Your child is dressed up all adorable, proudly ready to go out trick or treating! The Halloween costume is fantastic, scary and cute at the same time. However, something’s not quite right … something ruins the whole ensemble. Perhaps it’s the ugly plastic bag being used to hold the mountains of candy?

Never fear, you won’t have to worry about that, because you’re reading this article and will now make your own gorgeous masterpiece of a trick or treat bag! Or, at least, something better than a grocery bag or pillow case.

Materials

• At least ½ yard of Halloween themed fabric or pre-made canvas bag
• Sewing machine and thread
• Fabric glue/needles
• Interfacing (optional)
• Decorations to match the fabric
• Buttons, sequins, foam shapes and beads
• An iron

Sewing Your Trick or Treat Bag

The Bag

Cut a rectangle of fabric that measures 16.5” x 25”. Fold the 25” side of the fabric in half so that the wrong side is showing. Stitch the bottom first and then the side. Turn the bag right side out and press the seams with an iron. At the opening turn down ¼” and press. Then turn it down again 1-1/2 inches. Press and stitch.

Safety pin placed in the center (Click for larger image)

inside out handle

placement matching and X seam

The handles

Cut fabric for the handles that measures 3” x 19”. You will need to cut two of these. Fold the fabric in half with the wrong side showing. Put a safety pin in the very center of one end with the head towards the other end. This will make turning it right side out much easier. Take a ¼” seam allowance and stitch the strip of fabric. Turn it inside out by pushing the safety pin through the tube; press under ¼” on each end.

Pin the handles to the bag before stitching to make sure that you like the placement. Use the sewing machine to sew them on with a large ‘X’. This will attach them securely so that no trick or treat candy gets lost.

Now you can turn the bag over to the kids to have fun with. With fabric glue, beads, sequins, plastic confetti, and anything else you can think of, your kids will make and have their own personalized trick or treat bag!

]]> http://halloweenalliance.com/howto/how-to-make-your-own-trick-or-treat-bags.htm/feed 0 http://halloweenalliance.com/howto/advanced-pumpkin-carving-techniques.htm http://halloweenalliance.com/howto/advanced-pumpkin-carving-techniques.htm#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:27:25 +0000 Liz Bradley http://halloweenalliance.com/?p=1251

Are you tired of seeing the same old scary faces on every Jack O’ Lantern you see? Are you obsessed with carving and looking for a way to bring your passion from “craft” to “work of art”? Or do you just have a few hours on your hands to try something totally different? Forget the triangle eyes and pointy, crooked teeth – a Jack O’ Lantern can be so much more than a face, and is not always black and white!

Beginning carvers only see two options when it comes to carving a pumpkin. We can see the orange of the pumpkin’s skin, or we can see a candle through holes in the skin. But we really do have more options than that. If we peel away the pumpkin’s skin, but do not cut all the way through the flesh, we are given the option of a yellowish white – the exposed flesh of the pumpkin. And if we’re really determined, we can scrape away only part of the orange, leaving a lighter orange which can be used for shadowing.

With these new options we can start to create some really unique Jack O’ Lanterns. So if you’ve got the time and the inclination, pull up a pumpkin and make a statement!

Pick and Prepare Your Pumpkin

Think about what kind of design you want to do, and how intricate it is. Use your best judgment to select the pumpkin size that’s best for you. Then try to find the smoothest pumpkin possible. Most pumpkins have ridges running from top to bottom, and that’s okay. But try to find one with the least amount of scratches and scars. At the very least, find one with one perfect side to carve on, even if the rest is a bit damaged. If you want a pumpkin without those vertical ridges, go for a bigger one, as they tend to smooth out as they fatten up. Once you’ve found your perfect pumpkin, it’s time to prepare it for carving.

Even if you only plan to carve on the surface of your pumpkin, you should prepare it the same way you would a normal Jack O’ Lantern, as this will help you protect it from rotting. Using a pumpkin knife from a carving kit, cut a circular hole around the stem and pop the top off. Scoop out all the seeds and save for roasting (yummy!). Scrape the insides to get rid of as much pumpkin goo as possible (bugs and bacteria love this stuff).

Pick and Prepare Your Picture

You can put pretty much anything on your pumpkin. One of my favorite things to carve is iconic images from classic horror movies. This time I chose a picture of Lon Chaney from the lost silent film, London After Midnight. A famous image, I think it would look perfect on my pumpkin.

