Quick and Easy Halloween Crafts for Kids

My 8 1/2 year old granddaughter spent the weekend with us and wanted to work on some easy Halloween craft projects. She's been doing various arts and crafts since age 4 and loves to sit down and get creative. We headed into my craft room and she went through my "extra's bin" and pulled out a few things to work on.

First up...the Jack Skeleton Hand-Painted Clam Shell (Seashell) that took a few hours to make as she had to let the paint dry in between the coats. We used really large clam shells that we collected from the beach last month and each seashell measures about 6" wide at its widest point.

If you're looking for more Halloween Hand-Painted Seashells and Clam Shell designs, you can find them over on my main blog called Two Classy Chics. We have a large Crafting with Kids section where you'll find all kinds of cool craft projects to do with the kids!

She painted on two coats of white acrylic paint, leaving each coat dry for about 30 minutes before proceeding to the next step. Using black acrylic paint she painted on two black colored eyes, a nose and a mouth. You can see the shape, size and placement by referring to the photograph Let the face paint dry for about an hour.

Take the painted clam shells (seashells) outside and lay them down on a sheet of newspaper or aluminum foil. Lightly spray two coats of clear acrylic sealer (glossy finish) on top of the painted design. Let dry for several hours. The sealer will protect the painted design and you can use your painted seashells indoors or outdoors.

The second project was a Hand-Painted Black Cat which is totally appropriate for Halloween. I had an unfinished cat wooden shape in my craft bin that I had picked up on clearance at a local craft supply store last year for about a dollar. I had never gotten around to painting it or decorating it.

For this...she took aluminum foil and wrapped strips of foil around the rope hanging cord to protect it from paint. She took it outside and laid it on top of two sheets of newspaper. She used black spray paint to paint the front of the cat. She waited an hour, flipped it over and painted the back side. Waited another hour (make sure it's dry) and brought it inside.

Take the aluminum foil off of the rope hanging cord. She used a white chalk paint marker and wrote the word BOO! on the front of the cat. She kept it really simple which I like! After that was dry, we took it back outside and sprayed a light coat of clear acrylic sealer on each side of the black cat to protect the paint. This cat now hangs on the back door over at her house as a Halloween decoration.

Both of these projects are great for older kids to work on and they don't cost a lot of money. If you don't have access to large clam shells, go out and find some smooth river rocks and paint your design on top of the rock. You can always find unfinished wood holiday theme'd items in the clearance bin at your local craft store after the holiday for cheap! Pick up a few shapes this year, tuck them away and let the kids paint them for next year.

Visiting the Pumpkin Patch Scrapbook Layout Idea

Last October we took both of our grandchildren to a local petting farm and pumpkin patch for some Fall festivities. They had a chance to feed baby farm animals, ride tractors, milk a cow, climb on hay bales, go through a corn maze, take a hayride and of course...we visited the pumpkin patch to buy pumpkins for Halloween.

Today's scrapbooking page idea features one 4x6" photo of my grand daughter and my husband. Pappy happens to be the Princess' best friend! At the pumpkin patch, she selected 3 beautiful pumpkins which they later carved into jack-o-lanterns.

My background is a solid sheet of olive green cardstock. Layered on top of it is a sheet of printed scrapbooking paper in a dark red, dark orange, cream and sage green plaid pattern. It measures 12" by 8" in size. The one photo was matted onto dark orange and dark red cardstock with an 1/8" edge around each mat.

The bottom of the page features a pumpkin that I cut out using my Cricut. The pumpkin was a free pattern on the Cricut Design Studio. I cut it from orange, brown and green cardstock and then ran it through my Xyron machine to adhere it to the page. On each side of that is a chipboard dark red maple leaf. I used two different rub-on words to accent that section and one word says MEMORIES and the other word says TOGETHER.

I ran 1/4" by 12" FALL printed satin ribbon at the bottom of the plaid scrapbooking paper and at the top, to act as a frame for that section. Plus, it finished off those edges nicely. The ribbon is in an orange color and has the word FALL printed on it with brown maple leaves.

I had some dark red and dark orange alpha stickers and used those to spell out the words PUMPKIN PATCH. I placed each alpha sticker onto a yellow cardstock square. I then framed those squares with dark red cardstock. I used my postal stamp edged scissors to make a design around the edge of the red cardstock to add interest to the alpha letter blocks.

To finish up, I had a pack of Soft Spoken sticker embellishments that had a 3-dimensional bat sticker which I added to the top left corner of the matted photo and a 3-dimensional jack-o-lantern (pumpkin stack) sticker which I added to the right of the photo.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased how this Pumpkin Patch Halloween scrapbook layout turned out. I was able to use up some of my scrap sized papers and embellishments that I had leftover from other projects. Always nice to use up things from the leftover scrap box for sure!

Note: You can click on each photo in this blog post which will open it up in a new window and in an enlarged size. This will allow you to see the details up close. Enjoy!

