...ghosts in jammies...

Not that you'd really have any reason to suspect it based on the content of this blog, but Mister Man and I are pretty darn crafty. In our previous home, the walls bore an ever rotating art installment. And this proud Mami spent a small fortune on frames for countless masterpieces. At one point I started photographing each picture, painting and miscellaneous craft and pieced together photo albums of Mister Man's creative prowess. (Hint-it's a bit time consuming to do so, but it is a great and space-effective way to 'hold onto' each and every last scribble!)

Now we deal in folders, boxes and patchwork giant envelopes to consolidate our ever-growing collection. And Mister Man has learned the value in 'sharing' his artwork also...whether it's destined for his grandparents' homes or off in the mail to a penpal or packed in with cookies for the local nursing home...

The upshot is, we like to create. And getting icky, oocky and just plain dirty is a major perk!

With Halloween mere days away you can bet we're theming right now...ghosts, goblins, pumpkins, bats...you name it, we're making it. And this morning was no different. When Mister Man was done with breakfast he claimed the right to remain in his pajamas based solely on the fact that 'It's Halloween month and ghosts wear theirs the whole month long..." True that, Mister Man, true that...no use in arguing perfect logic like that.

So ghosts in their jammies it is:

To start you'll need some supplies. I tend to retain every scrap and schnibble for future use, but I think you'll agree that in this case the bigger the paper, the better. Grab some construction paper (orange and black) and some WASHABLE white paint. The scissors and string will come later.



Now for the fun! I use cosmetic sponges for arts'n'crafts a lot. There cheap and available just about anywhere in bulk packaging. Using the sponge apply paint to those paws. (I did mine first as a reference so Mister Man could mimic.) And then go SPLAT!





A warm bowl of water and a washcloth are a quick fix to painty fingers.

And yes, Mister Man, we're doing the piggies also! Sponge to apply and this time step fully onto the paper. The print won't come out right if you don't actually stand up.



While that's taking its sweet old time drying, why not make some pumpkins. Orange paint, pointer fingers and away we go. I tried to make mine stripy...Mister Man made his lumpy!



So depending on how many people are involved, your print number may vary. (How disturbing is it that Mister Man's 7 year old feet are not that much smaller than mine!?!)



Get out those scissors and cut out your ghosties! I tried to switch it up a bit from shape to shap. Mister Man could have easily done this with his children's safety scissors (lefties no less!) but he was showering for soccer.



Jumbly skeleton bits!


Time to give those ghosties a personality all their own. Again I varied it from print to print. Admission: we tried to use the fun glitter glue pens to do this the first time but learned the hard way that they're not good for much but mess. So I switched them out for permanent markers. Mister Man directed the look, I did the draw.


This brings us to admission two: see those cute orange alphabet stickers spelling out 'Happy Halloween'? Yeah, they didn't feel the need to stick so much...so we had to make do with stenciling around them and letting them fall off. Perhaps hoarding the craft supplies for 7 years should not apply to stickers and adhesives?!?



Using a long length of string and festive beads we picked a simple pattern and prepared our line. (Tip-count out all your beads, string them all on the line...then make the knots. So much easier!)



I used plain old clear tape to string those babies up and hang them out to flutter.



Can you guess which fierce ghosty is Mister Man's fave?



Season's greeting peeps! :)