Festive Halloween Candy

I found a fun tutorial  here  while looking for Halloween treat ideas to make for my son’s class. I didn’t have any chocolate candy bars, but I did find individual packets of skittles.  I attached google eyes to a piece of black paper and adhered them to the skittles packets.  Then I wrapped each skittles bag in white crepe paper.  Here’s the end result.

I think the kids will really like the Mummy treats.  For those of you that were wondering where to get google eyes here in Jakarta, I got mine at one of the shops in the Mayestik Marketplace in South Jakarta.
I also made the classic kleenex lollipop ghosts.  The kids had fun helping me make the ghosts.  My daughter helped me draw faces on the ghosts.  It’s an oldie, but a classic.  Kids love these lollipop ghosts!

Do you have any fun and easy Halloween treat ideas you’d like to share?  I’d love to hear about it!

Halloween Crafts from Recyclables

My daughter has been helping me make Halloween decorations.  She loves to make things so it has been fun to do some fun crafts with her.

Craft #1
Jack-O-Lantern Luminary

I had an empty glass jam jar that I cleaned and dried.  I asked my daughter what kind of face she wanted on her jar.  She wanted triangle eyes, a square nose, and a triangle mouth.  I cut the shapes out of masking tape and put in on the jar.  She painted the jar orange.  Then she peeled off the tape and painted the face parts yellow.  I wanted her to leave them clear so that the candlelight would shine through better but she insisted on painting them in…can’t argue with a 4-year old. She could hardly wait for the paint to dry so we could put in a votive candle.  Here’s the end result. 



Craft #2
Empty Box Mummies

I saw a tutorial for some empty box mummies using an old white sheet and google eyes.  The tutorial is here if you want to see the original.  I thought they were adorable!  I had different sizes of empty boxes. My daughter picked out 3 that she liked.  We used toilet paper to wrap our boxes.  I unrolled a long piece.  Then I folded it in half so it would be thicker and not as wide.  My daughter taped one end and we started wrapping the boxes.  We wrapped along the top and sides of the box first and then around the middle.  Periodically I put in a couple of pieces of tape to hold the toilet paper in place.  I cut some round white circles from scrap paper.  Then I cut out some smaller black circles and glued them to the white circles.  Then my daughter glued the eyes to the wrapped boxes.  I thought they turned out really well. The smallest box is actually wrapped with a folded paper towel.  We tried that first, but it didn’t work all that well. 



Craft #3
Toilet paper jack-o-lanterns

I have seen fabric-wrapped toilet paper pumpkins before.  I also came across this tutorial explaining how to make tissue-paper wrapped pumpkins.  Instead of rolling the paper around the toilet paper rolls and tucking in both ends, I thought the pumpkins looked a little better if I just placed the toilet paper roll in the middle of the sheet of tissue paper and then tucked in the paper through the top.  I cut a small strip of green crepe paper for the leaves. I had my daughter crumple a piece of brown origami paper for the stem which we also stuffed through the top.  Instead of drawing on jack-o-lantern faces with a marker, I cut some face parts out of black paper.  My daughter told me what kind of faces she wanted for the pumpkins.  Here my daughter is posing with the box mummies and the jack-o-lanterns.



Craft #4
Pringles Can Frankenstein

I had an empty pringles can that I thought we could decorate as a Frankenstein. We wrapped green paper around the tube for the face.  We cut a strip of black paper and my daughter fringed it for the hair.  Then we wrapped most of the bottom part of the can with black paper and put in a strip of white paper with a little scoop cut out at the top to make his clothes.  I drew in the face with a black marker.  I also attached some brown rolled paper to the sides of the neck.  Here’s the end result.



I had so much fun making these crafts with my 4-year old.  It didn’t really cost us much to make these decorations.  The only thing I purchased that I didn’t already have was the orange tissue paper.  There are so many creative ideas out there for recycled crafts so get your creative juices flowing and go make something!  Happy Crafting and Happy Halloween!

Homemade Halloween Costumes

I didn't bring a sewing machine with me to Jakarta so this year we will scrounge around to see what we can come up with for Halloween costumes.  I usually like to come up with home-made costumes.  Store-bought costumes are expensive, especially if they are only worn once or twice.

One year I made a peppermint candy costume for my youngest.  It was relatively simple.  She wore a white onesie and white tights. I made a tutu and wrapped a white knit hat in tulle.  The peppermint was made from white and red felt stitched together.  I attached velcro to the front and back of her onesie and then attached the peppermints. 