Fall Family Fun - Scrapbooking Page Layout Idea

I'm so far behind on my scrapbooking projects and I'm desperately trying to get caught up! Last Fall we took our grandchildren to a local farm for some fun Autumn festivities. Our beautiful 6 1/2 year old granddaughter got to feed some farm animals, climb on hay bales, go through a corn maze, drive a tractor, go on a hayride and then we went pumpkin picking in their pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun!

This scrapbooking layout is done in the classic 12x12 format size and features a fun and easy Fall layout idea.

The background is a solid sheet with a texture piece of cardstock in olive green. I slightly cropped down my 3 photographs and then matted them onto dark orange and dark olive green cardstock, leaving an 1/8" edge around each of the mats.

I cut a strip measuring 3 1/2" by 12" in size from a piece of plaid print scrapbook paper. It's in fall colors and ran that towards the bottom of the layout. Along each long-edge of that strip I ran printed self-adhesive ribbon, also in an autumn print. It just finishes off the edges of the paper strip nicely and adds some texture to the page.

I used my Cricut to cut out the acorn and leaf design you see running across the top of the page. It's a design in their design gallery and I used chocolate brown and medium orange cardstock to make it. I then used small alpha letters (stickers) to spell out the name GIA and put that on one of the acorns and spelled out the year 2015 which I placed on top of the second acorn.

The only other embellishments that I added to the page are located towards the bottom. I had a self-adhesive leaf embellishment (one of the jelly-stickers) that I placed on the right of the photo and then on the left of the bottom photo you'll see a chipboard dark red maple leaf that I layered onto dark orange and olive green cardstock squares. I used decorative edge scissors around both square's edges.

To finish up, I used the same alpha stickers that I used earlier to spell out the word "Autumn" and the word "Fall" and placed those words near the embellishments on the bottom of this Fall & Autumn Scrapbooking Page.

Note: All photos featured in this blog post are clickable. If you click on each one, it will automatically open up in a new browsing window and in an enlarged size. This will allow you to see all of the smaller details close-up. Visiting my Scrapbooking board on Pinterest to see hundreds more FREE scrapbooking layout designs.

Autumn - Fall Scrapbooking Page Layout Idea

Last Fall we took both of our grandchildren to a local farm for some fun autumn festivities. My grandson was only 5 weeks old, so he didn't get to participate, but he was there. My granddaughter who was 6 1/2 years old got to climb hay bales, go through corn mazes, go on a hayride, drive a tractor, feed some of the animals on the farm and so forth.

This 12x12" scrapbooking page features two 4x6" photos that I took that day. These 2 photos turned out so pretty and I wanted them to be the main focus on the page, so I opted to keep my papers, colors and embellishments simple, so that they didn't distract from the photographs.

My background is a sheet of chocolate brown cardstock. Layered on top is a sheet of printed scrapbooking paper done with a distressed texture and a muted print in shades of brown, dark red, dark orange and dark yellow on a teal green background. I cut that down to measure 11" square, so that you can see the chocolate brown cardstock peeking out on all four sides.

Each of the two photos are matted onto dark orange and chocolate brown cardstock with an 1/8" border around each mat. I had a piece of printed paper that had an all-over fall leaf pattern on it and decided to use my small & sharp scissors to cut around 2 large leaves and 2 smaller leaves. I then took a glue stick and glued them onto my background as you see in the photo. The two smaller leaves stick out onto a little bit of the brown cardstock to add dimension and all 4 of them are peeking out from underneath the photos

To finish up, I decided to use small clear alpha sticker letters to spell out words to describe that Fall & Autumn fun day, instead of doing a journaling block or tag which I thought would distract from the two beautiful photos of my grandchildren. I simply spelled out both of their names, the date and a few other words related to Fall and placed those words around the page.

Overall, I love how simple this page is. Because I opted to go with simple embellishments, no journaling block and no page title, those two photos of my grandchildren are the main focus of the page! Yipppee! I accomplished what I wanted!

Note: All photos in this blog post are clickable. Click on each one and it will open up automatically in a new browsing window and in an enlarged size. This will allow you to see all of the smaller details up close. You can find additional scrapbooking page layouts & ideas right here on my crafting blog.

Craft Project - Quick & Easy No-Sew Pumpkin for Fall

Last Fall we made several of these Quick and Easy No-Sew fabric pumpkins and used them in our Fall & Halloween decorating here around our home. You can basically make these fabric pumpkins any size that you would like...which is how I made them!

You can use your new pumpkins to decorate for Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving!

No-Sew Fabric Pumpkins for Fall

orange cotton fabric
poly-fiberfill stuffing
3 to 4 artificial green leaves
raffia (looks like straw)
1/4" diameter by 2" long twig
hot glue and hot glue gun
dinner & dessert plates (for circle templates)
sharp fabric scissors

I used various sized dinner and dessert plates to make my circle templates. I simply traced around them directly onto my orange cotton fabric and then cut the circles out using sharp fabric scissors. Take one circle and place a handful or two of stuffing into the center of it. Using your hands, gather up the edges to close it up and tack it down with hot glue. (You may want to use a needle and thread and just hand-gather it up if you find it too difficult to do it the way I explained above). Before the glue is dry, shove your twig down the center and add more hot glue to secure it. Once you have it glued shut, use your hands to move the stuffing around until it resembles a pumpkin with a semi-flat bottom. Use your hot glue gun to glue on 3 or 4 artificial green leaves (around the twig stem) and let dry. Cut the raffia into 6" and 8" long pieces and tie a few of them around the twig stem to resemble straw.

