Nothing makes me happier than an upcycled craft…you know the stuff: toilet paper tubes, bottle caps, newspaper. But these days, I run out of supplies before I even use up the next product. Luckily you can buy cardboard tubes, called craft rolls, so you can make these Halloween characters for days! My friends at Oriental Trading supplied me with the goodies to make these spooky and sweet characters. Head over to Fun365 for the how-to’s!

The spiders above are made from a half craft roll and black pipe cleaners. Tie them with fishing line and hang them on your front door or over the mantle.

What I love about making monster crafts is that there are no rules! One eyeball? Two? Twenty-two? All is allowed! These eye stickers are a great buy for crafts galore.

These ladies give a new meaning to the word “witch craft!” The Oriental Trading felt pack will give you everything you need for these and more! (Even the broom and cauldron are made from toilet paper tubes!)

This post is sponsored by Disney Book Group.

8 year-old-kids bring the best of both worlds…they are still cuddly little people, needy in all the delicious ways, but they can also get themselves dressed and can put their plates in the dishwasher (um, sometimes). Snuggles mixed with a dash of independence—what’s better than that? This age also welcomes the chapter book obsession, but luckily they still enjoy and benefit from the lessons of picture books. We have been Mo Willems fans from the start, and when Disney Book Group sent us the newest in his Unlimited Squirrels early-reader series, I Want to Sleep Under the Stars, we were immediately making up voices in order to give the book the dramatic reading it deserves (with stuffed animals, of course). And since stuffed animals are literally members of our family, Sommer wanted to craft a little tent and campfire under the stars…so we got to work!

The story is one of best intentions—Zoom Squirrel announces that he wants to sleep under the stars, and his squirrel buddies throw all of their encouragement behind him, but to a fault. Their cheers and chants actually prevent him from sleeping, under the stars or anywhere! It’s a simple story about listening to the needs of others and finding a way to bring joy and satisfaction to the people that you love.

As a family that loves to camp, we got so into making this little camping scene under the stars. You can size it to fit stuffies of any size, but this particular one fit our animals that are about 7 inches in length. A day of reading, crafting, and then playing…what could be better?

TENT:

• Felt
• Cardboard
• Craft paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• String
• 2 buttons
• Cotton balls

1. Starting with a 12-by-10-inch piece of cardboard, with a fold breaking the 12-inch side into two 6-inch halves, draw a rectangle centered on a 10-inch side, about 6 inches wide by 5 inches tall. Cut this out.
2. Trace this cardboard onto a piece of scrapbook paper, and cut out.
3. Glue the craft paper to the cardboard, making sure that it easily folds to the inside.
4. Trace the cardboard onto a piece of felt, adding 4 to 5 inches to the length (making it 17 to 18 inches by 10 inches). Line the window edge up to one end of the felt, and this time don’t cut out the rectangle. Just cut slits up the sides of the rectangle, leaving the top line intact. Glue the felt to the other side of the cardboard.
5. Now add glue to the “feet” of the cut sides of the tent and glue them down onto the extra felt, giving the tent a bottom or floor.
6. Trace the side triangles of the tent twice onto felt and cut out. Glue these triangles to the sides of the tent.
7. Glue two pieces of string to the cardboard under the tent’s flap.
8. Glue buttons to the back top edge of the tent. When the glue dries, roll up the tent flap and wrap the strings around the buttons to keep them in place.
9. Make a pillow by cutting a long rectangle of felt, about 2-by-6 inches, placing cotton balls on one side, then folding the felt over and gluing to seal.

FIRE:

• Sticks
• Red, orange, and yellow felt
• Glue

1. Break twigs and glue them together in a triangle. Cut flames from red, orange, and yellow felt. Make the red pieces the largest, and the yellow pieces the smallest. Stack and glue them together.
2. Glue the felt flames to the inside of the sticks. Add extra sticks around if needed.