When choosing your image, pick something that’s easily recognizable. If it’s a photo with a background, it’s probably best to omit it, and just focus on the characters or main figures so you don’t distract they eye with unnecessary detail. It’s best to find a picture with a lot of contrast – extreme darks and extreme lights working together well. If your design is in color, you will have to change it to gray scale. All photo editing programs can do this. Once your pic is in black and white, it’s wise to turn up the contrast. This will make the blacks blacker and the whites whiter. It will help simplify the image so you don’t have too much detail to worry about.

Print the Page and Puncture Your Pumpkin

Print your image out on a piece of paper. You may have to play with your settings to get it to the right size to fit your pumpkin. Once you have it printed, position it over the best side of your pumpkin and decide exactly where you want it to go. Next, use a few pins, needles, or thumb tacks to stick the photo in place.

With another pin (I suggest push pins, as they are easiest to hold) trace every line of your photo by stabbing into the pumpkin. Any line you want to make note of should be perforated this way. This may take a while but you’ll see the outcome is worth it. Take a break once in a while to munch some pumpkin seeds or candy corn. Keep your paper as still as possible to avoid warping your image.

When you’ve perforated the entire image, and while the lines are still fresh in your mind, remove the paper and connect the dots by slicing with a craft knife or box cutters. Keep the slices as straight as possible. They do not have to be too deep, but you do need to be able to use them as trustworthy guides.

Pick Your Pumpkin Pigments

You’re almost ready to carve, but first you need to decide what parts of the pumpkin represent white, black and gray. Once you decide, stick with it unless you absolutely have to change. You might run into this problem when you get to two shapes next to each other that are similar in color, but need to be separate. This is why it is wise to carve from the outside, toward the center. This will help you coordinate and will leave more possibilities to switch if you later find you need to.

I decided that for my picture, the black of his hat, hair and coat would be represented by the solid orange of the pumpkin skin. That means that the black lines of his face should also be solid orange. I chose never to carve all the way through my pumpkin, but instead to use the white meat of the pumpkin for the color of his skin and the whites of his eyes and teeth. I also knew that for subtler shadows (gray) I could gently scrape only the very top of the orange skin away and leave a light orange.

You may choose to do it the way I did, or you may have a better idea for your project. You may find a neat way to incorporate the black of cutting all the way into the pumpkin flesh to the other side. Do whatever you think is best for your design.

Pare and Peel Your Pumpkin’s Pelt

It is finally time to carve your pumpkin! After all this preparation you must be dying to get started, right? But first – Safety Tips!

• Children should not do this without adult supervision.
• Cut away from yourself, not toward. If you need the blade at a different angle, just rotate the pumpkin!
• Always just BE CAREFUL!

Whew, now that that’s out of the way…

I started from the outside and worked inward. The first thing I did was make a little halo around the outside of my image in white. I did this by stripping away the orange flesh all the way around to distinguish the black hat, hair and coat from the rest of the pumpkin. It also just looks cool.

Then I moved in for the details. And you thought the perforating thing was hard work! This will probably actually feel more like whittling than carving. Have fun!

The main tip I can give you about doing the details is to slice down at an angle toward the part you are cutting out. If there is a piece of skin you need to keep, always push the blade away from it, or you weaken it underneath and risk loosing it. That’s how I lost the right side of Lon Chaey’s lower lip.

The hardest part of my design was probably the teeth because they were so close together, it was hard to take pieces out without damaging the others.

As I went, I found places where I wanted to leave a shadow. So before cutting all the skin away, I lightly scraped only the top off in these places. The main places I did this were along the length of his nose and on his jaw near his mouth. I thought this would give more depth and realism to his face, even though I did not follow the shadows in the picture exactly.

For a finishing touch, you can scoop out most of the flesh on the inside to make the wall very thin. Then put a candle inside and you’ll get a nice glow through the flesh. Just leave the top open so oxygen can get in.

When you are all done, sit back and admire your work. Looks pretty awesome, doesn’t it? If it’s not perfect, don’t worry – neither is mine. Nothing can ever be perfect. But you did something that’s totally you, and it’s sure to turn a few heads.

To help your pumpkin last longer, cover the inside and outside with vegetable oil or Vaseline (warning: flammable) and consider keeping it in the fridge until the big day.

Congratulations! You are an advanced pumpkin carver!

