It’s that time of year again! Whether you’ve been tasked with planning a Halloween tea party or if you just fancy creating some fun home decorations with the children for Halloween, we’ve picked our favourite crafty tips for you. All of these can be created with the children, and are quick and cheap to do.
Mini Pumpkins: Ok, they’re mandarins. But a simple marker pen transforms a bowlful of innocuous citrus fruit into a gang of smiling, grimacing and howling mini pumpkins. A healthy trick for a tasty treat: they’re perfect for parties, and you could keep a stockpile by the door for handing out to visiting trick-or-treaters. We also like the idea of filling plastic syringes with coloured jelly for unusual and yummy party pieces for mad scientists.
Spider Pizza: Looking for a simple but suitably Halloween-themed meal for the end of October? Half a black olive makes a perfect spider body, whilst the leftover half slices nicely into eight spiders’ legs. Decorate homemade pizzas and open sandwiches together with these creepy little critters, and swap the olives for tomatoes if preferred – they make extra scary red spiders!
Skeleton Hand: With black sugar paper, white children’s craft paint and a box of cotton buds you can have great fun creating skeleton body parts to display around the house. Feet dipped into green paint and printed onto plain paper also make super Frankenstein’s monsters, with the toes forming the top of its head. Feet dipped into white paint and printed onto black paper the other way around make cute little ghosts if you add stick-on googly eyes.
Rainbow Melting Pumpkin: Take a pumpkin (white if you can find one, or traditional orange), some glue, a handful of crayons with their papers peeled off, and a hairdryer. Stick the crayons in a circle on the top of the pumpkin, encircling the stalk (see pictures) and blast with a hairdryer until they begin to melt and drip. Tip: put down lots of newspaper, or bin liners. This one really looks spooktacular and makes a nice change to traditional carving.
Toddler Spider Costume: You will need: • black long sleeve shirt • black beanie hat • two pairs of black women’s socks • 2 eyeballs • black mittens • gift tissue, plastic bags or newspaper for stuffing • a little bit of black ribbon or yarn
Stuff each sock with tissue or newspaper. Stitch each sock to back of the shirt, making four legs. Glue eyeballs to the front of the beanie hat, and dress your spider in the shirt, black trousers, their mittens, and shoes.
We would love to know your top tips for Halloween snacks, crafts and costumes. Share your creations on our Facebook page and remember to not share pictures of your charges. Happy Halloween!