Free Holiday Ideas » Halloween Ideas

How To Halloween Ideas

kthomas — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:14:26 +0000

I’ve been working on a whole bunch of Halloween how to’s over at eHow. If you’d like to make a Mardi Gras style Halloween mask, want tips for choosing a dog costume, or are wondering about making a wreath for the door, drop by and check them out!

We are working on a request for a vampire cake from the little guy. If it turns out decent, I’ll post a picture and tell you what we did.

Are you in Halloween mode, yet?

Fun Halloween Online Interactive Site

kthomas — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:29:42 +0000

I forgot about this fun online interactive Halloween site from Hershey’s candy until the little guy was looking for something to do tonight. I checked and they’re not only up and running – they’ve added a few things. There are a bunch of great Halloween ideas and printables for teachers and parents, but the fun part for us is the site itself, which is set up as a bunch of spooky buildings. When you click on a building, you get to go inside and see things happen. If you move your mouse, you make more stuff happen. It is just right for preschoolers because it isn’t too creepy. We probably spent a good 40 hours playing with it last year. This year, he is old enough to move the mouse himself, so I only had to take him through the site once.

The Toymaker Does Halloween

kthomas — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:32:52 +0000

If you are looking for a fun way to entertain your preteen children, check out the Toymaker’s website. She has a bunch of free Halloween paper craft projects. I love how detailed her graphics are and how nice projects that only cost a bit of ink, a sheet of paper and a few dabs of glue turn out. We made some Christmas crafts we printed from her site last year and I misplaced the link. She sent me an email today about her new Halloween projects and I’m glad she did. Thanks, Toymaker!

Pumpkin Place Setting Holder

kthomas — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:30:40 +0000

I designed a pumpkin place setting holder for Halloween or Thanksgiving dinner that I thought I’d share with you. If you are making them for Halloween, you may want to try making faces on the pumpkins to turn them into Jack O Lanterns. To make these, simply cut a pumpkin shape out of scrapbooking paper and cut an identically shaped lower half out of the same paper. I made the top edge of mine jagged to resemble the way a jack o lantern’s top edge is traditionally carved. Place the half pumpkin on top of the whole one, right sides facing up. Punch holes around the edges and lace them up with a coordinating piece of yarn.
By the way, if you leave the ends of the yarn long to create a handle, these can be treat bags for a party, instead.

Pumpkin Decorating Tips Round Up

kthomas — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:08:43 +0000

I was surfing the internet and came up with so many cool ideas for decorating pumpkins that I thought I’d put together this round up post. If you blog about pumpkin decorating, feel free to join the fun by adding a link to your post in the comments!

Pumpkin Decorating Help
1. Exclusive pumpkin carving templates
2. Junk-o’-Lanterns – These are seriously awesome. I want to make some right now. I can’t wait for the pumpkins to get ripe!
3. Goodnight Moon pumpkin carving pattern
4. A plethora of pumpkin decorating ideas – these are some really great ideas for very different ways to decorate pumpkins.
5. Fantastic free pumpkin patterns

Photo by Elliott McFadden

Top Five Halloween Ghost Quotes

kthomas — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:57:52 +0000

There are so many spooky Halloween quotes that it is hard to choose just a few, but these are my favorites. The top five ghostly quotes are:
1. You know, I’m beginning to understand why ghosts moan so in this sort of weather. – Lester Cole in Return of the Invisible Man
2. Ghosts seem harder to please than we are; it is as though they haunted for haunting’s sake—much as we relive, brood, and smoulder over our pasts. – Elizabeth Bowen
3. It is with true love as with ghosts and apparitions: every one talks of it, and scarcely any one has seen it. – Duc De La Rochefoucauld François
4. You want to know whether I believe in ghosts. of course I do not believe in them. If you had known as many of them as I have
you would not believe in them either. – Don Marquis
5. They call them the haunted shores, these stretches of Devonshire and Cornwall and Ireland which rear up against the westward ocean. Mists gather here, and sea fog, and eerie stories. That’s not because there are more ghosts here than in other places, mind you. It’s just that people who live hereabouts are strangely aware of them. – Dorothy Macardle.

Free Halloween Printable for Kids

kthomas — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:40:43 +0000

I created another free Halloween printable for kids – a Halloween acrostic poem worksheet. Acrostic poems are really fun and easy to make:
H is for horrible laughs and other spooky sounds
A is for apple bobbing – and getting soaked to the skin…
and so on. If you use this printable, I’d love to hear what the kids come up with!

Printable Halloween Acrostic Worksheet

Beautiful New Children’s Halloween Costume Line

kthomas — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:38:27 +0000

CostumeCraze.com has a gorgeous new line of children’s Halloween costumes by Valerie Tabor Smith. They are just so precious. I think my favorite is the sweet little ribbon fairy costume. I wish there were some little boy options!

Halloween Decorating Made Easy

kthomas — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:23:47 +0000

If you are a busy mom, you probably don’t have time to spend hours assembling elaborate displays for the different holidays. I know we don’t! So, we decided to work on easy Halloween decorating ideas this year. Here are a few tips:
* Look for decorations that will also work for Thanksgiving and general fall displays. This way, you can create a backdrop that works for several months and will only have to change out a few elements after Halloween is over.
* Use banners to dress up an area fast. You can buy pre-made ones, but you can encourage the kids to make fun banners using tags and a piece of ribbon, too. I’ve discussed making tag banners several times in other posts, so I’ll just give a quick overview here. Spell out your message with a letter for each tag, decorating the tags beforehand with pretty papers, paint, or glitter. Then, string the tags on the ribbon and tack it over a doorway, a window, or in a corner of the room.
* Instead of decorating the whole house, concentrate on a few areas, like the front porch, the dining room table and the windows.

Halloween Party Games for Kids

kthomas — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:56:45 +0000

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it is time to start thinking about Halloween party planning. What on earth happened to our long lazy summer? Well, I put together a printable pumpkin shapes sheet to get you started. There are a ton of Halloween crafts and party games you can make for kids using something as simple as this pumpkin coloring sheet.

This simple Halloween party game should be a hit for preschoolers: try drawing pairs of faces on the pumpkins, cutting them out and having them do a matching game. Older kids will want to draw their own faces before they do any matching.

Another great game for older kids is to hunt for the big pumpkin. Use the small pumpkins from the coloring sheet to write clues about where the big pumpkin is hidden. The clues will lead to a large artificial pumpkin filled with Halloween treats.

If you have fun foam or felt, use the printable pumpkin sheet as a template to cut out a ton of shapes to decorate. Put the decorated pumpkins in your windows and on your front door or use them to make a long pumpkin banner to decorate the room.

Do you have a great idea for using the pumpkin coloring sheet to make Halloween party games for children? Please share them in the comments!
Pumpkin Shape Coloring Sheet