Save your Halloween Candy.

Great uses:

1. The Family Fun magazine showed a family that did a bunch of experiments with their candy-like melt them and add some normal household liquids to the candy to see what they would do. They had some fun ideas. I'm going to make a lab (the high school chemistry teacher showing up in my momhood now) for Apollo and I to try some things, draw some pic etc. I'll post it when I make it up.

2. Gingerbread houses.

3. Smores using the chocolate.

Dress Up.

My friend, January, made these for the nursery. She took the felt material, folded it, and sewed the edges (leaving holes for the arm). These would be great for every day dress up fun or for Halloween costumes. I saw a lot of Halloween costumes-hats etc. that could be added to the costumes for cheap.


Police uniform.
Chef.



Cowboy.


Nurse.

Indian headdress.

Halloween. Party.

Sorry for the overkill on Halloween stuff. I've just had Halloween on the brain trying to get my house decorated and to plan Apollo's second birthday party. I'm posting some ideas from the party because they can be used at adult or kid parties or just fun activities to try.




Party favors. These were done with orange tissue paper with candy and plastic Halloween treats inside. The stem is green floral tape. I've never used floral tape but learned from Carol, you have to stretch it to get it to stick. After taping the stem, I cut the excess tissue paper. These would look cute on the Thanksgiving table too.


Decorating haunted houses. These are like the Christmas gingerbread houses (only we used graham crackers). We used Halloween candy and lots of frosting.


Decorating cupcakes. There are tons of magazines (Martha Stewart's site is great) that have great ideas for cupcakes but the kids had fun just putting random sprinkles, eyes, and chocolate on top of their cupcakes. Scary stories. I saw some at the library and Apollo was given some by Grandma for his birthday. We read them to the first kids that came to the party. Here is the guest book where the "goblins and witches" signed in and took a pumpkin.


Face painting. There are some free templates on line that are fun to follow. Carol and Callie did a great job on the kids.



Fun cakes. The pumpkin cake was baked with a pumpkin mold but could be done with two bunt cakes (one for the top of the pumpkin and one for the bottom). You can use a small cup for the stem and can cover it with green frosting. Carol made the spider cake out of left over cake cut off from the pumpkin cake. She used fruit rollups for the lips, black pipe cleaners for the legs, black sprinkles, and plastic googly eyes.


Decorating pumpkins. We carved pumpkins just after Apollo came home from the hospital. He "helped" me just before his first birthday. He painted his this year. Carleton recruited the neighbor kids to help this year too.

Halloween. Branches.

I found this idea from a cool blog called NieNie Dialogues. It was hard to find some cool branches I could use around here-palm leaves wouldn't have looked so cool. I found a guy with a chainsaw in a cherry picker cutting these branches down. There were orange cones on the street. I asked if I could take some for a Halloween decoration. Annie was in the car and Apollo and I gathered all the branches.

For the look, I took off the leaves and spray painted them black. I bought some birds at Michaels and spray painted them black too. Afterward, I found some black birds at the dollar store for cheaper and they were already black. They have all found a home on my branches together.



My sister found these cool branches.


Here's my mom's. She bought the birds at a dollar store too.

Halloween. Wreath.

Isn't this a beautiful wreath? My sister made it! She bought fake red roses at the dollar store and spray painted them black (still leaving a little red) and hot glued them to a vine (or wood, what ever you call it) wreath. She made a bow and tied it onto the finished wreath.



Here are some of the decorations for my nieces birthday. Happy birthday Princess Gracy!

Halloween. More Deco.

My sister sent these pics of her entrance. The glassware and candelabra came from the D.I. She bought the rubber hand and put it in a jar of water. She added one drop of green food coloring.


For the painting of the girl, Heidi painted paper white and taped it to a painting (she rubbed the tape on her clothes to make it less sticky so the paint from the painting wouldn't come off). This would be cool for a family photo for Halloween.

Halloween. Ghosts.

Here's a fun idea my mom sent for Halloween. She said The ghosts are made from a sheer material. It's okay if the edges shred from blowing in the wind-they look scarier. I'm sure some old sheets or other materials would look great too.

Halloween. Witch's Broom.

I saw this at a cute little Halloween store and thought I could make it myself. It's a fun and easy project.


Materials Needed:
Dowel stick-for the broom handle (a tree branch might even look better and would be cheaper)
Rafia- You can get it at any craft store. I found a dried branch from a palm tree that would have worked well too.
Paint-Spray paint and something to paint the stripes
Masking Tape



Here's how:
1. Spray paint the stick black. After it's dry, tape off where you want the stripes. I did two on the top and one on the bottom.


2. For the broom sweeper part, I fold the rafia three times and cut the bottom then spray painted it.



3. Paint the stripes. Apollo helped. The paint bled under the tape but I liked how it didn't look perfect-it added to the whole Halloween thing.

...and here it is...