We kept things simple this year – Bear is always keen to do crafts, but it’s rare we have time in a week for a big long craft session. So I find that we end up doing more if we keep things quick and simple – if I know we’ll be done in 30 minutes, I;m less reluctant to start getting all the craft stuff out of it’s various ooks and crannies (roll on the new craft table. One week to go!).
So we started off poking through the craft supplies, and Bear designed the easiest ghost imaginable. Honestly, it was ridiculously simple – but as always there’s a huge pride in the finished article.
So easy it doesn’t even need any instructions – we used old pizza base circles and cut a ghost shape out of them. Stick on cotton wool balls, then cut out your chosen design of eyes and mouth.
TOO simple.
So we had to look for something trickier. And Bear was really insistant that as she had a costume for Halloween, her soft toys should too.
I was NOT getting the sewing machine out.
But of course, you just can’t go sticking things to your soft toys with glue, unless you want it there permanently.
So I devised a costume for Pixel which I was pretty proud of :)
What you need:
Black card or foam board.
Long Pipe Cleaners.
White card or foam board
Glowsticks
What you do:
(All sizes are relevant to your soft toy here – you’ll need to work out the wing size to suit you). Also – it’s a really good idea to have a table protector down first.
1 – Draw a bat wing outline on the black foam board for your child to cut out. She then used that as a template, and cut a second wing to match.
2 – Loop the pipe cleaner around the neck/chest of your toy, twist twice and leave the ends in the air (if your toy is large, you’ll probably need to twist two pipe cleaners together for this).
3 – Attach the pipecleaner ends to the first long curve on the bat wing – we used Bostik glue dots for this, but any glue or tape will do.
4 – Next use the white foam board to cut yourself a set of vampire teeth – whatever shape works for your toy. We added some ‘blood’ to the tips of the fangs for some more scare factor.
5 – Snap the glow stick to get it working. Then carefully snip the end off – holding it upright and snipping the top so that the contents don’t scatter. Then use the glow stick like a pen, carefully cover the teeth with the glowy liquid, and then draw ‘veins’ on the bat wings – along the top and in lines like veins on a leaf to the tips along the bottom:
(Do be careful with the glow stick liquid – ingestion of a mouthful of the liquid from a glow stick is considered to be minimally toxic, causing only minor mouth or throat irritation. The liquid may also cause minor skin redness or irritation. Also – you WILL have drops of glowy stuff on your table when you’ve finished this, which is why you need a table protector down first!).
6 – Attach the teeth to your soft toy with a removable glue – we found Bostik’s Glue Dots were perfect for this as they’re non-permanent, but held it in place nicely. Doubled over sticky tape would do the job too.
7 – Because Pixel is so small, Bear also attached a glowstick around his neck as a decorative necklace (I think she just wanted to add a little more glow to the costume).
8 – okay, you’re done. Just turn the lights off, and check out Vampire-Pixel.
I was really surprised at just how effective the costume was (it glowed all night, and of course you can refresh the glow by ‘painting’ with another stick the next night if you wish.
And Bear was thrilled – she thought it was the BEST craft we’ve done since last Christmas, and even gave up sleeping with Pixel so that he could stand and be a vampire all night over her bed (I suspect that’s why Cheeky Monkey didn’t get a costume…).
