Happy Halloween!

We don't do the whole trick or treating thing, but what kid doesn't enjoy dressing up? In the spirit of frugality (and recycling), I came across an idea for a curly wig that the kids could make. Check them out! Aren't they cute?


They were really easy to make. We started out with a plastic grocery bag. Cut off the handles and bottom seam of the bag. Cut down the side seams to use only one side of the bag (depending upon how large the child's head is), and while holding down the bag on their head, tape a circle all around their head beginning at the forehead and angling back just over their ears and an inch or two above the base of their skull. Once you have the circle complete, begin filling in the entire center of that circle, making sure to keep it snug on the child's head so that it will hold it's shape. The directions I had said to use masking tape, but I had more packing tape, so that's what I used--it worked fine. Here's what it should look like after you tape it completely.


Remove the "hat" from the child's head and trim off the excess bag. The directions said to use newspapers or other "curl-able" paper, so I used some old CVS ads for extra color. I cut them into 1/2 inch to 1 inch strips using my cutting board and left the fold intact so that it would open up to a longer strip. You can use a closed pair of scissors to curl the strips.


Attach the curls starting at the bottom edge of the "hat" and working up to the crown by using either double-sided tape (or create your own by rolling the tape into itself). Here are the girls "hard at work" on their wigs. =) They really enjoyed themselves and really love their creations.

Fall craft ideas from Highlights

This scarecrow is absolutely adorable, and kids would love to make one! If you wanted to make it more "outdoor-friendly," you could use yardstick-type sticks in place of the paper tubes, use some rafia in place of the yarn, use felt or some other stiff fabric (or a real hat) in place of the paper hat and use a plastic or styrofoam plate instead of the paper plate.



This pie-tin decoration reminds me of some things that my dad has made. He's really good at woodworking and has made many, many things for my mother and us kids over the years. He made a cabinet for my mom that has the tin-punched panels in the door. Here's a picture of it in the background from the post I did about the girls' sewing project.



This twirler looks super easy to make and actually reminds me of something you might make for the 4th of July or something, but maybe if you use fall-colored ribbons or attached some fall leaves (real or silk), it would look more fall-like.



This pumpkin-patch ring toss game is a really neat way to reuse those water bottles that we occasionally accumulate. We usually recycle the bottles, but if you held on to a few of them, I bet your kids would really enjoy this game. We would have to come up with another idea for the rings, because I don't think we would ever have 8-10 plastic coffee can lids. If you don't either, maybe you know someone who drinks coffee that would be willing to give you the lids when they finish the canister. I have some from when I used to drink coffee, but I use them for storage. We put the kids markers in one, some decorative scissors in another one, etc. I got that idea from my mom. She's so smart! =)



This Jack-o'-Lantern looks really cute and seems very easy to make. Since we don't drink soda, we would probably use an aluminum food can or maybe some glass jars. If you use varying sizes and heights, you could do a cute little grouping of them. Remember, pumpkins aren't all the same size and shape. =)



These bead rings are another great way to recycle some things that you may ordinarily discard. Plus, it's jewelry, and what little girl doesn't LOVE to make jewelry? =) The only thing I might try differently than what the instructions tell you to do is to twist the wire ends together (once all the beads are on and it's the size I want) and then try to work the wire ends back through a couple of the beads so that you don't have to worry about the end scratching or using unsightly tape on the back side. Does that make sense? One wire will go in one direction and the other wire will go in the other direction. The only problem would be if the holes in the beads aren't large enough to hold two widths of wire.

Here's the complete list of all 12 of this month's craft ideas. I'm sure you'll be able to find something that your child will enjoy. =)

Easy, Recycled Sewing Ideas

The last couple of days, I've run across some cute ideas for recycling items of clothing to make into tote bags. I love tote bags, and couldn't resist the thought of making one (or both) of these.

The first tote bag idea comes from Jo-Ann's website and is made from a t-shirt (new or used). Personally, if you're going to go buy a t-shirt, I would just buy a tank top, so you don't have to fool with the cutting and sewing of the sleeves and neckline. Read the Customer Reviews to get more suggestions and ideas for this project. This project would be very simple for kids to do, and they would love the finished product, I'm sure.

Jo-Ann's website has a large collection of projects. I love looking through the craft projects for kids. My only suggestion is that you read the customer reviews before you purchase all the materials for a certain project. I have noticed on a few projects that customers have complained about the instructions being vague or not complete, so just check it out completely before you get started.

The second tote bag project comes from Instructables.com and is so adorable! The creator of this bag says that she got a skirt from someone that did not fit her, but she fell in love with the floral embroidery detail at the bottom of the skirt. She decided that instead of getting rid of it, she could turn it into a tote bag.

I've got a bunch of skirts that are too big for me, now that I've lost so much weight, so I'm going to have to go digging through my closet for some skirts to turn into tote bags. =) I imagine this could also be a great project for young girls. When they outgrow a favorite skirt (or other do-able outfit), they could just sew it up into a cute little handbag or tote.

Make a difference!

Do you recycle? We do! You would really be surprised at how much stuff you throw away that could be recycled. Here's a look at our bins for this week...



Some things that we recycle are newspapers, cardboard boxes, old phone books, paper towel/toilet paper tubes, aluminum cans, juice bottles (plastic and glass), drinking water bottles, detergent bottles, glass and plastic vitamin/pill bottles...etc.