| Halloween Crafts, Decor & More |
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Hooray! It’s that time of the year again and Matt and I are thinking about Halloween! Here are a couple of friendly scarecrows (hmm, I think that’s an oxymoron but they look friendly to me) that you might want to stuff and pose for your front yard or even on top of your roof like this family!
Of course if scarecrows aren’t your thing, Matt and I have other ideas for you as well. Here’s a project that keeps you indoors but still celebrates the autumn season or even the special holiday. This line-up of black framed spooky letters is a great way to welcome the holiday or the entire season. The frames can be used over and over again throughout the year to express any message you like! We surrounded the letters with fall mums and pumpkins and this would be a nice seasonal decoration for any foyer, dining room or family room!
Indian corn is a colorful way to decorate for Halloween and all you need are baskets full of corn and some twine. Simply stretch the twine across a porch or along a railing and using small piece of twin, tie the ears of corn to the line with some short and some long pieces to give a more interesting effect!
If you prefer working in the shop like Matt, you might want to whip up a couple sets of these message letters. Made out of scrap lumber, and sized to fit stick on letters, these blocks go together easily and make great fall gifts.
Dressing your dining or kitchen table for the season is always a fun project. Craft a centerpiece or sew up some Halloween placemats. Or, check out our new e-store where you can find the downloadable step by step instructions and a template to create your own leaf or bat shaped napkin rings! The patterns and instructions are only $5.99!
Candy and Halloween go together don’t they? I can hardly think about one with the other. This year we are cutting down the quantity of candy we buy and just concentrating on the particular ones we can’t live without! For us its mini marshmallows, licorice and candy corn!
Now here is a fun project for you to make with your kids or grandkids. You don’t need too many wacky materials, mainly things you have around the house. You’ll need to help them along with some of the cutting and using a needle and thread, but isn’t that what family projects are all about? Put in the movie of Charlie brown and the Great Pumpkin and make a night of it!
Once you get all of your Halloween decorating in place, why not put on a party to celebrate? You don’t have to do that much more and you can create a memorable evening for your family and friends.
My normal Halloween décor made the table of goodies look just right. A skeleton head or two, a black candelabra full of spider webbing, and some candy was all the kids were looking for!
The party was actually a belated birthday party for my son. His birthday is in August, and since most of his friends are out of town during the summer, this was a great time to have it. I made up an agenda so everyone knew what to expect and a great time was had by all.
I’ll share the line-up with you since it all worked out so nicely. As you can see the first order of business is the “Ghouls Arrive”. While this was happening we shared “Treats and Tricks” from the snack table and some of the children put on their bathing suits. We did “Swim in the Moat” but you may want to skip this event!! When everyone had arrived, the kid’s all got into their Halloween costumes for the party to begin. (In the meantime, we adults were having beverages and snacks and having a roaring good time!)
My daughter helped with the games. We started with “Toss for Treats” where the kids were tossing pennies into a witch’s cauldron. Each child had ten pennies – the ghoul who got the most pennies in the cauldron was the winner. “Halloween Who am I?” entailed creating cards printed with a Halloween shape that we got off of clip art on the internet. One child stood up and had a shaped taped to his or her back. He or she then asked the rest of the kids “yes” and “no” questions to gather information about their shape until they were able to guess what it was. The adults even got into this one!
The “Skeleton Race” game was made by finding a skeleton on the internet. It had to be one whose arms, legs, torso and head could be cut apart. We found one and printed up enough for each child to have one. We then cut the skeletons apart and tossed all the bones in a pile in the middle of this very long hallway in my home. One team of kids lined up at one end and another team lined up opposite them. I stood in the laundry room which opened to the hall right where the skeleton bones were piled. I also placed two containers of tape near the pile. The object of the game was to run to the center, find a torso, a head, two arms and two legs and reassemble the skeleton using tape. Once you finish you run back to your team and the next ghoul tries to put together a skeleton. This game got totally out of hand as far a volume is concerned and therefore I felt it was a tremendous success! As for prizes, I didn’t have any for the games I mentioned above because I didn’t want to hurt feelings and I really wanted them to just enjoy the fun of the games. We did fill cute Halloween jars with candy and even got the parents involved in guessing how many pieces of candy corn or peanut m&m’s were in the jars. Adult winners received gift cards to the movies and child winners received the container of candy!
Witch “Craft” was a table full of Halloween crafts available for the kid’s to make. Once the games were done, I wanted them to settle down a bit before eating. They took turns making a variety of spiders out of pom-poms and other spooky crafts while those that weren’t crafting were watching a Halloween movie.
Ghostly Grub followed and was just what you expect for kids; pizza and chicken fingers. Of course they could dig into the fruit, veggies, cheese and crackers as well. But for the adults, I had a caterer bring some wonderful party foods that only the adults could appreciate. It was a fabulous party within a party and we all had a great time. The party was supposed to end on “Halloween Birthday Cake” and everyone would go home happy and fulfilled. However, here’s the one snafu. The parents didn’t want to leave! They stayed and stayed and ate and ate and I did have to “punt” to come up with something to entertain the kids for a while. Movies worked great since most of them were pretty tired by this time! Eventually, the party did end and we all had so much fun we are making it a Hiller tradition! H ere’s an idea you might want to consider if you need a Halloween tradition that gets the entire neighborhood involved. The idea is to create a picture of a ghost named “Boo” and write up the poem I’ll share with you. You take “Boo” and the poem along with a treat to two of your neighbors and hang it on their door. Do this when no one is watching so the ghostly deliverer isn’t revealed!
Your neighbors should recreate two of the “Boo’s” and two of the poems, along with treats and deliver them to two other homes in the neighborhood. The important thing is to keep your “Boo” hanging on your front door so everyone knows who has or hasn’t been “Boo’d”!
You can make this as project oriented or a quick as you like. I’ve created two options for you. For the “project oriented” version, (otherwise known as the time consuming version) you can make up door hangers with the “Boo” character and instructions on one sheet and the poem on another. Hang your “treats” in a Halloween goodie bag or zip-lock baggie from ribbons tied to the door knob.
For the quickie version, skip the poem altogether and simply draw the ghost on a piece of paper and write down the instructions. Just don’t skip the treats. Remember, it is what Halloween is all about!!
Directions for “Booing” 1. Enjoy your Treat!
Boo to You! The air is cool, the season Fall “Boo” is a shield from the witching hour The treats that came with cryptic note Then secretly deliver them to And don’t forget a nifty treat I hope you find something among these ideas that’s strikes a cord with you and that you truly enjoy the fall season. Happy Haunting! S hari
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halloweencraftsdecorandmore.pdf
