Creative Family Fun

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Holidays

Halloween Bats

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After reading the book Bats by Gail Gibbons, we just couldn’t get enough of bats.

So, we decided to make our own version of the cardboard tube bat.

I had originally planned to hang these for a Halloween decoration, but the girls decided to use them as toys instead. They were tons of fun to play with!

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Supplies Needed:

Cardboard tube, cut in half
Black paint
Black construction paper
Glue
Googly eyes
White crayon
Hole punch
Yarn or string

To prep the project, I drew simple bats wings on our black construction paper.

I made the wings all one piece because you will attach your body to the middle. If you use white crayon, it is both easy to see and cut.

I also drew two small triangles for our ears.

The girls each took half of a cardboard tube and painted it black.

While they were waiting for the paint to dry, they cut out their wings and ears.

Once the paint was (almost) dry, we glued our cardboard tube to the middle of our wings.

Next we glued our ears to the top of our tubes.

The girls added googly eyes and drew a mouth and nose with the white crayon.

Once our bats were complete, we punched two holes on the top of each side of our wings.

To finish our bats, we ran a piece of yarn through both holes and tied it at the top.

It’s perfect for hanging… or trailing along behind as you run through the house.

We had tons of fun making and learning about bats.

We learned some fun facts. Did you know that bats have thumbs? Me neither!

We have a new favorite animal.

And, we now have new toys that we made ourselves.

10 Halloween Activities for Kids

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Over the past couple of years, we’ve had lots of fun doing Halloween projects. I’ve rounded up 10 of my favorites from the archives and put them all in one place for you.

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Make some easy finger puppets to go along with the book Five Little Pumpkins

Make collages from magazine pages, and then turn them into these fun owls.

Make some black Halloween cats. They’re easy and fun to make!

These wiggly-armed monsters are another fun project to make from recycled paper tubes.

Turn into spooky spiders with these fun googly-eyed spider masks.

This Halloween word search is great for a bit of quiet time. Pop over for the free printable!

Get the whole family involved and tell spooky stories with shadow puppets.

It takes only one paper plate to make these cool candy corn wreaths.

Make the cutest paper-roll mummies! The googly eyes turn the cute factor up a few notches.

Set up a mini card-making factory and use a simple printmaking technique to make your cards.

What project are you going to add to your must-do list?

Halloween Printmaking

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Disclosure: CraftProjectIdeas.com provided some the supplies for this project. All ideas are our own. There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

We love to send homemade cards.

We send them at birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

This year we decided to make our own homemade Halloween cards.

To do so, we set up our own mini card-making factory by making our own stamps.

Supplies Needed:

Heavy cardboard (from a shipping box)
Craft foam
Glue
Orange paint
Glitter
Card stock cut to size

Before we could make our cards, we had to make our stamps.

We drew simple pumpkins on our craft foam and cut them out.

We then cut the pumpkins into thirds.

We glued our foam down onto our cardboard leaving a small space in between each section of pumpkin.

While the glue dried, we mixed our glitter into the paint.

Use as much or as little glitter as you like.

By mixing the glitter into the paint, you can considerably reduce the glitter messiness.

If you don’t want to use glitter, you can do this project without it.

Once our paint was mixed, we were ready to start printing.

Paint each section of foam with your orange paint.

Give it an even coating, but not too thin. Try to avoid clumps if you can.

Turn your stamp over and press it onto the front of your card.

Hold it down firmly for 10 seconds and try not to wiggle it. Then, pull it straight up.

It’s a simple and satisfying process that my 6- and 4-year old were able to achieve without any difficulty.

Once the paint was dry, the girls took black markers and wrote Happy Halloween on the front of each.

They’re so excited to send these out in the mail! Do you ever make your own cards?

For more printing making fun, please see Cityscape Printmaking. We used a similar method with fun results.

10 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day

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Earth Day is coming up on April 22. It’s a day to celebrate the Earth and what it provides us.

We can also learn how we can help protect the Earth for ourselves, our children, and many generations to come.

So what can you do? Any little act can go a long way and once these little acts become habit, they become bigger acts.

Here are 10 ideas to celebrate Earth day.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

1. Plant a tree. Plant a new tree in your yard, or if you don’t have a spot for a tree, you can have the National Arbor Day foundation plant one in a forest on your behalf.

2. Go on a hike and celebrate the beauty that the Earth provides you everyday. Here are some tips for hiking with children to help you enjoy the process.