Quick & Easy Fabric Ghost Craft Project for Halloween

Last weekend I finally unpacked my sewing machine and had a few hours to spend crafting & sewing. It was great to sit down and have some "me" time since I haven't had the chance to do that since we moved into our new home. With that said, I wanted to make a few new Halloween decorations and came up with this quick & easy ghost made from scraps of fabric and a few other supplies that I already had on hand.

Quick & Easy Fabric Ghost Craft Project

Scraps of white cotton fabric (fat quarter will work)
scraps of plaid print cotton fabric
2 orange buttons plus tan colored embroidery floss
fine point black and orange fabric marker
fiber fill stuffing or cotton batting shredded up
white sewing thread, scissors, sewing machine
cosmetic blush in rosy pink color
hand drawn pattern
bottle of fabric glue
fishing line

Pattern: The body is 2 pieces of fabric sewn together, seams facing out and the arms are two pieces sewn together, seams facing out. I simply just sketched out the shape I wanted for the ghost's body and the shape for his arms onto plain paper. My ghost measures 5" tall to help guide you on size. I then used this as my pattern.

I used my sewing machine to make the body first, left the bottom open, stuffed it and then sewed it shut. I then did the ghost's arms in the same manner and just tacked them to the back of the ghost with a little fabric glue. You could stitch them into place.

I used fine point fabric markers to make his face features and a little cosmetic blush for his cheeks. I cut a strip from plaid print fabric, tied it around his neck and accented it with an orange button. I cut two small fabric squares from print fabric and used fabric glue to attach them to his body along with another orange button.  I cut an 8" long piece of fishing line and threaded it through the top of his head and knotted it. This will allow you to hang him up if desired.

I made several of these ghosts varying in shape & size and have them hanging via a suction cup on my large picture window in our living room. They look adorable. I also made some black bats with green & orange eyes on a much smaller scale and they are hanging up on the window too.

Note: If you want a "cleaner" look to your Halloween Ghost...you can sew your fabric pieces right side together and then flip them out so no seams are visible. However, I think they look cuter with the seams showing and some fraying going on.

Ghost Made from Mini Clay Flower Pot - Halloween Craft Project

Terracotta Flower Pot Ghost

Last weekend I had some time to sit down and do some Fall and Halloween crafting. I had enough supplies on-hand to make this adorable Ghost made from a mini terra cotta flower pot, wooden ball, craft foam and a few other basic crafting supplies. In one afternoon I was able to whip up three of these in just a matter of a few hours and most of that time was spent waiting for the acrylic paint to dry.

Supplies Needed:

3" tall clay flower pot
1 1/4" diameter wood ball
white, black and orange craft foam
hot glue gun and glue sticks
scissors
string mini black beads
black marker
white acrylic paint and foam paint brush
small scrap satin ribbon (for hat trim)
small amount of embroidery floss 

Lay newspaper down on your work surface. Using the foam paint brush, paint the clay pot (terra cotta flower pot) white and the wooden ball. Let dry completely. Sketch out some ghost arms in a wing shape on plain paper, Cut it out with scissors and use as your pattern. I simply just played around with my sketch until I had it the size that I wanted. Trace the shape onto white craft foam and cut it out. From black craft foam cut out a 2" circle to serve as the base of the ghost's hat. Then cut out a strip to make the hat and a smaller top circle. I completely free-handed mine until they were the size that I needed. Glue the three black craft foam pieces together to form a hat. Note: I found that craft glue worked well too if you don't have hot glue.

I drew the letters B O O onto orange craft foam and cut them out. Use a black maker to make the ghost's eyes, mouth, bow tie and belt. Let dry for a few minutes to prevent smearing. Glue the satin ribbon around hat and then glue the hat on top of the round wooden bead. Let dry. Glue ghost's head onto the top of the clay pot, let dry. Glue ghost's arms/wings onto the back side of the clay pot, let dry. Measure the length that you need from the black mini beads. Use embroidery floss & a needle to attach the letters onto the strand of black beads to make a garland. Glue garland to the ghost's arms as shown in the photo above.

Note: If children are helping you to make these clay pot ghosts, I would suggest using a quick-drying all-purpose craft glue instead of a glue gun. It will take a little long to make them but it's much safer then letting kids use hot glue guns.

Clay Pot Scarecrow Craft Project for Fall and Halloween



I love decorating the inside and outside of my home for the Fall holidays, don't you? Well today, we got a great craft project for all of you! Even if you are not a big crafter, you can make this adorable Clay Pot Scarecrow in just one afternoon or weekend!

