Thanksgiving Crafts using Recycled Materials

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Published 11.20.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (2)

A Recycled Thanksgiving
By Ellen Luckett Baker

This Thanksgiving we'll be serving up a heaping helping of gratitude. Though the historical meaning of Thanksgiving is a little murky, giving thanks is always a good exercise for children. In these lean times, simple is better. So here are a couple of recycled crafts to get children involved in the Thanksgiving festivities.

Turkey Place Cards

From planning the menu to setting the table, children enjoy being part of the process. Our five-year-old loves to talk about what should be served and can practice her writing skills by creating a menu. Young kids can also help out in the kitchen. By giving them manageable tasks like tearing the lettuce, pouring the ingredients, stirring, or cutting mushrooms with a butter knife, they will enjoy cooking with you. Folding napkins in a new way helps build their motor skills while keeping them busy. Children can also help decide the seating arrangement and make place cards.

These Thanksgiving recycled place cards are fun to make and will add a personal touch to the table.

Supplies:

Junk mail postcards for the feathers

School glue

Cereal boxes

Pen or pencil

Paper cutter (helpful, but not necessary)

Directions:

1. Cut cereal boxes to 5"x 8". You'll need one for each place card, so you can get about two cards from each box.
2. Score the printed side of the box in the middle. Fold over and put under a heavy book to press flat.
3. Cut card stock mailers in 1/4" strips.
4. Fold down about 1 1/2", wrap around and fold again. Glue in place. Continue until you have all the "feathers" made. You'll need 6-8 feathers for each card.

5. Glue feathers together and allow to dry.
6. While you're waiting for the glue to dry, go ahead and have your child write the names on each card.
7. Fan out the feathers. Dip the feather group in a pan of glue and place off-center on the card.
8. For the turkey body, cut 2" circles from the cereal boxes. Have your child draw a turkey head and face on each circle.

9. Glue bodies on top of the feathers. Have your child draw some turkey legs.
10. Add one to each place setting.

Jar of Thanks

Amidst the holiday consumerism, it's nice to think about the gifts we already possess, both tangible and abstract. This Jar of Thanks project will help your kids focus on the meaning behind the Thanksgiving holiday. Have each member of the family write down what they are thankful for and add it to the jar. You can go around the table and have each person draw a piece of paper randomly from the jar and read it aloud. Best of all, these jars are simple to make, almost free, and can be re-used after the holiday as fall votive holders.

Supplies:

Large glass jar

Leaves

Decoupage glue

Paper

Ribbon

Scissors

Directions:

1. Brush leaves with decoupage glue and apply to jar. Brush a little more glue on top.
2. Glue some ribbon around the top.
3. Cut out paper in the shape of leaves.
4. Place one leaf along with a pencil at each place setting for each person to write their thanks.

Have a great holiday and enjoy spending this time with your children! Maybe you can squeeze in a nap sometime too.

You may also enjoy:

- Turkey Treats made with Rice Krispies
- Turkey Pinata

Rice Krispy Turkeys You'll Gobble Up

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Published 11.06.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (8)

By Marie LeBaron

These cute little turkeys are a great edible craft to make with the kids while the real turkey is roasting in the oven. Mix up a batch of Chocolate Rice Krispies and design them into turkey treats. Then save them for a fun table decoration, ready to eat for dessert.

Supplies for Turkey Treats:

Chocolate Rice Krispy Cereal

Marshmallows- using the colored marshmallows works best at keeping the chocolate crispy treats brown.

Butter

Toothpicks- colored and party ones with the fun flare on top.

Assorted Candy- Mike & Ikes, candy corn, gum drops, mini m&ms, fruit loop cereal, more marshmallows.

Mix up a batch of Rice Krispies using the Chocolate cereal, marshmallows, and butter. Let it cool for a few minutes. Then grease your hands with vegetable spray and form the Krispies into balls. Try to use the colored marshmallows for making these. If you use white marshmallows, just roll your balls into more chocolate cereal to make them more brown for the turkey bodies.

Using a utensil, make holes for the candy to be placed in the body. For the snood (the red thing on the turkey's beak) I cut a red Mike & Ike in half or you can cut a gum drop in half. We also liked candy corn for the beak, perfect size and color.

Now add your feathers. So many possibilities here. We used toothpicks, marshmallows, cereal, etc.

