Halloween Sand Prints

Halloween Sand Prints ~ simple fall art

The girls received a Sand Art kit a while ago. They loved pouring the colorful sand into the decorative bottles. However, now the bottles sit on the girls dresser collecting dust waiting to be recreated into Halloween Sand Prints!

To make your own Halloween sand prints, your will need:

Colored Sand – ours came from a Sand Art kit.
Shallow Tray
White School Glue
Black Paper
Paint Brush or Brayer

Halloween Sand Prints ~ Brayer Technique

First, dump out all the sand into a shallow tray. Shake and tap the tray gently to create an even surface for your print.

Draw a cute design in the sand with your finger. We found that it was best to keep the drawings simple.

Spread an even layer of glue over over your entire paper. We used a brayer, but a paintbrush would work great too.

Press your glued side of the paper directly into your sand drawing. When you lift your paper, be careful not to smudge your print.

I love this adorable spider prints!

Halloween Sand Prints ~ Painting Glue

Once again, spread the colorful sand evenly in the tray.

Instead of drawing into the sand, this time use a paint brush and glue to draw your design. Paint the glue onto your paper nice and thick.

Once you are happy with your design, press the glued side of he paper into the colored sand and reveal your print.

I love that this project was basically free! The kids enjoyed drawing in the sand and creating these beautiful prints.

Check out this fun list of fall ideas!

Pinterest Date

Are you caught up in all the Pinterest excitement? Pinterest is a great place to find crafty inspiration So grab a cup of coffee and snuggle up for a Pinterest date! I would love for you to follow my Pinterst boards. You can find them here. Since this is a “Pinning date,” I thought I would share my 5 Favorite Autumn Pins from my Autumn board.

Pumpkin Seed Art – Greening Sam & Avery

I love these adorable pumpkins! They are the perfect addition to your pumpkin carving adventures.

Drippy Monsters – smART Class

Check out these great Monsters! I think that we need to try this soon.

Fall Tree Craft – B-Inspired Mama

We love creating from our recycling bin. These trees look so cute and easy to make!

50 Pumpkin Crafts – Under the Table Dreaming

This post is all about Pumpkins, 50 of them to be exact! You need to check it out.

Broomstick Treats – Mega Spooky

Easy to make and they look great!

I love all the inspiration that can be found on Pinterest. I look forward to sharing with your my crafty friends ideas on my Pinterest boards! I can’t wait to see you there! Feel free to leave a link to your boards so I can check them out as well.

Mess Free Finger Painting

Mess Free Painting for Kids

Kids LOVE finger painting! It is a fun sensory experience. Most kids enjoy squishing paint through their fingers and getting messy. Although I have to confess, I’m not always up for the mess finger painting creates. Mess free finger painting is perfect for those days when you don’t have time to clean up messy kiddos!

I found this great finger paint recipe over at Easie Peasie and I had to give it a try. I love homemade recipes that work as well or better than their store bought counterparts This recipe was easy to make and the perfect consistency. It made the perfect amount to fill 3 half pint mason jars.

Ziploc painting is all over Pinterest. I thought I found the perfect fun no mess painting solution! This colorful bag of paint is the perfect way to work on color mixing. Kids will be amazed when they create a new color.

To make your own mess free finger painting bag you will need:

a heavy-duty ziplock bag
finger paint, or any thick paint that you have on hand will work (tempra, acrylic…)
wide tape – I used wide masking tape.

Place 2 colors inside the Ziploc, remove all the air and seal tightly. Then tape over the seam just to make sure you will have no accidental opening of the paint bag. I placed a white paper under our bag and then taped everything to the table to keep the bag from slipping around.

The kiddos loved squishing the paint, but they were disappointed when I told them that they were not creating a “painting” that they could hang on the fridge. My perfect mess free experience, was not so perfect in the kids eyes. So I had to create another mess free painting experience that would produce fridge worthy art:)

To create my kids version of mess free finger painting, you will need:

A large sheet of paper. Have the kiddos scoop finger paint onto their paper.
Place a large piece of plastic wrap over the entire paper.
Tape all the edges of the plastic wrap to the paper, making sure to carefully seal every edge.

Once everything is sealed, your little one is ready to start painting.

No need for the car to go through the car wash after this painting! The kids loved the tracks the wheels left behind. Once your little one is finished painting, simply remove the tape, and discard the plastic wrap. You will be left with a beautiful masterpiece.

He got his painting, and I had no mess to clean-up! This is defiantly an activity that we will be revisiting! Happy mess free painting!

Monster Marker Prints

Halloween Craft for Kids

Monster marker prints are sure to be a hit with your kids. Your kids will create adorable monsters, and learn to use markers in a new way.

Coffee Filter Monsters:

Coffee filters (I ironed ours just to get them to lay flat. Ironing them makes it easier for little ones to color on them)
White Paper
Washable Markers (only water soluable makers will work)
Spray bottle

Color with washable markers all over the coffee filter. Don’t be too worried about complete coverage. Center the coffee filter on white paper and spray with water. Make sure the coffee filter is wet, but not dripping. You will start to see the colors blend together right on the coffee filter.

Place another sheet of white paper over the top of the coffee filter and press firmly to help transfer the color. Leave your prints sandwiched until they have dried slightly, or get out your craft iron to help speed up the drying process. If you don’t wait until they are dry, you will have drips of color running down your paper.

Once everything is dry, peel the paper off the coffee filter. You will be left with your original coffee filter, and 2 printed papers. The coffee filter has lost the marker lines, and is blended beautifully. However, I love how wonderful prints turned out, they have a depth that the coffee filter lacks! These prints are the prefect base for creating adorable monsters. Although you could use this technique to make beautiful fall leaves, pumpkins…the possibilities are endless.

We also created one coffee filter that was just black so that we could use it for the mouth and eyes. Use all the scraps of paper to create interesting shaped mouths, teeth, eyes etc.

Check out this fun list of fall ideas!

Monster Cake Pops

Halloween Party Treat ~ Monster Cake Pops

This is my first attempt at making cake pops, and I love how these little monster cake pops turned out. They are so fun to make, but I have to admit they are time consuming. Since this was my first attempt at creating them, I followed this great tutorial on how to make cake pops from Decorate this. It was really easy to follow.

I love how they turned out! Nothing cuter than a box full of funny monster faces! These little monster cake pops will look great as the center piece for your next birthday party or Halloween party!

I used my Grandmother’s delicious chocolate cake recipe! Using my mixer, I crumbled the cake into small pieces. Then I added just enough icing to make the cake into a play dough like consistency. Roll the dough into balls. Dip the sucker stick into melted chocolate wafers before inserting it into the cake pop. This will help secure the cake pop to the sucker stick. Once the chocolate firms around the stick, dip in the desired color of chocolate. I found it a bit tricky to make the coating even, but after a few failed attempts I eventually figured it out.

I choose to let the pops cool completely before adding any of the cute decorations. I filled a baggie with melted chocolate to use as my pipping bag. The melted chocolate will act as the glue to stick all the candies onto your cake pop. Some of the candies I used included black licorice (cherry flavored), nerds, sprinkles of various sizes, frooties candies that I rolled flat with the rolling pin (used for the inside of the ears) and white saltwater taffy rolled flat made the teeth.

I love this old drawer. It is a cute simple was to display these little guys. I used floral foam that was wrapped in Kraft paper to help the cake pops stand.

Happy Monster making! For more Halloween ideas, check out our latest Monster Activities.