Creepy Crawly Spiders

 If you hadn't noticed, I was on an egg carton crafting kick recently and couldn't go without making some creepy little spiders. For these little guys all you need is black and white paint, an egg carton, pipe cleaners, string and glue.
First cut your egg carton into sections and make sure the bottoms are left flat. Then paint them black and add little finger print eyes. Once your paint is dry add little black circles to the center of your eyes. Now you will need something sharp to poke 4 holes into the sides of your spiders body so that you can poke your pipe cleaner legs through, I used the tip of some very pointy scissors.

 Depending on how long you want your creepy crawly legs, you can either cut your pipe cleaners in half you use one whole one to thread through the holes that you poked in the sides. Once you have the pipe cleaners through, bend them into little spidery legs.

 Now all you need to do is attach a piece of string to the back of your spider with a little glue (I find that hot glue works best for this), if you want to hang him, and he's all set to scare.

Boo!

Egg Carton Bat

Watch out when you enter our house cause you might just get bit by one of these furry little critters.

To make your own bats you will need:

Black and white paint, and egg carton, brown faux fur, hot glue, brown card stock, and string.

 You make the head the same way we did for the kitty, leaving 2 ears in front and painting it black.

Then add your eyes, again the same way we did the kitty, by using your child's fingerprint.

 Then take a black marker and add black to the center of the eyes, it's makes them so much cuter.

 Cut your faux fur into sections and roll them into ice cream cone shapes, these will become the body. Glue them together and you are ready to assemble your bat.

 Glue your bat head to the body, making sure to leave room below the eyes to add a mouth. I forgot to take pictures of this steep but to make the mouth take your white paint and paint a little smile on the face and add 2 little fangs sticking out.

 Cut wings out of your card stock, then fold them in half, this way they will look like they are flapping. Then glue your wings to the back of your bats body. I then tied a piece of string around the bats neck, hiding it under the fur, and pinned the bats to the ceiling. I think they make a nice little addition to our spooky decor.

“Twinkle, twinkle little bat. How I wonder what you're at! Up above the world you fly, Like a tea-tray in the sky"  ~Lewis Carroll

Egg Carton Kitty

With Halloween approaching we did some egg carton crafts around here to make a few decorations. The first one I am going to share is the black Halloween cat. We are fans of black cats in this house, as our dear kitty Sid is a black cat.

For this craft you will need an egg carton, black and white paint, pink felt, ribbon in any color and pipe cleaners in the color of your choice.

 Start out by cutting each section of the egg carton into pieces.

 For the head cut the 2 back points off, leaving the 2 front ones for ears. For the body leave all the points, these will become the kitty's legs.

 Paint everything black or any color you want your cat to be.

 Then take your little kiddos finger tip, brush it with white paint and press it onto the kitty head for eyes.

 The faces with fingerprint eyes.

Then take a black marker and add circles to the center of the eyes so they don't look creepy.

Take your pipe cleaners and cut them in fourths, these will become your whiskers.

 Poke holes into the sides of the nose area and stab your cut pipe cleaners though to make whiskers.

 Then take your pink felt and cut it into little triangles, 2 to fit in the ears and one for the nose. Glue them in place.

You can now glue your kitty's head to its body. Then take your ribbon and tie a little bow around it's neck to make a collar. Finish your little guys up by taking a pipe cleaner and curling it into the shape of a tail and gluing it to the back side of your kitty. 

And these are the cute little guys you end up with. Place them around the house as decoration or let your kids play with them as new pets that you don't have to clean a litter box up after.

Enjoy!

Felt Case

Once a month I have started teaching a class for my sister and a small group of her home school buddies that is a mix of visual arts and home ec. This week we had our first class and we made felt carrying cases for their phones and mp3 players. We had a blast making them and it was great seeing the girls use their creative minds to create some really cute cases.

 I bought a bunch of colors of felt that is made from recycled plastic bottles and let them choose whatever colors they wanted to work with.

 We also had a slew of vintage buttons for them to embellish with if they wanted to.

 We started out by tracing around our phones and mp3 players leaving about a half inch all the way around.

 Then cut out two pieces of felt in the same size to be the front and back of our cases.

 Once we had those cut out it was time for some creative thinking. Each girl came up with completely different ideas.

 We cut out our designs and layed everything out they way we wanted it to look when they were finished.

 Then glued the pieces down using fabric glue.

 I then taught the girls how to do a blanket stitch using embroidery floss to close the sides and bottoms of our cases. If you don't know how to do a blanket stitch there are some great, easy to follow tutorials on youtube.

 Scarlett was there to supervise and keep us on task.

 The finished products.

I now want to make a case for everything, this was such a fun project.

Laundry Basket Toboggan

This activity is so great because it serves two purposes,

 1) Your kids will have a blast flying around the house in the laundry basket 

 2) It is a great butt workout for you and who wouldn't love tighter buns!

 Bonus-Its totally free! 

Just sit your kiddo or kids in a nice sturdy laundry basket and start lunging around the house. Our kids especially love it if we throw on some fun music and it's an activity that they like doing together, which can be challenging to find when they are this age.

Have fun!!