Halloween Tree

The Tree:

Materials:
*Black wire
*Styrofoam base

Directions:
*Determine the height that you would like your Halloween tree to be.  Cut six lengths of wire about an inch longer than the desired height and twist the wire pieces together.  This will form the trunk of your tree. 
*Note: the trunk may seem rather narrow after the initial step and you can add more wires if you would like a thicker trunk, but once you start wrapping wire around for the branches your trunk will become wider anyway.
*Cut another length of wire about as long as the six lengths of wire you used to form the trunk. 
*Begin wrapping the wire around the trunk and continue wrapping until you reach the height at which you would like the highest up branch to be.  Bend the wire to form a branch.
*Take a second piece of wire and wrap it around the trunk until you reach the location of the branch, then twist the branch and the new piece of wire together.  If you would like the branch to fork, bend the ends away from each other before twisting and make sure not to twist them together.
*Depending on how thick you would like your branches to be, you may want to add a third, fourth, and maybe a fifth piece of wire to the branch.
*Continue creating branches in the manner in which you made the first branch.  As you go, the trunk will become thicker and you may find the need to cut your lengths of wire a bit longer to make branches of the desired length.
*Once you have constructed your tree, stick the end in a piece of styrofoam which will hold the tree up.

Decorating the base of the tree:

Materials:
*Foam
*Gray paint
*Glue
*Dried grass
*Small Philip's head screwdriver, butter knife, or some other implement that can be used for carving letters.

Directions:
*Glue dried grass all around the base of the tree.
*To make the gravestones, cut a thin piece of foam board into the shape of a tombstone.
*Use the Philip's head screwdriver to engrave the stone and add cracks and other marks to it.
*Paint the stone gray and let dry.   
*Once it has finished drying, glue it to the styrofoam base.

Ornament ideas
Bat:
Materials:
*Black pom pom
*Black felt
*Googly eyes
*Chalk
*Scissors
*Thread
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Find a template for bat wings such as this one and resize the wings so that they are about 1 1/2" wide.
*Trace the wing pattern onto a piece of black felt and cut out the wings.
*Glue a pom pom to the center of the wings to make the bat's body.
*Glue two googly eyes to the pom pom to make the bat's eyes.
*Attach a piece of string to the bat so that you can hang it from your tree.

Ball ornament:
Materials:
*Round bead of your choice
*Head pin
*Thin wire
*Pliers
*Wire cutters

Directions:
*Loop a piece of wire and slide it onto the head pin.
*Slide the round bead onto the head pin.
*Wrap the piece of wire around the round bead.  When you reach the top of the bead, wrap the wire around the head pin just above the top of the bead a few times, then trim off any excess wire.
*Use pliers to bend the head pin into an angular shape.

Cat:
Materials:
*Black clay
*Gold glitter glue
*Glue
*Thread

Directions:
*Mold clay into the shape of a cat, then bake in the oven according to the directions on the clay package.  Remove the finished clay from the oven and let cool.
*Once the clay has cooled, give the cat glittery eyes using gold glitter glue.
*Attach a piece of string to the cat so that you can hang it from your tree.

Candy ornament:
Materials:
*Aluminum foil
*Permanent marker in a Halloween color
*Small round bead
*Scissors
*Glue
*Thread

Directions:
*Color a rectangle of aluminum foil using your permanent marker.
*Glue your round bead into the center of the aluminum foil rectangle on the uncolored side.
*Take two opposite sides of the aluminum foil and slide one piece over the other, closing the bead inside.
*Twist the ends of the aluminum foil.
*Attach a piece of thread to the candy so you can hang it from your tree.

*Looking for some more cool Halloween decorating ideas?  Check out my creepy doll Halloween decoration, fuse bead Halloween magnets, and Halloween curtain blog posts from last year. 

*Also, here's a cute printable Halloween door hanger that I hang up on my front door every Halloween.  To make it more durable than the standard printable craft, cut out a piece of a cardboard cereal box to insert between the two sides of the hanger and adhere in place using double sided tape.  Then laminate either using a laminating machine or by covering the hanger in packing tape.

