By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog Coffee Pot People.

Ready for ghoulish fun? I got the above altered jar in the mail the other day, and just could not resist sharing it. I’ll grant it might not be everybody’s cup or tea (or any other fluid, for that matter), but it completely busted me up, and that was before I opened the jar!

Don’t bother asking how my friend got all that in there. I can’t get it all back in. It was so much fun to go through all that bounty, and think about the ways I could use it. (I think I’ll put those skeletal hands in my hair, like barrettes….)

So just a few clues about what my friend did: I’m pretty sure the blood is red dimensional paint. She drizzled that over the plastic fingers, which are glued to a “nest” of black fun fur, and then to the lid of the jar. The jar itself is partially wrapped with Halloweenish paper, with stick on letters spelling “Bad Blood”.

Now, I know you won’t have time to mail one before Halloween, but can you picture the surprise, (and I hope delight!) of the friend whose porch you leave it on? I’m thinking a teenager, myself, especially one of the ones who have gotten into the whole vampire bit. Oh, yessssssss.

By Guest Bloggers Melissa + Kellie, from the blog Icing Designs.

We thought we would share a few more Halloween inspired DIY project with you. These little ghosts will add a “spooky” touch to your cupcakes! Your little ones will love them and best of all…they are so easy to make its “scary”!

Materials:

• small Styrofoam balls
• lollipop sticks
• 4″ square of tulle
• 4″ square of lace
• thin black ribbon
• gems for eyes and mouth
• glue gun and scissors

Just take your little Styrofoam ball and stick one of your lollipop sticks in it. If you need to add a little dab of glue to secure it you can.

Place your lace square over your tulle square and lay it over top of the Styrofoam ball, tie with your black ribbon. Then you can trim around the lace and tulle to get it to the length desired.

Next just hot glue two small gems for eyes and a larger one for a mouth and your little ghost is complete! How easy is that!?!

By Guest Bloggers Melissa + Kellie, from the blog Icing Designs.

So with Halloween being Monday…we thought we would share one more fun and festive DIY project with you! Buntings are so popular and so darn cute!! This bunting is so easy to create, no gluing, no sewing…what else could you ask for!?!

Materials:

• Decorative holiday paper
• Glitter Paper
• Ribbon
• Brads
• Triangle template (create your own size)

We created the triangle template on the computer and decided we wanted the size to be 3½ x 4½”. (You can use whatever size you want) Using the template cut out the triangles on the decorative paper. Once you have the desired amount of triangles cut out attached them to your ribbon using the brads. They are sharp enough that they will pierce the paper and ribbon, so there is no need to punch or cut a hole!

Voila….you have a festive fall bunting without gluing or sewing!!

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog Coffee Pot People.

This is the time of year for costumes, which is good for me. I never did outgrow loving to play dress-up, and I just love creating costumes. But what do you do when you need a costume in a hurry?

The costume at the top is one solution, and got a lot of laughs at our recent Cousins’ Night Out. We were supposed to dress in “French costumes”. Have you figured Mama and me out yet?

We’re French Fries, complete with the fry baskets!

If you want to go as an order of fries, or let one of the kids do it, these are the “ingredients”:

• A red hat and scarf for “catsup”
• Tan pants and turtleneck for the “fry” part
• A plastic basket from the dollar store, with the bottom cut out. (You’ll be surprised how small a basket “fits”, I bet!) To put it on, just step in and squiggle it up until it hits a comfortable “staying” spot.
• Last step, for extra fun: Get two catsup packets from your local fast food joint, poke holes in the flat edge at the top center of each one, and hang them from earring wires.

This was a fun costume to put together and wear, and we even took first prize–for sheer creativity!

Want a couple more quickie costume ideas?

This one came to me just today, as I was cutting and rolling sheets of bubble wrap to take to a local non-profit: Wear white pants and tee, wrap yourself from head to toe in big-bubble bubble wrap, and go as a bubble bath! Make a cap of the stuff, and “accessorize” with a washcloth or back brush. Just be careful if you sit down, lol!

Another one, a little more time-consuming, but fun, is to go as a Rubik’s cube. I did this for one of my girls when she was about eight. First, get a cardboard box big enough to go from the neck to the top of the thighs. If it’s more or less a cube, that’s great, but it doesn’t have to be. Cut construction paper into rectangles or squares the right size to make three rows of three squares across, in six different colors, then glue them randomly on the sides and top of the box. (Yes, it’s an unsolved cube. Never could put those things back right, myself.) Cover with clear self-stick vinyl (such as Contac paper) to make them shiny. Cut holes for the head and arms.

