Sunday, October 15, 2017

Spoopy Craft! Little Stuffed Pumpkins



These adorable pumpkins can easily be turned into jack-o-lanterns by gluing on eyes and a mouth. I rate this at the beginner level- if you can thread a needle and tie a knot, you should have no difficulty with this craft.

You will need:
Orange felt
Brown felt for the stem
Yellow felt to make jack-o-lantern eyes and mouth
Glue Gun
Needle & black thread or embroidery floss.
Poly-fil Stuffing

Optional: Beads for the stem

1. Find something round, 3.5” or larger in diameter like a flower pot, coffee can, bowl or large mug. Trace around it onto paper or freezer paper to make a pattern, or trace directly onto the felt and cut out.

2. Thread the needle, doubled up for strength, and make a big fat knot the end. You will need a looooooong double thread, as long as your outstretched arms. If you are using embroidery floss, you only need a single thread.

3. Begin stitching around the circle, close to the edge, varying the length. You don’t want tight stitches here.- just a large basting stitch. The more random the better.





4. When you get back to the beginning, grab enough poly-fil to fill the pumpkin and place it in the center of the circle. Pull the thread to gather the edges of the pumpkin around the stuffing.



5. Hold the gathers in one hand and tie a knot on one of the edges with the other. It should stay gathered when you let go. Don’t cut the thread yet!



6. Bring the needle up through the stuffing, through the center of the top of the pumpkin and back down around to the bottom several times all around the pumpkin to create the lines. Pull the thread tight so it squishes into the pumpkin a little.



7. When you have all the lines you want,, bring the needle up through the middle one last time (if you are using beads for the stem, thread them now) and back down through the middle, pulling tight to squish the pumpkin a little. Tie a knot on one of the edges and cut the thread.



8. Measure the opening left on the bottom of the pumpkin, and cut a small circle to fit over it.



9. Hot Glue the small circle to the bottom of the pumpkin and squish it down to stick it good. Fluff it back up when the glue hardens.




10. Roll up and glue a small piece of brown felt like a sushi to make the stem (if you didn't use beads), and glue it to the top of the pumpkin. 



11. Cut out eyes and a mouth out of the yellow felt and glue them to the pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern!




Try making different colored pumpkins! I made some white ones and sparkly orange ones and experimented with using beads for the stem. I also made some smaller ones. Make it your own and have fun!

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Spoopy Craft! Dangling Construction Paper & Pipe Cleaner Spiders

I made these for the October bulletin board in the office where I work. This is a super easy one, probably would be fun to do with the kiddos.




You will need:
Construction paper or craft foam
Pipe cleaners
Scissors
Pencil
Marker
Glue
String or yarn
Optional: hole puncher, googly eyes

1. Print and cut out this pattern for the spider body and trace onto the construction paper or foam.



2. Cut out spider body and decorate however you like. I used a coloured piece of construction paper to write birthdays on and made paper eyes, but you could use pompoms or googly eyes or anything else.



3. From the back of the body, poke 4 holes down either side about 1/4" away from the edge with the pencil or punch holes with a hole puncher for the legs.



4. Thread the pipe cleaners through the holes from the back of the body and bend them however you like.




5. Tie a string around one of the legs on the back and hang!





Bonus Craft: Small Pipe Cleaner Spider



1. Cut 3 pipe cleaners in half. You should have 6 halves.

2. Stack four of the halves together and wrap another half around the middle of the stack to make the head

3. Wrap the ends of the last half around the head and leave a loop in the middle for the body. Optional: Add a pompom to the loop for a fuzzy body!

4. Bend the legs however you like, add googly eyes and string to hang!



Here are the directions for you to print out:


Sunday, October 1, 2017

Spoopy Craft! Lighted Message Coffin

Every Halloween I like to elaborately decorate the apartment door. I got this skeleton couple and cardboard coffins at Michael's. 

Here is how I made the lighted message coffin:



*You will need pretty good knife skills for this.

You will need:
- Cardboard coffins (I got mine from Michael's)
- Craft paint and paintbrush, or whatever you want to use to decorate your coffin
- Craft knife
- Pencil
- Ruler
- White glue
- Hot glue gun
- Battery operated flameless flickering tea lights (check the dollar store)
- Tissue paper (any colour you like that you can see the light through)
- Velcro

1. With the ruler and pencil, draw lines from the top and bottom corners of the inside of the coffin lid. Draw a center line. This is where your message will go.



2. Draw your message in block letters, backwards, on the inside of the coffin lid, so that it reads correctly when viewed from the front of the lid. If you need to, cut the letters out on paper and then trace them onto the lid.



3. Cut the letters out with the Craft knife. Go slowly and be careful!


4. Paint and decorate.


5. Cut a piece of tissue paper large enough to cover the letters and glue to the inside of the lid.



6. Hot glue small pieces of velcro to the bottoms of the tea lights.


7. Turn on the tea lights then hot glue them on the other side of the velcro and stick them to the inside of the coffin.



8. Put the lid back on the coffin and enjoy your spoopy message!