Playdough Party Favors

Happy Halloween!

My friend Krista and I are in charge of planning and running our church's moms group.

We get together once a week to hang out and let the kids play.

We were planning a little Halloween playdate for the moms and kids and didn't really want to overload the kids with sugar. I thought about what I could bring, and with the majority of the kids being ages 2-3, I decided that Homemade Playdough would be perfect!

I picked up several packages of these reusable containers at the Dollar Tree.

They are each 12oz.

I made 3 double batches of Homemade Playdough in Purple, Orange and Green for Halloween.

*1/4 of a single batch is the perfect size for playing and fit nicely in the containers I purchased!*

While taking photos of the playdough my son decided to sit on my foot and lick my leg.

He thinks he's hilarious...I just think he's gross and a little bit cute;)

The containers looked so sad and naked,

so I got out my scrapbook paper and a circle cutter and went to town. I printed:

Happy Halloween!

{PLAYDOUGH}

on orange cardstock and cut it out with scissors,

then I used an adhesive roller to stick the paper to the lids and to attach the labels.

So cute, right?

The kids(and moms) loved them!

We had a few leftover after everyone left, so then I got to be the crazy mom at the park handing homemade playdough out to families as I came across them. I got some strange looks followed by amused grins, but the kids all begged to go home to play with the playdough so it was worth it! Ha ha ha!

Do you have any non-sugar Halloween ideas?

I would love to hear them!

Linking up with some of these Blogs:

Fingerprints on the Fridge, Making The World Cuter, Dittle Dattle, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to my Lou, Craft O Maniac, Delicate Construction, Ask Anna, New Nostalgia, House of Grace, Sassy Sites, Not Just a Housewife, Today's Creative Blog, My Craftie Life, Sew Much Ado, Seven Thirty-Three, Someday Crafts, A Diamond in the Stuff, My Girlish Whims, Somewhat Simple, Momnivores Dilemma, Paisley Passions, Fun to Craft, Make it, Wear it, Gluesticks, House of Hepworths, What Allie's Making Now, Finding Fabulous, A Little Knick Knack, Mommas Kinda Crafty, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Inspiring Creations, Be Different Act Normal, Wildflowers and Whimsy, Tatertots and Jello, The Idea Room, My Repurposed Life, Sew Many Ways, I Heart Naptime, Thirty Handmade Days, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Itch, Oops I Craft My Pants, Addicted 2 Decorating

Our costumes

Hi! I am Velma!

This is baby Scooby and Shaggy

Travis was not sure what to think of his mommy in a wig:)

My adorable baby Scooby!

My sassy Daphne:)

She threw that football right through the tire and seriously shocked those boys! 

That's my girl!!!

We did not get a family picture of all of us in our costumes...Boooo!

We were like celebrities wherever we went:)

I heard more than one parent explaining to their children that I was not actually 

the REAL Velma, but was just a mommy in a costume!!! 

I laughed so hard!

Next year I plan to make our costumes, but these ones are going to be hard to beat!

Carnival Booth: Fear Factor

Our schools' Parent Club put on a fall carnival last weekend.

Here are some pictures of the Fear Factor booth:

 Here is the front of the booth.

Here is the back. See the pitchers? 

They were filled with gooey things for the kids to reach into.

As you can see by the painted name this side was meant to be the front, 

but it just made more sense to turn it around.

The kids had to find the snake in the "brains".

They had to find a, uh, paperclip in the maggots(okay, so that one was a stretch, but whatever. Try to find a paperclip in dry rice...it's hard!)

These are floral beads that are REALLY gross to reach your hand into.

The kids had to find these eyeballs in the floral beads and it was super tricky but so much fun! The kids really loved the gross out aspect and the parents loved it too.

Any other great gross out ideas for next year? 

I would love to hear what you think!

I am linking up with some of these fun blogs:)

Crafting with the Stars!

I have entered my Halloween Buddies !!! 

Go check out this fun contest and enter a project of your own!!!

Halloween Buddies

I don't know what else to call them. Any ideas?