Another costume I created for one of my girls when she was maybe six was a caterpillar. I took a velour turtleneck she already had and lengthened it with wide bands of velour until it was an ankle-length tube. Then I went to the thrift store and bought six or seven pairs of the teensiest baby shoes (fabric type) that I could find, and safety pinned them in a double row down the front of the tube to be her caterpillar feet. We topped her off with an antennae head-band, and painted her face one of the colors of her costume, with bright lips, and a big polka dot on each cheek.

By Guest Blogger Diane, from the blog Charmingly Creative.

Fall fast (5) project, five minutes or less to create, 5 or less materials needed.

Halloween is always such an exciting time of the year. You can make candy bags, invitations, cards or decorations. You can use the Pumpkin Carriage punch art to decorate just about anything you want. With just three craft punches you can create a cute nostalgic decoration. Let the magic begin.

What you Need:

• Sakura Hobby Craft 3D Crystal Lacquer

• Martha Stewart punch – Bat

• Martha Stewart double punch – Vintage Doily

• EK Success Paper Shaper punch – 1 1/4″ X 2″ oval

• Bazzill orange & black cardstock

• Glue and wax paper

Step 1:

Punch (five) orange ovals, (two) black Vintage Doily pieces and (one) black bat from card stock.

Step 2:

Assembly Pumpkin Carriage by layering center oval gluing on top of one oval under each side. Glue 4th & 5th ovals the same way. Depending on how far apart you space them you can create different size carriages. Glue bat in center of carriage.

Step 3:

Lie carriage on wax paper and coat with 3D Crystal lacquer, set aside to dry. When dry glue wheels in place.

By Guest Blogger Diane, from the blog Charmingly Creative.

I adore Halloween so I’d thought I would share a Halloween themed idea to get a jump on all of Halloween’s goodness. This card is fast and easy to make.

Materials and Tools:

• Scissors
• Cutting mat
• Suggested Halloween Stickers:
• Jolee’s Boutique – Witches and Cats Stickers
• Jolee’s Pumpkin Embellishment Stickers
• Spooky Tree sticker
• Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page Punch – Eyelet Lace
• Bracket punch
• Spooky Caption sticker
• Bazzill cardstock in white, orange, yellow and black
• Halloween Patterned cardstock

Trim white card stock with Rotary cutter to 8″x10″. Score the card stock in the middle at the 5″ line and use a bone folder to crease the edge of paper to form card 5″ x 8″.

Using Rotary cutter trim Halloween patterned card stock to 5″x8″ and use large Zots or glue to adhere to front of card.

Punch out two orange, one yellow and one black eyelet lace border strips 8″ long. Glue single orange strip to top of patterned Halloween paper. Glue black, then yellow and finally orange on top of each other making sure to overlap pieces so you can see each color. Glue to bottom of patterned paper.

From yellow card stock trace and punch out three yellow brackets. Glue to upper top of patterned card stock making sure to evenly line up the three brackets. Place stickers on each yellow piece to create a scene. Add caption sticker to complete card.

Submitted on behalf of Primrose Schools: child care services and early childhood education by Emily Patterson (@epatt1062)

When the weather begins to change with the dropping temperatures, children and parents often find themselves in need of fun, but affordable activities. As a parent, it can be a full time job to keep your children’s busy little brains and bodies stimulated.

It’s important for parents to encourage their children to use their imaginations year-round. Moreover, using the time your kids have after school to keep their bodies and minds active will keep them healthy. Fortunately, keeping your children entertained doesn’t have to cost a lot and unlimited creativity will inspire your family to make memories that you’ll remember forever.

Here is a list of 10 Halloween suggestions that parents can adapt for their children’s ages, abilities and interests.

1. Halloween cookie night: Mix up your cookie dough the day before and refrigerate it for easy shape cutting. Let your children help mix the frosting and add the black, orange, green and purple food coloring. Then let your kids cut Halloween shaped cookies, bake and decorate them. Also, they’ll enjoy bringing their special cookies to neighbors and family members.

2. Decorate the house: Your children will be delighted when you recruit their help to decorate your home for Halloween. If you don’t have a stockpile of pre-made decorations, then create black bats out of construction paper, window silhouettes in the shape of witches and dangle hand-made lollipop ghosts from your trees.

