Painted Polka-Dotted Pumpkin

10 / 30 / 1211 / 1 / 12

Last year, we all carved our pumpkins together. And though Gracen had a blast scooping out pumpkin guck, sorting seeds, and watching the carving action, she didn’t really get to take part in decorating her own pumpkin.

So this year, we decided to switch it up a little. Brad and I still carved our pumpkins, but in order to let Gracen be fully in charge of decorating her very own garden-grown pumpkin, we set her up a little pumpkin painting station.

With a handful of brushes and little containers of purple, green, orange, black, and glow-in-the-dark acrylic paint, Grae got busy beautifying her pumpkin.

It was the best of both worlds, because not only did she get to decorate her pumpkin, but she also got to help us do all of the fun messy parts of carving ours.

After having her fill of icky gunk scooping, it was back to pumpkin painting. She covered the entire thing in a thick layer of paint and then we let it dry overnight.

The next day, we used a little trick I learned years and years ago and cut a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin (no need to mess with trying to get a lit candle in through the top – you simply set your candle down on a surface and place the pumpkin on top). Together, we scooped the insides out and used our apple corer to polka dot the pumpkin’s surface (which worked brilliantly, btw).

Gracen loves it. It glows just like Mama and Papa’s jack-o-lanterns do, and we were able to preserve almost all of her painting masterpiece.

♥

Pink Sparkly Slime Halloween Treats

10 / 30 / 126 / 6 / 13

Bright and early this morning {while still in pajamas}, Gracen and I put together some little Halloween treats for her “yittle dance class fends”. While a little non-traditional, I wanted to make something Gracen-friendly (she hasn’t had refined sugar / junk yet) and call me a downer, but between sweets from family members, school, and trick-or-treating, I think most kids get more than enough junk on Halloween as it is. Our alternative? Mini mason jars filled with sparkly slime. ☺

First off, Miss G helped me collect a few ingredients from around the house… Warm water, Borax, food colouring, glitter, and white glue.

To get us started, she emptied a generous amount of white glue into a large mixing bowl…

Then added some warm water…

A single drop of gel food colouring (she chose pink which isn’t particularly Halloween-ish, but I figure it’s perfect for a group of teeny tiny ballerinas)…

And a liberal amount of glitter.

Then we stirred everything up really well until the mixture was smooth and all of the glue globs had disappeared.

After setting our glue / water mixture aside, we added some Borax to the remaining warm water…

And stirred it well.

Then it was time for the magic! While Gracen gently stirred the glue / water mixture, I slowly began pouring the water / Borax mixture in.

In just seconds, we could see the liquid starting to thicken up and come together in a large mass.

Once everything had been well mixed, I poured out what little excess water was left and Grae began kneading the slime. Before long, the slime was firmer, less sticky, and ready to be packaged.

But not before sneaking in a little play time first though. ☺

Afterwards, we separated our pink sparkly concoction into 12 mini mason jars, which we already had on hand from the individual mason jar cheesecakes we had at Gracen’s recent 2nd birthday party.

With our slime divided into containers, it was off to the computer next. Gracen chose some fluorescent pink paper and the pumpkin clipart, I chose the fonts, and together we came up with these super simple labels.

A little orange marker and a dash of sparkle, and here’s the finished product.

Sparkly Slime (adapted from this recipe)

2 cups of white glue
1 1/2 cups of hot water
1 drop of gel food colouring
1 teaspoon of fine glitter

1 cup of hot water
2 1/2 teaspoons of Borax

Combine the first set of ingredients until the mixture is smooth and free of glue blobs.

In a separate measuring cup / bowl, combine the second set of ingredients until the Borax is dissolved into the water.

Slowly pour the Borax mixture into the glue mixture, stirring as you pour. When the slime comes together in a large mass, pour off the excess water and kneed the slime for a few minutes.

Package in pretty little mason jars and gift to your friends on Halloween.

* One thing to keep in mind is that while clear Elmer’s glue will work just fine for this recipe, the ‘environmentally friendly’ version will not. Trust me. We tried it. TWICE. *

* Also, if you’re wondering about the safety of Borax, this post is extremely helpful. *

♥

For more fun, join Mama.Papa.Bubba. on Facebook here.

