I love the changing of seasons. Any excuse to do something creative that screams HEY! IT'S (insert holiday/season here)!!!!!!!!
On a side note, I was in the dollar tree the other day, looking for some supplies for this project, when I saw some very colorful, leafy oven mitts. The kind that would scream, "IT'S FALL!" every time you pulled a piping hot treat out of the oven. I loved them. I decided my current, mis-matched and very drab, very used oven mitts needed to go, and these beautiful "fall-y" ones had to stay. But then, if I throw my old ones away, I won't have any to use when fall time is over, and going back to the old drab ones after using these beauties was out of the question. So that's when I decided I needed to buy 4 oven mitts. Two for fall, and two for, well, non-fall. That's when the hubby found me. And that's when the "we don't need more stuff" versus "I will throw the old ones out and I like to have seasonal things to change out and these fall ones are SO cool" conversation ensued. The "we don't need more stuff", albeit, voice of reason, won out. To my shame, not without a little stalking off to the cash register. I'm telling you, these were awesome mitts. All that to say:
I love the changing of seasons.
Which brings me to our current season: Halloween! After putting together the Great Pumpkin Patch craft, it dawned on me that what we did with the pumpkins could also be done to make these furry little creatures.
Here's how we did it!
What you need:
1. Styrofoam block (or something similar)
2. small styro balls, various sizes (I found these at Dollar Tree)
3. Larger styro balls (WalMart)
4. 2 packs of black pipe cleaners
5. hot glue gun/glue
6. black craft paint/paint brush
7. toothpicks
8. googly eyes
9. one bag of spider web
10. An eager, Rapunzel-clad helper :)
First thing we did was stick the little styro balls on toothpicks so they were easier to hold while painting. Each spider consists of two different size balls. A bigger ball for the body and a smaller ball for the head.
Daisy did pretty good painting up to ball #4, then she decided she was done. Apparently Rapunzel cannot be bothered with painting styrofoam balls black.
Once the balls have dried, it's time to attach the smaller balls to the bigger ones. By just using the toothpick already inserted, I stuck it into the bigger ball.
Put a few dabs of hot glue around the toothpick, then slide it the rest of the way on.
Repeat this process with the big styro balls. For these I used two toothpicks to give it some extra support.
I got a little too much glue on this one, but it ended up okay.
Next we did the eyes. This was fun because it started giving the little critters some personality. I again used hot glue for the eyes. I am sure there is another type of glue you could use if you want your kids to be able to help more. I'm just a little in love with my hot glue.
Done with the eyes! In Daisy's words, "Goodness gracious, Mommy, they are so cute!"
Pipe cleaners make perfect critter legs! Just stick the one end into the body, four on each side, bend down about halfway down, and then bend the very tip of it at the bottom like a foot. And that's it!
I was a little late to the Dollar Tree party and they were all out of spider webs. But I found this one at WalMart and it's awesome! I have never used one before. One web could probably reach down the whole side of my house if I wanted it to. Well, maybe halfway. I tend to exaggerate when I get excited. And nothing screams excitement like a fake spider web.
Anyway, I didn't really have a plan when I started putting the web up, and since I have never put one up before I was totally just figuring it out as I went along. It's basically a big long rope, and then once you anchor it to the wall you then pull the sides apart. Since I didn't have a plan I ended up having to go back and re-do some areas. I started it on our bush and then just worked it around. I just put nails into the siding wherever I wanted to anchor it.
We have had a pretty rainy and windy couple of days here. Just wind and a constant drizzle....of course....and the web has held up surprisingly well in the weather. Yesterday it didn't show hardly any wear at all. Today it's starting to hang a little. I'm just hoping it holds out till after Halloween night tomorrow!
Attaching the big spider was a little tricky since she was too big to just tangle her legs into the web. To get her to hang the way I wanted I had to anchor it in three different places. In those spots I just put nails in, then I took white sewing thread and knotted them to the nails. Next I pushed a nail halfway into the spider, wound the thread around the nail and then pushed it all the way in.
The baby spiders were a lot easier to attach. Since they weren't nearly as heavy I could just wrap little pieces of the web around the feet and then they would just hang there like they were just sitting on the web!
And there you have it! A perfectly spooky, scary, and adorable doorway for Halloween!
We are ready!
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