. We made our bats & spiders at the same time, but I am going to split up the directions.

Here is what you need:



egg carton
black paint
paint brush
glue
google eyes
string
scissors (not pictured)


You need three egg carton cups still attached together. The middle will be the bat's body. The edges will be the wings. Trim the outside to resemble bat wings.



Paint the entire thing black. Let it dry. You may want to paint the inside, but we were tired of painting by then!


Poke a hole in the top center egg cup (this will be where the string comes through).



Glue on the google eyes & let them dry.



Hang your bat from a string & there you have it!