Halloween 2012

Hope you had a great Halloween! This is me with my #4 boy.  Long before blogging, I made the costume he is wearing, from a regular t-shirt, for my first baby boy. Almost all of my four boys have worn this. We had a few astronauts, a pirate, and this little pumpkin! Notice the car in his hand. Like all my boys...he just can't put it down. Loves cars!  Hope you had a great time with your family!

Thanks for reading!

Crafting with Kids: Puffy Ghost {using shaving cream paint}

 I know Halloween is in a few days, but I'm going to attempt to finish posting the fun Halloween stuff we have done this month...in a few days. These ghosts were so much fun! We made these using paint we made mixing shaving cream and Elmer's Glue.

 PUFFY PAINT GHOST USING SHAVING CREAM:
You need:
Heavy paper (we used grocery bags)
3 parts shaving cream to one part Elmer's school glue (just regular glue)
**or measure 3/4 cup shaving cream and 1/4 cup glue - I did not measure- just looked at it and judged the amount and it worked fine.
Sponge brushes
Mix the glue and shaving cream. Apply to ghost shape. You can add eyes and mouth at that time and most of them will stick. A few will not stick and will need to be glued on later.
Allow to dry all the way. Your ghosts will be smooth and velvety soft!

 

 

This was so fun- a little messy- but it is mostly shaving cream-so it washes up very easily. When these are dry they are so so soft!  Have Fun!

Trick or Treat Burlap Banner

 I made this little trick-or-treat bunting a few weeks ago. After looking through magazines and pinterest, I had a vision of having a little black and white bunting for Halloween. I had the black burlap already, and the white paint. I cut out the shape I wanted, stamped the letters using the white paint, and darkened them with more paint, hot glued them to some baker's twine, and that was it! The candy corn bunting- I'm sure you have seen everywhere- was made with burlap also. I'll share that one later.

It makes a nice addition hanging above our shelves, which contain many Halloween decorations.
Easy peasy, very cheap, and  great little decoration-- that is my favorite kind!

Happy Halloween!

DIY Halloween Decor using Burlap and Wood Blocks

 Here is a little project I did this weekend. Super easy. I used things we already had-- making this project FREE! I had wood in the garage, burlap in my craft room closet, and some acrylic paint.
I had my sweet husband cut some wood for me first.

 After painting I just free handed the faces and burlap cutting. I'm sure it could look a little nicer, if I used a stencil or something..... Everything was put together with hot glue.

 Owl- is covered in brown burlap. The beak is a small piece of craft wood cut into a triangle.
Ghost- easy- just painted black circles on the white painted block of wood.
Witch-black burlap hair and hat. The hat is stuffed w/ black burlap and glued together. The nose is a piece of wood from a tree. Ric-rac added for more color.

 Frank- hair was painted black, then covered with black burlap pieces.
Mummy-painted white, then covered with burlap- that I painted white- but you can buy burlap in white too.
Jack- the stem is from a tree, and ribbon and ric-rac added to stem.

My kids love these! So I guess it was a success! I like having a fun decoration- we made and that cost  almost nothing.

Happy  Fall!

DIY Halloween Wreath & a fun photo

Finally I finished this little wreath. Last year I had all the supplies to make this and just never got around to making it. Yep, that is how it is sometimes.

 Here is what I did:

Foam Wreath (4.50 at Walmart)
Socks from Dollar Store
Old Wood/vinyl sign
Small broom from Target 2.50
Cardboard
Fabric Scraps
Baker's Twine
black yarn
black pipecleaner
googley eyes
First, I cut off the feet of the socks and thread the foam wreath through them. I cut an opening in the wreath so I could do this. I hot glued the ends in place. Next, I drew a shoe pattern on some cardboard and cut it out. I covered it with some black scrap fabric, and cut gold buckles from felt.
The wooden sign would not really stay attached to the broom and the wreath- since it was kind of heavy. So here comes the Baker's Twine. Let's pretend it is a cobweb....so it can hold everything in place better! Since it is a cobweb, I made a small spider using the same twine and some black yarn, added pipecleaner legs, and googley eyes. (Or maybe my 5 year old made the spider....since it kind of looks that way.:))  With the fabric scraps I made a tassle, and added a big fat fabric scrap to hang it up on .

