Orb of hatching spiders

You will need:
White glue
2 bowls
Plastic spoon
Balloon (I used 11 inch size)
Cheesecloth cut into 12 to 16 strips (3 x 18 inch)
Pin
Clear fishing line
Plastic spiders (I used 16 but wish I had bought more)

Empty the glue bottle into a bowl. Fill the bottle halfway with water, shake it to dilute any remaining glue, and add the contents to the bowl. Stir mixture well.

Inflate the balloon and set it aside in the other bowl.



Individually dip the cheesecloth strips into the glue, gently squeezing out the excess fluid.

Spread the strips flat on the balloon. Cover the balloon this way, leaving 3 or 4 small gaps and a 1.5" opening around the knot for tying the spiders on later. 

Let dry. I left mine to dry overnight.

Pop the balloon with a pin and remove it. 

Tie a loop for hanging the egg at one end of a long piece of fishing line. Near the top of the egg, insert the other end of the line through the cheesecloth, then reach inside and pull it out through a nearby gap and tie a spider to it. Gently pull the line back until the spider comes to rest against the egg, thereby securing the line. 

Use more fishing line to create strings f spiders. To tie them to the egg, thread one end of the line through the cheesecloth and out a gap, knot the line, and pull the knot back inside the egg. You can also attach more spiders directly to the egg simply by poking 2 or 3 legs through the cheesecloth.

Here is our finished product!

Funny Bones

Perfect mix of sweet and salty!

You will need:

1 (12 ounce) package of white chocolate chips
36 pretzel sticks of various sizes
72 mini marshmallows (about 1 cup)



1. Place the white chips in a double boiler over simmering water and melt, stirring frequently. As soon as they are done melting, remove the pan from the heat.



2. Stick marshmallows onto both ends of the pretzels, with the marshmallows' flat sides parallel to the pretzel.



3. Dip each pretzel in the chocolate and lift out with a fork, letting the excess drip back in the bowl.



4. Lay the bones on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Store in an airtight container.

 

5. Bones look best when stacked together on a plate.

 

Yummy Mummy

October has been crazy busy. I have a feeling that it is not going to slow down anytime soon either. In between throwing a large bonfire, planning a Halloween party at the library, and taking Emerson to a couple of Halloween shindigs, we sat down together for some easy craft fun.



For this project you will need a toilet paper tube, gauze, tape, a piece of white paper, googly eyes (or something that can be used as eyes) and candy.

Start by tracing two circles on a white piece of paper. cut the circles just inside the traced line so it will fit inside of the tube.

Cut the toilet paper tube in half.

Tape the white circles inside of each half of the tube.

Cut off a length of gauze. Make it long enough that it will wrap around the tube several times. Tape one end to the tube and start wrapping, overlapping as needed to create dimension.

Tuck in the other end of the gauze or tape it down.

Add googly eyes. I could not find any so I used foam stickies. Googly eyes would look better, I think.

Stuff with candy! These would make cute classroom treats.

Only a few more days left in October. I am loving the cooler temps and snuggling down with my favorite blanket to watch Dexter and Walking Dead. Soon, we will all be Christmas shopping and baking treats for the holidays. I am looking forward to all of it but somewhere, deep in the recesses of my subconscious, I am already yearning for January and the slow, quiet nature of winter and just being.

Link Love - Halloween Style

Skull and Bones chocolates made from ice cube trays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whiskey Applesauce



I am totally making these easy lace tablecloth ghosts!
Instructions here.

Neon Paint Dipped Pumpkins from a Night Owl Blog

 

 

Spooky Shadow Projector at Oriental Trading Company

Lunging Zombie Creature at Halloween Express

Modern Parents Messy Kids Site

Paper Haunted House by Design Sprinkle

Make your own Ghost Piñata or make a whole family of them :)

Create cool art with the My Monster Bubblewriter Book by Linda Scott.

A whole bunch of fab Halloween ideas and free printables over at Martha Stewart's site.

More FREE (30+) Halloween printables from Apartment Therapy!!

Halloween Garlands to make!


This has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween but who can resist a Vegan Baklava Cheesecake.

Silhouette Project

I have had this little project in my to-do file for some time. I thought I would save it for a quickie craft, a way to waste a small amount of time. Boy, was I wrong. This thing proved frustrating in a variety of ways, namely a four year old who would not look straight ahead for longer than 2 seconds. I almost grabbed Kerrigan out of her sickbed to sit in for Emerson but I figured I would not be able to stand her flu-breath for long. So, I persevered and all in all the end result was passable. Is there a striking resemblance? Does she look a bit like the love child of Will Smith and a Klingon? Maybe. I am tellin you, it was a wee bit hard to do. However, do not let that spoil all the glorious fun you will have doing this project!!

1. Grab a large sheet of white paper. I used two scrapbook size pieces of paper taped together to begin with but after my fourth failed attempt, I grabbed regular notebook paper and taped two pieces of it together.

2. Find a place in your home that is dimly lit where you can either place a lamp to project a nice shadow or use the bit of natural light that may come through. I did the latter.

3. Sit wiggly child on a chair and position her just so. Repeat 100 times. Try to trace the outline of her head and face onto paper.

4. Take humorous picture of one of your failed silhouettes.

5. Cut the silhouette out of the white paper.

6. Place cut out silhouette on a black piece of paper and trace very lightly around the shape. Cut silhouette out of the black piece of paper.

7. Glue silhouette to a pretty piece of patterned paper. Voila!

Em says "This isn't me." And I said "Um, it's not supposed to be." Don't tell her otherwise, k?
The last picture is the silhouette Em did of her lovely mother. :)

Facebook for Children

Ha! Not what you think! I am talking about a much cooler Face book :)

1. Find an old notebook with at least 10 sheets or more still inside.

2. Cut the paper into three identical strips, leaving it attached to the spiral. My paper had lines so I counted all of them and then divided by three.

3. Cut the remaining paper in the notebook.

4. Grab some old magazines.

5. Skim through the magazines and find pictures of faces. I found that the larger the face the better. Some of those Covergirl and Skin Care ads have huge faces that are perfect. Get wacky and cut out animal noses or Googly eyes, whatever catches your fancy.

6. Start cutting away and when you are finished put the eyes, nose, and mouths into separate piles for easy grabbing.

7 -8-9 Grab a glue stick or some tape and place eyes in the first box, noses in the second, and mouths in the last. Or get weird and do it how you want :)

Now you have a book of face parts and you can make all these different combinations of wacky people. Emerson played with this book for quite a long time today and now wants to make one with different animal parts. 

AND this Facebook is drama-free!!

Paper Pencil Bookmarks

Emerson and I were looking for something to keep us occupied until dinner the other night so we decided to make some paper pencil bookmarks. The instructions turned out to be a bit hard for a 4 year old so I made them and she decorated. Win-Win.

1. Start with a 3-by 6-inch piece of paper. It helps if one side is white and the other side is patterned or a different color, but it is not a necessity.

2. Fold the paper in half length-wise and crease. 

3. Open the paper. Fold back one end approximately 1/2 inch, as shown.

4. Turn the paper over and bend back the corners at the folded end.

5. Bend back the folded edges again so they line up at the center crease as shown.

6. Turn the paper over and fold up the flat end so that it rests about 3/4 inch from the pointed end. 

7. Turn the paper over and fold both sides of the pencil in. Use a small piece of tape to secure. 

8. Voila! A pencil bookmark.

9. This is another pencil we did :)