“The Halloween Book” Creepy Crafts For A Hair Raising Halloween
Written: Mar 14 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Awesome but easy ideas for costumes, treats, food and decorations.
Cons: None!
The Bottom Line: Need a little inspiration when it comes to decorating or planning the perfect Halloween party? This book gives you the skinny on how to pull it off without a hitch!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Jane Bull - The Halloween Book |
Most people associate Dorling Kindersley with educational books; while they are an awesome publisher of learning material they also have a creative side. Even though I have only seen a few DK books that deal with holidays in this manner, I am sure that there are more out there just waiting for me to come across them. I picked this one up years ago at a book sale that one of the large homeschooling groups in Los Angeles were running, for five bucks I got a great book, helped them raise some money for supplies and got a ton of awesome Halloween ideas! No matter how old you are, what your crafting skills are or what type of budget you are working with, almost everything you see in this book is doable. The best part is that kids love this stuff so be sure to ask them if they want to lend a hand, once they see the treats and goodies that are tucked away in this book, you might have a hard time getting them out of the Halloween spirit.
“The Halloween Book” Creepy Crafts For A Hair Raising Halloween
The book is divided up into three major sections; decorations, costumes and party items. To be completely honest, my favorite part of the book has to be the food section. When I was flipping through it and saw the severed fingers I knew in an instant that I had to have this book. So what are the severed fingers? Nothing more than hot dogs [or sausages] cut in half with a piece of a pimento or tomato skin placed over the edge. The section on decorating cupcakes is to die for! They have ideas for making spider web toped cakes, bloodshot eyes, insects and more using nothing more than licorice, icing and some candy. If you are someone that loves to gross people out or have them green with envy then this is definitely a section to check out. But wait, there is more. The sandwiches that they make from bread rolls look so cool that it might just be a shame to have people eat them. There’s also a small section on making haunted pizzas that look like skulls, devils and monsters. If you want some ideas for making spooky potions, this book has tons of them!
If you want to bridge the gap between decorating and food you can accomplish this in one simple task – the Hanging Horrors tree. This shows you how to make simple basic shapes from a cookie mix [recipe included in the book], how to make your own stencils for the cookies and how to bake them. You’ll see ideas for bones, bats, skulls and ghosts but you can make any shapes you like. Just remember to make a hole in the cookie before you bake them then hang them on string and let people munch on them as they make their way through your house. These don’t need to be frosted so there’s really not a lot of work that goes into making them but they look so cute. You can also use these to make a small haunted tree. Just find an old dead tree branch or something that has a long of limbs to it, remove anything that is loose and tie these cookies to it. I did this years ago for someone and added candies and other treats to it and it looked awesome.
The section on costumes lets you create cool things for kids [or adapt them for adult costumes if you wish] with some basic make up, clothes or costumes and their imagination. It shows you a step by step process for making a pirate, witch, skull, black cat, scary monster and vampire. What good is a homemade costume without a homemade treat basket to go along with it? You get ideas on how to make treat buckets, pails and envelopes with things like newspaper, paint and glue. The ideas for candy cones are something that you can use for any holiday. Just make a cone from thick construction paper, decorate the outside of it and fill it with all kind of goodies. If you are making a ton of these to give out you will want to make some kind of stand for them so they aren’t falling all over the place. My suggestion is to take a large flat box, cut out holes so that about half of the cone rests in it, pop the cones in them and then fill them.
If decorating is your thing and you love candles then you will flip over the Jeering Jars. These are so easy to make and once Halloween is over, you can remove the paper to use them around the house. Just take any type of jar, cover it with tissue paper then glue ghosts, ghouls, monsters or whatever you like on the outside. Light the candle and watch people go bonkers over them. A nice twist to this is to glue the images under white tissue paper; it gives it a creepier feel and looks great. For kids there is a modified version for flashlights, these are nice for them to have when they go trick-or-treating and lets them get in on the spooky fun of the holiday. The one section the boys really liked was on how to make paper chains of pumpkins, cats and ghosts. No matter how hard I tried to make these, I always ended up cutting in the wrong section but this book shows you how to do this easily. No more spending money on these babies when Halloween rolls around!
At the end of the book there is a cute section on Halloween games that you can have if you are planning a party. Things like making a shadow theater, mixing gross foods in bowls and putting boxes over them and letting people try to guess what they are, ghost stories and of course bobbing for apples. One of the cutest ideas was Dangling Doughnuts, just take some doughnuts, hang them from string and see who can eat the entire doughnut first. Make things a little more challenging by purchasing ones that are iced and have sprinkles on them. One section that I am really glad they added to the book was about safety on Halloween. It tells kids to go with an adult, leave just after dark, go in a group and don’t call on houses that aren’t decorated since they might not want to be bothered or disturbed.
The Bottom Line
I got a lot of great ideas from this book and so did the boys. They loved making some of the food treats that were featured and eventually added their own twists to it. After the first Halloween of using this book, the only way my youngest would eat a hot dog was if I would make it into the shape of a finger. That went on for a good three months before he outgrew it. Now that little Annabelle is with us I am sure this book is going to get a real workout when Halloween arrives. She loves to play dress up, help out in the kitchen and scare the life out of trick-or-treaters so she fits in well with this weird but fun brood. If you are looking for a kid oriented craft / decorating / food idea book that allows you to use things that you already have around the house then this is definitely one for you to keep your eyes peeled for!
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
Halloween items to help get the party 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
Halloween Night on Shivermore Street
Wilton Copper Halloween Cookie Cutters
Recommended:
Yes
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