Oct 16, 2011

Halloween and other people's projects

I want to post about the birthday gift that we (me and Paul) made for Carys this year, but it's going to have to wait because it ain't done yet! Arg, bit off more than I could chew in the time available, but she's a cracking kid and totally understands that it's nearly ready and I just want it to not be a rushed mess because with any luck this gift will be something that lasts for many years. I'll be excited to show you some pics when it is done though.

She had a few little gifts actually on the day though, so she was happy. One that really went down well was the "birthday coupons", which was a totally last minute thing scribbled on some index cards at almost midnight before her birthday. She's actually using the ice-cream for breakfast one tomorrow morning, at least that's what she said before bed anyway. Have any of you tried this? I think we're going to do it for every birthday from now on (maybe even for me and Paul!)




This post is mainly to give kudos to some people that have tried out some of the things on Filth Wizardry and made their own versions and also to give a bit of a round up of anything Halloween themed or fall themed from the archives for any of you that are new here and won't have seen them because they are burried in the depths of my badly tagged posts.

I got into the habit last year of doing round ups every now and again to share other people's versions of our projects, but I let that slip and I'd like to start doing those round ups again. Unfortunately, even if people did email me about their takes on our crafts over that period of time, I'm not going to be able to find them easily in my chaotic inbox, so this little round up is just a few things that have been brought to my attention over the last week or so. In the future I'll try to be a bit better about putting emails in the right places and not getting burried under them.


If you have had a go at one of the projects/experiments/crafts/stunts posted on Filth Wizardry then let me know and I'll add your link to a round up in the future :)

Possibly useful Halloween and Fall posts.

With Halloween around the corner, here are a few old posts that might come in handy for last minute costume making or decorating or just fall themed makings...
 



As far as costume stuff goes, here are a few posts that might help with last minute cheap ideas...



One kid has decided she wants to be rapunzel for Halloween, no doubt along with all the other girls in her class, but she'll be the only one with a Vic and Bob style homemade foam frying pan if I have my way :) The other one hasn't expressed her preference yet and I have no idea what to put the littlest one in either, but we'll figure something out closer to the time.

We're off to have some fun at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire tomorrow. Thought I'd mention it in case any local folk don't know that it's going on and might like to take part.

Back on Thursday with a new Halloween project for you!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

How COOOLLLL! Glad our mural brought you a smile. It's such a great project. Thanks again!

Heather said...

Don't forget Strawberry Shortcake! My daughters are going to be Strawberry Shortcake and Lemon Meringue and your post was very helpful to me.

Anonymous said...

I just found your site through a link from a parenting magazine and I can't stop reading it! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all of it. The crafts are fantastic and I love that they don't cost much! I have two girls and a Girl Scout troop and I think we'll be doing loads of things from here (I'll try to send you pictures if I can figure out how).

Thank you for all the creativity!

-Barbara

Emma said...

Yay for Dr Who!!!! I too would love to see The Doctor, Amy Pond and the Last Centurion!

Lauren said...

I loved the birthday coupon idea! We use coupons as a way to cut down on the Halloween Candy consumption. We give our kids homemade coupons they can redeem for other "treats" -- extra 30 minutes of TV time, stay up 30 minutes late, trip to playground of your choice, etc -- and each coupon has an amount of candy to be turned in with the coupon. The greater the reward, the more candy to be turned in -- choosing family dinner costs 5 pieces of candy whereas a trip to the playground only costs 3. Our kids have started asking about the coupons as soon as the decorations come out! Last year, all the candy was out of the house within a week -- and very little of it was consumed by the kids! Happy Halloween!

Lindsey said...

Good idea Lauren! Last year we got the kids to trade candy for little toys that I'd saved up from thrift stores, party favour bags, like rings, erasers, whistles etc, plus random little things I'd made like felt strawberries. We have more kids over this year though, so having coupons to add to the trading will help a lot!

Lindsey said...

Barbara, would love to see some pics of your crowd trying out our crafts :) Glad that you found us and that our antics are useful to you!

Emma, I'm hoping someone out there does it. My oldest has just decided that she wants to be Miss Frizzle from The Magic School Bus books, so I've got a bit of sewing to do. I really love her idea though!

Lindsey said...

Heather, So glad that the Strawberry Shortcake costume pics helped you. Just throwing them up there with no tutorial and just a couple of pictures of the finished thing made me think that it wasn't going to be that useful to anyone, so I'm happy that you got enough from it to make your own costumes (which I'd love to see of course!)

Nicky Stevenson said...

Hi, A vistor from the UK here. We loved the revisited snail project so on a sunny Saturday last week we did our own. One of our snails amused us when it wouldn't go round another snail that was in its way, it just crawled over the top of it leaving a stripey red trail on its back (bottom left pic of first mosaic). Good fun.

Charlene said...

Love the robot made from gift bags -- clever and original spin on a classic! I love that kids make their own Halloween identity. It's featured with a link to your original post in a costume collection on my blog for Monday, Oct23.

Stephanie said...

I love your little gift coupons--the limitations are hilarious :)

Get Your Mess On! said...

Aw! Thanks for the mention! As always you amaze and inspire with all these incredible ideas (and the execution is spot-on!).

Anonymous said...

http://io9.com/5839834/this-tardis-cat-playpen-is-the-singularity-of-the-internets-interests?tag=tardis

From one Doctor fan to another, I thought you would like this Tardis cat thingy. Also, there is a Tardis murphy bed and a Tardis fridge. Too fun.

Alexis said...

Love love love your blog. I run a daycare in a small town and I have used several of your craft ideas recently for my daycare kiddos. They have a blast with every one! We are saving the make your own canvas ones for presents for parents. Keep sharing, looking forward to reading more :)