Oct 6, 2010

brown bag jack-o-lantern

While I was out for a walk with Ben last week, I started to think of ways we could make some easy Halloween decorations.  The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Halloween (and autumn too) is usually a pumpkin of sorts.  I'm not really sure why I thought of using the brown bag, but it worked pretty well.  It's toddler friendly (with a little assistance) and completely created with items you can probably find at home.  


Supplies
  • brown paper bag
  • tissue paper - orange, yellow and green
  • raffia or ribbon
  • crayons or markers
  • glue stick
  • scissors


  • Draw the face for your jack-o-lantern on the paper bag using crayons or markers.
  • Cut out the shapes with scissors.  (I did this step for Ben.)


    • Tear small pieces of tissue paper and glue them to the paper with the glue stick.  Try to not cover the face of your jack-o-lantern.
    (I thought this would be a hit because Ben loves to shred paper,
    but on this day he was occupied with the glue stick.)


    Use as much tissue paper as you like.


    • Then we put some rocks in a plastic bag and placed them in the bottom of the paper bag.  Just to provide some weight so it doesn't tip over.


    • Scrunch and crumple the yellow tissue paper and place it in the bag.

      Now you are ready to tie the top...
    • Cut around the top of the bag. I found it worked best to cut down vertically around the top several inches of the paper bag - making it easier to tie the top, and have the green tissue stay put and be more noticeable.
    • Scrunch and roll some of the green tissue paper, place it in the top of the brown paper bag.
    • Last step - securely tie the top of the pumpkin with raffia or ribbon to create the stem.


    Happy Halloween!

    In my mind, Ben and I were going to make a bunch of these in various sizes and with different faces, but we were lucky to finish one.  :)  That's my excuse for not having a few more pictures of some of the steps.

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