You can use hot glue and a glue gun to glue them together but if you find they are not staying put, try using some E6000 glue/adhesive.

Clay Pot Scarecrow

Four 2" clay pots
Two 1 1/2" clay pots
Two 1" diameter wood balls
One 4" clay pot
One 3" clay pot
One straw hat
Raffia
Acrylic Paint: Royal Blue, Black, Red, Yellow, Silver, Flesh (peach), Gold and Brown
Paint Brush
Clear Acrylic Sealer (comes in spray can)
Hot Glue and Glue Gun

You can paint your clay pots any way that you would like or follow my photo for some guidance. Once they are done drying, spray them with the acrylic sealer, it dries clear and will protect the paint. Let dry.

Glue together two 2" pots for each leg. Glue the wooden balls inside the clay pot for each arm (they form the hands). Glue the arms to the side of the 4" clay pot to form his body, arms and hands. Once dry, glue this pot onto the top of his legs. Glue his head onto the top of his body and then glue his straw hat on top. Make sure everything is glued solidly and is nice and firm. Tie a bow around his neckline using the raffia (resembles straw). Let him completely dry before using him. Enjoy!

Halloween Craft Project - Ghost Sitting in Mini Tote Craft Project Idea



Back in the Fall of 2012, I made up several of these Ghost's sitting in mini tote Halloween decorations and gave them to some of my family & friends. Today, I thought I would share the craft & sewing project with all of you.

Mini Tote Bag

1 pre-made 4" by 5" muslin mini tote bag
orange, black & green fabric markers
6" square black lace
orange satin ribbon
glue gun
scissors

I started with a muslin mini tote bag that I had purchased at the craft store. I then used the fabric markers to make my design onto the front of the tote...which varies from each one that I made. This one has a pumpkin and the words Trick or Treat. I used my hot glue gun to glue the piece of black lace (black lace square) down into the bottom of the mini tote with just a few inches of it peeking up from the opening & sides. You need to be careful to NOT glue your tote bag shut because your muslin ghost will sit inside the tote once done. Use the orange satin ribbon and tie a bow around one of the tote's handles.

Muslin Ghost

2 pieces of muslin fabric 7" tall by 6" wide
black fabric marker
7" piece of jute rope
poly-fiberfill stuffing
sewing machine, white thread
scissors

I made my own ghost pattern and simply drew a ghost shape onto a piece of paper. I traced my pattern onto each piece of muslin and then cut it out using fabric scissors. I used my sewing machine and sewed around the edges, leaving about 2" open at the buttom. Turn the ghost right-side out and stuff with fiberfill stuffing. Sew or hot glue your opening shut. Use your black fabric marker to make 2 eyes and a mouth on the front of your ghost. Tie the piece of jute rope around his waistline and fasten or tie it close in the back. Place your new muslin ghost inside your mini tote bag and either hang it up or sit it on a table or shelf. Cute and very easy to make! Enjoy!

Halloween Preschool Craft Project - Felt Ghost Door Knob Hangers

I have an almost 4 year old grand daughter who attends a local preschool here in our area and once a month I volunteer my time go to into her preschool and help the children with an easy craft project. Back in early of October 2012, I went into her school and we made these adorable ghosts out of felt. Once completed, the kids can hang them onto door knobs, cabinet knobs or peg shelves...or glue some magnets onto the back and turn them into refrigerator magnets. The choice is entirely up to you.

We did this craft project with a group of 3 1/2 to 5 year old kids but you will need to supervise them while they are working on them. Here is the supplies list and instructions on how to make them. The supplies list is PER ghost that you make.

Felt Ghost Door Knob Hangers

Two 5" by 4 1/2" pieces of white felt
black magic marker or wiggle eyes x 2
1/8" by 5" piece of orange satin ribbon
8" piece of jute rope
bottle of quick-drying tacky glue
1" scrap square of fabric
scissors or pinking sheers

We made our own pattern by just drawing a ghost shape onto a piece of paper. We used that pattern and then traced it onto 2 pieces of white craft felt. Cut out your two ghost shapes using pinking sheers or scissors. Using tacky glue, glue each end of jute at the upper arm area on one ghost shape. Use the tacky glue to place a thin line of glue around the perimeter of the one ghost shape and then sandwich the second ghost shape on top. If desired, these can be sewn with a sewing machine ahead of time & then just let the children decorate them, entirely up to you!

Use the magic marker to draw eyes onto the ghost or glue wiggle eyes onto it's head. Add the orange satin ribbon bow at the neckline and then glue the scrap square of fabric onto the front of the ghost at the bottom left corner. Let dry.

You can find the matching Halloween Black Cat preschool craft project here on my blog too, just look in the Halloween and/or Felt categories. Enjoy! 

