Are you ready to have some fun craft time with your children or if you are a teacher, with your class? This easy and fun autumn craft project makes beautiful Autumn “leaves” that can be used to decorate the Thanksgiving dinner table or even framed and hung on the wall.

You will need:

• Black construction paper
• Brown paper grocery bag
• Black paper for leaves (If you outline the leaves on the pattern with green Sharpie, you can copy on black paper)
• Leaves  (Download leaf pattern here.)
• Water
• Iron
• Glue stick
• White glue
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Cut down the seam of the brown paper bag, and cut the bottom off of the bag.
2. Scrunch the paper into a ball and unfold it again. Then dip the paper into the water, take it out, ball it up again and then squeeze as much of the water out as you can, being careful to not tear the paper.
3. Smooth the paper out flat, and keep in mind that it will look pretty wrinkled.
4. Iron the paper to dry it. When dry, cut half of the former paper bag to fit the copy machine to print leaves on. The rest of the bag will be used to tear squares or rectangles for the project.
5. Choose the leaves from the pattern that you want to use and then cut them out.
6. Tear two or three squares or rectangles to back the black leaves. The brown leaves will be glued on the background sheet.
7. Glue the leaves to the black background. Hold the leaves down for a little while so they adhere.
8. Using the gold glitter glue, glue over the edges of all the leaves. Also draw veins, inside the leaves, with the glitter glue. Add a few curved lines that show the leaves fluttering down.

This craft project courtesy of Kids and Glitter.

Fall has arrived, and in many parts of the country it is chilly outside, windows are open to the cool crisp weather and leaves are falling. It is lovely weather to enjoy some homemade donuts and a steaming cup of hot chocolate.

Gather your family in the kitchen to make this delicious recipe and then enjoy them outside while you chat about your day. This is a wonderful weekend tradition!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose or white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• Cinnamon and sugar, for rolling
• 1/2 cup butter, for dipping

Directions

1. If using a babycakes donut maker, turn it on to preheat. Otherwise, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a donut pan or regular cookie sheet.
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix together the dry ingredients.
3. Beat in the pumpkin, eggs, milk, and butter until well combined.
4. Fit a pastry bag with a large tip and fill with the donut batter. Alternately, fill a large ziploc bag and snip off the end.
5. Pipe into the donut maker, donut pan, or just pipe in circles on a greased cookie sheet. The dough is thick enough that it should stay in the general shape you pipe it in while in the oven.
6. If using the donut maker, cook for about 3-5 minutes, checking for doneness with a toothpick.
7. If using the oven, bake for about 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
8. Cool on a wire rack.
9. Melt the 1/2 cup of butter in a small dish and mix together cinnamon and sugar in a second dish for dipping.
10. Dip the donuts in the butter and then the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
11. Store in an air-tight container.

This recipe is courtesy of Buns In My Oven.com

This very cute and very easy pumpkin candle centerpiece uses just three items and is very inexpensive to create. You can make these for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

All that is needed is a small to medium sized pumpkin, a 6 inch pillar candle and some faux autumn foliage. You will also need a sharp knife and a marker.

Instructions

1. Snap or cut the stem off the top of the pumpkin.
2. Place the bottom of the pillar candle on the top of the pumpkin and trace it with the marker.
3. With the knife, cut vertically just inside the traced outline. Discard the cut pieces.
4. Wash the ink off of the pumpkin after the candle is properly fitted.
5. Wedge the candle securely in the top of the pumpkin.
6. Add some fall leaves and autumn foliage as decoration. Or if you are making these for Halloween decorations, use black candles and a few plastic spiders. Very fun!

Using mini-pumpkins with autumn spice votive candles makes for some very nice individual placeholders on the dining room table. Let your imagination go and have a lot of fun with this lovely autumn craft.

This is a very fun, creative and quite easy Halloween craft.

Making shrunken heads from apples is actually an early American tradition that started when early settlers made dolls using apples for the heads. They did this by carving a face on an apple and then drying it. Now of course, they are used for movies, videos, haunted houses and Halloween decorations. By soaking a carved apple in a solution of water, lemon and salt, the salt will draw moisture out of the apple once it has be removed from the soaking bath and the lemon will help keep the color of the shrunken apple head light and fairly uniform.

Quick tips:

1. Select an apple that is fairly round and as large as possible. Apples shrink significantly in size as they dry, so the bigger the apple you start with, the better.
2. Your carved apple head will also take up to two weeks to to dry so be sure to begin this project in plenty of time for Halloween.
3. The best way to dry your apple is to hang it from a string. Try not to hang it directly in front of a window that receives a lot of sunshine; the warmth and brightness can encourage rot. You also want to avoid very moist areas, such as the kitchen sink or near the washing machine in the utility room. If you can hang them in a cool dark garage, that is ideal.

Be as simple or as detailed when carving your apple head as you wish and have fun with this great Halloween craft project!