Constructing Halloween Mobiles are a fun way to spend an afternoon. There are so many different ways to be creative and make fun mobiles for the season. Let’s get started!

Halloween clip art images are an easy way to get a lot of pictures for coloring. Cookie cutters are also great for making cute shapes out of construction paper. The shapes can be colored and decorated anyway you want. Also, you could make a mobile with just one shape, like bats, or use all the different seasonal icons you can imagine.

Materials

• Cookie cutters or clip art
• Crayons, permanent markers, colored pencils
• Glue
• Fishing line or thread
• Small diameter dowels
• Construction paper

Optional Items

• Needle
• Hot glue gun
• Glitter, sparkling beads, feathers, etc.

Building Your Halloween Mobile

Any craft or home improvement store will have 3/8″ dowels available for purchase. I was able to find a package of small dowels cut to 12″ in length for about $1. Very handy. We first painted our dowels black.

Trace the cookie cutter shapes onto paper. Cut them out and have fun decorating. If you use clipart you may want to print a mirror image as well so the pictures are double sided.

Enjoy the decorating/coloring and talking with the kids about Halloween and what they are most excited about. Take your time during this step, because the hanging step could be difficult with little helpers.

When you are ready to assemble the mobile, cut the fishing line or thread to anywhere between 6″ and 10″ lengths. This will allow for a nice length once a knot is tied and glued, etc.

Use a 12″ dowel for the top. Cut another dowel into 6″ lengths and hang them from the ends of the top dowel. You can stop there or hang another 12” dowel from the center of the top so that it hangs below the 6” dowels, and so on. It just depends on how large you want the mobile to be and how many different shapes you want to add.(Don’t make it too heavy! Mine broke when I got too ambitious!)

We painted the dowels black and used fishing line to hang the Halloween shapes. We also bought some 1″ wooden letters to spell out “trick or treat”. They were not very expensive but you could do the same thing with scrapbook paper by gluing two pieces together so you have the back and front decorated, or use a two-sided piece.

The complete Halloween Mobile

Have fun! I’d love to hear of others who tried this project. Please comment below.

Sidewalk chalk takes on a whole new look this time of year. Making chalk rubbings on black construction paper gives it a ghostly appearance and can make for some spooky monster shapes! Check out how to create your own as part of your Halloween decor!

Materials Needed

• Sidewalk or other chalk, or crayons
• Construction paper-especially black
• Aerosol hair spray
• Shapes to rub
• Leaves and/or Halloween cut outs
• Textured papers or cloth

This is a simple project that even a 2-year-old can get into and enjoy!

1. Lay your choice of shape on the counter or other hard surface. You can do one shape at a time or lay several out at once. However, we found that leaves get lost in each other if they all get put down together.

2. Lay the construction paper over the shape(s).

3. With the chalk on its long side, begin rubbing. Depending on how distinct each shape is you may have to rub harder or softer.

4. When you are satisfied with your rubbing hold the hair spray at a distance and spray it to hold the chalk in place. If you get it too close, the picture will disappear; but I’m happy to report that, eerily, your picture will return once it dries.

5. If you chose to use crayons you’ll need to be more careful in holding the paper in place because they do not move as smoothly as the chalk does.

Each of these pumpkins was rubbed separately with a single shape. After each pumpkin appeared we moved the pumpkin shape underneath to a different spot:

For the monsters we used grape leaves and then added the eyes after removing the leaf from under the paper. The purple monster is made with a whole leaf, the blue “bat’ was made after I tore the leaf a bit. Some of the shapes we used came from tracing cookie cutters on paper and then cutting out the shape.

You can also find shape inspiration by using Google Images to find clip art of Halloween themes or anything else you can imagine!

These tree-looking rubbings were made with a weed grass that still carried lots of seeds. The seeds gave quite a nice effect. Using different colored chalks and letting them blend together is a nice way to create a deeper visual. We used several different colors of paper, but the most stunning effects were achieved with the black construction paper.

Chalk Rubbings at Your Halloween Party

These chalk rubbings can become a fun game at a party, too! Get a roll of butcher paper (which you can buy in black) and cover your table with it or hang it along the wall. Offer a prize to whoever colors the best leaf or shape or whoever finds the biggest leaf/shape. You can also offer a “booby” prize. At least that’s what we called it when I was a kid: a prize for whoever is furthest from the mark. The idea, of course, is to have a lot of fun!

