Craft Camp: Halloween Fun

         Happy Halloween everyone! Today is the day where all our little Ghouls and Boys will be getting dressed up to do the Trick or Treating rounds- our Littles are all ready awake they are so excited! I like to balance out a high sugar- high energy day like today with a little bit of quiet time- some holiday art making to go along with a healthy after school snack- before more sugar and craziness ensues!

        This is a super simple Halloween project- striped pumpkins- a little fine motor skills work out with all the paper cutting is the perfect thing a busy five year old needs to get him to sit still and chill out for a few minutes. If your Little is still a true little and is not yet at the scissor stage then feel free to cut out the stripy bits. For this project use some fun, fancy paper- Micheal's (craft store) has three pieces of scrapbooking paper for $1.00 right now- so I selected some appropriate Halloween colours- but you can also use whatever you have on hand.

  Step 1- cut out decorative paper into long stripes- vary the widths and angles- this doesn't need to be accurate- especially if the kids are doing the cutting.

Step 2- using a basic glue stick glue stripes down to a sturdy piece of card stock- this piece needs to be a more robust piece of paper- I would suggest a piece of bristol board or heavy card stock.

Step 3- once the entire back piece of paper is covered in decorative paper stripes allow the glue to dry- go back and touch up any spots where the glue might have been missed.

Step 4- once the glue is dry- flip the entire project over and sketch out a pumpkin- use a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter as a template if you need to for a bunch of mini pumpkins or sketch out one large pumpkin that uses up the entire paper. We chose to make a batch of mini pumpkins to use on Halloween cards- we fit nine mini pumpkins on a 12 x 12 sheet of paper. 

       These cute mini striped pumpkins can be affixed to a blank card or used as decorations on a door- we are going to hand out glow sticks and I'm going to tape them to the back of our mini pumpkins- really there are countless ways this cute craft can be used! I love the graphic nature of the stripes- they almost feel a bit quilted.

      Our pumpkins are carved, costumes are complete and everyone is geared up to get their Trick Or Treat on- I hope you all have a super fun and super safe day! Happy Halloween!

PS- if you need me I will be the one in a sugar coma after eating all the kid's candy!