STAR MOBILE:

• Wire
• Wire cutter
• Spool
• Star stickers
• Fishing line
• Scissors

1. Cut a 10-inch piece of wire and form it into a circle.
2. Cut a 12-inch piece of wire and twist it onto the circle.
3. Cut pieces of fishing line, and sandwich each end in between two silver star stickers. Tie the fishing line to the wire circle. Repeat until you have a star mobile.
4. Wrap the other end around the spool to make it hang above the tent.

Don’t forget to check out Unlimited Squirrels in I Want To Sleep Under the Stars! The series addresses a range of physical, emotional, and social development markers that helps spark conversation between parents and early-readers. You’ll find interesting and educational content in all of the Unlimited Squirrels books, packaged with quizzes, jokes, and entertaining stories from a hilarious cast of Squirrels! We love it!

Lumpy, bumpy, twisty mini-gourds are a strange bunch, but they so perfectly lend themselves to being converted into a wacky gaggle of Halloween critters, creatures, and bugs. Pipe cleaners, beads, and drinking straws are all you need to bring these weird-o pumpkins to life.

Head over to Parents Magazine to see the rest of the kooky Halloween pumpkin bunch!

What You Need:

• Black ball-head pins
• White 1/2-in. pom-poms
• Screwdriver
• Miniature gourds
• Chenille stems
• Small black beads
• Paper straws

How to Make It: Stick ball-head pins into pom-poms to make eyes. With screwdriver, poke small holes into gourds and insert chenille stems for legs (and/or wings). Slip beads over the ends of the legs to make feet. For a different look for the legs (as shown at far left), slip paper straws over the chenille stems.

There’s a chill in the air, and round orange fruits are popping up on street corners! It’s pumpkin-time! We may have no idea what Halloween is going to look like this year, but one thing is for sure…pumpkins are going to find their homes on front porches, stoops, and doorsteps, and if there’s any year to trick these guys out more than ever, it’s NOW!

This super-fun little weird-o is one that I made for the current issue of Parents magazine. We really wanted to play with whimsy this year, and this pumpkin creature has all of my heart.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Small paintbrush
• Acrylic paint
• 1 6-in.-diameter pumpkin
• White balloon
• Two 3-in. spools
• 2 wooden ice-cream spoons
• 2 small cardboard triangles
• Wooden skewer
• Screwdriver
• Hot-glue gun
• Glue Dots

1. Paint a giant eyeball on the pumpkin and the white balloon inflated to about 4-in. diameter.
2. Paint spools, spoons, cardboard triangles, and skewer with black paint.
3. With screwdriver, dig two shallow holes in bottom of pumpkin to fit spools as legs.
4. Hot-glue spoons on the sides for arms and cardboard triangles to the top for ears.
5. Attach the end of the skewer to the balloon knot using Glue Dots and hot-glue the other end to one arm.

Photo by Ted & Chelsea; Styling by Pam Morris.

There it is again…that buzzword, STEAM. Or STEM. In case you haven’t heard of this term, it stands for Science Technology Engineering Art and Math. It basically encompasses all the things that parents want their kids to excel in academically, minus the humanities (still waiting for that acronym).

I crafted these STEAM-inspired projects, invented by some of my fave STEAM experts out there, for Family Fun magazine. For the most part, you’ll likely have most of the materials, but for anything that you don’t have, I’ve included links below!

(Above) This Balance Sculpture by Babble Dabble Do is as beautiful as it is educational. Design yours with lots of colors or keep it monochromatic like this green one.

The fact that Play-doh functions as a conductor of electricity (you’ll need to get this battery pack with leads and LED lights) ranks up there with one of the top five things I’ve learned as a parent. Learn how to make this Electric Play-doh Lightening Bug by Left-Brain Craft Brain

This Juice Pouch Stomp Rocket by Babble Dabble Do reuses something that I never thought I’d reuse…a juice pouch!

Your kids will learn words like energy, payload, and catapult when they make this cool Pom-Pom Launcher by Curious Jane.

These projects are all great at-home STEM projects to engage, entertain, and educate kids all at once!