Halloween Preschool Craft Project - Felt Black Cat Door Knob Hanger

My almost 4 year old grand daughter attends a local preschool and once a month I go into our preschool as a volunteer to help the kids do a craft project. These are kids ages 4 and 5 years of age. Back in early October of 2012, we sat down with the kids and made these adorable Black Cat door knob hangers or you can hang them off any knob or a peg shelf to add some Halloween decorations to your home.

This project involves NO sewing and is simply a glue together project for the kids. Here is the materials list and how we made them. The materials list gives you the supplies PER black cat.

No-Sew Felt Black Cat Door Knob Hangers

black cotton fabric with tiny white polka dots 4 1/2" by 4 1/2" piece
black felt 4" by 4 1/2" piece
bottle of quick-drying tacky glue
pinking shears scissors or regular scissors
4 1/2" black pipe cleaner
2 white buttons
1 black button
1/8" wide by 4" long orange satin ribbon
8" long piece of jute rope

We hand drew a cat outline onto a piece of paper to use as our pattern. Our cat measures approximately 4 1/4" tall by 4 1/4" wide. Trace your pattern onto the back side of the black fabric and onto the back side of your black felt. Use pinking sheers to cut out the cat shapes (adults may need to do this part). Lay the black felt cat down onto your table and use tacky glue to glue each end of the jute rope at the top of each ear. Use tacky glue to glue the pipe cleaner tail to the right side bottom of the cat. Place a thin and small amount of tacky glue around all edge of the black piece of felt and then place the black with white polka dot fabric cat on top. You are basically making a "sandwich" with the fabric, felt, jute and pipe cleaner.

Have the kids glue 2 white buttons onto the cat's face for his eyes and 1 black button onto his face for his nose. Make a bow with the orange satin ribbon and glue it onto the cat neck to add an additional accent or glue it around his neck to make a collar. Let the cat dry for an hour or two and he will then be ready to hang!

The kids really enjoyed making this project and a few days later we did it again but we made Halloween Ghosts. You can also find the directions for that here on my blog in the Halloween section. Enjoy!

Scrapbooking - The Pumpkin Patch Scrapbook Layout Idea

A few weeks ago we took our little 3 1/2 year old grand daughter to the local Pumpkin Patch to pick out some pumpkins for Halloween! We spent the afternoon at the Pumpkin Patch and when we were done, she had selected 4 beautiful pumpkins! This scrapbook layout was done in the 12x12 size and is titled "Found Four". You can click on the photo to enlarge it to see the details!!!

I used the software that came with my Nikon digital camera to print out my photos and added these cute Halloween frames around them. Their photo frames with that software are adorable! My background is a sheet of 12x12 textured solid black cardstock. To add some depth, I used some plastic magic mesh in a silver metallic and ran two strips of that across my page. I believe each strip measures 3" by 12" in length. The silver goes great with the silver in the photo frames and really pulls it together.

I made my own bottom border using a strip of orange striped scrapbooking paper and it measures 1" by 12" and I rain 1/8" bronze color strips along each long edge to finish it up. The bronze color looks nice against the orange. I used black sticker letters in a funky font and placed them onto orange squares of cardstock and then used black ink around all edges of the square. I placed them onto the layout using glue dots. (Title: Found Four).

The rest of the layout features a few Halloween cardstock 3-dimensional stickers: Pumpkin, Leaves, Black Cat, Spider and Jack-o-lantern. I did the journaling in my own handwriting right above my bottom border strip. I feel it is important to do some handwriting on your scrapbook layouts when you can. Way too often we use computer generated stuff and trust me, future generations want to SEE your handwriting!!!

Overall, I am very please with this layout! You can click on the Scrapbooking or Halloween category here in my craft blog to find additional Halloween layouts too! Happy Scrapbooking!

Scrapbooking - Halloween Pumpkin Patch Scrapbook Layout Idea

A few weeks ago we took our little 3 1/2 year old grand daughter to a local Pumpkin Patch for the first time. At first, she wasn't sure what it was all about, but once we got parked and she saw all of those glorious orange pumpkins for picking, well... She is was off and running!

I took several photos of us the family at the Pumpkin Patch and over the next week or so, I will share with all of you a few of the scrapbooking layouts that I made. You can click on the photo above to enlarge it to see details.

I used my Nikon camera software to print out the photos and I used the software to add a cute Halloween theme'd border around them. I think they turned out darling & it saved me time because I didn't have to mat and frame my photos with scrapbooking paper. The layout above features 3 of those photos which I placed onto solid black textured cardstock measuring 12x12" in size.

The bottom border is one that I made myself and simply took it from a coloring book and scanned it into my computer. I then printed it out onto white cardstock and used chalks to color it in. I then used scissors and cut it out. I glued it to the bottom of my layout and I think it turned out super nicely.

I used my Cricut to cut out my title letters of PUMPKIN PATCH and the year of 2012 from orange colored cardstock. I believe I used the 1 1/4 size setting on the Circut. I used a liquid glue pen to put them onto my background paper. I made 2 satin ribbon bows from neon green satin ribbon and glued them onto the layout using a glue pen to accent 2 of the photos. I love the "pop" of the neon green!