We added a cellophane bag and ribbon to them, so they would stay nice and soft for dessert. We also placed a name tag on each one for a fun place setting.

This activity should keep the kiddies busy for a little while. Make one for each person coming to dinner. Then have fun gobbling these fun Turkey Treats up after Thanksgiving Dinner.

You may also enjoy:

- Thanksgiving Crafts made with Recycled Materials
- Turkey Pinata

Repurposing Your Leftover Halloween Candy

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Published 10.30.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (43)

What to do with all that Halloween Candy
By Brenda Ponnay

I've been thinking about Halloween candy a lot lately. That's probably because it is on sale everywhere and I keep buying it like the idiot that I am. I know I only need one bag since we hardly ever get any trick-or-treaters at our second-story apartment down a dark alley on the wrong side of town but I keep buying more because it keeps getting eaten! I wonder who is eating it? Hmmmmm....

I can't even keep myself away from the candy we have before Halloween. What am I going to do with all the Halloween candy that we have AFTER Halloween? I'm sure my little goblin is going to make out like a little bandit on trick-or-treat night. What am I going to do about her mommy who will be gobbling it up all the way to Thanksgiving? This is a problem. A problem that needs to be solved with a little creativity! Something I have more of than willpower!

How can I make the candy fun for my kid and not have it so readily available to me? Putting it in a pretty jar on top of the refrigerator is just not going to cut it. How can I spread it out so that we are not eating it every day all the time? How about an Advent calendar! Why not start counting down to Christmas in November?

To make a calendar like this, buy yourself some small paper cups. You'll need 30 for the month of November. If you want to make a calendar that goes all the way to Christmas, you'll need more. I bought a box of 100 at a restaurant supply store for $3. The smaller the cups are the better, but they need to be big enough to hold your favorite kind of candy. We're partial to peanut butter cups in our house so I made sure these cups could fit a peanut butter cup.

I attached the cups with brads in a grid-like pattern to a piece of decorative paper, then glued the paper to cardboard. I set the board on a table and filled all the cups with candy. Then I carefully sealed each one by painting glue around the rim and gently placing a piece of number-stamped tissue paper on top of each cup. I love these stamps that I bought at a stationery store but I'm sure hand-numbered cups would look swell too.

Once it they were all sealed, I gently hung it up on the wall out of reach of my nimble toddler. We admired it for a few hours and then I let her puncture one of the cups for a picture.

That was the best part. There is something so satisfying about popping a piece of taut tissue. It's like popping bubble wrap. Kids love it. Even I love it. Getting candy out of the cup was just gravy after that. It does take a lot of work to finish each cup but I can tell you, the reward is worth it! Plus, it works pretty well keeping me out of it. I'm not too keen on doing the whole job over again if I happen to get a craving for a peanut butter cup in the middle of the night. It's like the candy has its own alarm system.

My next idea for hoarding away Halloween candy is what I like to call a "Harvest Tree." This is actually an idea my friend Bethany told me about. She suggested a mobile made out of tissue-wrapped candy but I decided a harvest centerpiece might suit me better.

How much better is it to look at cute little packages of fall-colored tissue instead of the in-your-face green and yellow wrappers that are the usual Halloween fare? Wrapping something like a present always improves it, I think. Like the advent calendar it slows down the eating process too. Though I don't think it will slow kids down much. My toddler figured out how to unwrap the candy that was dangling within her reach in two seconds flat.

You might want to save this idea for Thanksgiving day. It will certainly make a great conversation piece for family to bond over.

If those ideas don't float your boat, what about stuffing all your leftover Halloween candy into a good old-fashioned turkey piñata that you break open on Thanksgiving day? How's that for a festive twist?

I've been wanting to make a homemade piñata for years. Once we spent most of a birthday party hacking away at a tissue-covered cardboard box, and it still wouldn't break until we sawed it open with a hack saw. Since then, I've been thinking there has to be a better way.

There is! Paper maché! Paper maché is very easy and fun to do with kids. It's sloppy and messy and there isn't really a wrong way to do it. Sure you'll be filled with doubts as your project seems too soggy or too gritty or just plain wonky but give it time and it will be worth making the mess.

