Halloween is coming

and they do it in big style over here, so "when in Rome" I thought I would get into the spirit this year.  Hannah and I have been doing crafts on an almost daily basis to help decorate the house.  There is such a sense of achievement from making decorations oneself rather than just going out a buying some.  We did buy a few but these have inspired me to make some more for future years.  So, I thought I would share some of our craft ideas and hope that we get some feedback and inspiration from your own ideas that you are willing to share with us.

First we made these simple ghosts

Take the bottom of an egg carton and cut out one section.  Cover with glue from a glue stick, something your toddler can help with.  Cover with a large white paper towel and squash the paper towel down over the egg carton to resemble a ghost shape.  Draw a face, I went for a woo face but when I did this craft with a 6 and 3 year old I was babysitting they chose a zombie face.  Then thread some string or thread and put through the head to hang them.

Next we coloured in some bats and hung them from the lamps

The bat template came from the British Swim school website (https://www.britishswimschool.com/) and we just cut them out and let the toddler at them with crayons and pens.                                                                                                                                    

Then we put some bats in our basement                                                                                                        

Fold a sheet of black construction paper in half and cut out a half bat shape, I just did it freehand but I am sure you can find a picture or template somewhere if you are not artistic enough.  Open out and fold the ends of the wings back and hang with thread.                                                                                                                                                                                               

This is one of my favourites.  The idea for it came from the Martha Stewart website with a little add on of my own.                                                                                                                                                                   

White paper, cut out a ghost shape, again I did it freehand but look online for a template.  Cut out and fit to the shape of your mirror.  Draw on the face.  Cut out a speech bubble and write whatever greeting you want.  Stick onto the mirror.                                                                                                                          

Now onto the pumpkins.  We, of course, had to do a traditional Jack O Lantern pumpkin 

                           

                                                                                                    

We then wanted to do something a bit different that Hannah could help with, so we decided to do a Cookie Monster (from Sesame Street) pumpkin.                                                                                                   

 Just cut the top of the pumpkin and scoop out as normal.  Cut a big mouth like a half circle.  Then the whole family helped to paint it blue with acrylic paint. We painted it outside to keep the mess contained as we had a lovely sunny weekend. Two polystyrene balls stuck with cocktail stick for eyes and black marker pen for the irises.  

To finish we are going to have real cookies coming out of the mouth.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Various baby pumpkins with feathers, pipecleaners, stickers, pens, paints, really whatever the two year old can get her hands on.  These are great to keep the toddler occupied for ages at the kitchen table.

To finish I thought I would share one of our purchases decorations.  We have an emply section in our front garden that we have not got round to planting yet.  So I thought it would make the perfect graveyard.  A couple of grave stones later and this is what we have.  See the little skeleton hands clawing their way out of the graves!

Anyway, thanks for reading and please share some of your own craft ideas for us to try.

Next stop Thanksgiving and Christmas!!