3. Learn about composting and set up a compost bin. KidWorldCitizen has some great information to get you started, plus fun information to help teach your kids all about composting. You can also check out HowToCompost.org or the EPA’s information about composting at home. It will help reduce waste in our landfills and if you decide to do #7, you’ll have some fantastic free fertilizer to help those plants grow.

4. Brainstorm ways that your family can do more in helping the Earth. Do you need to turn off the lights more often? Can you recycle more? Can you replace paper items with cloth, such as napkins?

5. Observe wildlife. Learn about what animals need from us to live and remain in their environment. Can we do more to help them? You are never to old or too young to enjoy observing wildlife. It can be something as simple as watching a backyard bird feeder out your window. Here are a few tips to help you teach your young children how to observe nature.

6. Save up your pocket change or donate some of your allowance and send a donation to an organization that helps protect the Earth and the creatures that call it home. The World Wildlife Fund, the National Arbor Day Foundation, and The National Audobon Society are some possible organizations.

7. Plant a garden. Try to grow your own vegetables this year. Not only will you be eating healthier, but you’ll be reducing your carbon footprint. If you don’t have room for a garden, grow some potted herbs on your windowsill. And if you really don’t have a green thumb, vow to shop at your local farmer’s market more this year. There really is nothing better than garden-fresh vegetables.

8. Clean up your neighborhood, or a park. Take a walk through the neighborhood and pick up trash. Or, clean up a local park. Believe me, your neighbors will appreciate it, and who knows, maybe you’ll inspire someone else to do their part.

9. Go on a microsafari in your own yard. You will be amazed to discover everything that is growing in your yard. Grab your magnifying glass and get up close and personal with your yard.

10. Remake, reimagine, recycle. Is there something heading to the trash that you can remake into something else? Turn old jeans into fun aprons like these from Happy Hooligans. Or, you can turn old tank tops into reusable market bags, like these from Making Lemonade. What else can you remake?

The best part about these ideas is that they’re not just for Earth Day. You can do them any day of year. So why not make Earth Day everyday?

What are some ideas you would add to the list?

Shake Art Easter Eggs

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We’ve tried shake art, or painting with marbles, once before.

It was so much fun that I knew we ought to do it again

Easter seemed like the perfect time. So, we made this fun Shake Art Easter Eggs.

Try a fun art technique to make pretty paper Easter eggs with this fun project, Shake Art Easter Eggs. This activity is fun for kids of all ages.

This is such a fun art project, but it can get messy! Make sure to wear old clothes or smocks. You’ll also want to protect your work surface.

We worked over a vinyl floor that was easy to clean, but lay down a drop cloth if you’re working over carpet, tile, or wood floors.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Try a fun art technique to make pretty paper Easter eggs with this fun project, Shake Art Easter Eggs. This activity is fun for kids of all ages.

Supplies Needed

Card stock (or other heavy paper) cut into an Easter egg shape
Various colors of paint
Marbles (or large beads)
Plastic bin

Try a fun art technique to make pretty paper Easter eggs with this fun project, Shake Art Easter Eggs. This activity is fun for kids of all ages.

How to make your Shake Art Easter Eggs

We began with a 14 liter plastic bin. You don’t even need one that large. A shoe box sized bin would work just fine.

I added the marbles and put a dollop of paint on each one. We used two to three colors for each egg.

Then we added one of our pre-cut Easter egg shapes.

Once we were set up, it was time to shake.

Put the lid on the bin if you don’t want to worry about paint-covered marbles flying all over! We left the lids off so we could watch the process.

Try a fun art technique to make pretty paper Easter eggs with this fun project, Shake Art Easter Eggs. This activity is fun for kids of all ages.

Our bin got messier and messier as we went along. Also, the colors started mixing.

You can tell the earlier eggs from the later ones, just from the amount of colors on each.

This was a fun messy project that the girls could have worked on all day… if we had that many eggs!

Try a fun art technique to make pretty paper Easter eggs with this fun project, Shake Art Easter Eggs. This activity is fun for kids of all ages.

Now we have a whole supply of pretty Easter eggs. Once they’re dry, we’re going to decorate a wall with them!

Have you ever experimented with shake art? You should definitely try these Shake Art Easter Eggs.

You may also like one of these fun Easter activities:

Easter Egg Dye Pour Painting

Pretty Easter Garland Crafts for Kids

Plastic Egg Bunnies and People

Tissue Paper Easter Egg at Kitchen Counter Chronicles