Halloween is a time to have fun with creative arts and crafts. You may want to remember your Halloween celebrations in the future, by maintaining a scrapbook. If you are not sure how to go about it, you can always turn to the Internet to find Hallowe...

Best Eleven Variations on Halloween Arts and Crafts for Kids

Halloween usually conjures up images of strange shapes, dark movie characters and popular animals. These days though, these common figures can be made in more ways than one and using an assortment of different materials. Here are the top eleven variations on the most popular Halloween arts and crafts for kids.

Bats

There’s no need for you to buy plastic bats for Halloween since you can make your own. You can easily cut patterns or two dimensional bats from construction paper or cartolina. Bat Halloween arts and crafts for kids can also be creatively made out of egg cup cartons to hang or out of clothes pins to clip on curtains.

Pumpkins

These days, you don’t have to worry about messy pumpkin carvings anymore. You can easily have pumpkin paper lanterns as Halloween arts and crafts for kids projects. If you don’t like lanterns, you can still make pumpkins out of paper plates, milk containers and construction paper. One other great alternative would be pumpkin baskets made of paper mache.

Witches

Witch Halloween arts and crafts for kids can be made out of paper plates and cardboard. As an alternative, you can create a witch doctor look instead of a western witch by incorporating beaded necklaces and homemade stuffed voodoo dolls.

Spiders

One favorite Halloween arts and crafts for kids is the spider. Spiders can be as simple as construction paper or egg cup carton hangers. They can also be made of pom poms or colored cotton balls.

Vampires

Vampire masks with fangs can be easily made with paper plates. More imposing ornamental life size vampires however can be made out of coat hangers and black garbage bags.

UFO

Aliens and UFOs are not common Halloween figures but stories of alien kidnappings and abduction makes great Halloween tales. Make UFOs out of paper plates that you can hang from the ceiling. You might also want to complement the ships with cookies shaped like stereotypical aliens instead of ginger bread men.

Worms in Cans

Worms in cans can be made of brown crepe paper. They can seem yuckier to the touch though if you use gummy candies and cooked spaghetti.

Ghosts

Ghosts can also come in variations. You can make ghost Halloween arts and crafts for kids made of socks, packing foam, old cloths, crepe paper, helium filled balloons, white painted jars, tissue and clay.

Mummy

Use tissue paper or gauze and wrap it around a jar for a mummified figure. Cut out some eyes from construction paper and stick them on the jars before you put on the tissue so you can have the eyes slightly covered and just peeking.

Cats

What’s Halloween without black cats? Use paper plates to create cat masks or some cotton and crepe paper to create billowing streamers.

Skeletons

White or luminous paint on a black figure would be perfect for the usual skeleton man. You can however create a good looking skeleton with different kinds of pasta.

www.mpmschoolsupplies.com – Making origami bats for Halloween classroom decorations are fun and simple to do with your students. You can hang them from the ceiling or just put them around the room. Either way they make great decorations and kid’s will have fun doing them!

Kids Halloween Arts and Crafts – The Kids’ Creativity!

Designing Halloween arts and crafts is a good way to get children interested in arts and crafts making and discover their creative talents in the process. One can come up with easy ideas for the decorations by searching on the internet and then explain the methods to the children so that they can be creative and have fun making these items themselves.

One of the easiest art and craft Halloween decorations is the creepy balloon ghost, which is very easy to make. All you need is white balloons and plastic grocery bags. The bags should be plain with no writing on them. Here is how to create a spooky ghost: Cut off the handles of the grocery bag. Leaving the bottom of the bag intact, with the help of scissors, cut the bag into dangling strips up to about an inch from the bottom seam. In the same manner cut up another grocery bag. Fill up the balloon with air and knot it up. Tape the seam of one bag to the front and the other to the back, leaving the knot on top. Paint a scary face of the ghost on the balloon and tie a string to the knot. Hang up these creepy balloons to trees in the yard. You may also put a few bells at the end of the strips, so that they make a sound with the movement of the wind. Enjoy the haunting chimes of the ghosts moving in your yard!

Kids can easily make a decorative garland with bats, ghosts or pumpkins. These garlands can be hung around the house or the classrooms. The materials required will be either construction paper or fun foam, depending on your choice. The colors could be orange for pumpkins, white for ghosts and black for bats. If foam is being used, patterns will be needed for all the three items. Take care to leave a tab of paper that can be folded over the string and secured with a tape. Cut out the shapes and paint the faces on them. You may need to make several of these craft items so that you can have a long garland. String up pumpkins on green string, bats on white string and ghosts on black string. If you have all three patterns, then you could use any color string that suits your fancy.

Helping kids with their Halloween crafts projects will make you very popular with them. There are varieties of craft items that can be made, be inventive and creative and let your imagination soar. There is no limit to what you can achieve in the world of art and craft.

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6 Unique Decorating Tips for Halloween

Thinking about decorating for Halloween? Here are some tips on what you can do to make your home stand out from the rest!

