Crafty Creepy Crawlies for Hallowe'en

It's the first of October and the countdown to Hallowe'en is ON! We have been discussing costumes for weeks and I have been dying to get into the spirit of the season so we have begun crafting already.

Sábha brought home a very film noir version of The Spider and the Fly from the library last week and, despite the fact that I thought it might be a bit scary, the girls LOVE it and it has been the inspiration behind this simple craft.

I remember making little spiders in primary school at this time if year with egg cartons and pipe cleaners and when I found some old fashioned cotton pipe cleaners in the local school supply shop, I  just had to relive my school day nostalgia with my little ones. The original plan was to make Spiders and Flies but, as usual, my girls had other plans and we ended up with a motley crew of creepy crawlies instead!

You really don't need much to make these. Even the paint could be omitted in favour of markers/crayons if you don't want a mess, though the paint does give better coverage.

All you will need is:

An egg carton

Some pipe cleaners (black or any other colour you have!)

Some paint (black or any other colour you have!)

Some googly eyes (we used self adhesive ones, so you'll need glue if you have ordinary ones)

A paint brush

A wooden skewer

Oh, and some scissors!

Method: Cut out the individual egg compartments. Paint black, or whatever colours you prefer. Purple would be cool, or red or even a big muddy mish-mash! Let them dry overnight. Stick on lots of googly eyes  in the place you want to be the 'face' or all over if you want it to be extra creepy! Poke six holes (three on each side) through the lower part of the 'body', thread three short pipe cleaners through to make legs and you are done. Cool Crafty Creepy Crawlies!

Smaller children will need help with the cutting and the skewering with this craft. We spent a lovely Saturday morning as a family, sitting around the kitchen table, working together on these little guys and that made it especially enjoyable for me.

A "Ladybird-spider" and a Spider, by Lile and a monster by Devo

Of course, once the girls got stuck in they immediately HAD to make a bumblebee and a ladybird. (I don't know if I've mentioned this, but Lile has been obsessed with Ladybirds and Sábha has been obsessed with Bumblebees... pretty much since they were born...) 

Can you spot the added eye-brows and chins??

We used a pencil-top eraser to make the ladybird dots and I helped Sábha hold the paintbrush steady to do the bumblebee stripes. They're not very 'creepy', but the bumblebee does illustrate what I had intended to do to make the fly's wings (if we had gotten around to making a fly):

That is, cut out a piece of a fruit carton/punnet and tape it to the top! Simple and effective!

I think they all look great together and when the girls are finished playing with them I intend to use the skewer again to make a hole in the top of each one. Then I'll put a short length of string through each hole, knotted on the inside and tie each bug to a longer piece of string to make creepy crawly bunting. 

We'll use our Crafty Creepy Crawly Bunting to decorate our Hallowe'en window. If you follow me on Facebook (please feel free to do so) you will have seen that we have started working on it already and I can't wait to add these little guys!

If you decide to make these with your little ones, I'd love, love, love to see what you come up with. If you're on Instagram and happen to snap your creations, please tag me @wherewishescomefrom, or share them on my Facebook page so I can have a peep. Hooray for Hallowe'en!