The other 2 small journaling blocks were made from cardstock stickers and one says "PICK ME" and the other one simply has my grand daughter's name on it. She took her good old time picking pumpkins that day!

A really simple & uncluttered layout that only took me 30 minutes to make. I love it when I can make nice looking layouts that only cost $2.00 to make! Yeah!!!

Scrapbooking | Toddler Girl Fall and Halloween Scrapbook Layout Idea

I am finally just getting around to scrapbooking my grand daughters fall and Halloween photos from last year. You can click on the photos in this post to enlarge them to see the details. I had 4 photos of my grand-wee-one that I wanted to use in the layout. I cropped 3 of them down to a smaller size and matted them onto dark olive green and dark red cardstock, leaving an 1/8" edge around each mat. For the 4th photo, I used my small trimming scissors and cut her out of the photo.

The layout was done on a 12x12 piece of mustard yellow textured cardstock. I then had a sheet of leaf print scrapbooking paper and cut two corner pieces out of that sheet and glued them onto my cardstock to make my own background. I then placed my 3 matted photos onto the layout next using glue dots.

I used a leaf punch and from cardstock I punched out 2 yellow leafs and 2 pale orange leafs that measure 1" in size. I chalked around their edges with dark brown chalk to add depth. I then over-lapped them together using glue. I placed one set under the bottom photo and wrote on them Oct. 2010. I placed the other set under the top right photo and wrote FALL on those. I used foam dots to place them onto the layout to add depth & interest.

I cut out my own journaling block from medium orange and light orange cardstock. I inked around the edges with black ink. I did the journaling in my own handwriting and glued it onto the layout in the top left corner. I placed adhesive foam dots onto the back of the cut-out photo of my grand-wee-one and placed the bottom third of that photo onto the journaling block.
I had a self-adhesive border that was in a fall leaf pattern and cut it down to measure 1/2" by 5" and 1/2" by 5 1/2" in size. I placed one of those along the right edge of the top right photo and placed the other one underneath the bottom left photo to add interest. I accented the left side of the bottom photo with 3 pumpkin stickers that I attached with foam dots.

I had a package of "real" dried leaves from Leaving Prints (tm) and glued a few of those onto my layout using a glue pen. They were too delicate for glue dots (ripped one of them). I layered a green leaf with a yellow leaf using a glue pen and placed it underneath the bottom right photo. I then wrote "FALL FUN" onto it to serve as my small title block of the page.

The photos are of my grand daughter during the end of October and early November and they worked well together and I got them all onto one page. Overall, I am very pleased with how this layout turned out. You can click on the photos in this post to enlarge them to see all the details. Thanks for reading my craft blog!

Quick and Easy | Halloween Pooh Bear Scrapbooking 12x12 Layout Idea

This ia great beginners layout for someone who is just learning to do scrapbooking or for someone who likes quick and easy pages. This layout was made a few months ago by my daughter and it features my little grand daughter in her Monarch Butterfly Costume.

She did the layout in the 12x12 format and the background is a simple sheet of white cardstock. Using wavy edge scissors, she cut out a strip that measures 1" wide by 12" long and ran that at the top of her page to add interest. She used a Trick or Treat page title at the top and centered it on her black cardstock strip.

I hand drew some black bats and cut them out and she used 2 of those on her layout. We used a glow in the dark gel pen and gave them glowing orange eyes. She used one photo in the layout and cropped it down to the size she wanted. She mounted it onto black and orange cardstock leaving an 1/8" edge and rounded all of the corners. She used my Cricut machine to cut out her BOO letters from orange cardstock. She also used my Cricut to cut out a dark green leaf and she used that as her exclaimation point along with a dark green circle that use obtained by using a hole punch.

I gave my little grand daughter a Halloween card that featured Winnie The Pooh so we cut him out and sprayed him with archival mist. She then mounted it to her page on the right side. She used a ghost cardstock sticker in the bottom right corner.

Happy Scrapbooking!

Kids Crafts | Paper Plate Scarecrow Craft Project Idea

Paper Plate Scarecrow Craft by Rachel Paxton

Kids love scarecrows, and fall is a great time to do scarecrow crafts with your preschool aged child. With a paper plate and some other items you may already have laying around your house, you and your child can create this scarecrow craft in no time.

Supplies needed:

Paper plates
Google eyes
Brown construction paper
Orange construction paper
Raffia
Red pipe cleaner
Craft feathers
Scissors
Rubber cement
Glue gun (optional)

Note: Many of the above items can be substituted with things you might already have. For instance, you can use felt or craft foam instead of construction paper, or straw or shredded paper instead of raffia. Your child could also draw the face with markers instead of gluing it on.

To get started, cut several pieces of raffia about 3-4 inches long. This will be the scarecrow's hair. Next glue the raffia to each side edge of the plate, toward the top. The hat will cover the top edge of the hair. I chose to use hot glue for this step and did the gluing for my children. The hot glue works the best to get the raffia stuck on there quickly.

