Kid Craft! Paper Pumpkins

My girls got bored the other day so we made these ridiculously easy paper pumpkins. You can use fancier paper and make them for adults, but even the 5 year old did this with little supervision! (also I took the photos on my phone, so ignore the grainy-ness)

Cost: FREE (or $2 if you don't have any paper)

Difficulty: it's for children...

You Need:

paper, scissors, and a glue stick


First, cut your paper into 3 strips, and lay them out in a star shape like so, and glue them down:

 Then... Take opposite sides, pull them up and glue them together, like this:

   Then...do it with the other pieces until you have a ball shape

                                           

Next, make your stem with a tiny strip of green paper. I curled mine around a pencil first. The girls did straight ones. 

  And here's the proof that kids can do this::

 

This is so easy, how could you NOT do it? The pumpkins make nice place setting cards too!

Fabric Flower Pin

cost: $5 or less. I already had everything needed to do this craft left over from other projects.
difficulty level: easy
what you'll need: fabric (at least 1/4 yard), this flower template from Martha Stewart, a button, needle and thread, and a bar pin. You may also want some fabric stiffener.

This is a great fast way to accessorize. You may recognize this fabric as left over from my felt flower pillow-waste not, want not! I used a bar back pin, but you could also attach this to a hair comb or head band.


step one: pin the flower template to your fabric-You can cut through about 4 layers of fabric at a time easily.

step two: layer fabric petals, staggering them to create your flower shape. I used about 8 layers, but the more you use the fuller the flower. 

step three: make a cross stitch through the center to secure.

step four: fold flower in half and stitch to hold shape.

step five: sew a cute button to the center.

step six: attach your bar pin. the pins I used have a sticky backing, but they still need to be stitched down. 

step seven: (optional) spray your flower with fabric stiffener and hang up-side to dry to give it a nice floral shape.

Sequin Witch Hat Decoration

I babysat a couple girls the other night and they had these cool carboard witch hats from Jo-Ann's that we decorated together. They attacked their's with paint and glitter glue, but I saw a chance to make some really cool, sophisticated Halloween decorations. This is the first of 2... I went BIG with the sequins....

Cost: Less than $10, depending on sales and cost of sequins

Difficulty Level: Really easy, very time consuming (about 4 hours!)

You'll need:

Cardboard witch hat ($3 from Jo-Ann's)

Large black sequins (I used over 300, so buy 2 packs)

Glue gun

Patience!!

  All you need to do, is start gluing sequins to the brim of the hat....

And keep on gluing.... Then cut off any sequins that hang over the edge.

Next... Move on to the pointed part. The top is a little tricky, and mine is a bit sloppy.. just hang in there!

<< At this point, I had already taken like 5 breaks. I never want to glue a sequin again. Did I mention I did this to my graduation hat too?? I'm up to 8 hours of sequin gluing in my life!

BUT it turns out pretty awesome when it's finally finished::