After my last post I thought I’d treat my granddaughter by showing her some of the homemade Halloween crafts she could do.
She thought they were OK but said, “I really like pumpkins.”
So……
In keeping with the last theme of making some fun decorations for Halloween out of things we normally throw away, here are 2 ideas for getting rid of some of those big plastic bottles soda and milk come in.
Just make sure the bottles are empty and clean and you’ve removed the labels before you start.
Soda Bottle Jack-O-Lantern
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- Paint the bottle orange. Do this by pouring paint inside the bottle
and adding a little water. Put the lid back on and have the child swoosh
this around and around until the entire inside is coated. Pour out the
excess.
- Cut eyes, nose, and mouth out of yellow construction paper and glue
onto the front of the bottle.
- Place tissue paper or the felt around the lid of the bottle and tie
tight with the raffia or twine.
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Milk Container Pumpkin
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- Lightly draw a jack-o’-lantern face on the front of the milk container.
- Cut out features with scissors or a craft knife.
- Cut a flap in the back of the pumpkin, big enough that you can fit a
sandwich bag full of sand or a handful of rocks in to weigh it down.
- Paint the container with three coats of orange paint. Allow it to dry
between coats.
- Holding the flickering tea light upside down, place it inside the mouth of
the milk container. (You may need to trim down the opening until the tea light
is able to fit inside.) Once you’ve sized the mouth, remove the tea light and
set it aside.
- Cut out a rectangle from some brown felt big enough to fit around the mouth
of the milk container.
- Use hot glue to line the inside of the area, and then fold the excess felt
down around the outside of the mouth and glue in place.
- The tea light should fit snuggly inside and be pointing downward. (Do not
glue down the tea light – you should be able to remove and replace it when the
battery dies.)
- Insert rocks or a small bag of sand into the back flap of the pumpkin for
weight.
- Place pumpkin on the porch and when night falls, turn on the flickering tea
light!
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Have a Happy Halloween,
Susan
Since Halloween is coming in a couple of weeks I thought I’d share a couple of ways to both recycle some of those nasty Styrofoam egg cartons and make a 2 Halloween decorations.
For these crafts, you need a clean egg carton. You can use either a Styrofoam or a cardboard one but if you want to hang your bats outside from the trees the Styrofoam ones will be better.
Egg Carton Bat
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- Cut out three of the egg cups keeping them attached together.
- Cut out the front and back of the two outside cups by creating a
scallop shape. This will form your bat’s wings.
- Paint your bat black with craft paint. Again, if you want to hang
them outside, you will want to use waterproof paint.
- Once the paint is dry, you can paint on a scary face with white
paint or glue on googly eyes.
- Use a pair of scissors to poke a hole in the top of the middle cup.
- Take a piece of string and make a knot large enough that it won’t
pull through the hole and put the string in the hole.
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Egg Carton Spider
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- Cut out one of the egg cups from the carton.
- Paint your spider black and wait for it to dry. Paint on eyes or glue
googly eyes on him.
- Use the tip of pointed scissors to make four small holes on each side of
the egg cup.
- Insert a pipe cleaner in each of the holes and twist the pipe cleaners
from the inside to form a knot of sorts so the pipe cleaners do not come out
of the holes.
- Then bend the legs so your spider will stand on his own.
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Happy Halloween!
Susan