Next use the scissors to cut a hat out of brown construction paper. You can make any shaped hat your child would like. If your child is old enough to cut out a shape, draw the hat on the paper for him and let him cut it out himself. Then have your child brush some rubber cement on the back of the hat and glue it on top of the scarecrow's hair.

After you have the hair and hat in place, have your child brush glue where the eyes will go and have him stick the eyes on. Next cut a small triangle from the orange construction paper and have your child glue the nose on the scarecrow's face.

Next cut a red pipe cleaner in half, have your child shape half of it into a mouth, and then have him glue it on the scarecrow. Last but not least, have your child place some glue on the end of a feather and have him slide it under a corner of the scarecrow's hat.

That's it! Your preschooler will be so proud of his scarecrow, he won't be able to wait to show it to everyone!

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com/.

Scrapbooking Quick and Easy Halloween 12x12 Scrapbook Layout Idea

I love scrapbooking for various holidays and scrapbooking for Halloween is no exception. A few months ago I finally got around to scrapbooking this layout which features my little grand daughter dressed up in her Monarch Butterfly Halloween Costume.

I used a preprinted Halloween background paper that I purchased at Joann's in the 12x12 size. It had these cute pumpkins running down the left border of the page. I cropped down my one photo, rounded the corners and mounted it onto black cardstock, rounded the corners and mounted it onto orange cardstock. I left 1/8" border on all photo mounts. I then used glue dots to attach it to the top of my page.

I used my Cricut machine to cut out my BOO letters from orange cardstock on the #2 setting. I then did the shadow effect and cut them out again from black cardstock and then glued them together. I mounted my letters near the upper right of the page using a fine tip glue pen.

I purchased a premade file folder that had FALL LEAVES printed on it and used that to hold my journaling. It was really plain looking so I added my own black and white check pattern ribbon across it along with a hand drawn black bat that I hand cut out. I gave my bat glow in the dark orange eyes. I did my journaling and tucked it inside the file folder.

I purchased a few Halloween 3-D embellishments of ghosts, bats and a moon that had glittery sparkles on them and mounted those onto my page near the bottom left. I think this page turned out great!

Halloween Candle Making: 3 Fun Projects for the Holiday

Halloween Candle Making: 3 Fun Projects for the Holiday
By Jason Kinech

Halloween is like almost all of the holidays: it makes people start to get crafty. Those that never touch construction paper are all of the sudden instant Martha Stewarts, desperately trying to out-craft their neighbors. Unfortunately, this usually results in excellent attempts, but with sometimes pitiful results. So how do you ensure that your spooky candles turn out well? Start simple!

Instead of immediately going for the bleeding skull candle, start with much simpler candle making projects that are just as appropriate for Halloween. To make it easy, here are 3 dead simple projects that you can do:

The Mini Pumpkin Tea Light

Alright, I'll be honest. There is actually no candle making involved in this particular project. However, it costs less than 2 dollars and you can make as many as you want to. All you need is a mini pumpkin (3-4 inches), a tea candle, and either a candle carver or a biscuit cutter. You could also just use a knife or screwdriver.

First we need to pick out a good mini pumpkin. No need for perfection here, we just need something that is going to be level and easy to work with. Next, choose your weapon! Whether you choose the candle carver, knife, or screwdriver, the goal is the same: cut out a circle the same size as a tea light candle.

If you aren't exactly sure on size, just cut a little bit off of the pumpkin so that it is level, then rest the tea light on top and trace around it. This will give you a good indication of the exact size area that you need to cut. Cut straight down then just chisel out inside the circle with a screwdriver, butter knife, or an actual chisel. Remember: safety first! Please be careful whenever using anything sharp. Once you have the area chiseled out for the tea light, drop it in and light. These make great gifts of the neighbors, or you can set up out along your driveway on trick or treat night.

Pumpkin Pie Floating Candles

This project is very easy and goes quickly. Even better, you'll actually be doing some candle making! We're going to make 3 scents: cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin. When all 3 are lit it will smell almost identical to a fresh pumpkin pie. Of course if you don't feel like making 3 different candles, you could easily just blend the scents together.

As with most candle making projects, we're going to start by finding and preparing the mold. To make floating candles I usually just use a heat proof bowl and only pour the wax about.5 to 1 inch thick. This makes for a candle guaranteed to float without any problems. Just rub your heatproof bowls with some vegetable oil to make sure that the candle releases easily.

After your molds are prepped you're ready to focus on the scents. For the cinnamon and nutmeg candles you'll just add the fresh spices to the wax, so those are easy. The only scent that we need to make is the pumpkin, and it is much easier than you'd think.

Simply warm about a cub of vegetable oil in a saucepan to about 100 to 150 degrees, it shouldn't be hot. Next, wash and peel the skin from a pumpkin then add it to the oil, you want about a cup of peelings. Let it steep for about 10 minutes, and then remove from the heat. If possible, let it sit for a week at room temperature (optional, but will result in a much stronger scent). If you don't do a whole week at least let it sit overnight. Then just strain out the solid pieces and you're left with your own pumpkin oil.