 It's fun, it is different, and it was pretty easy. I'm not a big wreath making girl, so I was happy with it.

And I'll probably keep it inside for now....

 

 And just because you were nice enough to check in and read this post, I'll share my sweet little guy's current hair- do with you. It is really long, and rather mullet like- but I shall not cut it just yet. Cutting my baby's hair has always been a sign that my baby is growing up way too fast...so I put it off as long as possible.  It hangs in his face- and I have already cut the front just so he could see, but it is still very very long. He is oh so darling, and quite the little dude. I just love this little guy.

Thanks for reading! And Happy October!

Featured on PBS website

Today one of my original Halloween crafts is featured on the PBS parents website.

If is a fun one! Enjoy!

Nine Halloween Crafts & Activities for Kids

Here are a few of the fun Halloween Crafts from the Archives of My Little Gems. Most of these cost less than a dollar, and the kids will have a ton of fun!
 1. Frankenstein Feet
2. Pipecleaner Pumpkins
3. 5 Little Ghosts Story
4. Glow-in-the-dark Spiders
5. Cardboard Tube Creatures
6. Silly Little Bats
7. Pipecleaner Skeletons & Stories
8. Lego-Jack Game
9. Halloween I-Spy Search-n-Find Tub

Lego Jack on a Ledge {A Halloween Game}

I made up a fun little Lego Halloween Game you can play with your kids! Whoot whoot!  My kids are loving it, and I am loving it too! It makes me happy to think up something original for my kids that they love-especially since I feel like Pinterest has zapped my creativity.{Anyone else feel like that- seeing all that creativity makes me feel very uncreative....} Well I think I might still have a little bit left...somewhere. Anyway...so this is a fun game you can play all month long- using a Lego Jack-O-Lantern that you make. {Think a little bit of Elf-on-a-Shelf- but for Halloween} instructions below 

Here is how you play:

Lego Jack on a Ledge {A Halloween Game}
1. Build a Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin from your legos. Make sure the mouth is made of small enough pieces so that they can be moved. We used legos that were 1x2 or 1x3 for the mouth.
2. Hide Lego Jack on a ledge somewhere in the house- we put it in plain sight- not hidden out of sight.
3. Each morning the children look for Lego Jack. The person who finds him gets to change his mouth to a different shape. (see photos above)
4. Hide Lego Jack again and do it the next day.
The kids LOVE this game! It is really fun because they get a kick out of getting to change the mouth shape! Plus - they can really come up with some great shapes!

Happy Halloween!
p.s....this is my 900th post! Is anyone still reading this blog? Blogging isn't what it used to be... I miss that time-back when it was a lot more interactive-with comments, connecting with other bloggers, etc. Now if I want to do that, it is like having another job. Well I'm still here. And I'm still trying to post a little. So thanks- Thanks for reading this little blog. And especially thanks to those who have left kind supportive comments over the past 900 posts!

Happy Halloween!

I am pooped out. I don't know how you all do it. It wears me out just getting these 4 into their costumes.

We have had a busy week full of Halloween activities in preschool, and on the homefront. And Halloween isn't until tomorrow! Hope everyone has a fun and safe time!

I'll be back later this week with 2 give-a-ways to gear us up for Christmas! yay!

Thanks for reading! oxoxo

DIY Gigantic Candy Corn Decor

 Maybe you have seen this before, but I had not. So I had to make one. My friend had a ghost made this way, that lights up. So I thought candy corns would be kind of fun. I bought some cheap fleece fabric from Walmart....and cut and sewed it into a candy corn shape.

