Pharaoh's Crook

For my oldests History lesson we have been studying all things Egypt. One of his art projects was to make a Pharaoh's Crook. I knew we'd never be able to make just one, so we made it a family project. Daddy made the crooks out of newspaper/magazine paper and masking tape. The kids then painted their taped crooks the colors of their choosing. They were quite happy with the results and play with them often. And bonus- only some of the times do I have to take them away for improper usage. :)

Magic painting

I didn't have time to snap a picture of the finished project, but it really wouldn't have mattered. I tried and tried to get my boys to color with the white crayon more, but they were just too darn excited to paint. And then when they finally did paint (I practically had to force them to color more!), they didn't even try to paint over what they colored to see if it would magically appear! We might have to try this one again sometime!

So pictured above is what you need! Start off by coloring a picture (white crayon on white paper) and then use water colors to paint over your coloring and see what turns up!!

Fall Tree Painting

My boys and I will be doing this beautiful painting later in the week!

Go here for all the instructions! SO fun!

Cute Flying Bat

I made this last night after the kids and I did the pumpkins. I was having a creative moment and decided to take advantage of it. This is one you could do with the kids too, it wasn't hard, just a bit messy. The paint doesn't absorb into the egg carton very fast so it leaves wet paint everywhere. I thought he was pretty cute so I decided to share him with you.

Jack-O-Lanterns

I wasn't sure if this was going to come out or not, but I think they are cute.

You will need:
-two egg pockets from an egg carton
-green pipe cleaner; long enough to go through your pumpkin and leave a stem
-a ice pick or something similar to poke holes with
-a marker for making the face
-orange crayon or paint

1) I cut the egg pockets down so there weren't any dips/holes in the sides of the pumpkin.
2) Let the kids color or paint the halves. Sirus decided green was better. :)

3) After they dry poke a hole in the end of each for the pipe cleaner.
4) Fold one end of the pipe cleaner over then take the other end and weave it through your two halves, making sure to line them up the way you want them.

5) Once the pipe cleaner is through the top cut off the excess leaving enough to bend over to make the stem at the top.
6) Give the kids the marker so that they can make their own jack-o-lantern faces.
7) Enjoy

Halloween Projects

Halloween Projects at the Lee house:

My favorite projects to do with Gwen are painting projects. I give her lots of paper and paint colors. Then after the paint is dry I cut out the pieces and put them together so they resemble something. I like it because I can let her do her free form toddler thing. She likes to help me tape or glue them together too.

Today we made candy corn, witch's, bats, and Frankenstein. We put them up in our front window.

I also put some paint on Maggie's foot to make candy corn foot prints. Brown across the toes and pad, orange across the arch and yellow on the heel. I didn't take a photo of it.

It was a messy project, but it was contained to the highchair and the bathtub.

We also have made some ghosts and hung them in the front yard. It's a simple project that uses 1 large white garbage bag, 16 plastic grocery bags, 8 twisty ties, yarn, and masking tape.

1. take a large plastic garbage bag and cut off the sides and bottom.
2. Then cut the 2 remaining pieces into fourths, so each bag made 8 rectangles.
3. bunch up 2 plastic grocery bags and placed them in the center of 1 rectangular piece of the cut up garbage bag.
4. fold the rectangle in half with the grocery bags still in the center.
5. Use a twisty tie to keep the bags in place and to form the head of the ghost.
6. Tie some yarn around the neck of the ghost and use tape to help the ghost hang straight.

Finally we decorated our pumpkins without cutting them so they don't rot out before the big day. I got some ideas from http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12055

I used scrap fabric and sewing pins to make the witch's hat & hair and Frankenstein's hair, mouth, ears and nose.

Here is a photo from the website of more ideas.