kid made Halloween decorations

 I love kid made Halloween decorations, and now that M and M are getting bigger pulling out the decorations is more fun than ever. I get to look back on Halloweens past and remember how much fun we had celebrating the holiday… with creative art.

This year we made bat and pumpkin garland, inspired by two activities from an awesome new eBook… The Artful Year: Autumn Crafts & Recipes by Jean Van’t Hul.

If you are not familiar with Jean Van’t Hul, you should be. She is fantastic at making kids’ art easy, fun and not the least bit scary! Her blog The Artful Parent has been guiding parents and kids to a life full of art for years. She is now diving into an Artful Year series… starting with Autumn.

I was so thrilled to be given a copy of the The Artful Year: Autumn Crafts & Recipes and found that Jean’s writing style and brilliant pictures made the book a quick, inspiring reading.

Although templates for all of the activities are included in The Artful Year: Autumn, I always prefer to make our own. Manilla folders or card stock work really well.

Making a tracer

1.  Cut the folder or card stock to the size you want the tracers to be.
2. Ask the kids to do their best to fill the space.
3. Have them draw their picture in pencil and cut out their design.

Once the tracers were made we all had a great time tracing and cutting out the bats and pumpkins. Since M and M’s tracers were already made I was able to help with the tracing and cutting… without intruding on their style.

Little M practiced patterns while prepping the bats and pumpkins to be sewn to black ribbon.

 Once all of the pumpkins and bats were made I pinned them to a thin piece of black ribbon about one inch apart. One quick line and we have a fun new kid made Halloween decoration that I will enjoy for Halloweens to come! (If you don’t have a sewing machine, hot glue would work for this as well!)

Make sure to pick up your copy of  The Artful Year: Autumn Crafts & Recipes by Jean Van’t Hul.

 Have you started making  Halloween decorations?

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