Before you help with a name

you might want to know what they are!

Yep, they are Puff containers!

My son goes through one of these every 1-2 days, so they stack up pretty quick. I used to just recycle them and then one day I peeled off the label and took a look at it and realized that it could be made into characters!!! There are so many possibilities!

See?

Is your mind just racing with ideas of what to make

with this blank canvas?

I just love the shape of them.

Meet Lynette. She is a friendly witch.

She has fun googly eyes with eye makeup on that I found at the Dollar Tree.

Meet Stretch. He was VERY difficult to paint. Ha ha ha!

Meet Spazzy Mazzy.

I wanted something purple(it looks blue, but it's really purple) with googly eyes, so here he is.

Meet Langston. He is awesome.

Meet Frankie! He is my favorite...I pretty much adore him.

Here they are all together...My baby puff containers turned into my Halloween Buddies!!!

I don't claim to be an artist,

but I think they came out pretty darn cute.

Wouldn't these make adorable gifts? Fill them with goodies and give them to teachers and neighbors. They would make a great "Boo!" (If you haven't heard about "Boo"ing your neighbors you should google it)

I am linking up to these parties, and am participating in Get Your Craft On!

Jack O Lantern Tealights

After reading Kasia's Jack O Lantern String Lights post on Dream Home I was inspired to use up some of my glass baby food jars to make something similar. Go check out her post...it's so cute!

Here are my Jack O Lantern Tealights!

I did things a little different than Kasia.

She used food coloring and mod podge to get her gorgeous stained glass appearance, but since I didn't have the food coloring I used orange acrylic paint mixed with the mod podge.

Here they are in all their black and orange glory!

The candlelight really brings out the brushstrokes in the paint and adds a nice touch, don't you think?

I added some raffia around the neck of a couple jars to see if I liked it and think that I will be adding it to the rest of the jars as well.

I love how they turned out and can't wait to put them around my house for halloween:)

I am linking up to some of these parties

Halloween Beanbags, Part 2

While in beanbag restoration mode I saw this fabric at Joannes and decided that it needed to become beanbags.

It was it's destiny. Do you agree?

Cut the fabric 4 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches (or whatever size you want) and pin the right sides of the fabric pieces together.

Sew all the way around the beanbag leaving a space an inch or two open for turning. I used a 1/4 inch seam for my beanbags. Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end for strength when you turn the bag later. 

Clip the corners to allow for less bulk and turn the beanbag right side out.

Fill with dried beans and then topstitch around the bag closing up the hole used for turning.

I put too many beans in my bags(i like them full), so I could only topstitch two of the sides.

Tip: Use pins as a barricade to keep the beans away from the edge you are sewing. I didn't take a picture of this step so use your imagination:)

Here they are in all their adorableness.

Finish the bags, take pictures and then let baby (who should be sleeping but is not) play with them in his adorable fuzzy jammies.

Destiny revealed.

I am linking up to some of these super fun blogs:)

Halloween Beanbags, Part 1

The Parent Club for my daughters' school is working on the Fall Carnival right now and I have been so busy with meetings and helping plan out game booths.

We cleaned out the Parent Club room to see what we have and what we need to get for booths.

There was a crate of beanbags that were in desperate need of repair that I saved from the trash pile.

Here they are:

Pile of ratty beanbags rescued from the trash pile

Do you see the staples? Yep, that's right. Staples. Gah!

After removing the staples from the beanbags, I found crushed beans and crumpled paper inside and decided that they needed to be redone completely.

I dumped out the contents into the trash, and then cut down the rectangles of fabric into a more square like shape. I wasn't trying to make them perfect, but anything was an improvement over their previous state! Hi, remember the staples?

I sewed them right sides together, turned them right side out through a 2 inch gap, filled with fresh dried pinto beans and top stitched for extra strength and added pretty:)

Isn't that better?

No chance of children getting cut with these now:) Yay!

Even though this fabric is obviously well worn,

I think these ones are adorable!

I am linking up with these crafty people:)