Heck, another neat idea is to take butcher paper to a graveyard and make rubbings of old gravestones to decorate your house with.

Let your imagination take you through the year with chalk rubbings!

Halloween is a holiday which has seen a wide variety of decorating options grow over the last decade. These options include Halloween villages, Halloween trees, and the expansion of miniature collectibles, some directly related to Halloween, and others to the fall season in general. Prices for such decorations can range from several dollars to upwards of a hundred, and while they are inevitable worth it at the moment of purchase, guilty can quickly follow – or at least it does for me.

In order to satisfy my Halloween addiction, and to keep money in my wallet, my wife introduced me to bake-able clay. Bake-able clay is sold in packets. Most of these packets are roughly one inch deep, two and a half inches wide, and three inches long.

The generic brands of bake-able clay, such as “craftsmart” Polymer Clay, usually cost under two dollars for one package. Craft stores such as Michael’s and A.C. Moore carry not only the “craftsmart” brand, but several others as well, and they are available in a broad array of colors. For Halloween, the basic colors needed are white, green, orange, and black. Bake-able clay is extremely malleable, and requires very little in the way of tools.

Working With Bakeable Clay

With aluminum foil, wax paper, a sharp knife, and some imagination, the creation of your own decorations is much closer than you realize. Each piece of bake-able clay can be cut or pulled apart, and the more that you work it with your hands, the warmer the clay will become. As the clay warms, it will be easier for you to form and shape it.

Once you’ve chosen the shape that you want, be patient, haste will only cause you to ruin whatever work you’ve done. As the clay cools a sharp knife can be used to trim the piece, or to do fine work. Sewing needles and pins can also be used for the same. Make sure you place the piece of clay on your wax-paper, or on a smooth clean surface so there’s no damage to it before you put it into the oven to bake.

Pumpkins are fairly easy to make, as you need only to roll a small amount of orange clay in your hand (as if you were making cookies), to get the basic shape that you want. Once you have the shape your sewing needle or knife can make the necessary lines. A small curl of green clay can be the remains of a vine, and if you’re truly skilled (like my wife), you can use an Exacto blade to make leaves for your pumpkin.

Headstones can be formed by warming up the clay as with the pumpkins, then rolling it flat with a pen on your wax paper. Once you have the clay to the thickness that you want, carefully use a sharp knife to trim the clay into the shape you want. A needle can be used to make decorations, or epitaphs. When you’re ready to make a base for your stone, follow the same procedures.

Baking in the Oven

Once you’ve finished your piece, or pieces, carefully move them from the wax-paper, or smooth surface, to a baking sheet lined with the aluminum foil. If you don’t have a baking sheet that you want to use for your project, then doubling up a sheet of aluminum foil will work fine as well.

When you place the ornaments on the aluminum foil you should use smaller pieces of foil to make sure the ornaments stay upright and don’t flatten in the baking process.

Baking only takes around fifteen minutes (look on the package for baking instructions), so depending on how many pieces you’re making, you can see the fruits of your labor quickly. Once the pieces are done, you’ll be ready to start decorating with your own ornaments for Halloween!

Paper Mache and decoupage has come a long way, and luckily for you and me, there are hobby stores that carry a full line of Paper Mache boxes, purses, and chests that are a breeze to decorate for our favorite holiday (Halloween, of course!) Here is just one example of how to blend Paper Mache and decoupage a Halloween purse photo frame.

Supplies:

• Paper mache photo purse
• Decoupage Solution (ie Mod Podge)
• Small Sponge Brush
• Halloween paper or prints
• Scissors
• Craft knife
• Photo or antique reproduction of post card for front
• Ink jet printed pictures and hairspray
• Scrap booking papers (optional)
• Paints (optional)
• Tissues
• Damp rag (to wipe sticky fingers on)

Print pictures on your computer with your ink jet printer. Spray the pictures with hair spray and let them dry.

Step One – Gather Your Supplies

Gather up your supplies and cover the table you’re going to be working at with newspapers or a vinyl tablecloth because the decoupage solution is messy and can be hard to get off some surfaces.

You can cut up old holiday and craft magazines that have Halloween pictures. You can print out pictures with an ink jet printer, but you have to spray it with hair spray and let it dry completely before you can use it. Some stickers may work but only if they’re not printed on really thick, heavy paper.

