Scare The Snot Out of Them With Kathy Ross’ “Crafts For Halloween”
Written: Mar 15 '05 (Updated Mar 15 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to do projects, great for kids, uses everyday items.
Cons: Some are a little hokey.
The Bottom Line: Planning a Halloween party? The kids getting on your last nerve? Kill two birds with one stone and break out this book!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Crafts for Halloween Books |
If you’ve read any of my other reviews, chances are you know that I am a total fanatic for Halloween. Be it baking haunted goods, making costumes, decorating or just enjoying the season, Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. Ever since I was a kid I loved the turning of the seasons, making soul cakes and plying innocent tricks on people when they were a little on the mean side. When I started having kids I hoped that they would be into the whole Halloween spirit and while it took a few of them a little longer to come around than others, it’s a holiday that we all love. Over the years I accumulated a lot of Halloween craft books that I used as stepping stones to creating my own unique ideas. Kathy Ross has a wonderful series of books for decorating and gift making for almost every holiday under the sun. This one is almost ten years old but it still has a lot of great ideas for kids and adults on hot to make cute and creepy things for that bewitching time of year.
Crafts For Halloween
Unlike the kids books, this one only has twenty projects instead of thirty, even so, there are more than enough things to do in this book to get your house ready for a night of ghoulish fun. One of the best things about Kathy’s books is that it uses, for the most part, common things that you probably already have around your house. This means you don’t have to go trudging from store to store to find a certain item or spend a lot of money in the process. One of the simplest but cutest ideas that Kathy presents in the book is the “Hairpin Ghost Necklace”. All you need is a plastic lid, a hairpin, glue and some string. Spread the pin apart, put a thick layer of glue between it then allow it to dry. Use a permanent marker to make some eyes on it then thread it with some string and you have a cute ghost you can wear around your neck, attach to a zipper tab or even use as a decoration. If you thought Kathy had some great ideas for using old Christmas cards in her Christmas Ornaments Kids Can Make book, wait until you see what you can do with old socks! How about making a cute “Sock Pumpkin” or a “Stuffed Sock Bat”.
One of the coolest ideas is for the “Haunted House Treat Carrier” that puts those half gallon cardboard milk containers to good use when they are empty. All you need to make this is some yarn, construction paper, scissors, tape, stickers and glue. This can be used for when kids go trick-or-treating or if you want, you can leave your candy out for kids in this cute container without having to worry about someone stealing it. This is something that you can make out of any type of box but the half gallon milk containers are a nice size for kids to carry. You can take this a step farther by using the pint or quart milk containers; decorate them then fill them with different candies and use them on a party table so people can pick out the treat they want. If you have old dolls around the house, don’t throw them out! Recycle them and make them into scary monsters. Wrap them in aluminum foil, glue some small nuts to the side of their neck and you have an instant Frankenstein.
The book also shows you how to make a couple of cute games like the “Goblin Game” sort of like Barrel of Moneys only with goblins instead. The “Pumpkin Numbers Game” is a cute one for younger kids and there are a lot of different ways you can play it. All you need are some old soda pop lids [the screw off ones], paint, paintbrush, glue and scissors. Cut out black circles from construction paper and glue them inside the caps then paint the outside of the caps and decorate them however you like [a pumpkin design is included in the book] then allow them to dry. You can try to flip the caps so they all face one way or flip them off the table to the floor to get points for the designed side. This is something that kids really like to play since it is noisy, they get to throw things around and mostly because it annoys adults to no end.
Supplies Needed
Once you get the hang of using these types of books to make simple crafts you’ll learn that you can easily make substitutions and where to shop to get the best price. You don’t need to buy the ‘good’ construction paper or felt for stuff like this, in my opinion, the cheaper the better, especially if you plan on pitching the stuff at the end of the holiday. Some of the common items that are used in these projects include: poster paint, felt, scissors, construction paper, tape, yarn, glue, packing peanuts, aluminum foil, paper plates, thread, permanent markers, cardboard and paintbrushes. Almost everything that you will need for these tasks are things that you have around the house but if you don’t have something, use you imagination and improvise!
Fundraising With Halloween Crafts
If you are looking to raise some funds for a local animal shelter, Girl or Boy Scout Troop or even for homeschooling, making holiday crafts is a great way to go about it. As I mentioned in other craft book reviews, even those working on a limited budget will be able to make the projects featured in this book. Check your local paper to see if there are Halloween craft fairs or places where you can sell your goods; most of these places will cut you a deal if you say that the money is going toward a non-profit group or is being used for fundraising. Kids will get the chance to help out others, have some fun making crafts, learn about sticking to a budget and working with money.
The Bottom Line
Most of the things that are shown in this book can be completed in fifteen minute or less, require very little crafting skills and are great things for kids to use to help get ready for the holiday. With a little imagination and teamwork you can come up with a lot of great uses for the things that are featured in the book and if you are like me, this will serve as a stepping stone to other great Halloween projects. If you check out this book and like what you see, look for other books from Kathy Ross for Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Forth of July, Easter and a whole slew of kids crafting books. The illustrations are great, the text is easy to follow and best of all, most of the items you will need are common things you probably already have around the house!
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
Halloween items to help get things started …
Wilton Dancing Skeletons Baking Cups
Crayola Halloween Crayon Treat Pack
Wilton Singles - Bat Mini Pan
Crayola Halloween Boo Bucket
Wilton Singles - Ghost Mini Pan
Kids Pop Halloween Hits
Wilton Just Batty Stencil-A-Cookie
The Halloween Book
Halloween Night on Shivermore Street
Wilton Copper Halloween Cookie Cutters
Recommended:
Yes
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