Halloween

Halloween toilet roll crafts

| arloriverrex

If you’re anything like me then you will have a bag full of loo roll tubes and all sorts of cardboard which is a handy rainy day stash. They certainly came in handy for our mammoth Halloween craft session!

You will need:

  • Loo roll tubes
  • Paper plates
  • PVA glue
  • Googly eyes
  • Paint
  • Brushes and spreaders
  • Scissors
  • Plus your Craft supplies – tissue, pom-poms, sequins and pipe cleaners plus anything else you have to hand.

    • These are activities you can keep coming back to and really involve little ones in the process. Arlo loves it when we get to the end of a loo roll and we have a permanent bowl of resources on the table so we can glue and stick whenever the mood arises.

    Our first make was a series of spiders which involved slices of tube being cut and pipe cleaners poked through holes. I cut the holes once the paint was dry.

    We used four pipe cleaners and this was a fab fine motor skill, the concentration required to thread the pipe cleaners kept him busy for a while and then he went to town with the Googly eyes.

    For our bat, cat and owl, life started in a similar way – squishing the tube down at one end as pictured to make ear shapes. I did this before we started with the paint and it helped Arlo imagine the animal and decide on his colours.

    Our cat was completed with a pipe cleaner tail and whiskers plus a pom Pom nose and the obligatory googly eyes.

    For our owl we made his wings using a half paper plate and feathers seemed like the best idea to Arlo…. and he also required some sequins to bring this creature to life.

    Our bat also utilised paper plate wings, I cut little half moons out of the plate to get the shape right.

    Our squashed frog was a later addition to the party – adding in cut paper for legs and squishing the tube in a different way – painting the mouth pink – and Arlo found in hilarious to hide spiders in his mouth and count them in and out all month.

    The monster here was a leftover after another play project – I originally cut some tubes to use as stampers with paint to make spiders and it only seemed right to add to our expanding brood of creatures.

    Frank completed our family – some how Arlo has become obsessed with Frankenstein and even persuaded me to get him his own little mask, and this bought us up to the end of October and so now it’s time to begin saving the loo roll tubes for Christmas craft projects.

    Halloween decorations

    | arloriverrex

    This Halloween tree was one of Arlo’s favourite things this season. We made all of these Decorations together and used plaster of Paris for the first time.

    You will need:

    • Plaster of Paris
    • Silicone mould
    • Jug
    • Water
    • Wooden skewers
    • String
    • Paints
    • Pens

    This one was a messy two part project but so much fun. Mixing the plaster of Paris with water was super simple and Arlo took the lead on this. I measured out exactly what we needed according to the pack instructions in to cups and he poured everything in to the jug to mix it together.

    Tip: mixing in the jug makes it easier and quicker to pour in to the moulds

    I placed our mould on to a baking tray as it was really wobbly and I didn’t want anything to spill out. At this stage I poked little wooden skewers through the pieces for holes and then I left it in a warm place to set.

    Arlo enjoyed the demoulding process just as much as the making – check out the video for a speeded up version of events – our plaster seemed to set really quickly and was read to come out within two hours but I did find that the paint we used didn’t dry so we left them to one side in a warm place for another two days before attempting to decorate them.

    Painting them and then stringing them up was a fairly simple process. The little black tree was from home bargains – it lights up in the dark and it made a fabulous centre piece for our Halloween window – we kept adding more and and more!

    Spooky Skeleton Mobile

    | arloriverrex

    This little collection of funny bones was surprisingly simple to put together and is by far my favourite home made Halloween decoration. I’ve just wrapped it carefully in tissue paper so we can save it and bring it out next year.

    You will need:

    • Gingerbread man cookie cutters
    • Air dry clay
    • Rolling pin
    • Wooden Skewer
    • Baking paper
    • Black paint
    • Silver and red acrylic paint pens
    • String
    • Ribbon

    You could use salt dough but I find air dry clay is better for more precious items as it doesn’t deteriorate.

    So to begin simply roll out your clay and use your cookie cutters to make your shapes. I also got out a selection of other shapes and let Arlo really go to town using the whole packet of clay. We added in some other tools and got really creative. You can wrap clay up in an airtight bag to save for another day.

    Once our pieces were ready we used a wooden skewer to poke holes through them so that we could use them as decorations. This step is really important, as it’s difficult to do this once their dry. Then we laid them on a sheet of baking paper to dry out for a couple of days.

    Once fully dry we used black paint to cover them and then added details with our acrylic marker pens. Silver for the bones and skull and then because we love colour we added in little red hearts too. We threaded the finished skeletons on to a long length of thin twine and then used scraps of ribbons to make little bows for in between.

    This project was one we had to come back to in two sessions and I love this. The clay was whipped out on a cold and dark evening and we sat at the kitchen table together before bath time and then read “funny bones” before bed time. The finished shapes were kept to one side and saved for a rainy day which is when the paints came out to play.

    Halloween Party food Ideas

    | arloriverrex

    You guys know that in this house we will celebrate the opening of an envelope with a huge party – but Halloween is literally bigger than Christmas for us. I always like to create themed food and put on a spread for the family and so here’s some of the ideas we tried this year which looked amazing, tasted good and are super simple to try out at home.

    First things first it’s always good to have a centre piece – usually this is a birthday cake but nanny decided to treat us all with a chocolate pumpkin and cupcakes topped with some handmade chocolates too. I dressed out table with some sparkly purple and gold fabric instead of a table cloth and put a box underneath to make a raised feature….. and also keep this out of little hands reach so the healthy stuff would be eaten first.

    In some shape or form the kids always enjoy hummus with all sorts of crudités. I wanted to try out a skeleton/monster type shape I saw on Pinterest and so it’s as simple as chopping it all up and spreading it around on a large enough platter. With a cucumber spine, bell pepper ribs and carrot stick arms this dude made the kids laugh and that’s the main thing.

    Our tangerines were peeled and then decorated with a little bit of icing, add a pretzel stick and some pea shoots around the plate made this look like a little pumpkin patch. Too cute to spook!

    Wiggly worms – grapes popped on to skewers with melted chocolate eyes on a bed of salad. This was super simple and went down a treat with Arlo in particular.

    Broomsticks! These broomsticks were a favourite and looked fabulous – again a really simple creating using cheese strings, long pretzels and chives to add a finishing touch.

    The kids adore fruits and so these little pots went down a treat. Using a pen to decorate a container with a Frankenstein face and then filling them with green grapes made them really come to life.

    Squishy eyeballs – made from tinned lychees with red food colouring and then a blueberry in place of the pop. These looked suitable disgusting but tasted lovely.

    Ghost face meringues – adding a few spots of black icing to make ghost faces took two minutes and the kids went crazy for these!

    Mummified juice – wrapping normal juice cartons with toilet paper and then using Googly eyes and marker pens to add faces. Another really easy idea to try out at home.

    To complete our table we added in dishes with other snacks such as popcorn, chips, dips etc and then made sure to add some spooky things in….. a mask around our pretzel jar, eyeballs in the nachos and a few spooky spiders in between.

    Arlo literally couldn’t wait to inspect the spread and made sure to take on the role of quality inspector prior to the beginning of the party. This type of food can stay out for the day and the kids can come back to pick as they please. I also served hot food – jacket potatoes, chicken wings and hot dogs so everyone had a substantial meal.

    When Arlo and Paloma were literally jumping for joy at the sight of all of the spooky goodies this made everything worthwhile. Hope you guys can try some of these ideas out – let me know how you get on – Tag us on Instagram so we can see you!