Finished up the cape gift that went with the crown from earlier this week.

And made the last-minute cowgirl costume for my four-year-old (skirt and vest), which she turned into a superhero cowgirl by adding a cape, then ditched altogether in favor of a tutu and some plastic high heels when it was time for trick or treating.  But she can wear the skirt anytime, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

Still looking for Halloween costume ideas?  Head over to Alpha Mom and check out my post on how to make this quick owl costume from a t-shirt.  Then complete the outfit with the printable mask.

…doopedee doo.  I don’t know how to spell that.  Here’s the best I could do for my six-year-old’s Violet Beauregarde costume.  I think it has cellulite.  I’m making a pair of pants to go with it and we’ll paint her face blue.  People are going to have no idea who she is, but she’s going to be thrilled.  Oh, and she gets to chew gum too.

See, do you remember Violet?  Now that’s a Halloween costume challenge.  What was your craziest costume experience?

Here’s a fun project to make with the kids.  These are papier-mâché bowls made from paper bags and tissue paper.  We plan to use our bowls for Halloween candy.

I’ve never had much luck with the flour mixtures (maybe because of the humidity here), so I used a mixture of equal parts white glue and water.  I used a full bottle of glue for each bowl.  For the pumpkin bowl, I cut off the top of an actual pumpkin and used that as our base, but we just used a metal mixing bowl for the ghost bowl.  If you do use a pumpkin, be sure to cut it at the widest point so that you can remove the paper bowl when dry.

For both, I first covered the base with a plastic grocery bag (you could use plastic wrap), dipped strips of newspaper in the glue mixture, squeezed off the excess and laid the strips across the top until the bowl was covered.  Oh, if you’re working with kids, you will definitely want to do this project outside.  We let the bowls dry for a day, then brushed them with more glue mixture and laid tissue paper (cut into strips) on top.  We then brushed more glue on top of the tissue as we laid it around the bowl.  Once dry, you can trim your edges or leave them ragged.  We painted our bowls with acrylic paints and left the insides unfinished.  If you used colored tissue paper, you wouldn’t need to paint at all.  I just used some brown tissue paper leftover from packaging.  Now the kids are ready to fill up the bowls!

A couple more ideas to add to your list of Halloween decorations using recycled materials.  Here, I used etching cream to create a jack o’ lantern face on the jars.  It’s a subtle effect, but would be pretty with an orange votive.  I simply put masking tape on the jar, cut out the shapes with a craft knife, and let the etching cream sit for about twenty minutes (not a kid-friendly project, obviously).

And for the jack o’lantern cans, I cut out the face with a craft knife and glued the paper onto the can.  A quick tip for holding the paper in place while you wait for the glue to dry — painter’s tape.  I love painter’s tape and use it all the time in my crafting.

More Halloween crafts with bottles and cans (just clap your hands).

• Martha Stewart’s Tin Can Jack O’ Lanterns.
• Martha Stewart’s Jar O’ Lanterns.
• Decoupage Jar Jack O’ Lanterns from Instructables.

This is not a vehicle for the caped crusader, but rather a hanging mobile!  I’ll be periodically featuring recycled projects for Halloween over the next month.  In addition to my disdain for plastic crap made in China, I am just frugal.

So here’s an easy project made with thin cardboard.  You can use cereal or cracker boxes, or save chipboard from packing materials, like I did here.  I think these would also be pretty cut from patterned paper, if you are so inclined.  I just cut these from cardboard, poked holes where the eyes should be and hung them to a branch using clear thread.  This clear thread looks completely invisible and is light enough for the bats to fly around a bit.

I’m feeling for bats these days after hearing about the decline in the bat population along the east coast.  We need these little critters.  I’ll try to post some more batty projects over the weekend.

Just click on the image below and print out the template.

I’m hoping that we don’t end up with eggs on our front door, but we’ll be giving out a sticker and one piece of candy per person (hold the melamine and artificial colors, please).  So here is a sticker page with the image above if you want to do the same: Halloween Sticker Page.  This sheet will work on Avery 3111, but we just had some sticker sheets around the house.

And if you’re looking for some last-minute Halloween crafty ideas, check the new links on my Handmade Halloween page.  For loads of crafty projects for kids, check out The Crafty Crow.

Head over to Alpha Mom and check out my post about how to make salt dough pumpkins.  I am loving Alpha Mom.  It’s a site full of helpful parenting advice mixed with irreverent humor from some of my favorite bloggers.  Check out this post about What Not to Wear This Halloween by Melissa Summers and this one Move over Tom Brokaw, It’s Time for a Presidential Playdate by Jenn Mattern of breed ‘em and weep. Funny stuff.

Here’s a quick and easy Halloween craft.  We picked up some nice leaves at the park the other day and realized they looked a lot like bats.  I think these are from a large maple tree.

It’s best to get a leaf that isn’t too dried out or it will crack.  I cut off the stem and the girls painted them with watercolor paints on the textured side.  The leaf resists a bit, but if you keep applying the paint it will adhere.  Then we just turned them over and printed on paper.  I traced around the outside with a black pencil to give it some definition and my three-year-old drew the bat head.  She has just started making representational drawings and is so proud of herself.

Our friend Sarah gave me a couple of spools of this black grosgrain ribbon, presenting me with a challenge.  So here is this quick and easy Halloween wreath.  Since it takes a lot of ribbon, try buying in bulk online rather than at the craft stores.  I really like this site for ribbons and trims.

Supplies:

• 12″ foam wreath form
• 24 yards 1 1/4″ black grosgrain ribbon (or less if using a wider ribbon)
• Scissors
• Measuring tape

Steps:

1. Cut 45-50 16″ pieces of ribbon.
2. Tie one strand of ribbon in a knot around the wreath.  I used a “messy knot” — right over left, then right over left again, pulling in the opposite direction.  It doesn’t really matter how you do it as long as you are consistent all the way around.  Repeat with the knots, pushing them close together, until you fill the wreath.
3. Cut one long piece of ribbon (48″) and tie one end to form a knot.  Leave a long loop for hanging and tie another knot onto the wreath.
4. Trim any frayed or long ends.

Done!  If you make one of these, I’d love to see a photo in the Make it Monday Flickr pool here.  There are lots of great new photos over there, so take a look.

Just a quick Halloween decoration.  Since the world seems to be falling apart, we’re trying to save money around here (and gas and water since we live in Atlanta), so here’s an easy and free ghost garland.  This is a craft blog, after all.

Just print out the files below on white card stock, cut with an x-acto knife and hang with monofilament.  I’ve changed the eyes around on these files so that  they won’t all three be the same.  Try hanging this from a doorway or fireplace mantel.

ghost-b

ghost-o1

ghost-o2