3. Pumpkin carving contest: Within a few days of Halloween, gather your family and place a pumpkin in front of each family member. Bring a timer and start the contest. It is a good idea to use the saws that are sold in pumpkin carving kits for the safety of your children. The saws are manufactured for children ages 6 and up. Also, these kits are sold for under $10 and are available at most grocery and department stores. You can have a fun Halloween prize for the winner such as a plate size pumpkin sugar cookie. Furthermore, this will give your porch a fun decoration.

4. Binder of fun Halloween activities: The internet is filled with a variety of printable Halloween activities such as mazes, coloring pages and word searches. You can stockpile a file full of these papers for each of your children and then pull them out when your kids are bored or need to be occupied when you’re driving around town running errands.

5. Halloween scrapbook: Gather the pictures that you took of your kids in costume last year along with Halloween stickers, scissors and acid-free paper in black, purple and orange. Allow your children to put together a Halloween scrapbook. Encourage your kids to write down their memories of trick-or-treating and parties that they may have attended. You and your family will appreciate this special Halloween keepsake years later.

6. Enjoy the chilly weather: Sit out on the porch with hot chocolate and blankets. Encourage your children to search for Halloween creatures in the stars.

7. Scavenger hunt for Halloween items: This can be a fun neighborhood activity and your children will be delighted to involve their friends. You’ll need to make up a list ahead of time that includes items such as spider rings, pictures of the most decorated house in the neighborhood and a clove of garlic. You can have an inexpensive prize for the winner like a small cellophane bag of Halloween candy.

8. Camping out in the living room with tents: Pick a Friday or Saturday night just in case your kids stay up past their bedtime and need to sleep late the next morning. A small tent is perfect for this fun and memorable activity. Set the tent up anywhere in your home that has the space and your children will be thrilled if you have battery powered lanterns for their campout. You can microwave s’mores for an evening snack and your family can spend the night scaring one another with the retelling of spooky tales. Your children will be surprised when you show them a few shadow puppets that you’ve learned from the internet and don’t forget to roll out your children’s favorite sleeping bags for their night of fun.

9. Family theatre night with a reenactment of favorite Halloween characters: Locate your left over Halloween make-up from last year and watch your children’s theatrical side come to life. They’ll have fun pretending to be monsters and you’ll have fun trying to guess who they are pretending to be.

10. Take A Family Walk Around Your Neighborhood To Find The Best Decorated House: Some of your neighbors probably go all out for Halloween and decorate their homes to look like haunted houses with headstones in their yards or they may have knives hanging from their porches. You and your kids will have an enjoyable afternoon roaming around your neighborhood to vote on the best home.

As a parent, you can use this list along with your own inspired ideas to kindle your children’s imaginations during the Halloween season. Try to focus on a variety of activities including those that will structure their play along with others that allow them the free time needed for complete creativity. Using this system, you will have the steps to succeed in guiding your children toward their personal individualism.

Also, remember to encourage them with activities that are suitable for their ages. Often, children become disinterested with projects that are too easy or overly complicated for their skill level. Activities need to be enjoyable, but interesting, and should be geared towards their interests.

Children know what they like and every child is unique with their own individual pursuits. Also, it’s a good idea to let them plan their own activities and help them find the materials to follow through. Furthermore, children are happiest when they are given the chance to show the distinct qualities that make them special.

Take these suggestions and have a discussion with your family regarding the Halloween season and how they’d like to celebrate the festivities this year.

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”. 

Halloween is coming, and fairies, princesses, goblins, and super heroes will soon be knocking on our doors, hoping for Treats. Of course, the adults in the group are getting a treat, too—the pleasure of seeing all those happily costumed little folk. For me, an additional joy is helping with creating the costume, and I especially love embellishing those little fairy wings.

Here’s what you’ll need to do it yourself:

• Wings (I got mine at a dollar store)
• Silk flowers, two of one color, and one of a coordinating color, OR three all the same
• Floral wire, two pieces each about 24″ long
• Coordinating wire and tinsel garland
• Needle & thread, glue, pliers

Take each piece of the floral wire and use the pliers to make a small loop on each end. Bend the wires into a gentle curve. Take the garland and wind it around and around the wires, making several tight loops on each end to secure.

Now use the needle and thread to tack the wire in place, starting at the small length of material that joins the wings together, and working from the back. I tried a whip stitch on one side, but decided it showed up too much. Tacking in two or three places worked as well, and didn’t show on the front, especially when I maneuvered an element of the garland over the stitches.

