Timeless Halloween Crafts

I love to do holiday themed crafts with my kids.  I try to plan a few activities/craft projects to do each month and we have a great time doing them together.  The majority of our art time during the days is unplanned.  I just put out the supplies and let my toddler do what she wants.  She paints (watercolor and washable), colors with markers, crayons, colored pencils, plays with play-doh, stamps or does something fun with stickers.  We have rules in place so that she doesn't make a giant mess each time and she really enjoys doing art.

2016 Halloween Art Projects:

// 1 //
Foot Print Pumpkin Patch

I stamped one kid at a time, let all the orange paint dry and then added the stems & polka dots.  I couldn't believe how big Olive's footprint was compared to Fletcher's!  Wasn't I just stamping her baby foot on things??   I thought about doing hand print pumpkins, but getting a baby to open up their hand to stamp sounded like a terrible idea. 

// 2 //
Hand Print Witch on Halloween Night

I let Olive paint the canvas background by herself while I was working with her brother.  She got to use one color at a time, could request any Halloween color and she had a variety of tools to paint with (dotters, various sized brushes and her fingers).  We let the background dry overnight and then came back the next day to do the witch.

Her background turned out so cute!  It's no surprise that she picked purple as her main color.  I stamped her hand and then we worked together to add the features of the witch on day 2.  I let her pick the colors for the witch and then she decided the whole thing needed some more yellow polka-dots when we got the witch done.  She was SO PROUD of her Halloween art.  She ran right to get it when Kevin got home from work so she could showcase her art to him.  It's now a treasured piece of our Halloween decor - I dated the back of both of them.

 // 3 //
We Love BOO! Halloween cards

I stamped Fletcher's foot on each card and tried to keep him from eating all the paint supplies around us.  He was so busy knocking things over and was so excited to see all of the new supplies out.  He giggled through the foot painting and was pretty pleased with the process.  Once he was done getting stamped, I gave him Cheerios and then Olive got busy making finger print pumpkins on each card.

I told her to add pumpkins to each card and gave her a plate with orange paint on it.  I had to show her how to press her whole finger print on the card instead of just dipping the finger tip.  She caught on quickly and I love that each card is different.  We let the pumpkins dry and then I went back to add stems on each one, add faces to the ghosts and write we love BOO!

We made foot print cards for several holidays when Olive was a baby so I was excited to carry on this tradition with Fletcher.  These went out to family and friends earlier this week :)

 I also asked Olive to write a message on each envelope.  I had already addressed and stamped them so I was hoping she'd have fun adding a message to the back.  She would narrate... "Dear ________ Happy Halloween" as she scribbled her note on each one.

We mailed a card to one of her best little buddies.  I told her it was for him and she promptly drew a heart and said, "It's because he's my very best friend!"  We've been practicing shapes so it was so sweet for her to add the heart unprompted.

 Also worth noting... Olive enjoyed painting the paint plate just as much as she enjoyed doing the art project.  She loved working with me and loved being creative.  So we had the best of both worlds - a structured project with an end result and fun free time for her to paint whatever she wanted with no direction from me.

Supplies Needed:
styrofoam plate
variety of brushes and dotters
crayola washable paint
2 blank canvas
blank notecards and envelopes
wet wipes or paper towels
water
crayons
sharpie

 I love making art with my kids!!

Have you saved any hand print art from your kids over the years??