easy crafts

Halloween is just around the corner! Even if you’re not obsessed with the holiday like I am, you have to admit that seeing your adorable child looking even more adorable than usual is a ton of fun. Nowadays my kids won’t let me dress them up in any costume I choose, so if you have a baby or toddler, you have to take advantage of these years while you can! I miss those days!

Seriously, look how cute they were!

Enough reminiscing! If you want a great costume for your kid, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. The internet has tons of easy homemade costumes that even the most craft-challenged (ie. me) can handle!

Here are my ten favorites:

Photo credit: Pretty Prudent

FRIDA KAHLO

Supplies Needed:

• Scarf
• Colorful dress
• Eyeliner
• Plastic Flowers
• Clips or Bobby Pins

Photo credit: Make It & Love It

WHERE’S WALDO

Supplies Needed:

• Red and White Striped Shirt or Onesie
• Jeans or Navy Pants
• Red Pom Pom Hat
• Black Plastic Glasses

Photo credit: This House Is Not a Home

A BAG OF POPCORN

Supplies Needed:

• White Hat
• White Onesie, Shirt or Pajamas
• Thick White Material, Felt
• Red Felt Cut Into Stripes
• Extra Red and White Felt to Make Popcorn Label
• Glue Gun to Put it All Together

Photo credit: Catherine Marie

BOB ROSS

Supplies Needed:

• Curly Brown Wig
• Denim Shirt
• Painters Palette-You can find these cheap at Hobby Lobby or Michaels.
• Paint brush
• Paints to decorate the palette
• Brown Facepaint or Eyeliner to Draw on Brown Beard

STRONGEST MAN

Supplies Needed:

• Striped Tank Top
• Sweatshirt to Wear Underneath
• Small Balls or Balloons to Use as Muscles
• Black Felt or Black Eyeliner to Draw on Mustache
• Fake Barbell- A blow-up one like this would be great or you can use a black stick with black balloons tied around its ends.

Photo credit: See Vanessa Craft

CARE BEARS

Supplies Needed:

• Matching Hoodie and Pants of Any Color
• White Felt
• Colored Felt for Design and Ears
• Stencils-These can be used to help design the belly pictures if you’re really not artistically inclined.
• Glue Gun
• Puffy Paint

DWIGHT SCHRUTE

Materials Needed:

• Gray, Black or Khaki Pants
• Short-Sleeved Collared Shirt-preferably an ugly color like mustard or beige
• Ugly Tie
• Name Tag Sticker
• Large glasses-Go to the Dollar Tree for large reading glasses and pop out the frames.

STRAWBERRY

Materials Needed:

• Red Onesie and Red Pants for Underneath
• Stuffing like this to Create the Round Strawberry Effect
• Black Marker to Draw Seeds
• Green Hat
• Green Felt for the Leaves
• Glue Gun to Attach Leaves to Hat

RACE TRACK

Materials Needed:

• Black Outfit
• Yellow Electrical or Duct Tape
• Toy Cars
• Glue Gun
• Velcro- You can buy stick on velcro to add to the shirt and the cars so your child can actually stick the cars on and off the track in different places. So fun!

Photo credit: KCSTAUFFER/INSTAGRAM

MINI ELEVEN FROM STRANGER THINGS

Materials Needed:

• Pink Collared Dress
• Cardigan
• Sports Socks
• White Sneakers
• Blond Wig
• Red Lipstick for the Bloody Nose. I’d personally skip this on a kid, but if you want to have a really authentic costume, go for it!
• Eggo Waffles Box

I hope your kids have a great time this Halloween and, if you plan on going trick-or-treating, may your neighbors’ candy baskets be full of chocolate!

#SorryNotSorry

♥ Erin

It’s May and it’s finally feeling like spring! I don’t know about you all, but Mother’s Day has really snuck up on me this year. I usually like to get something for my mom and my mother-in-law to go along with a homemade card or note from the kids. I got this cute idea from Amy at the aptly named, Idea Room, but wrote my own poem. My mother-in-law loves to bake and cook with my kids. She’s great at making plans for pizza nights and cookie nights with them whenever they sleep over so I thought this personal, but practical gift would be perfect.

Almost everything you need for the craft can be purchased at the Dollar Tree: oven mitt, sponge, string. Buy the smallest jar of white and red fabric paint you can find. I got mine at Michaels for under $5. The fabric paint will keep the handprint on the oven mitt, even if it needs to be washed.

Materials Needed:

• Oven Mitt
• Fabric Paint (I used red and white.)
• Sponge or Foam Brush
• Yarn or String
• Single Hole Punch
• Printable Mother’s Day Gift Tag (printable below)

MOTHERS DAY OVEN MITT INSTRUCTIONS from the Idea Room

1. Take your oven mitt and place it on a flat surface.:
2. Take your child’s hand and paint a little fabric paint on the palm of their hand with a foam brush. Don’t do a lot of paint. If you paint it on so that it isn’t too thick you will get a little more definition of the hand rather than a large glob of paint. You may want to practice on a piece of paper first.
3. Take the child’s hand and hold it steady with your own two hands and gently press it onto the fabric making sure that the entire hand is pressed on the oven mitt.
4. Wash your child’s hand and then let the paint dry. If there are a few areas that did not get enough paint, you can take a small paint brush and touch up those areas.
5. Take the red paint and paint a heart over the child’s palm print.
6. Print out the free Mother’s Day Poem on some white card stock and attach it with some yarn or string.

Find the free printable Mother’s Day Poem here. When you go to print it you can change the printing size from 100% if it will print to big.

Happy Mother’s Day!

♥ Erin