Once you’ve selected the items you’re going to use, make sure they’re clean and dry. You might want to paint on the paper items you’ve chosen, which is fine – just make sure it’s dry before you add the decoupage solution. Any moisture will mess up the decoupage and might cause problems like air bubbles down the road.

Step Two – Design Layout

Pick up your purse with dry hands and look at it carefully. Consider how you want to put your paper designs on before you cut or tear your first picture to use. This is a good time to plan out if you want to add a background paper or if you’d prefer to paint your background along with other items.

Then cut out or tear out your items and place all the elements you are going to use on the dry purse and see how it looks. Play with all components until it looks the way you want it to.

Select the picture you want to use, insert it in the window of the purse and paint on the Mod Podge solution so you can add your background paper.

Step Three – Applying the Decoupage Solution

Pick a corner and start working in small areas with lots of the decoupage solution anywhere the paper will touch. You can also cover the picture with the solution if you prefer, and then stick it on the purse.

Either way, place the picture on the purse and use your fingers to gently press the picture down to make contact and then carefully work all the wrinkles out of the pictures. Dab off any excess solution with your finger and wipe on a tissue so you won’t have lumps that will show when dry.

Keep overlapping pictures until you have the surface covered and let dry. It can take hours or even overnight in some climates to completely dry, so use your own judgment about how long the drying time will be for you. Don’t try to rush the drying process with a hair dryer or by blowing on it, or you may get air bubbles in the surface that will ruin all your work.

Cover the surface of the purse with Mod Podge and let dry.	Now the purse is covered in paper and has at least two to three coats of Mod Podge.

Step Four – Coating and Coating

After all the pictures have dried completely, apply a thin coat over the whole surface and keep adding coats until it is how you want it to look. Watch out for bubbles as your project dries, and if you find one, just pop it gently with a straight pin and smooth over. How many coats to do? It’s up to you, but it’s always a good idea to put enough coats on to cover up the edges of the paper for a smooth, seamless look to your piece. Let it dry completely after you’re done adding coats, and you’re done.

Decoupage pieces are stunning when dry, and you can express yourself in as many ways as there are holidays!

I’ve done many sorts of decorated candles for other seasons of the year; I just hadn’t ever considered a Halloween candle before. Your imagination can go crazy with this project because there are so many varieties of decorative items to choose from!

Materials List

• Candle(s)
• Glue
• Wax Paper
• Tooth Picks
• Butcher Paper or vinyl tablecloth
• Decorative shapes: Brads, confetti, adhesive jewels, sequins, glitter, etc

Prepare your work area by spreading out a table cloth or butcher paper out on a hard surface before letting any little hands help with opening the decorations – especially if you are using brads or tacks with sharp points. It will also help with keeping glue off your counter or table.

Decorative brads and tacks will be difficult for younger children to push into the wax. We also tried using straight pins to attach some of the confetti shapes; we had to use a hard object to help push them in because the pinheads were so small they quickly became painful. We decided that glue would be a good choice to finish the project with. Regular Elmer’s glue was sticky enough to hold the small plastic confetti pieces to the candle. If you chose to use larger shapes you’ll need a stronger glue (like Gorilla glue) so that the shapes will curve with the candle.

Little children will just go for it without thinking about a particular design, but you can do some lovely things with these candles. Twist a stream of glue around a taper candle and roll it in glitter. Shake off the excess and you have a decorated candle. You could stand the candle up and let the glue start to drip before rolling it in red glitter…… that would be a really spooky effect.

When we were shopping around there were all sorts of Halloween or Autumn brads to choose from as well as sticky “gems”, and glitter galore. Enjoy this project for the easy fun it is and let your imagination take the lead!

Adult Alternative: Candle Molds

For a more advanced Halloween candle, try using candle molds. If you buy a candle that has a diameter that is a little less than the mold, you can then sprinkle decorative shapes into the mold with the candle, then pour melted wax around it and let it cool. For Halloween it could make for interesting and Gothic decor!

I love to eat, and I love to sample the elaborate spreads my Halloween hostesses lavish on me and their other party guests. One problem I have, as I toss a few meatballs and other goodies on my plate, is juggling my plate, glass, napkin and then the silverware that is always placed at the beginning of the line.

