Halloween Crafts - School edition

3rd Grade Ghost by Maxwell

Haunted House by Jonah

Karate Duffel

Dana and Rae celebrated "The Boy" over the last month,

and one of their guests shared this tutorial.

Bentley needed a bag for his karate sparring gear,

so I used the tutorial to make him this duffel.

I used some dark denim, and 18" separating zipper,

and plain 1 1/2" wide webbing.

I needed the bag to be large enough for his helmet,

so I increased the measurements.

I cut two zipper linings, each 18 1/2" x 5";

two 10 1/2" circles for the ends;

and for the body, a rectangle 32" x 18 1/2".

I bought 76" of the webbing, and then realized that

I should have bought more because my bag is wider.

It worked out okay, the handles are just shorter.

Also, the circles seemed just a bit smaller than the

body of the bag, so I ended up gathering a little around

the zipper on each side of the bag.

I spent about $10 on supplies, including a 10 pack of

sewing machine needles tough enough for denim.

Ninja Party!

Jonah had a few ideas for his party this year.

First he wanted a zhu pet party,

then dolphins, then ninja.

We went with the ninja theme.

He wanted to invite a ton of friends, but I limited

the number and he painfully selected 7.

When the kids arrived, they colored a ninja and

I stapled it to a bag for them (to keep their goodies).

Then, John told them a story about a ninja,

and they began their ninja training.

Each was given a black belt (fleece),

and we went out back. There, they practiced kicking,

punching, flipping over the swing set bar,

moving like a ninja, throwing stars, and nunchucks.

Once they were trained, they donned their hoods

(black tricot fabric) and began the search for their

ninja crystals. I had stolen those, and was reading a

magazine with the crystals beside me.

Using their super ninja skills, they were able to

retrieve the crystals (camo candy filled eggs)

without being caught.

Then we sang happy birthday, ate cake, and

opened presents. After that, each of the guests

was given a couple of little ninja toys.

Somehow, a couple of treat bags got switched,

but other than that, the party went really well.

(Thanks to John and all his help.)

For Mindy

I saw something similar on Etsy,

and made this one for Mindy's birthday.

Valentines - 2011 Edition

Ruby's class made their Valentines together,

and then exchanged them. I found this idea

on Make and Takes, as well as a link from

from a commenter to this shop where I bought

monster clip art because it was too hard/late to draw.

Ruby surprised me by writing her name herself!

She did the R completely on her own,

then I wrote the other letters down for her to see.

The "b" is upside down because her paper got flipped.

Jonah's teacher sent home a brown paper bag

and a picture they could color and use to decorate it.

Jonah wanted his to be covered with soccer balls

that look like his soccer ball (from Aunt Brianna).

He spent all of Friday evening and a good part of

Saturday morning working on it.

Then, Milo ripped half of the soccer balls off.

Poor Jonah was pretty tired of crafting,

but he fixed his bag just before bed on Sunday.

Maxwell's class made their boxes at school!

The Valentines for all three boys were from a

Design Mom post a couple of years ago.

I chickened out, though, in mid January,

and decided to crochet some little bracelets

instead of teaching the kids to knot them.

It went a lot faster, but probably didn't turn out

as cute as the knotted ones would have.

Bentley did his box decoration by himself this year, too.

He is really interested in basketball,

so he knew right away that he wanted that theme.

He chose heart shaped basketballs and wrote swish

by the hole in his box (the hoop).

He opted for Valentines (advertisements) from his

karate studio instead of the tags from Design Mom.

Next year I think I might push for the monster

valentines or something like this or this.

Because I have lots of spare time. :)
Really, it is just nice to do something fun and creative.

We have to have valentines anyway, so why not

make it fun (stressful) for myself?

Santa Gifts

The boys got these cute shirts in their stockings.

Bookshelf

The four older kids helped me build this bookshelf

while John was working at Brian's house.

So far the books are staying the the bookshelf!

Bow and Arrow

Late one night (he had taken an accidental nap)

Jonah asked for help in making a bow and arrow.

We used a wrapping paper roll,

yarn, card board, and duct tape.

He was REALLY happy. :)

For Karen

I made this for a YW in our ward for her birthday.

It's a yo yo with a painted button on the front,

and an alligator clip and a pin on the back.

Christmas Ornaments

John and I helped the kids make these foam photo

ornaments with a kit from Hobby Lobby.

They were kind of a pain to glue together,

but turned out pretty cute anyway.

The kids loved them.

New Bag!

After using my Wasp Bag for nearly a year,

I was ready for a change.

I couldn't find the bag I wanted,

so I bought a $2 purse from Target.

Then, I spotted this bag at the mall

and luckily had some birthday money

just waiting to be spent!

Puppy Love

Christmas gift for Brianna

I snatched a photo of her dogs from her blog,

edited it in picasa, and used snapfish for the poster.

Flower Clips

I made the first batches of hair clips on our way

to and from California, then made more as needed

for our elementary school's Santa's Workshop.