If you’re looking for a last-minute Halloween Craft to do with the kids this year, this is it! It’s easy and looks great, and you’ll be able to display it for years to come. I chose to make two canvas prints, a spider with a web and a ghost family. Here’s how!

You will need:

Acrylic paint
A canvas or two
Paintbrushes (I used a fat and skinny brush, plus the black foam one)

 
Step 1: Paint your canvas(es)
Use the foam brush to cover the entire canvas, even the sides, and let it dry. Black may need more than one coat to fully cover

Step 2: Paint the spider web 
I painted the web next because I wanted it to be there before I added the hand spider, to make sure it went in the correct place and that I had enough room.

I made the base of the web like this and then I connected the strands inside the web and made a small strand hang down on the left hand side for the spider, and let them dry.

Step 3: Add in your child’s hand and footprints
For the spider, I used my 3 year old’s hands. It works best to paint the entire hand minus the thumb, and put two handprints together in opposite directions. I actually let her paint her own hand and then just wiped off the paint on her thumb with a wipe before pressing it down to make the spider.

For the footprint ghosts, I used both my 1 year old and 3 year old’s footprints to make a little ghost family (just like our family of 4!)

I had the brilliant idea to do my little guy’s feet when he was in the high chair and I highly recommend this if you’re doing a baby or even toddler’s feet! I did a tester on a scrap piece of paper and had wipes and paper towels handy and it worked out very well.

Step 4: Add lettering and other details
I traced letter magnets from my fridge in pencil for the BOO, and then filled them in with orange paint using a small paintbrush. I added eyes for the ghosts and spider with the sponge brush. I was going to add writing to the spider print but decided against it. In hindsight I probably should have made the web bigger or the spider further down, but I still like it as is.

Here are the finished products!

The kids and I love them, and they look great on our Halloween-themed mantel too!

This craft would work great with regular paint on construction paper too, but I love that we can display these every year, and look back and see how much the kids’ hands and feet have grown!

The post Easy Halloween Handprint & Footprint Craft appeared first on Creative Sides.

My son is going through a crayon breaking phase. He likes to colour but more than that he loves to break the crayons in half or peel the paper off of them. He leaves a trail of destruction throughout the kitchen much like the breadcrumbs in Hansel and Gretel. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching and knowing that my oldest will want to give Valentines to her classmates I decided to make great use of all the broken crayons. 

Valentine Heart Crayon DIY Instructions

You will need: 

• Crayons; new or used
• Bowl of warm water (depending on crayon brand)
• Silicone heart shaped mold
• Oven preheated to lowest temperature

If you already have broken, peeled crayons you are halfway through this craft! If you are starting with fresh or unpeeled crayons it may take a few minutes to peel off the wrappers. I found Target and Crayola brand crayons to be the easiest to peel. The Color Zone brand I bought at Michael’s (thank you coupons!) was a bit of a headache to peel but found that soaking the crayons for 15-20 minutes in warm water made it easier.  You may be thinking why didn’t I get Buddy to help? I’m trying to break him of the habit, not encourage it… though the thought was tempting.

After all the crayons are peeled you are ready to fill the pan. Break the colours into small pieces and fill the liners with whatever colour combination you would like. My daughter is in an everything.must.be.rainbows phase so, for us, each liner had all the colours represented. Fill the liners 3/4 full.

Once filled, place the silicone tray onto a baking sheet. This will give you stability putting it in the oven and reduce the chance of your oven, and possibly yourself, being covered with molten hot wax. Place the baking sheet in a preheated oven at its lowest temperature. Our oven’s lowest temperature is 175 degrees.

Now the waiting game. It took approximately 15 minutes for our crayons to liquefy but I kept a close watch from the 12 minute mark onwards. The timing will depend on your oven temperature and how full you have filled the liners. Once the crayons have melted, remove from the oven and let them cool completely. Once they are cool, the silicone pan makes it so easy to pop them out.

I am really happy with the finished result. Apparently my kids are too, as one of the crayons went missing before I finished writing this post.

Hope you enjoyed this easy craft. Happy colouring!

The Quick How To: 

1. Peel crayons and break into small pieces
2. Fill silicone pan 3/4 full with your preferred colour combinations
3. Place pan onto baking sheet and put into preheated oven at lowest temperature for 15 minutes
4. Cool completely before removing from pan
5. Enjoy!

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This year I am officially the mom of a kindergartener… where did the time go? How did she grow up so fast?

My youngest, though, has spent the past month unsure of what to do with himself as his playmate isn’t constantly there to boss him around provide entertainment. I have been searching for new activities that can help him learn and keep him occupied for more than five minutes so I can inhale some coffee and get a few projects done around the house.

Inspired by his current fascination of picking up the leaves around our neighbourhood, I decided to create a quick and easy felt tree craft. To make it a bit more special and fun I used his hand as the tree.

You will need:

• Freezer paper
• Felt sheets in various colours  (one for the background and the others for the leaves and other decorations)
• Scissors or Rotary cutter 
• Iron
• Ironing Board
• Pencil

Step 1: Trace your child’s hand on to the dull side of the freezer paper.  You can also trace their hand onto any piece of paper you have near (office paper, envelope, phone bill…) and retrace on the dull side of the freezer paper after.  Speaking from experience here…

Step 2: Place the freezer paper shiny side down on top of the rough side of the felt sheet. The rough side is the side that usually has the manufacture sticker on it. Remember to remove the sticker before ironing.

Place freezer paper on rough side of felt. Remember to remove the sticker.

Step 3: Iron the freezer paper using medium heat, no steam. You should now have the freezer paper and felt temporarily stuck together. This step will make it much easier to cut out your design. 

Step 4: Cut out your shapes using either scissors or a rotary cutter. 

Step 5: Peel freezer paper away from felt and place cut out on background of your choosing.

Handy tip: Replace the sticker on the left over scrap of felt to help you remember which side is the rough side for your next craft project.

Repeat steps 1 through 5 with other felt colours to create leaves, sunshine, grass, apples, pumpkins, clouds, flowers, house – whatever your imagination can dream up.

Play! 

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