It’s at those times that I wish I were a spider with eight legs so I could manage, but alas no, I’d probably get squished by a shoe! Anyboo, here is one way to solve that issue for your guests: silverware caddies! This is an easy, cheap craft project you can do in one afternoon mostly with items you already have on hand. Follow these simple steps and see how much fun you’ll have making these silverware holders that’ll perk up your buffet table, not to mention help your guests weave their way through your goodies.

Supply List:

• Felt
• Pattern of the item you want to make
• Trims – feathers, sequins, beaded trim, pom pons, yarn, ribbon
• Color-coordinated cord (optional)
• Scissors
• Sewing machine or needle and thread
• Fabric or felt glue
• Hot glue (optional)

Lay the piece of felt on the wrong side of the fabric you want for the outside of your caddy. Leave a two inches of material at the top, one inch on the side and just a tad at the bottom.

Time To Consider Ease of Project and Time

There are few things to consider before you get started. If you’re unsure of this craft project, use simple shapes like a cone, square or pocket style for your first caddies. They’ll be really fast and be very simple to work with, especially if you have to make a lot of them! If you feel more confident, you might choose a witch’s hat or a jack-o-lantern. I’ll discuss how easy it is to add to your collection later on in this article.

If it’s hard to find a large chunk of time to make these caddies in one day – no problem. Cut out your shapes one day. Another day, concentrate on decorating your caddies and pinning them together. Then sew them together another time, and before you know it – you‘re done. By working on them a little along, it will allow you to better enjoy your craft time, and you’ll turn out a quality product – stress free! Speaking of stress free – for the sake of this article, I’m going to use felt, even though you can use fabric for the sake of simplicity.

Step one – Pattern and Felt

Choose what kind of caddy you want to make or copy a pattern you already have. I have a file of patterns I’ve used over the years and stacks of my own designs. When choosing a pattern, it’s a good idea to keep the design simple for your first caddies. You can do harder type of design during the off season that will be more intricate and time-consuming.

Lay pattern on your felt and double it so that you cut both sides at once as you cut out your design. It may be tempting to stack six or eight pieces of felt layers together before you pin on your pattern so you can cut more than one caddy at once but don’t do it! The felt will get jagged edges when you apply enough pressure to cut through multiple layers felt and will look really bad. It may sound faster, but it’s the best way to ruin your material and not get a sharp design.

Fold the felt and material with the material on the inside and pin the bottom and side edge.

Step Two – Decorate

It’s a great time to decorate the front side of the caddy. If you’ve chosen something like a witchy boot or a black cat, it’s much easier to attach the trims now while you have access to the back before they’re stitched together. Trust me!

***Note of caution*** Be careful not to place any trim on the front or back that can’t fit under the pressure foot of a sewing machine. Else, it will cause an unsightly bump under the seam. Glue will mess up any type of needle you use so try to keep all glue and glued on items away from your seams.

Step Three – Stitch It Together

Since we’re using felt, you don’t have to stitch your caddy together with the right sides together. Assemble your caddy as if it had already been stitched together with the wrong sides together. In just seconds . . . you’re done!

Here are four different caddy’s pinned together ready for stitching on the sewing machine.

So many Possibilities – So Little Time!

You might not think of it, but thread can also be used for a decoration on your caddy. If you picked a Jack-O-Lantern, for instance, you can stitch the orange felt or fabric together with orange thread or if you’re going for the folk art look, use the zig-zag stitch in a different color so it‘ll show. If you don’t have a sewing machine, you can use a darning needle and stitch them together with yarn or use regular sewing thread.

Using Fabric:

There are some different considerations if you decide to make your caddies out of regular fabric. The felt is very sturdy on its own, so you don’t have to use anything to stiffen them. But with fabric, you’ll have to use some buckram or other Pellon-type stiffener for backing.

Another thing to think about when you cut out your shapes is that you’ll be temped to fold fabric into six or eight layers so you can cut out more than one caddy at once–don’t do it! The fabric will slip when you apply enough pressure to cut through multiple layers of the material, no matter how careful you try not to. It may look faster, but in reality it’s the best way to ruin your material and not get a sharp-cut design.

After you cut your pieces of material, it’s time to decorate them, just like the felt pieces, while you have access to the back. Attach all trims and then lay the pieces of material wrong sides together and stitch them together. Now turn the caddy right side out and stitch along the edge. You’re done!

Here are the four caddy’s I made in ten minutes along with two I paid $5.00 each for (the boots). I much prefer my cost of using the scraps I had on hand vs having to buy enough of these just for my family.

