I haven’t been crafting as much as I’d like lately, but this month I’ve done one Halloween craft, plus some pumpkin experiments. Now that I think about it, I may have a couple more that I worked on this Fall to share. I’ll save that for a non almost Halloween post.
Halloween Craft
I’m going to be honest, our craft did not work the way we expected. My friend picked this one, and we went for it. We found out after the fact that we should have read the instructions. My friend is more of a “just go for it” kind of crafter. It didn’t work out the way we planned, but it’s always fun crafting with my friend. Even when our hands are covered in Mod Podge, and we have no idea if the project will work, we still laugh.
The goal was to make a string art pumpkin. We blew up a balloon, and used mod podge to put string around it until it was almost covered. After that we were going to paint it orange and add a stem with pipe cleaner. Simple enough? I don’t have the goal photo to share, but picture a perfect pumpkin made of string.
It should be noted that we craft with our toddlers playing so we have to stop if they need help. Not so easy when your hands are coated with glue.
Excitement 
A little nervous 
Help from the toddler
First of all, it takes a VERY long time to glue strings around the balloon, and there is no good place to hold it after a while. Second of all, we used a hair dryer to dry the string. We should have done that AND waited. After we were done we looked up instructions. They suggest waiting 24 hours before the balloon pop. I popped my balloon, and it collapsed. Not terribly, but it was not going to look like a pumpkin. I painted it orange because I wasn’t going to quit. My friend cut a hole in hers, and decided it leave it as it was.
As I painted (and my friend nicely mocked my ‘pumpkin’, I kept trying to figure out what this silly thing could become. I had spent so long attaching string to a balloon. I couldn’t give up. I drove home with the pumpkin (and my toddler) while the car filled with the smell of mod podge. After I got Anthony to bed, I started working on my next idea.
Starting the long process of painting white over the orange. 
Very long process.
The result worked out. It isn’t my best Halloween craft, but it is Anthony approved. We’ll keep it, and use it again next year for a decoration (but never DO the same craft.)
I made a spider web. 
Anthony still calls it a pumpkin.
The pumpkin became a spider web. Not perfect, but it will do.
Pumpkin decorating
This year we painted pumpkins while mentoring.
Painting anything with a toddler is work. I also have to go into it with no specific plans because my son is basically going to do his own thing. He’s got his vision, and that’s that. My mentee kept her pumpkin really simple. Maybe she wanted to use the pumpkin for carving or pie. Our pumpkin ended up with a lot of colours, feathers, poms, and eyes. Anthony did most of it.
He started painting it, and then stuck his face in it. 
His vision. 
Hers was simple. Ours was bordering ridiculous. 
Finished product 
Our first pumpkin of the year.
Next, we tried to carve pumpkins. Earlier, I saw a post on Facebook showing somebody using cookie cutters to hammer into the pumpkin for shapes. I thought this sounded really exciting. I was hoping easy. My first problem was choosing flimsy cookie cutters from Dollarama. My second problem, was that it simply wasn’t going to work. The pumpkin isn’t a flat surface so there was no way to hammer it in. (Also, my son really wanted control of the hammer.)
His favourite part. 
Team work. 
Toddler with a flower hammer. 
One side works, the other doesn’t.
I decided to simply trace the cookie cutters and go from there. Luckily, Anthony found something to distract him so he didn’t try to help me with the carving. We also had the last nice day of the year (I’m guessing) so I carved part of it outside while he was playing.
Halloween Corner 
Ghosts 
Bats 
Pumpkin model
Baking
Our last Halloweening has been making cookies. With the cookie cutters that were meant for pumpkin carving. Anthony helped me make them. It was a mess, but fun. I’m not a big baker, but they looked okay, and tasted pretty great. We decided against decorating them.
I said, “Try to keep it in the bowl” a lot. 
A little Anthony cookie. 
Bats, pumpkins, ghosts, and Anthony cookies.
Costumes
I can’t have a Halloween post without sharing photos from previous years. This year’s costume isn’t quite ready yet, but I’ll try to get one to add in.
2016 
2016
A family of Bookworms 
2017 
2017
Animals 
2018 
2018
Anthony’s costume this year is a Monster Truck Pink Race Car. He asked for it. My mom helped make it. On Halloween day (tomorrow), he will be wearing it over his winter clothes. I’ll have something that matches his costume, but it’s not ready yet. Not a car. Today, he went to his preschool party with the zebra costume underneath. Just in case he needs to take the car costume off.
2019 
2019
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