Handprint Bats

 

Here's a quick Halloween craft you can do with your kids...handprint bats! You can have different sized bats if parents and kids all participate.

1. Trace and cut out two of your child's (or your own) handprints. We did purple construction paper for some more color contrast.
2. Cut out:
1. A purple oval and a smaller black oval.
2. A purple circle for the head.
3. Two purple triangles.
4. Two little feet.
3. Glue the handprints to the purple oval, and attach all of the other shapes.
4. Add on some googly eyes, and draw on a little mouth. We used chalkboard markers, but any marker will work.
5. Hang your cute little creation upside down and admire your work.

Thank you Simple Everyday Mom for the cute idea!

Gratitude Wheel (free PDF)

 I was looking online for Thanksgiving/gratitude crafts for my kids to do during Thanksgiving break (since they are losing interest in our gratitude tree that we've done for several years) and found the idea to order Thankful Wheels or Gratitude Wheels. I wasn't sure if they would get here in time and spent way too much time designing my own with my limited photo shopping skills and thought I would share it here for anyone else who needs something to entertain their kids during Thanksgiving break...

Leaf Letters

Here's a fun way to work on letter recognition with toddlers while using nature...Leaf Letters!

Five Little "Thumbkin" craft

Fall is one of the funnest times to do crafts with kids...the possibilities are endless! Have your kids make a Five Little Thumbkin craft, and the plus side is that it's so easy to customize to your kids' age and ability level.

Reclaimed wood "Hello Pumpkin" sign

Our neighbor recently replaced their wooden fence with a stone one, so now I have all of this old wood to try out projects with. One of my favorite lately is this reclaimed wood "Hello Pumpkin" sign that I made:

I free-handed a pumpkin on the wood and used a jig saw to cut it out.

Part of the wood had started to split so I reinforced it on the back with a thin piece of wood. I used a scrap of wood and screwed it on the back for the stem. I lightly sanded the pieces of wood, but wanted some of the grooves/ridges for character.

I painted the pumpkin orange, then added dark orange and light orange.

Then I free-handed the letters "hello pumpkin".

I sprayed the whole thing with clear spray paint to protect it and stapled rope to the back to hang it up.

Voila!

Thank you to this pin and this pin for inspiration! I'm linking up to What I Made Monday, Domestically Speaking,  All About Home Link Party, Project Inspired Link Party,

Cheesecloth Ghost without Starch

I love the cute cheesecloth ghosts that everyone makes, but most of the tutorials I read required using starch to give the ghosts their shape. I didn't have starch on hand, so I was thrilled when I found a different technique that uses corn starch (which is still probably technically starch, but not the stinky spray kind)!

I found the idea at Love and Laundry...and I'm so glad I did. My kids had a blast making these ghosts.

Fall Craft: Q-Tip Fall Tree

My 3 year old loves craft time! The other day we painted fall trees with Q-tips, and she begged to paint more and more.

I love using Q-tips as paint brushes because they are super cheap, and when cut in half, they are the perfect size for little hands to hold.

Couple/Maternity Costume: Peanuts

Last year, my husband and I featured my pregnant belly in our costumes for Halloween...we dressed as part of the Peanuts gang:

For my husband, I turned a yellow shirt he had inside out and basted on some black fabric to make the zig-zag of Charlie Brown's shirt. He wore black short, long socks, a ball-cap and a baseball glove to complete his ensemble. A simple Charlie Brown costume.

For myself, I found a white maternity shirt, and quickly sewed on some eyes, ears, and a black pom-pom that I made out of yarn for Snoopy's nose. Our costumes were done within an hour and hardly cost us anything! A simple maternity costume. After Halloween, I took all the pieces off our shirts and we got to keep wearing them :).

Now to figure out what we're wearing this year...

Here's where I found my Snoopy inspiration. Here's how to make a pom-pom. I'll be linking up to Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie.

Easy Fall Decor: Pumpkins

I love decor that is easy, affordable and versatile. These pumpkins are made from construction paper and chenille stems! Plus they're easy to make, and kids can make them with you.

Another bonus is that they work for the entire fall season.
Thank you Apartment Therapy for the cute idea and instructions. I linked up to Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie.

Pumpkin Carving Tip

If you're carving pumpkins in the near future, be sure to pull out your ice cream scoop! Ours worked perfectly to pull the string goop away from the pumpkin when I was cooking one last year and I'm sure it will work perfectly for carving jack-o-lanterns too!

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Last weekend my church had their annual trunk-or-treat and I was in a hurry to come up with a festive dessert to take. When I found Candy Corn Cupcakes, I knew I had to make them...because who doesn't love candy corn?!

