Halloween Bunting

Just in time for Halloween, I've managed to finish this bunting!

I started off cutting triangles and then decided it might be nice to add a little detail to some of the flags rather than have them plain, so added a couple of spiders, pumpkins and ghosts which I cut and stitched from felt.

The spider web fabric is glow in the dark for extra spookiness.....

woo -hoo.....

Happy Halloween!!

Creepy Sensory Ice

This week we had fun watching the ice melt as we tried to get the spooky confetti and bugs out of the ice, super easy and lots of fun!

Fill an ice tray with spooky bits and water -
food colouring and glitter is optional

When frozen, tip out the ice into a tray.

Spooky, icy, sensory fun!

Pumpkin Finger Puppets

Firstly thank you to Twodaloo for this idea that I found on Pinterest, or maybe it was Facebook, but wherever I came across it, I've been meaning to make these little cuties since last Halloween so when my little one came home from playgroup with the 5 Little Pumpkins rhyme I was determined to make them this year!  

Here's the rhyme....

Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate.

The first one said, “oh my it’s getting late.”

The second one said, “there are witches in the air!”

The third one said, “but we don’t care.”

The fourth one said, “let’s run and run and run.”

The fifth one said, “we’re ready for some fun.”

Ooooh went the wind and out went the light.

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Here's the link to Twodaloo on how to make them......  Felt Pumpkin Finger Puppets

I used Twodaloo's idea to make my own puppets but stitched them by hand instead of machine because sometimes it's just nice to do a little hand sewing in front of the TV at night.

If you want to make them, you'll need black, orange and a little green felt and I added the gate with some white felt.



Although they are actually finger puppets and can be used as such, I set them up on our felt board and created a little Autumn scene too - just to add to the creative fun.  

Happy Halloween!!

Spooky Water

Ok, so I know it's a bit early for Halloween but my little one has recently developed a real fascination with water and is constantly pulling over a step or little chair to play at the sink.

This isn't always ideal so instead of playing at the sink (and flooding the kitchen) I put some water in a shallow tray and tipped in some spooky creatures and confetti that I usually save for Halloween time.

You can see different sized spiders, mice and other creepy crawlies and I also put in a couple of plastic shot glasses for pouring and filling.

This experience is great for imaginative play as well as developing pouring skills and let's face it, playing in water is just great fun!

Happy Halloween - bendy doll witch!

Here is my teeny tiny, little bendy, bead head doll, inspired by the witch from the story Room on The Broom by Julia Donaldson - one of my favourite stories, complete with tiny, twiggy broomstick....perfect for supporting story telling!

 

PS....Don't use felt marker pen on the face as the inks bleeds on the wooden bead, which is why she has one eye slightly covered!  

If you want to try making bendy dolls there is a good tutorial here .

Toddler Owl Costume

I had already put this old jacket in the recycling bag when I decided to pull it out and try to change it into something else......

......and this is the result - a cute owl Halloween costume for my (almost) 18 month old. 

I started with the jacket and cut off part of the front panels and also made the pleat at the bag a little bigger to bring the jacket in.  

The sleeves were short anyway so I didn't touch them at all.

I searched in the house for suitable fabric for the feathers but couldn't find much so bought a couple of packs of pillowslips and cut them up into feather shapes.

Then I just tacked them onto the sleeves.  The jacket ties with two short lengths of ribbon.  

But the jacket still looked too long so I cut quite a bit of the length off and curved the front edges to look more like a cape.

To complete it I cut some fleece for the hat the same width as a hat he already has and then cut two big circles and two smaller circles from the pillowslip fabric and tacked them on.  Then I stitched on the buttons that were originally on the jacket to complete the eyes. Then I just cut a triangle from yellow felt.  

I finished the hat with some feathery ears.

And here he is!  It was almost impossible to get a decent picture so I'm going to try again in the daylight although I don't think he'll stay very still.

Super cute!!

Spook's Nook!

Turn your book nook into a spook's nook for Halloween, complete with light up pumpkin, spider web and spooky stories.

All you need to create your spooky story cave is a big box, a black sheet and a few Halloween decorations.

Happy reading!
 

Spooky Spider Hide and Seek

We had so much fun playing hide and seek with this sensory tub this morning that we were running late to meet friends for a walk. 

Can you spot the rats and spiders?

Here they are!

It's easy to make and takes no time at all!....

Cut up some black tissue paper and put it in the tub with  a few pine cones, leaves and any other suitable bits you have and then add the spiders and rats, hiding them under the leaves and paper.  
I also meant to add some sticks/twigs but totally forgot.






The creepy crawlies are really difficult to see among the black paper which makes it even more fun as you have to dig around and lift things/turn them over. 

Monty is only 17 months and had fun hiding the rats and spiders, but I'm sure if I took this tub into my class of 6 year olds, they would enjoy it too - on a completely different level.

If you want to have a go at this, look in the Halloween aisle at the supermarket for the creepy spiders and rats.

Halloween goody bag with glow-in-the-dark cobwebs!

A little bag to either give treats or collect them!

This is a glow in the dark cobweb fabric, lined with bright orange cotton.

On the front of the bag I stitched a spider body with pipe cleaner furry legs and then just glued on googly eyes instead of sewing them - as I was feeling lazy.

When you're done just fill with goodies.....Happy Halloween!