Trick or Treat!

The Bat Cave

Our house has become a bat cave!

Just like the Spooky Spider Web, this idea is courtesy of Dana at MADE.  And just like the Spooky Spider Web, this project is simple, inexpensive, and makes a big impression. 

Last night, using black cardstock leftover from my days of stamping and card-making, and the bat template (found here), I spent about 30 minutes cutting out the bats while watching Mad Men (a recent discovery via Netflix...love it!).  This morning Bailey helped me hang them up in the living room.  Our bats are flying in through the window above the front door. 

Spooktacular!  Bailey loves them because they are spooky, but not scary.  After Halloween, it'll be a piece of cake to take them down and save them for next year.  Only 3 days until Halloween...are you ready?

Silly Slime

 Slime, goo, flubber...whatever you call it, this stuff is just plain fun!  As soon as I saw this post over at The Picky Apple, I knew Bailey would love to make some slime.  Boy did she ever!  In the past month we've made three batches for her...yellow, pink, and green.  She can't get enough of the stuff! 

 

All you need to make your own slime is glue, Borax, water, and food coloring.  Borax can be found in the laundry aisle of just about any grocery store.  Dissolve a few tablespoons of Borax in a small cup of water.  Pour the glue into a bowl and thin with a bit of water.  Add your food coloring to the glue and mix well.  Now it's time to make the slime!  Add in a bit of the Borax mixture and stir with a spoon.  The glue mixture will immediately turn into a gooey blob.  I continue to add in the Borax mixture until all of my glue is "blobby."  You can always pour off the excess water after you're finished mixing.

At this point I give the blob to Bailey and as she plays with it, it begins to dry out and gets oozy and stretchy.  When she's finished playing with the slime, I put it in a Ziploc baggie and save it for another day.  It seems to keep indefinitely.
 

When I asked Bailey what kind of treat she wanted to take to her Halloween party at preschool, she immediately said "Slime!"  So this morning I mixed up a big batch of orange slime for her to share with her friends at school.  I packaged the slime in small 1/2 cup plastic containers and added some stick-on googly eyes.  I hope her classmates enjoy the Silly Slime as much as she does!

Boo! Wreath - Part Deux

My younger sister recently moved back to Texas after living in California for a few years.  I decided she needed a feathery Halloween wreath just like mine for the front door of her new house.  Jake and I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and found a wire wreath form, a black feather boa, a small wooden Boo! sign, and a package of glittery purple spiders.  This time around I used small pieces of black pipe cleaners to twist-tie the boa to the wreath form.  They blend right into the feathers and you can't even see them.  I used a few dabs of hot glue to attach the Boo!, the spiders, and a few of the glittery black bats leftover from my wreath.  I thought about attaching a big black gingham bow at the top, but couldn't get it to look right, so this wreath is ribbon-less.    

I'm still finding tiny black feathers all over my kitchen, including inside my toaster!  But my sister loved the wreath and it looks great on her front door, so this one goes down as a crafty success.

Beware!

I have wicked pipe cleaner craft skills.  Oh yeah!

Halloween Treats

There are so many cute Halloween themed snacks and treats floating around Pinterest, I couldn't resist sharing them with you all this week.  All images are courtesy of the original idea source, via Pinterest.

How cute are these Spider Krispy Treats?  I'm thinking about making them to send with Bailey for her Halloween party at school.  The kids would love them! 

 
I have only attempted meringue cookies once before, with disastrous results, but these adorable little Meringue Ghosts make me want to give it another try!

Or maybe I'll just stick to making these Frightfully Easy Ghost Cookies.  With only three ingredients, even I can't mess these up!

Cheese pizza is one of Bailey's favorite foods, and she loves black olives, so she will get a kick out of these Mummy Pizzas.  I have a feeling we'll be making these for lunch a few times next week!

I hope your little ghouls and goblins enjoy these Halloween treats!

Boo! Wreath

When it comes to holiday decorating of any sort, I take a minimalist approach, which is really just a fancy way to say that I stick a few pumpkins by the front door and call it Halloween.  But last year I decided that I wanted to make a Halloween wreath to along with the pumpkins, so I worked my magic with a wire wreath form, a feather boa, and some twist ties and this is what I came up with...

They are impossible to see, but hidden amongst the black feathers are little glittery black bats.  I promise they really are there.  And there is also a sheer black ribbon tied into a bow above the word "Boo." 

Trust me, it's much more impressive in person!  ha!  When I put it up last year just a few days before Halloween, I promised myself that I would tweak it and give it some more personality before the next Halloween rolled around.  Hey, I've still got a few weeks, right?  I'm thinking of recovering the bats with some bright purple glitter (if I can find the right color) and giving the wreath a new bow, maybe something black and white like gingham or a damask print.  More than likely it'll still look exactly the same this time next year, but we'll see!

Spooky Spider Web

Spooky, isn't it?  I love crafts that are quick and easy, and not to mention inexpensive.  Believe it or not, this spider web only took 10 minutes to make.  All you need is yarn (we used a dark charcoal gray) and tape.  Following this tutorial on the MADE blog (one of my favorites!), Bailey and I taped the yarn in a criss-cross all the way across our big kitchen window to make the foundation for our web.  Then, starting from the outer edges and working our way in to the middle, we looped the yarn around each piece of the criss-cross, forming the rings of the web.  Each time we completed a ring, we tied it off and started a new one a bit further in toward the middle, making 6 rings in all.  

There really is no way to mess this up.  The crazier and more crooked it is, the better!  Bailey had a great time helping me create the web and now she's looking forward to making a few spiders to put on it.  Spooky!

The Great Costume Debate

It's hard to believe that I'm already thinking about Halloween costumes for my kiddos.  Bailey is having a tough time deciding on a costume.  One minute she wants to be a cowgirl, then the next she wants to be Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba.  Just in the last week she's also mentioned possibly being a kitty cat, Tinkerbell, or a robot ninja. Decisions, decisions!

In the past, she's been a ballerina, a bumblebee, a cheerleader, and Ming-Ming the duck from the Wonderpets.

 

Jake, on the other hand, is still at the mercy of his Mama.  Last year he was only 3 months old, so he wore a little cow print jumper and matching hat.  This year, I have so many ideas for his costume (a gnome, Yoda, Dwight from The Office, DJ Lance from Yo Gabba Gabba), but I have a feeling he will veto anything that involves glasses or a beard.  He'll most likely be the bumblebee, just like Bailey was at the same age.  Whatever he dresses up as, it'll be adorable!

Since Halloween is just around the corner, I've added a few Halloween themed bib and burp cloth sets to my Etsy shop!