To make a turkey piñata like mine, blow up two balloons. Make one big for its body and one small for its head. To make a neck, you can use a toilet paper roll. Use scissors to make a few short cuts around each end. Splay the ends of the toilet paper open so it looks like the petals of a flower and then tape them in between your head and body balloons. It will be a bit top heavy at first but once you fill the turkey with candy, things will even out.

You don't have to make your bird sculpture like I did. You can use any materials you have on hand. I wanted my turkey to be round and fat so I used balloons but if you want to make it easy on yourself, try a gallon milk jug or a tissue box. Who knows, square turkeys might be all the rage this year.

After you have your sculpture ready (don't forget to make a loop for hanging your turkey), then it's time to mix up some paste. This part is very easy and fun for kids to help with. Dump one cup of flour into two cups of water in a medium sized bowl and then mix out the lumps with a wire whisk. You can also add a tablespoon of salt to keep your project from molding if it's going to be sitting around for a long time.

Next you'll need strips of newspaper. You'll need a lot, so rip up an entire day's newspaper if you have it. Junk mail works well too. This is a great recycle-reuse project. Some people like to use white paper if they don't want the newsprint to show through their paint. I personally didn't mind and thought the smudgy words gave my turkey texture.

Now the fun part: Dip a strip of newspaper into your paste, slide off the excess paste by running it through your fingers and slap that puppy onto your sculpture. You'll need to do at least two coats of newspaper but I personally wasn't very methodical about it. As long as it's covered.

Let it dry for at least a day (this will vary depending on the humidity where you live) and when it is hard and hollow-sounding to the touch, it's ready to paint! I punctured mine with some wire for feet. Then I added cardboard wings and a cardboard wattle. I painted on its beak and glued some bells on for eyes. I'm sure googlie eyes or buttons would work great too. Construction paper feathers or even real feathers would also work for the tail. Cut a small hole big enough to fit one piece of candy through near the turkey's behind and fill with candy. Cover the hole with tail feathers and you're done!

There you have it! A turkey piñata to whack to death with a baseball bat---as if turkeys didn't already have a complex about violence. Or you could be like me and keep your turkey around as a pet.

For Halloween, be a Do-Gooder!

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Published 10.28.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (2)

Even if your little ones are dressed like the Grim Reaper or a whiny princess, there is no reason why you can have them do some good.

UNICEF, the global organization that saves lives in 150 countries by providing clean water, nutrition, medicines, education and emergency aid, makes it quite turn-key for us parents. Here are some of the easy things you can do:

1. Collect Donations while Trick-or-Treating.
There's the famous orange UNICEF box. Make your own by downloading a canister wrapper or picking up a box at one of their retail partners.

2. Turn your Halloween Party into a fundraiser.
When you register your party at UNICEF you can download their Halloween Party Guide and other items, such as invitations, door signs, door hangers, canister wrappers and stickers. All the things you need to throw a spooktacular fundraiser.

3. Text-or-Treat this Year!
Aren't we all going green AND on our mobile phones? Well we love UNICEF's Text-or-Treat idea. This year—for the first time—you can Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF with your mobile phone! Just text the word “TOT” to 864233 (UNICEF) to make a $5 donation.*

Have a happy and safe Halloween, you do-gooder!

* A one-time charge of $5 will be added to your mobile phone bill. Standard messaging rates and additional fees may apply. All charges are billed by and payable to your mobile service provider. Proceeds benefit the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Service is available on most carriers. You can unsubscribe at any time by texting 'STOP' to 864233.

Embellish Your Witch's Hat

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Published 10.23.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (1)

You'll Cackle with this Crafty Witch Hat
By Marie LeBaron

If you're still looking for that last minute costume idea, give a plain black witch hat some green flashy flare. By simply gluing on some yarn, your hat can become even scarier. Your little witch will want to start cackling every day until Halloween.

Supplies for Witch Hat with Hair:

* Black witch hat - $1 Walmart for a child-size witch hat, this one came with the hanging spider already, but that could easily be tied on top of the hat with string and a spider ring.
* Yarn - black, green, purple, orange, all colors could work
* Black ribbon - 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick
* Hot glue - one of the best crafting tools to have

First, measure the inside of your witch hat and cut a piece of black ribbon to that length, maybe even a few inches longer. Then string out your yarn as long or short as you want. You'll want a lot of yarn, so keep it coming.

Then hot glue the yarn to your ribbon strip, I did this in batches. To make it a little more ghoulish, I added dark green and black yarn too. (Hot glue is "hot", so please be careful as you work with it, possibly having ice water nearby just in case.)