The next step is to disassemble the flowers, removing them from their stems and taking out the plastic bits that hold them together.

You now have several layers of petals, each with a hole in the middle.  Poke the free end of the floral wire through the layers, and use the pliers to make another loop, large enough to keep the layers from falling off.

Finish up by gluing something decorative over the wire loop. I used a flower from the garland. Other things you might use: large spangles, flat jewels, pompoms, buttons, or stickers.

Now take your third flower and disassemble it. Cut another length of the wire garland and poke one end of it through the flower, and making a loop as you did with the other flowers. Secure this flower to the middle piece of the wings by winding the garland around and around it, tucking the end of the wire out of the way when you’re done.

That’s it! You have a very special set of wings for your little one.

Just one more note about embellishing wings. The things we used for this set are very lightweight, and the wires the flowers are on are relatively short. Using heavier items on the ends of the wires, or longer wires, may cause the wings to want to tilt backwards. If that happens, add a balancing length of wire to the bottom of the wings’ harness.  It doesn’t have to be heavy, or very long—just extending the width of the harness with a loop of wire that rests against your child’s back will keep the wings from overbalancing.

What’s your favorite handmade Halloween costume you’ve ever created?  From kids to adult costumes, funny to scary, we want to see your creativity!  Enter our Handmade Halloween Costume Contest for a chance to win one of these amazing prizes…

*1st Place: $150 CreateForLess Shopping Spree

*2nd Place: $100 CreateForLess Shopping Spree

*3rd Place: $50 CreateForLess Shopping Spree

Click to Enter!

Enjoy some of our favorite entries from last year’s Handmade Halloween Costume Contest.

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”.  

Halloween, that great excuse for scaring ourselves silly, is almost here, and part of the fun is decorating for it. I love eerie lighting, including, of course, Jack o’ Lanterns, but they aren’t the only fright light in town.

Here’s how to make the creepy candle holder shown above:

Start with a glass jar; quart size is good. Take a length of window screen material that is three times as wide as your jar is tall, and long enough to go around the jar two or three times. Fold the material in half lengthwise, and then roll it around the jar, scrunching it up as you go. Don’t worry about getting the gathers even at this point. The next thing you’re going to do is tie a ribbon around the jar, to hold the window screening in place. I had some that was very loosely woven of fine straw, but satin or grosgrain would work as well, in any color you choose.

After you’ve tied the ribbon nice and tight you can mess with those gathers, and even them out. The screening should be even with the bottom of the jar, and extend at the top. Furl and arrange that top part.

Now take a large plastic spider, and tie it to the knot of your ribbon.

Drop a tea light, either a wax candle or one of the little electric ones, into the bottom of the jar. Light it, and place it where it will show up—in a dim corner, or lighting the way up your front walk or porch.

Enjoy the compliments and little screeches.

By Sewing Contributor Jessica, from the blog “Life Sew Good”.  

I’m really looking forward to seeing the entries for the Handmade Halloween Costume Contest!  I know that creativity is in the air (as evidenced by the long cutting lines at the fabric store), but I also know there are some of you who are on a budget—both money and time are running low.  So I thought I would give you a simple NO SEW project.  I mean, you could sew some of it to make it even more durable, but this works in a pinch.

Whether you’re making for an adult or a child, a fairy, ballerina, or butterfly costume can all have a very similar look.  All you need is a tutu and wings, although a wand wouldn’t hurt.  First, the Dollar Tree has wings for –uh, well, a dollar.  You can handle that right?  That leaves the tutu.

Here’s what you need:

2 rolls (2 differing colors is nice) of 6” tulle

¾” Non-rolling Elastic (approx. waist measurement minus 2″)

Sticky Back Velcro

Scissors or rotary cutter

Yard stick or measuring tape

Ribbon (optional)

Stick-on gems (optional)

 1. Cut 1 yard strips of the tulle, folding each strip in half as you go, so that the strips look like they are 18″ long.  Use the whole roll. 

2. Now fold tulle strips in half length-wise.  Cut diagonally from the bottom of the folded side up about 4″.  When you unfold them, the ends will look like a point—much like sword.  Refer to the pictures below.

3. Cut your elastic according the waist measurement minus 2″.  Use a small piece of adhesive Velcro on each end of the elastic.  Wrap the elastic around your leg and close the Velcro.  It’s time to start knotting your tulle!