Decorating gingerbread houses is fun anytime of the year, but at Halloween it’s even better – the more mistakes the better…. er, spookier it is! Here’s my way to make a haunted gingerbread house.

We’re going to make this one from scratch. The good thing about making a gingerbread house from scratch is that the cookie dough obligingly comes out looking decrepit and well used – just like a broken-down haunted house should look. (Keep the perfect, clean commercial gingerbread house kits for Christmas, that OTHER, inferior, holiday.)

(Ah, heck, I have a quick and easy way using a kit towards the end of this article. Yeah, yeah, one year I used the kit, and it worked fine, though not as satisfying as from scratch. But I know that everybody’s busy!)

The other good thing about this project is all the Halloween candy you get to buy! You know it’s yummy.

Plan an entire afternoon for your gingerbread house, and be prepared for a grand time with the kids. Let’s go!

Haunted Gingerbread House Materials

• Baking Parchment
• Candy (woohoo!)
• Decorating bags and tips (disposables are available)
• Big aprons
• House Pattern on cardboard (an old cereal box will work)
• A free afternoon

Gingerbread:

• 3 cup flour ( Whole wheat is not recommended for houses)
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ginger
• 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup sugar

• ½ cup oil
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 egg, beaten

Icing:

• 4 egg whites
• 6 cups confectioners sugar
• ½ tsp cream of tartar

Find a Gingerbread House Pattern

Simple house patterns can be found on the internet, or by browsing through clipart images for Halloween houses to find a shape you like.

To use my haunted house on the right, click on it for the full image. I’m one of those cooks that don’t really measure things (instead of a teaspoon, I’ll just shake some into a bowl. Usually works for me, lol!), so I don’t have really detailed blueprints. The shape in the guide is for the front and back of the house. Then measure rectangular walls and roofs with the measurements in the document.

Take the house shape you like and enlarge it to fill an 8-1/2” x 11” page. From there you may have to adjust angles or the height/width, by tracing it onto another sheet of paper so that it is just right.

Cut the pattern out of paper and then trace it onto poster board or light-weight cardboard (like a cereal box). Making a pattern out of paper won’t survive the first cut. Do this:

1. Cut 2 of the shapes for the front and back.
2. Decide how deep the house should be and mark that out along with the height of the wall to match.
3. Cut out two rectangles for the roof pieces. Remember to make them large so they overhang, but not so large that the house can’t bear its weight.

Cooking the Gingerbread Pieces

Turn your oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients, then mix in the wet. I like the recipe above – it’s a trial and error modification from gingerbread cookies – the actual cookie recipe is shown at the end of this article. It includes some ingredients that would make the dough too soft to use (which I found out the hard way!) Otherwise, use your own favorite gingerbread recipe or find another one from the Internet.

Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment. I use parchment because it can be slid right onto the baking sheet- no moving house pieces and risking accidents or shape changes.

Now it’s time to cut out the patterns! Sprinkle flour over the dough before laying down the pattern so that they lift up easier. Place your cardboard shape pieces on top and cut the patterns out right on the parchment. Lift away and clean and use your shapes next year.

Slip the cut dough on a baking sheet and place in a hot oven. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. About 8 minutes through baking, take it out to re-cut the pattern pieces. This helps to keep the shapes the size they are supposed to be as they finish baking. (Or, cut and separate them in the first place, but be very careful. Usually I just slowly peel away the dough between the shapes.)

If the pattern is complicated, it is also very helpful in identifying which pattern piece is which. The pattern I used had several different pieces that were very similar. I labeled them with letters and then wrote the letters on the parchment before baking. It was very handy as they cooled!

Once they are done, let them cool – perhaps for a day (???)

Icing Your Haunted Gingerbread House

Using the recipe above, start by adding 1 cup of sugar to the other ingredients, adding one cup of sugar at a time while mixing. Whip this together for about 5 minutes and voila! Gingerbread house cement. Seriously.

Cover the mix with a damp towel so it does not dry out. You can also use 2 t of water and 2 t of powdered egg whites or meringue if you don’t want to use egg whites.

Then, feed it into a thick plastic bag with a small hole cut at the end.

