Homemade Scratch Art

This is one of those projects I remember doing as a child at this time of year to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night in the UK (November 5th). It was always strangely satisfying to color a piece of paper in bright color crayons only to go over them all in black and then recreate the wonder of bonfire night.

You will need:

Card / heavy paper we recycled the inside of a cracker box

Crayons

Black Tempera Paint

Dish Washing Liquid

Blunt pencil

Step 1

Color card in multiple colors, any pattern

Step 2

Mix 2 drops of the dish washing liquid into about 2tbl spoons of the black paint.

Step 3

Cover colored paper with a layer of the paint mixture. 

D really enjoyed this bit, he could not believe I was telling him to color over the pretty coloring.

Leave to dry

Step 4

Once dry take the end of an unsharpened pencil and etch your picture into it. D did such a great job drawing his person, grass and lots of fireworks.

Such a fun project this homemade scratch paper could be used in so many ways with beautiful results.

Clothes Hanger Spider Web

This recycled clothes hanger is decorating our fireplace for Halloween, its always fun when you can turn trash into art, and it would look just as pretty outside catching the morning sun.

You will need:

Wire clothes hanger

Thin wire

Beads

Black pipe cleaners

Bottle top

Googley Eyes

Step 1

Bend pipe cleaner into large circle as shown and bend over hook.

Step 2

Taking the thin wire, bend one end around the edge of the hanger. We used round nose pliers used for jewelry making ti tighten the loop.

Then begin threading the wire back and forth across the circle criss-crossing in the center. Attach to side when needed. 

Step 3

Next we began weaving the web around the wire to create a spider web.

Occasionally we would thread on a bead.

Ending up with something like this.

Step 4

Next we attached the pipe cleaners to the bottle cap to create the spider. We have a small hole punch and I punched 4 holes down each side of the cap (a nail and hammer could also make these holes or use hot glue to attach the legs directly). 

One hole in the top attached the spider to the web

Step 5

Hot glued googley eyes and the web is ready to hang.

One happy little boy checking out his new pet spider in the sun.

So pretty when the sun catches the beads.

Can you tell D has reached the age of photo faces.

Happy Halloween from itsy bitsy

Halloween Slime

You have to love slime, and it's so simple after you've made it once you'll be making over and over. Slime keeps my kids quiet for hours and if I'm honest I love playing with it too, you really are never too old for slime.

So on a rainy Thursday while the bigs are at school what better activity for me and my one armed bandit.

You will need:

Borax

Elmer's glue

Warm water

Halloween spiders / halloween confetti

For a how to make slime follow this link to our valentine slime recipe. This time round we omitted the food coloring and hearts were replaced with spiders for a Halloween feel.

Step 1

Create a batch of slime. Make sure you get your hands in for kneading.

Step 2

Add spiders and play. 

We had spiders stuck in the mud, spider pizza and spider cookies. (They don't really keep their shape!)

Squeeze slime into a jar, the fart putty sounds never really get old.

And when D knocked it over, more fun...Super goo swallowing spiders

Spider races

And we made enough slime to share with a buddy, because "Bastian likes Spiderman so he must LOVE spiders!"

Sharpie Pumpkins

We LOVE the white pumpkins found in the farms around us this year. What better a canvas for Halloween?

You will need:

Sharpies

White pumpkin

This is such a great project for when you have something to get done and need to keep them busy. Which has been me the past 2 weeks with D home with a broken arm and told to play quiet (a seemingly impossible task for my ninja loving 3 year old!)

Just put out the Sharpies and pumpkins and let them create. I added a mat under D because I didn't want Sharpie all over my table cloth. Art is like a magnet in our house so when the others got off the school bus they all had to make one too.

I love all the different ideas they came up with.

So pretty out on the porch

I think these might multiply, they've already asked if I can get more pumpkins.