Every once in awhile, I like to bust out a kid’s project and keep my kids busy for awhile, like 15 minutes. They don’t have the best attentions spans……I have met gnats with better ones. But I do like to test my patience sometimes, and do a kid’s project. Addy, Paisley and I made a “spooky” Halloween tree. It looks great, and it was super easy. We also had a great time making it. I will walk you through it step by step.
First off, when doing a kid’s project, you really have to let go of your hopes and dreams of having a perfect end product. If your kids are anything like mine, they won’t listen that well to you. They will end up doing their own thing. It has taken me some time to adjust, but I now know that even if it doesn’t end up the way I want it, it still looks pretty darn cute. But hey, maybe your kids aren’t as stubborn as mine, maybe yours listen??
So we started by tracing various Halloween shapes onto construction paper. I had the girls use Halloween cookie cutters of bats, black cats, pumpkins and ghosts. You can also download pictures off the ‘puter and trace those. Or hey, you can freehand it if you are so inclined. I chose not to draw anything myself, as I was not blessed in the drawing department. I was, instead, blessed with incredible math skills. Wait, no I wasn’t. I was blessed with a beautiful singing voice. Nope, not that either…..I will get back to you on my particular blessings……
Have the kids cut out the shapes, with kid safe scissors of course.
Addy, concentrating and actually sitting still for a minute.
And Paisley…She isn’t going to get much accomplished holding the scissors like that. She needed a lot of help, but hey, she’s 3.
After all the shapes were cut out, the girls used glitter glue around the edges. My girls love glitter as much as I do. We are a family of crows. We will follow you home to get your shiny stuff.
As you can see, we were gettin’ our craft on outside. Anytime you are using glitter, outside is your best bet. We used glitter glue that is easily found at your craft store. We set the shapes out to dry for a couple of hours, and then I used a hole puncher to poke a hole in the top of each shape. We strung each shape with black ribbon.
For the tree, I scoured my yard for the perfect tree branch. It took me hours. No it didn’t, I live in the forest. If you don’t live in the forest, I recommend using your neighbor’s trees. Actually, don’t. You can get in a lot of trouble for that. I would suggest sneaking into a well wooded area in the dead of the night. You didn’t read that here. Anyhoo, once you find the perfect branch, spray paint (yep, again with the black spray paint) it black or grey. I also sprayed a pot black, as I couldn’t find a black pot at my local store. Disclaimer-I did the spray painting. I did not turn my 5 year old and 3 year old loose with a fresh can of spray paint. I swear. If you see their names under a freeway overpass, it must be a different Addy and Paisley .
Above is my pot, my branch and some dried moss. You can find dried moss in bags at any craft store, or most Dollar Stores.
I used rocks to steady my branch in the pot. I sent the kids searching for rocks. They thought that was the best thing ever.
Once I had the branch steadied, I covered the rocks with dried moss.
Then, it’s time to start hanging. We decorated the tree with all of our “ornaments.”
I also put left-over moss all over the tree. I think this gives the tree a creepier effect.
Our finished product! We really did have a good time making it, and the girls even kept the fighting to a minimum. Like I said above, this was super easy to make, even for a 3 year old. If you make one, send me a picture. I would love to see yours!
BTW-update from my last post. I took Addy to school this morning and it was 53 degrees out. I didn’t even put on a sweatshirt. I am so Reno
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