Get into the Halloween spirit with Baker Ross.
It’s very nearly October and despite Christmas cards and chocolates starting to creep onto shop shelves, we’ve got Halloween to go first.
We don’t many trick-or-treaters and hardly any of our neighbours dress their houses up for it. But still, it’s a nice excuse to have some fun.
To me, Halloween always seems to be the most natural time of year to indulge in homemade crafts and activities: from pumpkin carving and fancy dress to making your own Halloween-themed sweet treats.
While I’m yet to give pumpkin carving a go, I do like to do something creative with my children. It sparks their interest and gets us talking about the celebration. At the very least, it’s also a welcome distraction from Christmas!
If, like me, you enjoy adding a homemade touch to your Halloween decorations, check out these five ideas from arts and crafts supplier, Baker Ross.
Halloween mosaic magic wands
Mosaic crafts are starting to come into their own as a fun activity for my children. Now they’re a little older, things like this hold their attention well. They’re also a good workout for a child’s fine motor skills.
These Halloween mosaic wands are super easy to create with the step-by-step instructions laid out as images.
All you have to do is stick on the glittery cubes of foam onto the corresponding colour on the template, push the stick into the hole underneath the design when you’ve finished and then glue or sellotape the ribbons to the wand.
Spider weaving foam placemats
Serve up your ghoulish grub on spider placemats this Halloween with these DIY craft kits.
You can buy these spider weaving placemat kits as a pack of four or 16. Inside each kit is two foam spider shapes (one with slats to allow for the weaving), some ribbon and foam eyes and mouth.
To make each spider you simply weave the enclosed ribbons through the spider template, alternating the colour each time. Each time a line is completed, stick down the ends of each ribbon with glue or sellotape. Once the weaving has been completed, peel the backing off the second spider shape and stick it to the underside of the first one. Finally, add the eyes and mouth.
These are advertised as placemats, but we decided to sellotape some ribbon to the back of each spider and stick them to a wall to make a hanging decoration.
Skull keyring sewing kits
These colourful keyring sewing kits pay homage to the Mexican Day of the Dead festival.
This activity involves sewing two felt shapes together using colourful wool and then stuffing the middle with some padding that’s included in the kit. Once the padding’s in, there are foam shapes and sequins to stick on and finish the look.
Depending on the age of your child, you may want to sew around the edges of the keyrings for them – it’s what I did for Sophia and Dexter – but each kits comes with a plastic, blunt ‘needle’ to allow children to have a go themselves if they want to try.
Bat handprint decoration kits
I love crafts that incorporate children’s handprints. They always make for lovely personalised decorations, which you can look back on when they’re all grown up and remember how small they used to be.
These bat handprint decoration kits are a great idea for Halloween and will be a wonderful keepsake to bring out each year.
Paintable owl porcelain dishes
One animal that is synonymous with Halloween is the owl. Whenever you see a spooky scene in a cartoon there always tends to be an owl hooting eerily from the branch of a tall tree.
Of course, owls don’t have to be scary and that’s the beauty of these dinky owl porcelain dishes: they can be painted however you like.
There are two designs etched into the porcelain, but the colours you use are completely up to you. You can buy porcelain paint pens to decorate them or use regular paint (although I can’t guarantee regular paint will survive lots of washing).
Will you be decorating your house this Halloween?
Please note: I am part of the Baker Ross blogger network and was sent these items to review. This did not affect what I thought about them.
This was first published on Chez Mummy