After halloween, I just took the velcro off of her onesie and the tulle off of her hat. The tutu was good for dress-up play.  Everything was re-usable.  I used the peppermints for Christmas decorations.  The kids also liked playing with the stuffed peppermints.

For my other daughter, I took an old prom dress and whittled it down to size so that it would fit her.  I just took in all the seams and adjusted the length.  It didn't take that long and she loved the outfit.  We added a crown and a scepter and she was a princess. 

My son wanted to be a jedi.  His outfit was made from an old shirt, a bedsheet, and scrap felt I got on clearance.  We already had the lightsaber so he was all set.  I think all 3 costumes cost less than $5.00 in materials since I used what I had on hand.  I really enjoyed making the costumes and the kids were happy with the end result.

We love Halloween!

Recycled Bows

The kids are going to a birthday party later today.  I remembered some tutorials I saw awhile ago for making holiday bows from magazine pages.  I decided that I would make a bow for the birthday present.   I basically followed this tutorial here at New Green Mama.  I made this bow from a red plastic bag. I must say that plastic might not be the best material for bow-making since it is not very stiff.  Still, I thought it turned out okay.




I didn’t have any magazines on hand but I did happen to have a complimentary copy of Jakarta Expat which is a newspaper but printed on glossy paper like a magazine.  Here are a few bows I made from the newspaper.



Making the bows is a lot of fun!  If you have some old magazines lying around, you might try making some fun bows. There are lots of examples on the internet of some beautiful bows made from magazine pages.

Plastic Bottle Light Source

A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook.  I thought it was a fantastic resuse for plastic soda bottles.  Necessity is the mother of invention!

I was reading more about these soda bottle lights.  Apparently each one is equivalent to a 55 or 60W light bulb.  They are also good for up to five years!

Castle

My oldest loves playing battle with his Lego “dudes” and army men.  He also likes knights and castles so he asked if we could make a castle.  Mommy found a fun website to make a castle from cereal boxes, toilet paper rolls, and paper.  We printed the parts of the castle on scrap paper, the kids colored them, and then we pasted the paper onto the cereal boxes and cut out the pieces.  I did most of the assembling since it was difficult for the kids to fold the cardboard and to glue the parts in place. Here is the link to the website to make the castle.


The finished castle.



Ready to do battle. 



My son decided he needed another castle for the “enemy” troops so we made one out of a juice box container. He also remembered his other box creations and got them out too to use in the battle.





I think DH is planning on getting my son a Lego Castle for Christmas, but in the meantime, he certainly is having plenty of fun with his cardboard box creations.

Chocolate Strawberry Dessert

I bought some strawberries the other day, but the kids seem to have decided that they don’t like the local strawberries.  I think they are not as sweet as the ones they were used to back in the U.S.  Maybe I just don’t know where to get good strawberries, but all the ones I have bought so far do seem to be on the tart side.
So, since I had a couple of containers of strawberries, and no one wanted to eat them, I decided to make a dessert.  I looked at several different recipes on the internet and found one that was delicious!  We all liked it a lot.  Unfortunately I can’t find the website where I originally found the recipe. 
Here is the recipe I jotted down:
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips ( I just used the local brand of chocolate chips I found at Lotte Mart here in Jakarta…I don’t even know what kind of chocolate chips they are)
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. water
1 8 oz. package cream cheese (I used the Yummy brand that comes in a little tub…it’s roughly the equivalent of a block of cream cheese)
2 pt. strawberries
3 Tbs. strawberry jelly + 2 Tsp water
Place all the ingredients except for the strawberries and the jelly in a pan and stir over medium to low heat until everything is melted.  The filling should be nice and creamy.  Pour into a cooled pie crust.   Wash and remove the strawberry stems.  Put the strawberries on top of the filling and drizzle with strawberry jelly mixture.  Chill the dessert for 2 hours until the filling has set.
I used a ready made chocolate pie crust that a friend had given me awhile back.  I think this dessert would go really well in an Oreo cookie  pie crust.
Oreo Crust
Roughly 20 Oreo cookies with the cream removed
3 Tbsp melted butter
Crush the cookies inside a plastic bag with a rolling pin or hammer.  It’s easier to smash them in small batches.  Mix with melted butter.  Press into pie plate or pan and bake at 350F for 15 minutes. 

I actually didn’t have any strawberry jelly…just jam which is why the the filling looks a little lumpy between the strawberries.  It still tasted good.  The kids devoured it…strawberries and all!