Three Cheap and Easy Halloween Costume Ideas

     Halloween is rapidly approaching.  If you are looking for a Halloween costume for yourself or for your children but don't have a lot of money to spare, here are a few costume ideas that are inexpensive and require little time to construct.

 

Zombie

 

Materials:
*Light colored shirt
*Scissors
*Red food coloring or red marker
*Leaves
*All purpose ashesive
*Red undershirt (optional)

Directions:
*Take your light colored shirt and cut holes in it to make it look ragged and torn.
*Take the shirt outside and rub in the dirt or grass to make the shirt look dirty.
*Using red food coloring or a red marker, color around the holes to make it look like you have been bleeding.  Add some splotches of food coloring or marker to other places on the shirt as well.
*Glue on some leaves.

 

The Paper Bag Princess

 

If you have never heard of the Paper Bag Princess before, she is a character from a children's book by Robert Munsch.  For more information about the book, see Amazon or the book's Wikipedia page.

Materials:

*2 paper bags
*Cardboard cereal box
*Gold permanent marker or paint
*Scissors
*Tape

Directions:
*Take one of the bags and cut along the side seams, then cut out the bottom of the bag.  Discard the bottom of the bag.  Your paper bag should now be in two pieces.
*Take the second paper bag and cut about halfway up the side seams, starting from the opening of the bag.
*Slide the two halves of the first paper bag into the second paper bag and adjust until the two bags are the appropriate length to fit the intended recipient of the costume.  Tape the bags together.
*Cut out arm holes.  If the slits along the side seams of the bag do not reach the arm holes, cut the slit up to the arm holes.
*Cut out a neck hole.  Add slits going diagonally from neck hole to the corners of the bag so that the costume will slide over the head of the costume wearer.
*Once the costume recipient is wearing the costume, she or he may find it helpful to tape the sides of the costume together.
*To make the crown, take a cardboard cereal box and cut out the front side.  Only the front piece is needed for this project.
*Flip the piece over so that the side with the pictures faces the table.
*Draw a rectangle as long as the cereal box is tall and add triangles or other shapes resembling the spikes of a crown to it.
*Color the crown shape gold using a permanent marker or paint.
*Cut out the crown and tape the ends together.

 

Decade costumes

 

(Photo taken by Rachel Hirsch)

     This one isn't really a craft, but it is a great idea for an inexpensive costume.  Start by searching your own closet.  Do you have any wardrobe pieces that resemble clothing from a decade or so ago?  It turned out that I had 70's attire right in my closet.  If you can't find anything that works or don't have anything that you want to wear for a decade costume, check out your local thrift shops.  You can usually find tons of great clothing items from previous decades there.

Halloween Witch Costume

 

Basic Cape

Materials:
*1-1.5 yards of fabric in material suitable for a cape (the amount will vary depending on the desired length of the cape).
*6 feet of ribbon
*Sewing machine
*Thread

Directions:
*Obtain cape fabric of desired length. 
*Fold the sides of the fabric down about half and inch or less and sew so that the edges of the cape will not fray.
*Repeat the above procedure for the bottom of the cape.
*Take the ribbon and lay it across the top of the cape.  Fold fabric over it and sew the fabric, making sure not to sew the ribbon.
*Once you have finished sewing the top of the cape, adjust the ribbon until you have the desired length for tying on one side, about 6 to 8 inches.  Sew the cape material closed over this part of the ribbon.
*Compress the fabric around the ribbon until the fabric covers about 1 1/2 feet of the ribbon, perhaps less if the person you are making a cape for is small.  Sew the cape fabric closed over this part of the ribbon.  You should have several feet of ribbon hanging out one side of the cape. 
*Trim the length of ribbon down to 6 or 8 inches.