Ingredients

1 (or more) large-size, fairly round apple(s)
Bowl of water
2 tbsp. salt
2 lemon wedges
Vegetable peeler
Small knife for carving
Whole cloves if desired
Kite string or other heavy string

Directions

1. Prepare your water about 15 minutes before you are ready to dip your apple(s). Do this by filling a large deep bowl with about four cups of cool water. Pour in the salt and then squeeze juice from the lemon wedges into the bowl. Stir for several seconds so that the salt will begin to dissolve into the water and the fresh lemon juice will blend.
2. Peel the apple with your vegetable peeler; leave the stem on if desired (it will not affect the drying process). Coring your apple isn’t necessary for drying, but if you wish, you can create a longer, more drawn “face” by coring. (Non-cored apples will end up more round or square in shape.)
3. Begin carving a face into the apple. You will be carving inward around the most prominent facial feature—the nose. The eyes should be sunken into the apple. Don’t worry about details at this point; just exaggerate whatever features you’d like to stand out on your finished project. For deeply-set eyes, make sure the eyebrow ridge stands out fairly far, and place a clove in the center of each to make a dent once the head is dry. Make sure that you cut deep. When the apple shrivels up you will lose some of the definition in your cut so make sure to cut everything a bit bigger/deeper than you think it should be.
4. When you are done carving, soak your apple in the prepared water. Let it sit for a minimum of 10 minutes or longer if you live in a high humidity area. Spin the apple a few times as it soaks.
5. Add some white rice for teeth (just push it into the apple and the apple will shrink around it to keep it in place.)
6. Hang your apple up to dry using kite string or other heavy duty kitchen string.

Once your shrunken apple head is dry (in about two weeks) you can begin to really have fun with it. You can display it as is or add some very fun details. Glue some large grains of rice in the mouth for teeth if the original ones fell out during the dying process. Make them jagged and scary looking! Or you can glue some strands of pet hair on the top for that scary old man look.

Have fun!

Halloween is coming!

What are your favorite things to do during the days leading up to Halloween?

This is a very fun Halloween craft project for families or school classes. This is so much more fun than going to Target or the Dollar Store to buy something that will make your Halloween yard decorations look just like every other house on the block.

You can build your tombstones using plywood or Styrofoam. Both of these are great for this project because you can buy Styrofoam in larger thicknesses (2″ or more) at your local crafts store and it’s already textured so it looks more like a grave stone from the start. Sheets of styrofoam insulation from a building supply store can also be used.  Be careful though, because Styrofoam can be tricky to do the lettering on, is pretty fragile and thicker pieces get expensive. It is also difficult to store from year to year as you will need to place them in large sealed containers to keep them from begin damaged by other stored items or kicked around.

You can also elect to create your Halloween tombstones out of plywood. It is easy to work with, quite inexpensive and you or somebody you know may already have usuable scrap pieces laying around. A standard 4′x8′ sheet  of plywood will be enough for about 6-10 tombstones depending on their size and shape and should only cost around $10-$15 depending on where you live. Storage for these is easy, as all you have to do is lean them up against a wall. No special storage containers required.

How to Build Your Tombstone

1. Determine the size of your tombstone. 18″w x 24-30″h is a good size for a basic stone. Make sure there is enough room to write the epitaph.
2. Have your epitaphs ready to write. Here are a couple of websites that you can get some great ideas from: Funny Stones to Tickle Your Funny Bones and Eerie Epitaphs. Just have fun making up your own as well!
3. Trace out the design of the tombstone on your plywood or styrofoam. A French curve or cans of various sizes are good tools to help with drawing curves if you are uncomfortable freelancing.
4. Cut out the headstone. A jig saw works well for plywood. You can use a keyhole (drywall) saw or large utility knife for Styrofoam. Be sure to work with your Styrofoam outdoors as it can be very messy.
5. Paint the headstone. For plywood, start with a base coat of grey or off-white. Next, apply a coat of stone texture spray paint to give it a weathered appearance. For Styrofoam, you can just use the stone texture paint. After the paint has dried, paint the epitaph and any other design elements (skull, scrollwork, etc) on to the stone with a small brush and black paint. For styrofoam stones, it helps to press the letters into the foam first before painting them.
6. Secure your headstones. The last step is to attach mounting stakes to the back and place the stone in your yard. Use whatever you have available to keep your tombstones in place. For Styrofoam stones, plant stakes pushed into the bottom work well. For plywood stones, you can screw shelf brackets into the back then use tent stakes to secure them into the ground.

Soon autumn will be here, the color and quality of the light will change, soft breezes will have leaves floating softly to the ground and squirrels will be gathering their acorns for winter. I d0n’t know about you, but our family loves to watch squirrels at work and at play. We settle very quietly on a bench in the backyard with a digital camera and capture great images of them at work.

Here are some of our favorite squirrel poems.

