Tu-tu

My daughter is going to be a ballerina for Halloween.

I found the tutorial to make her tutu here. It's a very simple no-sew tutu that can be made in probably 30 minutes to an hour. All you need is some elastic and a few yards of tulle. They could make darling Christmas presents for your daughter, niece, grand-daughter. . .

Edible Jack-o-lanterns

Saturday was a full, busy day. After a family trip to the grocery store we still needed to eat dinner. When I mentioned the possibility of pancakes my oldest son immediately informed me that he wanted pumpkin pancakes. And I knew just what he wanted. And then while I was pouring and flipping he informed me that we needed to make faces on our pancakes--he was going to make a scary one. The boys had loads of fun making (and re-making) faces on their pumpkins--until we finally told them that they had to actually eat the pancakes . . . and not just the chocolate chips. It was a fun end to a wonderful Saturday.

In the past we've also made jack-o-lantern pizzas.

I even tried a variation of these "mummy dogs"--they were a big hit!

Do you have any fun "Halloween" food?

FYI--Halloween Events at Michael's

I recently discovered Michael's "The Knack." There are fun printables and project ideas. Michael's also sponsors free family crafts. Right now they have several Halloween events. Click here to check it out!

Papier-Mache Pumpkins

I got this idea from good ol' Martha.

I was excited to make these pumpkins with my daughter this year. I just think they're darling. After thinking about it for a bit I realized I'd probably end up doing the whole thing though. I think this might be a project for next year when she's a little bit older. I wanted to share the cuteness anyway. Go here for instruction.

Be sure to check the archives on the left for last years Halloween activities.

***Amy***

 

 

Festive Silhouettes

I found this project on a new site called Bloom. (Which I happen to love by the way.) It was so easy and so fun that I'm thinking of making some Thanksgiving ones as well. The directions are all right here.

*Here is where I got my witch.

*And my Thanksgiving silhouettes? Here.

Halloween Cake Pops

This is my attempt to make cake pops. I've been wanting to make them for a long time, but was waiting for the perfect opportunity. It finally came. They were really easy to make and didn't take nearly as much time as I though they would. My daughter and I had a blast making them together.

This is how you make them:

Bake a cake and let it cool.

Dump your cake into bowl and crumble it with a fork (My daughter loved this part).

Pour 3/4 a jar of frosting into your crumbled cake and combine with a fork.

Roll into balls.

Freeze for about an hour.

Cover in melted chocolate (turns out the majority of melting chocolate is processed with peanuts. I went to three stores before I found some that was safe and of course it was by far the most expensive. Oh well.)

I found melon tic-tacs at Target. We put those on the top after they were coated in chocolate so they would look like pumpkins.

Some we had fun with . . .

and decorated to look like jack-o-lanterns.

Others we wrapped up . . .

to bring to friends.

Cake Pops

If you haven't heard of Bakerella this is your chance to see what you've been missing out on. Her cake pops are daring. She's come up with one for just about every occasion. Her Halloween pops are my favorite.


Aren't they darling?? It's hard to pick, but I think my favorite is the witch. Don't they make you want to throw a Halloween party just so you can make them and have everyone Ooooo and Ahhhh?

The Pioneer Woman gives a great tutorial on how to make cake pops. Check it out here. This is a great kitchen craft to get your kids involved in. They'll love crumbling up the cake and rolling balls.

Now go throw a party.

Fire Hose

My daughter got a fireman's hat at a community event and we've been doing a lot of "firefighter" pretending ever since.

I taped together two paper towel tubes (I never throw those things away--you never know when you might need one) and attached some strips of blue tissue paper at the end to make a fire hose.

Endless fun.

Monkey Cupcakes

My son turned one last week. For his birthday I came up with these monkey cupcakes.

I frosted the cupcakes with chocolate frosting and used Nilla Wafers for the face and mini Nilla Wafers for the ears. The eyes are made from mini marshmallows. I used a black jell pen for the nose, mouth and eye centers.

It was very simple and I'm pleased with how they turned out. My three year old had a bast helping me and creating her own monkeys too.

Autumn Butterflies

OK. One last butterfly craft. Are you ready?

This is a great one for autumn. We collected fall leaves and layered them between sheets of paper towel and pressed them under a stack of heavy books for two weeks.

Once the leaves were pressed and dried we arranged them into butterflies. The stems made great antennas.

We glued them together and picked our favorite one to be framed.


Have fun creating!