Once your strip has all it's yarn attached, hot glue the strip to the inside of the hat. I only glued 2-3 inches at at time, making sure the ribbon strip was securely glued to the hat. I glued it to the bottom area of the hat, you could glue it up into the hat as well.

This witch hat did need some front bangs, so I trimmed the front yarn hair a few inches across. You want the witch to be able to show off her big wart nose!

Now your hat is ready for witching and cackling! All it needs is a crafty Witch's Broom to go with it.

Make Your Own Pumpkin Patch

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Published 10.16.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (1)

By Ellen Baker

Make your own miniature pumpkin patch with these salt dough pumpkins. Remember the salt dough ornaments you made as a kid? Same thing, Halloween style. A simple and pretty project that's just gooey enough for kids to love. You can find most of the supplies around your house.

Supplies (makes about ten 1 ½” pumpkins):

Salt, ½ cup

Warm water, ½ cup

Flour, 1 cup (not self-rising)

Toothpick for shaping dough

Acrylic paint, orange and black

Paintbrushes, large and small

Small sticks for pumpkin stems, about 10

Step 1: Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix warm water with salt in a mixing bowl until salt dissolves. Add flour and let the kids mix by hand.

Step 2: Let the kids roll the dough into small balls and make the pumpkin striations with the side of a toothpick. Poke a hole in the top for the stem (which will be inserted later).

Step 3: Bake on an ungreased pan for 2-2 ½ hours.

Step 4: Allow to cool. Paint with acrylic paints. Be sure to have your kids wear their paint clothes as acrylic paint stains. Insert the small sticks or branches into the tops of the pumpkins. Done!

Tip: Be sure to store your pumpkins in an airtight container after Halloween so the critters don't try to take a bite!

Here are some variations on this project if you want to take it a step further:

Roll the pumpkins in glue, then glitter.

Make a pumpkin person doll by putting the pumpkin on top of a wooden doll pin (poke a hole in the bottom of your pumpkin before cooking the dough).

Make ornaments for a pumpkin tree by inserting a metal ornament hanger in the top just after the pumpkins come out of the oven.

Add leaves to the top or twisty stems made from green pipe cleaners.

Related Posts:

- Handmade Halloween Cards
- Halloween Boo and I've Been Boo'd
- Trunk-or-Treat Halloween Tradition
- Great Halloween Crafts
- The Best Halloween Cupcakes
- Best Halloween Cookies & Crafts

Halloween Cupcake Ideas

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Published 10.15.2008 | Permanent Link

One great place to turn for visual inspiration is Flickr. We love looking through their baked goods and particularly the cupcakes!

We admit it, we've got cupcake envy. Not everyone has the artistic talent or patience to craft the masterpieces that we admire. However, upon closer inspection of the eye candy we realized that we too could create some stunning cupcakes if we focused on simplicity.

Take a look at all these dramatic creations and find the common denominator.

The Spider Cupcake can be found at www.retrobakeryLV.com.

The Buried Alive cupcake was created by oh_annaluise.

These spooky skeleton and cemetery cupcakes are by the Cupcake Queen.

The monster cupcake is by porcalina.

This spider cupcake by Mandy Gill.

This Halloween sprinkles cupcake was created by Waving to Animals.

Fabulous Halloween cupcakes, aren't they?

Oh, right there was a question up there. So, what is the common denominator?

They are all scrumptiously frosted cupcakes that are then decorated simply with sprinkles or a small spooky decoration.

They are simply inspirational. Thanks, folks.

Related Halloween Ideas:

- The Best Halloween Cupcakes
- Celebrating Halloween Traditions: Boo
- Best Halloween Cookies & Crafts

Best Halloween Costumes

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Published 10.14.2008 | Permanent Link

These Halloween Costumes are still in stock! Usually, this close to Halloween, it's slim pickins' out there.

Here are some of our favorites this year:

Children's Butterfly Costume

This gorgeous butterfly costume is made by Wovenplay which is the most beautiful children's costume/ dress-up clothes we've ever seen. You can buy most of the line at nonchalantmom and Tiny McSmall. Below are some other favorites for Wovenplay.

Children's Pirate Costume

Children's Cowgirl Costume

Both costumes by Wovenplay and available at nonchalantmom and Tiny McSmall.

