BOOtiful Craft Decor

As Halloween approaches we are dusting the cobwebs off our spookiest decorations (or not...mu-ah-ah-ah!) to liven (or deaden?) up the place - in the name of the kids of course. I would never want a jar full of bones if I didn't think my toddlers loved it. *ahem*

Anyway as a nice personal touch I found the cutest (and quite possibly the simplest) craft on Pinterest: handprint ghosts! I didn't follow their step-by-step because I wanted to use what I had on hand (get it?) so here are the directions I came up with:

1. Find a canvas. You can use thick canvas, canvas boards for art projects (what I used) or even a nice slab of diaper box cardboard (done it before - ain't no shame in it!)

2. Paint canvas black. You can use craft paint (like the Folk Art kind) or house paint or spray paint (my choice - so quick!)

3. Once the canvas is dry, add your hanger. I glued a ribbon to the back. Since I have two munchkins I connected the canvases with ribbon as well. 

4. Paint your child's hand in white paint (I used water-based for easier clean-up) and place it on an UPSIDE DOWN canvas. 

5. Wash child before white handprints decorate the walls.

6. Sprinkle glitter on top of white paint while wet (or not - optional) and take the end of your paint brush and carve out the ghost face inside of the hand print. 

7. Allow to dry. Hang. Or use a white paint pen like I did to add the year and child's name.

I did this at a Halloween Costume Dinner Party - see pics below. Both of my monchichis moved their hands so their ghosts are "flying" but their buddy, Zack, held still so it's a better representation of how cute it can be!