4. Slip a piece of tulle under the elastic, the folded end at the top.   Spread the folded end (top) between your thumb and fore finger, fold it over the top of the elastic.  Slip the loose tulle through the hole and pull it through, creating a knot.  I think the pictures will be easier to understand than the words!!

The other side of your knot will look like this:

5. You will want to keep all your “knots” on the same side.  Continue knotting, alternating your colors. 

6. Optional:  Add in ribbon, knotting it just as you know your tulle or you can tie bows.  I also added on stick-on gems, both on the tulle and over the end of the elastic over where it closes. 

Now you have a great tutu that anyone will be happy to wear!

Kid’s and General Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

Every year, as we get ready to host our annual pumpkin carving party, I promise myself that I am going to carve or decorate some really cool pumpkins to have on display before the party. But between menu planning, crafts-for-the-kids planning and all the inevitable last minute details that come when you have your entire neighborhood over for an afternoon, the pumpkins get pushed to the bottom of the list. 

Generally I look around after the party and realize that every family on the block has a newly carved pumpkin except ours. Next year! I tell myself!

Well, next year has come.

I’m making an early start with the pumpkins by venturing into the realms of fake gourds. I’ve seen them for years, heard the craft pundits rave about their versatility, but somehow have never broken down and bought one. But when I got the idea for this pumpkin I decided that the time had come. I was not going to spend all that time decorating a pumpkin that would rot away in a few weeks time.

The inspiration for this came from a magazine I flipped though while in line at the grocery store one day. The pumpkin on the glossy pages was covered in tiny rhinestones which looked great but probably cost more than I was willing to spend. Instead I opted for glossy black puff paint and a few rhinestones accents.

After sketching out the swirls and loops with a pencil, I went to work with the paint, dotting carefully along the lines. It was often easier to start at the end of the swirl and work backwards toward the stem and I did stop at the halfway point to allow the paint to dry before proceeding with the rest. And although the project was definitely time consuming, it was also fairly easy once I got into the dot dot dot rhythm.

Once the entire pumpkin was covered I went back and glued a handful of rhinestone in strategic places. Such as the spot where my son decided to “see if the paint was dry”. The finished project looks elegant and spooky at the same time. The perfect combination for this year’s not so kid like but not scary either decor. In fact, I might just have to make another with that white pumpkin I bought the other day. Because you can never have too many cool looking pumpkins in October!

Earlier this week I posted about dimensional paint and thought I’d show off some great Halloween projects I found at Duncan’s Website.  Dimensional paint can be used to outline, add depth, add sparkle, and even adhere!  It’s a product that you should spend a little time practicing with before you start using it on your crafting surfaces, but it’s time well spent.  Feel free to share you dimensional paint projects and your Halloween crafts!

You can find the instructions for all these fun projects at Duncan’s Website!

I love fall and best of all, Halloween.  There is nothing better in life than getting to dress up as you please and get candy at every door you knock on!  Come on, that’s just “sweet”!

As a child my whole family got involved to celebrate Halloween.  My older brothers dressed up as policemen, women, and werewolves!  They went to school parties for Halloween, but I got to go with my friends door to door collecting treats. We carved pumpkins, spun spiderwebs from polyfil, hung pillowcase ghosts on the front yard trees.

I remember my homemade costumes well.  My mom used to help me.  One year I wore lederhosen and pretended to be a German gnome.  That one was easy as my mother was German and even made me a felt mustache! Another year I went as a hobo with my treat bag attached to a long wood branch.  I also was a princess one year and the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. But the best was a fairy with a magical wand of dowl rod, construction paper star, and glitter.  I loved waving the wand as neighbors dropped a piece of candy or two in my fairy dust bag!

CreateForLess is having a Halloween Costume Contest! Here’s the scoop!

What’s your all-time favorite handmade Halloween costume you’ve ever created?  That one you’re most proud of because you made it by hand, instead of buying it at the costume shop?  From kids to adult costumes, funny to scary, we want to see your creativity.  Enter our Handmade Halloween Costume Contest for your chance to win one of these amazing prizes…

• 1st Place: $150 CreateForLess Shopping Spree 
• 2nd Place: $100 CreateForLess Shopping Spree 
• 3rd Place: $50 CreateForLess Shopping Spree

Click here for details on how to enter.  Contest deadline is Nov 2, 2008.  I’d love to see some handmade costumes posted here too!  Come on, share!