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Halloween Art

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Did you know themed cookie cutters should be on your wishlist?  What’s that? You are trying to be healthy and you don’t eat cookies?  You still need cookie cutters.  I can’t tell how many times I have used my giant set of cookie cutters and not once have I made cookies with them.  I got a giant Wilton set at Michael’s with a 40% coupon, but really any kinds of cookie cutters will do.  You might be wondering what does this lady use cookie cutters for if not for cookies?  I mean it’s almost blasphemous not to use them for cookies. Well, take a look at our cookie cutter art!

Before I get into today’s project, I want to throw out some quick cookie cutter ideas.  They make great play dough accessories.  Kids can roll out the dough and cut out fun shapes.  They are an easy way to spice up meal time.  Cut a fun shape out of a piece of bread or sliced cheese and you have just become the cool mom and added some interest to a meal.  And I suppose you can use them to make cookies as well.
With Halloween fast approaching I thought some Halloween activities were in order.  So I dug out my Halloween cookie cutters and decided that we could use them to make prints with paint.  In addition to Halloween cookie cutters, you will need some paper (copy or construction)  and appropriately colored Halloween paint.  I started out with orange and white.
Directions for this one are as you would expect, just dip the cookie cutter in the paint and press down on the paper to make a print.   I am not sure if I did not use enough paint in my tray for dipping, but I found that just dipping the cookie cutter in the tray did not always give it a full coating of paint.  Often, we had to move the cutter back and forth in the paint to get it fully covered.
B made some pumpkins.
I really like the look of this on black construction paper.
C made a picture with the moon cookie cutter.
Spooky Haunted Houses
We added some black paint to the mix and A experimented with the moon shaped cutter.
So I think these came out really cute and I think they would be even more adorable if you have kids who are a little older and have more hand control.  I will warn you ahead of time that this was a very messy activity.  If you don’t like messy activities (you might want to check out the name of the blog) then this is not for you.  There was paint everywhere!  At one point when they were drying the cat jumped up on the table and got paint on her tail.  She did not sign up for this.  Please note, no cat was harmed in the creation of this art.  But one cat got her pride wounded.

When I was trying to clean up the paint “A” said, “I have an idea!”  Usually nothing good can come of that as her ideas usually involve her mouth and copious amounts of M & M’s.  But this time it was a good idea.  She took a sheet of copy paper and pushed it onto her tray to make a print.  We had done this a while ago, and I guess the experience stuck with her.  When B saw her doing this she wanted to do it too.  Little C had checked out of the activity a while ago.
The next day when all the paint had dried, I was left with dozens of these prints.  They were pretty enough on their own, but I wanted to do something more with them.  Since the colors were so festive I decided to make some Halloween banners.
Some of the prints after they dried.

For the first banner, I used my Halloween cookie cutters (see, I am using them again!) to trace a ghost and pumpkin shape on the dried prints.  I traced 7 ghosts and 6 pumpkins and cut them out. A hole punch would be great here, but I think ours has up and left.  I haven’t seen it in forever and I don’t want to buy another one because I know it’s around.  Anyway, I just used a scissor to poke the holes.  So don’t worry if you don’t have all the proper tools since you can always improvise.

Next, I strung up my shapes on some white grosgrain ribbon and our banner was complete.
I was pleased with this banner but still had so many prints left.  I got this idea to cut letters out of the prints to spell “Happy Halloween” and make another banner for the mantle in our family room.  I just hand drew the letters and cut them out.  I used some cream colored scrapbook paper as the backdrop for my letters.  I am pretty lazy and so I didn’t want to do anything that needed to be that precise.  I tore the cream paper with my hands to get a rustic treasure map kind of look (I love to use this technique when scrapbooking) and glued the letters on.
I like to make hair clips for my girls so I have a basket of various grosgrain ribbon.  I found some orange ribbon and poked some holes in the squares of letters and strung them up.
Here it is, a festive addition to our Fall Mantle
Big props to “A” and her good idea!  The kids were very excited to see what I made with their art.

 

Filed Under: art

Comments

  1. I have a cookie cutter addiction. And cookies. And Michaels. We were doing something with our cookie cutters today! Great timing. I LOVE how your prints turned out and I adore what you did with them. I'm also jealous because we are remodling and moving and I can't really decorate like I typically would. I'm going to pin this though, so I know how to make some banners next year! Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

  7. I use cookie cutters too. My kids enjoy a lot of fun projects too. I try to do a lot of hand work with them but as they get older it is tough with time since my older boy gets school projects and has a lot of activities. Thanks for visiting my blog and following. I am following back.
    http://www.thoughtsofpaps.com

    Reply

  8. Vicky your little artists did such a fabulous job! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way you created a banner with their art! I will be doing this with my som Parker! Thank you for the inspiration!
    Kindest regards,
    Jennifer

    Reply

  12. Joyce, I know what it's like to be in transition. Hopefully next Halloween you will be able to decorate to your hearts content. Thanks for pinning this!

    Reply

  23. This is awesome, Vicky. I would have never thought to use cookie cutters with paint, nor to use them to trace and cut out shapes. I love the banners. My daughter who is sitting with me wants to make one now. Should be fun!

    Reply

  27. Those banners are so perfect! Genius idea!!! I always have these weird painted papers from my kids that I don't know what to do with, so they just hang on the fridge for a week. This is such an awesome idea for those! I'm getting out the cookie cutters. 🙂
    Mandi at BBM

    Reply

  32. This is a GREAT banner! And I'm sure your daughters feel so special to have contributed to the family decor! 🙂 Love!!! Thanks for following me! I just became a new follower – looking forward to seeing more!

    Brie @ BreezyPinkDaisies

    Reply

  33. GAH! I am in love with your halloween banner – it came out SO cool! I also never thought about using cookie cutters as paint stamps – awesome idea! I'm a new follower 🙂 How does one go about getting as many followers as you? I'm jealous!

    Reply

  35. Oh yes, you have got me wishing for themed cookie cutters. Better take a peek in my "other holidays" bin just to be sure I don't already have Halloween cookie cutters – along the lines of your hole punch. 🙂 Found you through the Living Life Intentionally linky.

    Reply

  37. @ Michelle, thanks for following!
    @ Lori, thanks for the sweet words.
    @ Lady D, thanks for coming by!
    @ Brooke, hope you and your daughter have fun with them.
    @ Tutus and Tea Parties, get out those cookie cutters. 🙂
    @ Little Wonders Days, you know how cats are.
    @ Mrs Happy Homemaker, thank you!
    @ Mandi, it's a fun way to recycle.
    @ Crafty Mischief, thanks for the award. I am so honored to have gotten it a few times already.
    @ totschool, thanks for the kind words
    @ Jenna, thanks so much, I am following you as well.
    @ Southern Scraps, thanks, they were super easy to make.
    @ Brie, yes they love being a part of things
    @ Time for Lemonade, it's a lot of hard work. I am embarrassed about the amount of time I spend on blog related activities.
    @ Our Country Road, she has lots of ideas.
    @ Kristy, cookie cutters are so fun.
    @ Leah, thanks!

    Reply

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