Hat

 

Original hat:

Decorated hat:

Materials:
*Plain, basic witch hat
*1/2 yard of fabric to decorate the brim of the hat
*1/2 yard of fabric to decorate the cone of the hat
*Ribbon
*Fabric flower
*Sewing machine
*Thread
*Fabric adhesive
*Scissors

Directions:
*Take the witch hat and carefully cut the thread holding the cone of the hat to the brim.
*Cut out a cirle of fabric about half an inch wider than the brim of the hat.
*Carefully pin down the fabric, wrapping the excess fabric around the edges of the hat.
*Sew the fabric in place.
*Carefully cut out a circle of fabric on the inside of the hat and sew in place.
*Cut the thread holding the cone of the hat in its cone shape and fold out the material.
*Measure out a piece of fabric about 1/4 of an inch wider than the hat material all the way around and pin it in place, then sew the fabric onto the material.
*Turning the material inside out, fold the ends of the material back together so that it forms a cone shape again and sew together.
*Carefully glue the cone of the hat to the brim of the hat using fabric glue.
*Trim with ribbon and add a fabric flower if you wish.

 

Shoes

 

Materials:
*Pointy toed shoes
*Scrap squares of the material used for the hat
*Ribbon
*Glitter
*Glitter bond
*All purpose or fabric adhesive
*Spray-on acrylic coating in gloss finish (optional)

Directions:
*Spread newspaper across your designated work area
*If using a spray-on acrylic coating, stuff the inside of the shoes with leftover newspaper so as to prevent the coating from sticking excess glitter to the inside of the shoe.
*Create a design on the shoes by brushing glitter bond on in the desired pattern, then pouring glitter over the shoes.
*Let shoes dry for the recommended amount of time given on the glitter bond bottle.
*If you chose to, spray shoes with the acrylic coating.  Let dry.
*Take a square of fabric and fold it up like an accordion.  Glue the layers of the accordion together in the middle, then glue a piece of ribbon around the middle of the accordion.
* Spread out the edges of the fabric to form a bow shape.  You may want to use scissors to round out the ends a bit.
*Create a second bow using the same procedure as for the first one.
*Adhere the ribbons to the shoes.

Glow in the Dark Furry Eyeball Wreath

Materials:
*Foam wreath
*Black faux fur
*12 glow in the dark ping pong balls
*Black, red, blue, green, and purple permanent markers
*All purpose adhesive
*Scissors

Directions:
*If not already in strips, cut faux fur into strips and wrap around the wreath.  Glue down the fur using all purpose adhesive as you wrap it.  Let dry.
*While the wreath is drying, use the permanent markers to decorate the ping pong balls to look like eyeballs.
*Arrange the ping pong eyeballs in a manner that you find pleasing, then glue them to the wreath.

This is what my wreath looks like in the dark. 

Design Your Own Board Game

     A couple of years ago, Brian and I made a Halloween board game.  While it would be impossible to give exact directions on how to make a board game since there are so many different things you can do with games, here are some tips to help you get started, using Brian's and my board game as an example.

Materials I used:
*Photo paper
*Camera
*Paint (computer program)
*Microsoft Publisher
*Mounting squares
*Grocery store pizza box
*Printer paper
*Cardstock

Directions:
*Choose a theme.  Brian and I decided that we wanted a spooky Halloween game.
*Determine the object of the game.  What is it that a player will have to do to win the game?  For our game, we decided that the winning player would have to escape from a ghoul infested cemetery.

*Start thinking about the layout of your game board.  What will the path look like?  Will you have any special squares?  Brian and I have squares that require players to draw a card, that instruct players to take a particular shortcut, that turn players into monsters, and that turn players human again, among others.  We had special "open grave" squares that if a player landed on one, she or he would lose a turn.

*Many board games involve cards.  If you would like to include a deck of cards in your game, ask yourself what type of tools your cards will afford players.  What can they do to aid a player and what can they do to thwart a player?  In our game, we have cards that require players to move forward or backward and to move to special squares, we have cards that will turn a player into a monster, and we have cards that will turn a monster player human again.