They were so easy to make and they turned out so cute! All you have to do is:

Acorn Jack-o-Lanterns

Here's a fun little craft to do with your kids in preparation for Halloween...Acorn Jack-o-Lanterns!

My boys gathered acorns from our front yard, painted them orange, and we had fun painting several different faces on them.

Happy Halloween!
Thanks Red Ted Art for the fun idea. I’ll be linking up to Making Your Home Sing Sunday, Mama Moments Monday,  Mom’s Library, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, The Mommy Club,

Gratitude Tree

We’ve done gratitude trees in the past (2010, and 2012), but I was still surprised at how adamant my boys were about making gratitude trees this year…they both wanted to make their own so we have two trees reminding us of all of our blessings this Thanksgiving season…
This year, we put the scripture Psalms 107:1 on a paper inside the vase: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

Super simple to make, and a great physical way to take note of everything we have to be grateful for. So far this year, my boys are grateful for: parents, Duke (the dog), Jesus, Holy Ghost, God, family, the sun, earth and moon, mom, dad, brothers, and friends.

One of my favorite parts of these trees is that as the trees outside grow bare, and everything seems to die, our little trees grow with blessings and become full.

I’ll be linking up to: Works For Me Wednesday,  Mom’s Library, Let's Hear it For the Boy! Clever Chicks Blog Hop,Share it Saturday, Fine Craft Guild, Share Wednesdays, TGIF. Kids Get Crafty, The Mommy Club

Fall Leaf Lanterns

Here’s a quick, fun craft to help you and your little ones celebrate the beautiful leaves falling all around, similar to our leaf placemats and inspired by Red Ted Art. Cute leaf lanterns can help make dinner a little more fun or would be nice to just sit by on a cool fall night. I will say, always make sure the lanterns are supervised, especially with little ones around! But, here’s what you need to make your own lanterns:

Candy Corn Earrings from a Paperclip

I’ve been meaning to make a candy corn version of my heart earrings for…over a year (ahem)…and finally got it done!

Stained Glass Leaves

Inspired by the stained glass hearts we made forever ago, I decided to get into the fall spirit with my boys by making stained glass leaves…

All you have to do is have your little ones sharpen several fall colored crayons and keep the shavings…

Bottle Cap Turkeys

This isn’t what it looks like…I swear! My husband loves fancy sodas in glass bottles and usually gets some for his birthday each year. I’ve been saving bottle caps for quite a while and am now finally working through the stash :).

These little turkeys would be so cute on goodie plates or thank-you gifts for friends or teachers. They would also look darling on napkin rings at your Thanksgiving table!

The best part about these cute little turkeys is that you can use a variety of materials for the tail feathers, which means just about anyone can make these if they have a few bottle caps lying around. All you need is some paint, hot glue and tail feathers (leaves, feathers, ribbon, construction paper, whatever!). I made these with my 4 year old and it was a fun bonding time while his little brother slept.

I’m linking up to What Are Little Boys Made Of? Thanksgiving Ideas Link Party, Making it With Allie, Get Your Brag On, Crafty Soiree, Show Off Your Stuff, 3 Boys and a Dog, Fun Stuff Fridays, Thanksgiving Traditions, and Strut Your Stuff.

Festive Lamp Shade

Ummm, you may or may not have noticed my new header, but that’s a little bit of my lampshade up there! And I love it…I have seriously never been so happy about this ugly lamp, but now, my friends, I can dress it up just a little bit, for practically nothing. Right now, we are all about fall and so is our lamp :)

All you have to do is print out some leaf templates and cut out a bunch of plain white leaves. Tape them to the inside of your lampshade and every night when you turn the lamp on, you are a little more festive!

This is a great activity for older kids to help with, whether they are cutting the leaves out or taping them on randomly. Or, even younger kids can help if you can stand some imperfections in your leaves :).

I’m linking up to Family Time Tuesday, Works for Me Wednesday, Mommy Club, and Kids Get Crafty.

Pinecone Golf

My 4 year old actually called me outside the other day to show me his new game and I thought it was a fun, creative variation on golf…just perfect for fall. And all you need is a long stick and a pinecone!
There are so many variations you could do with this…croquet, tee-ball, etc. It would be so fun to add holes or goals to hit the pinecone into.

I’m linking up to Works for Me Wednesday, What are Little Boys Made of?, Kids Get Crafty, and Preschool Corner Friday.

Fall Leaves Placemat

The leaves are finally starting to fall here and though so far they are only yellow and brown I am seeing promise of more vibrant colors soon. To celebrate, we made placemats out of leaves and they actually lasted a couple of days at the dinner table :).

All you need are some beautiful fall leaves to press, wax paper and an iron…to learn how to make your own, click here.

I’m linking up to Family Time Tuesday.