Halloween is just around the corner and kids are thinking about their costumes. This is a wonderful time to channel their energy with easy projects and encourage their creative expression.
Here are four craft ideas to help guide their decisions. These fun projects can be accomplished with little effort and with basic supplies from around the house or a trip to a craft or dollar store.
Spooky Painted Blue Jeans
Add some flair and spooky colours to a pair of old blue jeans or jean skirt with splashes of paint. All you need is orange, black and white fabric paint and paintbrushes. This is a messy project, so be sure to protect any furniture or flooring with old sheets. Begin with white strokes of paint all over the jeans. Then, brush on orange and black in long, curving strokes. Try flicking or spattering the paint too. To finish off, sprinkle with glitter glue. Be creative and flexible! Add your own touches. Let the jeans dry before wearing them to school to show your friends.
Pumpkin Brooches
These brooches or pins are fun to wear in October. Make several and give them to your friends to wear at Halloween parties or while trick-or-treating. Cut two orange felt pumpkin shapes about two inches around. Glue them together with fabric glue. Decorate the pumpkin face with googly eyes, a black felt triangle nose and black felt mouth. Glue on a one-inch green pipe cleaner stem. Next, cut a piece of stiff cardboard the same size as the pumpkin and glue it to the back of the pumpkin. Tape a safety pin to the back and then pin it onto your costume. Try other designs such as a black cat, bat or ghost.
Orange & Black Pom-Pom Necklace
Make several of these fun necklaces and give them to your friends. To make the pom-poms, wrap orange and black yarn around two fingers (for small pom-poms) or four fingers (for larger pom-poms). Keep wrapping the yarn around your fingers many times until you’ve created a large ball around them. Then, carefully slide the yarn off your fingers and tie a piece of yarn around the center in a tight knot. Cut through the loops on both sides of the pom-pom, shake and trim. Create as many pom-poms as needed for the necklace. Thread a needle with a long length of yarn and then push the needle through the centre of each pom-pom and space them on the yarn to create the necklace.
Jack-o-Lantern Pockets
Add pizzazz to your pants or jeans back pockets! Using a piece of white chalk or an erasable marker, draw a large pumpkin shape on the back pockets of your pants. Using orange embroidery floss and a needle, stitch around the outer edge of the pumpkin using a chain stitch. (Google how to chain stitch on YouTube). Stitch the eyes and mouth with black embroidery thread and the stem with green thread. Let your needle be your pencil!