*Once you have outlined a basic concept for your game, it's time to start thinking about the mechanics and the graphics of your game.  Will players roll dice to determine their movement, or is there some other mechanism you would like to use to determine the distance players travel?  What kind of images will you use on your game board and on your deck of cards (if you are including a deck of cards)?  What will you make your tokens out of?  What are the maximum and minimum numbers of people who can play your game?  Brian and I used a die in our game and we used images of tombstones and other cemetery related imagery.  We used paper tokens; the human ones Brian drew and the monster ones we printed from this site.  Our game is designed for 2-4 players.

*Now it's time to start designing your game.  How you go about it is really up to you.  Brian and I designed all of our graphics in Paint, with the exception of the grass and the rocks.  We photographed the rocks and the grass that we used as our board game.  After creating all of our images, we put the game board together in Microsoft Publisher and we used Microsoft Publisher to put together the images on the cards as well.  We then printed the game board onto a couple of sheets of photo paper and adhered it to cardboard obtained from a grocery store frozen pizza box.

*Write up a set of rules for your game so that others can understand how your game works.  This may also help you tie up some loose ends that you may not have thought about before.  For example, you may want to write down a note about whether two players can occupy the same space at once and if not, what happens when two players land on the same square?

If you would like to see Brian's and my game in action, check it out here or on YouTube! 

Stylish Storage Containers II

Need some ideas for creative storage containers?  Here are a couple new ones and if you're still looking for more ideas, see my original post last fall, Stylish Storage Containers, which contains five more ideas.

Duct Tape Oatmeal Canister



 

     I needed a container to store my duct tape in and realized that an oatmeal canister would be the perfect size. When figuring out how I wanted to decorate my container, I figured that nothing could be more appropriate for this canister than duct tape. 

Materials:
*Empty oatmeal canister
*Duct tape in various colors and patterns
*Permanent markers
*Scissors

Directions:
*Wrap five pieces of duct tape of varying colors and/or patterns around the canister.
*For the lid, cut out a little rectangle of duct tape.  Place it on the lid so that the bottom corners of the tape are touching the edge of the lid.
*Cut out another rectangle of duct tape and place it so that one corner touches the lid in the same spot as one of the corners of the first piece of duct tape and the other corner touches another part of the lid.
*Repeat the procedure until the entire lid has been covered.
*Add a piece of patterned duct tape or some other adornment to the center of the canister to cover up any gaps in duct tape.
*Use a permanent marker to conceal gaps in the duct tape around the edge of the lid.

Geometric Holographic Pen Bucket

 

     I've always been fond of holographic paper.  These days it reminds me of the Give Yourself Goosebumps books that I adored when I was a child.  When I found holographic paper at my local JoAnn Fabrics store, I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into my crafting.  Here's my second craft project using holographic paper:

Materials:
*Empty, clean ice cream container
*Five sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 self-adhesive holographic paper in varying colors and patterns
*Scissors

Directions:
*Cut three strips from each paper about 8 1/2" in length and 1" wide.
*Cut these strips into triangles.
*Adhere the triangles to the container in a pattern you find pleasing.

Tie Dyed Sheet

Materials:
*Fabric dye
*Rubber bands
*White or light colored sheet.

Directions:
*Divide the sheet into sections using rubber bands.  You should end up with something that looks kind of like this:

*Prepare dye solution in your sink according to the directions on the dye bottle.
*One by one, dip each section of your sheet into the dye solution, holding it in the dye for about 3 seconds.  This part can get very messy, so you shoud probably wear clothes that you wouldn't mind staining.
*Rinse the sheet under warm water, then throw in the washing machine with the rubber bands still on.
*Once the sheet is done washing, remove the rubber bands and set it out to dry.
Note: you can use the remaining dye in the dye bath to tie dye other things like T-shirts, towels, etc using the same method.  I tie dyed a T-shirt using the excess dye.