Children's Superhero Costumes

We love this cool superhero costume that can be used year round. There are several color options that will please both boys and girls. You buy a cape, mask and cuffs at Mahar Drygoods.

Children's Unicorn Costume

We love this costume because 1) it's perfect for the really cold-weathered parts of the country because it works well over your kid's coat, and 2) it allows you and your child explore your creativity as well. You buy the hood, and tail and add the rest. It is also available as Dinosaur, Lion or Puppy Costumes. They are all available at the Magic Cabin.

Snow White and Sleeping Beauty Costume

This is a reversible dress that is meant for pretend play, but we don't see why it can't serve double duty as a Halloween costume. True, it may not fit perfectly (it's one size fits all), but your daughter (or son) will be so happy to be a princess that she (or he) won't care about the fit. Plus, you get two princesses for the price of one. Score!

This dress (as well as other reversible options) is available at FAO Schwarz.

Little Red Riding Hood Costume

Just add a basket to this red cloak and your little girl is transformed into Red Riding Hood. Available also at Magic Cabin.

Children's Dragon Costume

Usually Pottery Barn is all sold out by this time, but the price on this one was just slashed (although still on the very high side). But this is a real statement costume, if we say so ourselves. And, it can be played up as both cute or scary depending on your child's Halloween persona.

Related Posts:

- Halloween Costume Ideas for Children
- More DIY Costumes (2007)
- Our Favorite Halloween Costumes for 2007
- Best Halloween Children's Costumes 2006
- Best DIY ideas for Halloween costumes (from 2006)
- What not to wear this Halloween
- Best Halloween Trick or Treating Bags, Masks and Costumes

Handmade Halloween Cards

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Published 10.09.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (15)

Who says cards are just for birthdays and Christmas?
By Brenda Ponnay

Back in high school I had a crazy friend who used to send me Halloween cards. She'd send me Happy-Thanksgiving cards and Valentines and thank-you cards. She was just the card-sending type. Which is funny really since we saw each other every day at school. When I went off to college she still sent me cards all the time. Sometimes she would send me a photo of her pet gecko. She was just thoughtful like that.

I would roll my eyes and tell her she was silly to waste postage on me when she could just say Happy This or That to my face, but after all these years I still think of her and her funny habits fondly. Once in a great while I still get the odd random card from her, but as our lives overlap less and less the cards get fewer and further apart. You know what? I miss her cards.

I'm not irritated when I see the holiday decorations poke their heads out at grocery stores and craft stores earlier and earlier each year. I don't care about Hallmark or whomever is trying to milk us for more and more money by reminding us about Be-Nice-to-Your-Dentist Day or World Crazy Socks Day. I think of it as a sweet reminder to send a card or a note or an email. Anything really. Maybe it's a silly holiday but it's an excuse to reach out. Even Halloween.

As my daughter gets older, I'm trying to teach her the great art of correspondence. In my dreams she will send a postcard to someone every day. Of course our days are busy and those sentiments are often lost among errands and laundry and potty-training but every day is a new day to try.

Lately our big thing is re-purposing her art. She's still young enough that she doesn't mind me "enhancing" her scribbles. I know the day will come when I won't be allowed to touch her masterpieces and I'm ready for that. In the meantime, I'm making the most of her art. I gently influence the colors she paints with. I show her by example how to color with crayon and then wash over it with black paint to make a spooky night scene. Sometimes she copies me. Sometimes she doesn't. But so far our collaborations have been way more interesting than anything that I would come up with on my own.

After we were done collaborating on our Halloween scenes, I sliced up her artwork and made Halloween cards. I had a box of cheap white envelopes but they weren't scary enough all plain and white, so I painted them with coffee (no cream or sugar, please!) and then sprinkled salt on them. Salt repels the water and creates really neat designs when it dries and you scrape it off. It works even better if you grind the salt up first with a mortar and pestle.

I think they turned out pretty cute. We'll probably send them off to relatives and maybe even my crazy old friend if I can find her address. Who knows, maybe I'll send you one.

Related Posts:

- Make your own Pumpkin Patch
- Halloween Boo and I've Been Boo'd
- Trunk-or-Treat Halloween Tradition
- Great Halloween Crafts
- The Best Halloween Cupcakes
- Best Halloween Cookies & Crafts