To make your floating candles just melt enough wax for all 3 candles, then sprinkle cinnamon into one mold and nutmeg in another. Shake them around to let the spices coat evenly in the mold, then dump out any extra. Just pour in the wax, then set your wick in the center (using pinned wicks with a tab). This little cheat means that you don't have to actually mix the scents in with the wax, saving you a step.

After the cinnamon and nutmeg candles are poured, add about a tablespoon of your pumpkin oil to the wax and mix thoroughly, then pour into your third mold. Let these all cool then float in water and light. Since you didn't add color this can really confuse your friends (everyone is used to pumpkin candles being brown), enjoy!

The Bleeding Candle

This Halloween candle making classic isn't as difficult as you'd think, and we're going to stick with our trusty bowl molds. Ideally, we want molds that have a smooth bottom as well; you'll see why in just a moment. But first:

Prepare your molds! I know; big surprise. Rub a little vegetable oil on the inside of one of the bowls and on the outside of another. Melt some white wax to the proper temperature and pour it into the first bowl, then insert the second bowl until there is only a 1 inch gap between them, and let cool. After it has cooled, remove the inner bowl; this will leave you with a white shell.

Melt and pour red wax until it us.5 inch below the top of the shell, then let cool again. Last step! Pour a final layer of white to cap the red (the wick should have been placed into the red pour), and let cool a final time. For a real bleeding effect drill holes up through the sides of the candle so that the melting red wax can escape.

These are just a few basic Halloween candle making ideas, but you can do almost anything you can think of. Get creative! Make a snowman from pumpkins, made a bleeding pumpkin, or even experiment with cookie cutters to make fun Halloween tarts. Once you've made a few that you're proud of, light them and show them off!

If you need specific candle making instructions just check out our free guide on how to make candles, and have fun!

Halloween Party Cakes | Holiday Fun For All

Halloween Party Cakes - Holiday Fun For All
by: Barb Ireland

Halloween will be here soon. Goblins, ghosts and ghoulish fun too. Halloween also brings with it the start of the Holiday Season, pumpkin patches, and that warm fuzzy feeling that winter is on the way. Many families celebrate with a huge bash for friends and family and even the neighborhood kids. Bobbing for apples, yummy goodies, and dressing up in costumes are just some of the fun to be had.

On my Youtube channel, I like sharing how to make my creations, guaranteed to make any party a success. You can makeyour own Halloween Cake, not the sugary kind with those extra calories we don't want, but one with all your kids favorite goodies (and yours too). You can make a cake for any age, putting their favorite surprises in it. Plus, why limit it to only a party at home? Why not, make a cake and surprise your office or even send one to your nieces and nephews?

This unique design can be customized for any size party and with your imagination you can design it for any holiday event. In fact, why not also bring a Halloween Cake to the office and spice up the day or surprise your favorite nieces and nephews. You're be their favorite aunt for sure after this.

Here are just some of the ideas for your cake:

1. Put your favorite games, stickers, Halloween-themed popcorn, and other party ideas for all to enjoy. Then they can take right from the cake and it makes a great centerpiece.

2. If you know of someone with a new baby or even a toddler, put a cute costume in your design and include a Halloween bib, and other special baby items.

3. For the office - Use the template available on our site and shred for a good base. Then add in Halloween themed coffees, candy, notepads, pens, popcorn and more for your next party cake at the office.

4. Safety cake - All kids need to be extra special careful at Halloween. You can design a cake with Halloween safety items, such as flashlights, light sticks, Halloween Trick-Or-Treat bags, etc. Tuck in little gifts, games, candy or toys for the kids too. It's Halloween; you want it to be loads of fun.

5. You can welcome a new puppy or kitten by using kitten or puppy Halloween outfits and then include a disposable camera to take pictures of them in their cute little outfits. Halloween themed chew toys and other items new pet owners will need for their kitten or puppy.

Whichever you choose, you'll be delighted you made this cake and put a smile on their faces young and old.


About The Author

Barb Ireland is the founder of Make A Diaper Cake Biz, www.makeadiapercake.biz Barb has been designing diaper and towel cakes for the last ten years,and taught others for the period of five years.

FREE Crochet Candy Corn Refrigerator Magnet Pattern

I love decorating the front of my upright freezer and the front of my refrigerator with homemade holiday magnets. In the fall of 2008, I found this free crochet pattern online to make Halloween Candy Corn magnets.

What I really like about this pattern is that its super easy, even a beginner can crochet them...and better yet, its a great way to use up some of your yellow, orange and white yarn scraps.

I made my refrigerator magnets using acrylic 4-Ply yarn and then glued magnets on the back with some all-purpose craft glue. If you decorate your home with a little Halloween ornament tree, you could omit the magnet and add a little hanging string.

You can find the pattern for FREE on the Crochet Memories Web Site ---> HERE

Have fun crocheting!