Felt Board Jack-O-Lanterns

10 / 26 / 123 / 22 / 14

Here’s a new {Halloween-themed} felt board activity I whipped up for Miss G this afternoon while she napped. It was a super quick project and couldn’t have been more simple to put together.

All you need is some felt (I just use the cheap craft store stuff for felt board activities), a really good pair of scissors, and maybe some fabric glue if you want make your pumpkin stems green like I did.

I often cut out my shapes freehand, but since I wanted 3 distinctly different pumpkin shapes, today I quickly sketched them out first.

Next, I cut out my pumpkin shapes, as well as some green stems for the tops.

Using Aleene’s OK To Wash-It fabric glue, I attached the stems to the pumpkins and set them aside to dry. Of course, you could stitch them on or use regular craft glue for this job instead. Or, another thought…you could not attach them at all and let adding stems to the pumpkins be part of the designing process.

While the glue dried, I worked on cutting out some jack-o-lantern eyes, noses, and mouths. I did this freehand, making up the shapes as I went along. Folding the felt in half in order to make symmetrical noses and mouths / two eyes at once made the job a lot faster and easier.

When Grae woke up, she was super excited to find her new felt board jack-o-lanterns waiting for her and got to playing right away.

She designed and redesigned the jack-o-lanterns again and again, sometimes very cautiously and sometimes more abstractly. She even ended up using eyes as eyebrows and upside-down mouths as moustaches (two things I wouldn’t have thought of!)

♥

For an easy and inexpensive felt board DIY, click here.

Handprint Spiders & Golf Ball Painted Webs

10 / 23 / 129 / 17 / 13

Today Gracen and I did one of our favourite things… We had a little mama and babe crafternoon. A Halloween crafternoon to be exact!

This is by no means a new idea, and it’s nothing fancy, but it is something I’ve always enjoyed doing with my kindergarten students. It’s fun, messy, and personalized with wee little handprints. Perfect for Halloween cards for grandparents, teachers, or a special friend. Here’s a quick run down of how Gracen created this little masterpiece.

First, start off by drawing a large asterisk on a piece of black construction paper or card stock (we use a hand over hand technique for jobs like this).

Next, connect the tips of the asterisk with concave lines in order to create a web shape.

Then, cut out the web. (This is tricky for little hands. Gracen tried, but our poster board is was so thick that it was next to impossible for her… This may be more of an adult helper sort of job.)

Place a small roll of tape in the centre of your web.

Tape the web down in the centre of a box lid, baking pan, or plastic paper tray.

Next, put some white paint in a small bowl or container and plop a {very scuffed} golf ball, bouncy ball, or large marble inside. (While I find golf balls work best because they’re big and heavy, marbles and bouncy balls make a more solid, web-like lines.)

Shake and swirl the container so that the golf ball is well coated with paint.

Next, gently tip your golf ball out of the container and onto the web.

Swirl and roll the paint-coated ball over the black paper web by tipping the tray back and forth.

When it’s sufficiently spider web-y, remove the paper from the tray and set it aside to dry.

Now for the spider… Gather up some brightly coloured paper, black paint, and a foam brush.

Using a foam brush, paint a good, thick layer of black paint on your little one’s palm and fingers (not the thumb).

Help your little one press their hand on the paper a couple of times to create two spider bodies and half of the needed legs. Allow the prints to dry for a couple of minutes while you wash hands.

Next, rotate the page so that the fingers are pointed downwards.

This time around, paint just the four fingers of your little one’s hand. (I like to use the opposite hand for this part so that the fingers are angled the same way, but that’s just the crazy in me. ☺)

Stamp them on the other side of the palm print in order to complete the spider’s body.

When the paint is dry, attach some googly eyes to the spider’s body using white craft glue.

Then, cut the spiders out, leaving a small border of coloured paper around the edges.

Attach the spider to the web with glue or tape, or if you want the spider to have a little wiggle to it, glue a small pompom in between the web and spider. And voila… All done!

And if handprints are still too tricky for your little one, here’s what we did last year using a footprint instead:

♥