LITTLE BY LITTLE

“Little by little,” the acorn said,
As it slowly sank in its mossy bed,
“I am improving every day,
Hidden deep in the earth away.”
Little by little each day it grew;
Little by little it sipped the dew;
Downward it sent out a threadlike root;
Up in the air sprung a tiny shoot,
Day after day, and year after year,
Little by little the leaves appear;
And the slender branches spread far and wide,
Till the mighty oak is the forest’s pride.

“Little by little,” said the thoughtful boy,
“Moment by moment, I’ll well employ,
Learning a little every day,
And not misspending my time in play;
Whatever I do I will do it well.
Little by little, I’ll learn to know
The treasured wisdom of long ago;
And one of these days, perhaps, will see
That the world will be the better for me.”

The Squirrel

Whisky, frisky,
Hippity hop;
Up he goes
To the tree top!

Whirly, twirly,
Round and round,
Down he scampers
To the ground.

Furly, curly
What a tail!
Tall as a feather
Broad as a sail!

Where’s his supper?
In the shell,
Snappity, crackity,
Out it fell.

Brown Squirrel Song

Brown squirrel brown squirrel
Shake your bushy tail
Brown squirrel brown squirrel
Shake your bushy tail
Crinkle up your little nose
Stick a nut between your toes
Brown squirrel brown squirrel
Shake your bushy tail

The Oak

by Mary Elliot

Observe, dear George, this nut is small;
The Acorn is its name;
Would you suppose yon tree so tall
From such a trifle came?

The Acorn, buried in the earth,
When many years are past
Becomes the oak of matchless worth,
Whose strength will ages last.

In Summer, pleasant is its shade,
But greater far its use;
The wood which forms our ships for trade
Its body can produce.

And many other things beside,
I cannot now explain;
For where its merits have been tried,
They were not tried in vain.

September is associated with many things. This is the time of year children are back in school, the first day of fall – the autumnal equinox begins in the Northern Hemisphere on September 23, 2011 at 5:05 A.M. Eastern Standard Time. From here on out, the temperatures will begin to drop and the days will get shorter. Did you know that the word equinox comes from the Latin words for “equal night?” The fall and spring equinoxes are the only days of the year in which the hours of day and night are equal as the Sun crosses the celestial equator.

In September we also remember our grandparents as National Grandparents Day falls on September 11, 2011 as does the anniversary of that terrible day in New York when the Twin Towers came down.

Coloring Pages and Printables

If you are looking for some great coloring page resources to keep your little ones absorbed and entertained this month here are some autumn themed coloring pages and printables.

Halloween is the time of year when small children (and the rest of us!) dress up in fanciful costumes and embark on social activities such as trick-or-treating, costume parties, bonfires, bobbing for apples, heading to the fruit stand or a pumpkin field to choose pumpkins for carving, visiting haunted houses and corn mazes, playing Halloween pranks and watching their favorite Halloween scary movies or cartoons.

Halloween costumes are traditionally modeled after supernatural figures such as monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses.

Here are some fun and sometimes silly facts about Halloween. Early traditions that are believed to be the precursors to Halloween include:

• The Celtic tradition of giving thanks at the close of the harvest season.
• The European tradition of lighting candles and masquerading in costume to scare evil spirits away
• The Irish custom where wealthy landowners would give food to the poor in hopes that the ghosts would look favorably on them and spare them from mischief.
• In Scotland and Ireland trick-or-treating began as “guising” where children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins — is a traditional Halloween custom, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money.
• The practice of “guising”at Halloween in North America was first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going “guising” around the neighborhood.

Did You Know That

• Halloween was formerly known as All Hallow’s Eve?
• The name “Halloween” comes from Scotland and the Celtic Feast of the Sun which marked the end of summer was known as “Hallowe’en.”
• The Celtics would carry a lantern when they walked on the eve of October 31st?
• The first mass-produced Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in the United States.
• The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before the holiday, while new horror films are often released theatrically before the holiday to take advantage of the atmosphere.

Jack -O-Lantern Trivia

• The “jack-o-lantern” gets that name from a mean old man named Jack who was too mean even to get into hell. The Devil gave him a piece of burning coal and sent him away. Jack used a turnip to hold the burning coal and serve as a lantern.
• The first “jack-o-lanterns” were carved with faces to scare evil spirits away. They used turnips not pumpkins for those original jack-o-lanterns.

Do you have Halloween traditions that are not listed here? We would love to hear of them!

These beautiful and FREE desktop wallpapers are our gift to you.  Here is how you do it:

Choose your favorite wallpaper: Right click on the thumbnail image of the wallpaper you want to use and ”Save Picture As”. Then simply locate the image in your picture folder and set it as your background.  

To save all of the wallpapers: Just click on the “Download All” button, save the zip file to your machine and change your Autumn and Thanksgiving wallpaper every day if you like.

For more Autumn and Christmas desktop wallpapers please visit Operation Letters To Santa today.

Enjoy!