Halloween Craft – make a trick-or-treat bag

If your little ones (or your big ones:) are making you crazy as they anticipate trick-or-treating, maybe it’s time to engage them in a craft. This is a great time to make a trick-or-treat bag.

This is a fun project because you can make it as simple or as involved as you like. You can pull out all of your craft supplies or just grab some paper, glue, and markers. You can spend an hour or an afternoon. It’s totally up to you and your little goblins how much you put into this project.

Here are a few possibilities:

• The paper bag: If you have a handled paper bag from the grocery store you can let your child decorate it. Anything goes! They can draw on it with markers or crayons, paint on it with brushes or fingers, embellish it with stickers, yarn or ribbon, or make paper creations that they glue on. Whatever their imaginations can conceive of is fair game.
• The pillow case: We all have an old pillow case or two lying about the house and they make great trick-or-treat bags. Again, kids can create their own designs. This time they can use fabric markers, appliques, buttons, ribbon or even tie-dye. They can design it so it matches their costume or go for a whole new theme.
• Fabric bags: All the stores seem to have them, those rectangular bags made out of plastics and recycled bottles. These are a little bit different because they will melt if you try to iron on a patch but they are still great for pinning or gluing on all sorts of embellishment from buttons to ribbon to shapes and designs. They can even add a little bling with rhinestones or beads. And they’re easy for kids to carry and open up to accept their treats.

It’s is a fun way to pass the time and you’ll be going green too.

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Pumpkins ~ in all shapes, sizes and sexes

Okay, with Halloween around the corner and no decorations in my house or on my porch I have pumpkins on the brain.

First I heard rumors that pumpkins will be scarce this year. Apparently that’s not true around here (phew! cuz if I don’t get some pumpkins I’m going to be in deep trouble with my family). A trip to the pumpkin patch is definitely in my future.

Then, of course, there’s ‘Punkin Chunkin’ where people shoot pumpkins out of air guns or fling them out of trebuchets. Who comes up with this stuff? watch here

Then there are yummy recipes like these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

There are pumpkin carvings and here are some funny, fascinating, and even gross carvings along with everything you might ever want to know about pumpkins. Check out the photos of the annual contests for some great ideas.

And pumpkin games like pin-the-stem-on-the-pumpkin or pass the pumpkin where you hold a miniature pumpkin under your chin and try to pass it to the next person without using your hands.

And pumpkin crafts like the Fabric Pumpkin Craft, the Egg Carton Pumpkin Craft, the super simple Mason Jar Jack-O-Lantern craft. And if you’re feeling really crafty you can make Stacked Pumpkin Topiaries.

And then, of course, there are my favorite pumpkins … and I still think they’re cute even if they don’t look like this anymore:)

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