 HERE is the fun part. The inside of these is a tomato cage turned upside down, with clear lights strung on it. We already had 2 tomato cages, and the lights. Slip your candy corn (or ghost or which hat or whatever you want to make) over it and ta-dah!-You have a homemade yard decoration.

 This could easily be changed out at Christmas for something-- some cute trees or something fun.

Happy Halloween!

Thanks for reading!

Frankenstein Feet {crafting with kids}

 We did some fun crafts in preschool this year for Halloween! One was this cute Frank-en-Foot . These turned out really cute. Simply paint the bottom of the child's foot with some green and black paint, and stamp it on some paper. We used white construction paper. Add eyes, scars, etc. and you have a cute frankenstein!

Happy Halloween to all the little monsters out there!

Don't forget to enter the CD give-a-way- (next post down!)

Square Pumpkins {Halloween Crafting}

To see if you won the current give-a-way- scroll down to the next post!
Seems like there are 1000 different ways you can make some kind of pumpkin craft to display these days.
I ditched these pumpkins, I made a few years ago, and replaced them with these.

We have a lot of scrap wood in our garage- mostly from projects or pieces found in dumpsters. Yes, that is right. We found lots of wood in dumpsters from new construction. My husband cut me some wood blocks. I had a few wood spools (you can buy at craft stores) and a big plastic one that no longer held thread.

 After painting these guys with some craft paint, I added some designs...and then was not so sure I was loving it... so bring on the sand paper! I left the back sides of these bad boys plain orange- so if the designs start to bug me, I can just flip them over.

 I thought they needed a little something- so I made little tassels out of the fabric scraps.

 Ta-Da! All done. Super easy and I'm sort of liking the end result. BEST PART: cost was ZERO. Yes, completely free project- using only stuff I already had on hand.

Happy Halloween!! I love Halloween!

DIY Dollar Store Halloween Art {using mini erasers}

 I've decided that you can pretty much make holiday art out of anything from the dollar store. It is almost dangerous; because there is so much that comes to my mind while I am in that dang store...

I love these mini erasers. I find them in the dollar section at Target. Mostly I use them for preschool activities (the kids have no idea that they are actual erasers- they are just facinated by the cute little shapes).
So why not make some "art" out of them using a little hot glue, a dollar store frame and some burlap.

 I had to make three... because I thought they would look cute displayed together in a group of three. I just don't have a space to hang them up together, so I have them on my shelves in the great room.

Total cost for this project: less than $2 each- and that is because I bought dollar store frames. So who says you can't make art out of anything? And who says you have to spend a lot of money on Halloween decor? Nope. Not doing that this year.

 Hope I have time to finish my next idea... if it gets done I'll show you soon...- you can display this one in your yard if you want...

Happy Halloween!

Halloween I SPY Search-n-Find Tub

 For preschool, I do some sort of sensory or I spy activity for each of the holidays for one of my centers. I did this one with my kids first. Halloween is so fun and there are so many things you can use!
Here is what I put in mine:
Instead of rice, I used corn and black beans for the base material (you know, sort of goes with fall...)
Then we added small items we found at the dollar store:
plastic spiders
rubber skeletons
mini Halloween erasers (ghosts, pumpkins, cats, etc)
fuzzy balls in Halloween colors
We use tweezers or tongs or even a wooden clothespin to pick up what we find. This is good practice for those small motor skills.

 I also had this mini pumpkin ice cube tray which we used to sort what we found. You could sort by color, size, etc.

To store these, I dump the contents into a ziplock baggie after the holiday is over. That way it is ready for next year. While we are using it, I put it in a 9 by 13 plastic pan or bin with a lid. That way it does not get dumped out on accident. This is a fun activity for ages 3-6- obviously with the younger kids make sure you are supervising as none of this is edible!

I have a super fun edible one I'll show you later!

Happy Halloween!