There are two schools of thought about how to ice a gingerbread house: pre-assembly and post-assembly. I’ve done it both ways, and the only difference is how perfect the house looks. Last year’s house was iced post-assembly and we were dismayed to see the windows run and drip. But in the end it had a rather eerie effect that we liked. Icing before putting the house together makes details much easier., but young kids may not be as interested, because … well, it doesn’t yet look like a haunted house!

Our haunted house, built from scatch!

Heck, I Don’t Have Time to Make it From Scratch!

Yes, doing this from scratch can take a while, especially if you aren’t set up for cookie decorating with bags, etc. Luckily, that’s where kits come in.

A kit costs about $25 in my area and comes with pre-cooked house shapes, icing, candy, and the decorating bags and tips. The kit I bought this year had bat candy! and it was already assembled (until the baby sat on it!)

We put it back together and the icing oozing out made it look even spookier. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Commercial haunted gingerbread house

Soft Molasses Cookies

I’ve tried several different gingerbread recipes for this sort of thing, including recipes that do not use eggs or baking powder. Those recipes wouldn’t hold together long enough to get anything put together. This is my favorite cookie recipe, and not just for gingerbread houses either. The recipe came from my mom. Enjoy!

• 3 cup flour, whole wheat or white
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ginger
• 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup sugar

• ½ cup oil
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tbsp warm water

Mix the dry ingredients first, then the wet. Let the dough sit for a few minutes before rolling it out. Yum!

Keeping nature’s gifts on canvas

One morning as I spray painted a piece of furniture black in the side yard, I noticed a cobweb catching the paint over-spay. I had to wait for the paint to dry before I could do anything else to the nightstand, so I pulled up a lawn chair and pondered all the details I could see on the painted web. What a masterpiece! I had never taken time to really look at a web closely, but that morning I realized how intricate and ornate the web was. The day before I’d painted what I thought was a darn good web on a decoration, but after seeing this beauty, I knew I‘d been wrong. What if . . .

I looked at the stack of newspapers beside me and wondered what would happen if I pressed the newsprint on the web. I put the newspaper behind the web and pulled it forward, catching all the painted web onto the paper. I was surprised to see that the paint coated web stuck perfectly to the paper. But in seconds the web popped off since there wasn’t enough paint to keep it attached to the paper. This gave me an idea.

I dashed into the house, grabbed an small white canvas and my Elmer’s spray adhesive, and hustled back outside. I searched my yard until I found another web that would be perfect for my canvas. I sprayed the adhesive on the canvas and then lightly sprayed the web with spray paint (being careful to not kill the maker of this beauty). I carefully put the canvas behind the web and brought it forward as I centered the delicate thing onto the canvas. The web stuck to the canvas and ta da. Instant natural art!

What you need:

• Black spay paint
• Adhesive spray
• Small white canvas
• Frames for the canvas
• Glitter or diamond dust (optional)

Get up and go out early one fall morning and see some of the most spectacular art being made fresh in your neighborhood everyday. Just remember to be kind to the artist when taking their original art/home since there won’t be another like them anywhere in the world.

Step One: Find a Spider Web

Find a web you want to use. Hold up your unprepared canvas and see where you’d like the web placed.

Step Two: Prepare Your Canvas

Spray the area of the canvas where you plan to place the web and let the adhesive set.

Step Three: Gently Prepare Web With Paint Overspray

Gently chase away the resident artist and shake your can of spray paint. After you’re sure the artist is off the web, take your can of spray paint and lightly spray the web with short bursts of paint from at least six to eight inches away. Take your time spraying the delicate web. You may want to take a few practice attempts before spraying a web you want to keep. If you get too much paint, it’ll cause the web to collapse on itself and destroy it. If you spray the web directly, the force of the spray will break the web, and it will be unusable for your project. Remember you only want over spray to stick to the web so its details show up on the canvas.

Step Three: Attaching the Web

Now that your canvas is tacky and you’ve over-sprayed the web, lightly put the canvas behind the web and ever so gently, pull the canvas forward so that the web attaches itself to the canvas at the same time. Once the web is attached to the canvas, set the canvas down inside on some newspaper to dry. Frame the canvas, and you’re done!

Keep in mind you can add to this simple idea in a number of ways like painting a spider on the canvas before you put the web on, or how about putting the web on a antique reproduction of Jack-O-Lantern post card? My friend even put a touch of silver diamond dust on just parts of the web before it and the canvas dried. It was an elegant touch that added just enough shine to add interest to the details to the delicate web. Have fun with this almost free art!