1. Fake Spider Webs – Creating fake spider webs is not complicated yet you see so many people decorating their homes with clumps of cotton that looks like they were taken out of the bag and thrown on the wall. Try to make it look somewhat realistic. Stretch the cotton material until it becomes a silky transparent thread. You want it to look real enough that it will fake a real spider. Another idea for spider webs is using dark threading hanging from the ceiling in front of the door. Note: this will only work in a dark setting. Wet the strings so when guests enter your house they’ll walk through the web and get freaked out!
2. Floating Skulls – This is one of my favorites. You need a TV or monitor, a DVD (preferable) or a VCR, a video of a head or skull, a large sheet of glass or plexiglass. Lay the TV/Monitor facing up right below the window where you want the image displayed. Have the top of the TV/Monitor facing the wall. Place the glass or plexiglass above the TV at a 45 degree angle where one side is resting on the bottom of the TV and the other side is resting on the window. Make sure the video of the skull is adjusted where the area surrounding the head is dark. The end result is a floating head in the window. For more dramatic effects, you may want to add a background surrounding the area.
3. Lighting – You want to create the right ambiance. Replace the light bulbs on your chandelier and your front porch with a black light. You can even add a strobe light for a more
4. Tomb Stones – These are pretty easy to make. You need Styrofoam which you can get from a local arts and crafts store or Lowes, grey primer, and acrylic paint. Cut out the shape for the tomb stone, paint it with primer, and write the epitaph. Roughen the edges to give it a weathered look. You can also create a cross with two pieces of boards and nail them together in a shape of a cross. You may want to break pieces off the end or burn parts of the cross to make it appear old or weathered.
5. Birds – You can add fake crows and perch them on a tree, bush, or anywhere in your front yard.
6. Michael Meyers in the windows – This is relatively easy. Get a jump suit from a thrift store or ask a mechanics garage for an old outfit, get the Michael Meyers mask which can be found in virtually any Halloween store, get some construction gloves, newspaper, a fake or dull kitchen knife, double stick tape, a long stick with bottom support or a coat hanger with removable hangers, and a directional light. Stuff the jumpsuit with all of the newspapers. Stick long newspapers in the forearms so that the newspaper sticks out of the sleeves later to be used to stuff the gloves. Stuff the mask with newspaper as well. Cut a hole in the butt are of the jumpsuit and stick the support through until it reaches out of the neck area. Stick the mask on top of this portion of the support. Use the double stick tape and wrap it around the knife and close one of the gloves around the knife. Stand the figure in front of a window and place the light facing up so that it shines on Michael Meyers face.

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6 Unique Decorating Tips for Halloween

Thinking about decorating for Halloween?  Here are some tips on what you can do to make your home stand out from the rest!

1.    Fake Spider Webs – Creating fake spider webs is not complicated yet you see so many people decorating their homes with clumps of cotton that looks like they were taken out of the bag and thrown on the wall.  Try to make it look somewhat realistic.  Stretch the cotton material until it becomes a silky transparent thread.  You want it to look real enough that it will fake a real spider. Another idea for spider webs is using dark threading hanging from the ceiling in front of the door.  Note: this will only work in a dark setting.  Wet the strings so when guests enter your house they’ll walk through the web and get freaked out!
2.    Floating Skulls – This is one of my favorites.  You need a TV or monitor, a DVD (preferable) or a VCR, a video of a head or skull, a large sheet of glass or plexiglass.  Lay the TV/Monitor facing up right below the window where you want the image displayed.  Have the top of the TV/Monitor facing the wall. Place the glass or plexiglass above the TV at a 45 degree angle where one side is resting on the bottom of the TV and the other side is resting on the window. Make sure the video of the skull is adjusted where the area surrounding the head is dark.  The end result is a floating head in the window. For more dramatic effects, you may want to add a background surrounding the area.
3.    Lighting – You want to create the right ambiance. Replace the light bulbs on your chandelier and your front porch with a black light.  You can even add a strobe light for a more
4.    Tomb Stones – These are pretty easy to make. You need Styrofoam which you can get from a local arts and crafts store or Lowes, grey primer, and acrylic paint. Cut out the shape for the tomb stone, paint it with primer, and write the epitaph.  Roughen the edges to give it a weathered look. You can also create a cross with two pieces of boards and nail them together in a shape of a cross. You may want to break pieces off the end or burn parts of the cross to make it appear old or weathered.
5.    Birds – You can add fake crows and perch them on a tree, bush, or anywhere in your front yard.
6.    Michael Meyers in the windows – This is relatively easy.  Get a jump suit from a thrift store or ask a mechanics garage for an old outfit, get the Michael Meyers mask which can be found in virtually any Halloween store, get some construction gloves, newspaper, a fake or dull kitchen knife, double stick tape, a long stick with bottom support or a coat hanger with removable hangers, and a directional light.  Stuff the jumpsuit with all of the newspapers. Stick long newspapers in the forearms so that the newspaper sticks out of the sleeves later to be used to stuff the gloves.  Stuff the mask with newspaper as well. Cut a hole in the butt are of the jumpsuit and stick the support through until it reaches out of the neck area.  Stick the mask on top of this portion of the support. Use the double stick tape and wrap it around the knife and close one of the gloves around the knife. Stand the figure in front of a window and place the light facing up so that it shines on Michael Meyers face.

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