smoosh and stamp pumpkins

Posted on October 30, 2012 by happyhooligans

Well, here we are, on the eve of all Hallow’s Eve. We did our final Hallowe’en project today because the Hooligans won’t be here tomorrow.

I’d had this project in the back of my mind for weeks, and I’m really glad we got around to it today. It was very cool! And like most of our projects, it was inexpensive, and easy enough for even the youngest Hooligans to have fun with.

You’ll need:

Paint (we used orange, red, yellow, brown and green)
Plastic grocery bag
Stamps for eyes/nose/mouth (we used wooden blocks, and I made a couple from yogurt containers and styrofoam)
Cardboard or sturdy construction paper for your “canvas”

Start by drizzling your paint on your canvas; pumpkin colours on the main part of the page and a small drizzle of green at the top for the stem of the pumpkin.

Now place your plastic bag on top of your canvas and start smooshing, patting and rubbing the paint all around.

Smoosh it well. You want good coverage here.

Lift up your plastic bag and voila!

If you’re not happy with your coverage, place the bag back down and smoosh again.

We used a hair dryer to dry our pumpkins so we could get to the stamping.

I made a few stamps for eyes, noses and mouths by cutting some foam packaging and hot gluing the pieces to a few small containers (yogurt containers are great for this).

I also pulled out a few wooden blocks from our block bucket so the Hooligan’s would have a variety of shapes to choose from.

They dipped their stamps in some black paint and turned their pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.

Some chose to be quite deliberate in how they stamped, and some were more creative. This little Hooligans rubbed and smeared her stamps around creating a beautiful collage.

As a final touch, we added “teeth”. I set out corn kernels, borrowed from our corn bin, and white pasta leftover from our “boneyard wreath” project.

How cute is THIS?!

Aren’t they fabulous? I love that each one is so unique and beautiful!

HAPPY HALLOWE’EN!!

Simple Hallowe’en Wreaths

Posted on October 27, 2012 by happyhooligans

We made these simple Halloween Wreaths yesterday. They’re so easy to make, and they look so sweet!

All you need to make your wreath is:

cardboard (cereal box weight)
tissue paper in Halloween colours, cut into 2×2 inch squares
googly eyes
black paint
glue
fabric, netting or ribbon to make your bow

I traced our wreaths on to cardboard, using a plate for the outer circle, and a bowl for the inner circle, and the Hooligans painted those black.

Then they glued the squares of tissue paper and the googly eyes to their wreaths. Some chose to crumple their tissue paper, and some didn’t.

To make the gluing process easier for the youngest Hooligans, I put some white glue into a bowl and they used a paintbrush to apply it to their wreath.

Finish by stapling on a colour co-ordinated bow. We used a variety of materials for our bows. I had a strip of black fabric that I tied into a bow for one. The purple bows came from a skein of gauzy ribbon that I picked up at the dollar store, and my favourite bow was this one!

I had saved a few pieces of netting that fruit comes packaged in. It was perfect for this project!

Aren’t these just the cutest?

Simple, inexpensive and cute as a button! Just the way we like things around here!

Happy Halloween!

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hallowe’en suncatcher

Posted on October 22, 2012 by happyhooligans

Today’s craft is short and oh-so-sweet, and was inspired by In Lieu of Preschool’s awesome Suncatcher Bats. Pop over there to have a look, and to get the details, and then come on back to see how our halloween suncatchers turned out.

I used these plastic Vinegar jugs, but In Lieu of Preschool suggests some alternatives that you can use if you don’t happen to have any of these on hand.

We used sharpies, but crayons or gel paints would work well too.

Aren’t these going to look cute hanging in a window?

Monster Mobile

Posted on October 17, 2012 by happyhooligans

Need a quick and adorable Hallowe’en craft for your little goblins? Make a monster mobile!

We made these last week, and not only are they super-simple and inexpensive to pull together, they’re down-right adorable!

There’s not much prep here at all. :)

You’ll need:

Cardboard tubes
pipe cleaners (optional)
googly eyes
jagged teeth cut from craft foam, construction paper or card stock
paint (think hallowe’en colours: green, orange, purple, black)
yarn

*For those of you who prefer not to use toilet rolls for crafting, the tubes that hold paper towels, aluminum foil, plastic wrap and wrapping paper are great alternatives.

Have your little ones paint their tubes (to make things easier, have them put 3 or 4 fingers of one hand into the tube to hold it while they paint with their other hand). Once your paint has dried, you can make a hole in either side of the tube (I used the tip of a pen for this), and poke your pipe cleaner through to create some bendy arms. Now glue on as many or as few eyes as you think your monster should have, and oooh and ahhhh over how darn CUTE they are!

When the glue has dried, your hooligans can play with them as-is or you can string them into a mobile by looping a length of yarn under each pipe cleaner (inside the tube) and gather them together, staggering the monsters so they hang at different lengths.