JGoode Halloween Coloring Contest!

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A friend of mine, illustrator Jen Goode of JGoode Designs, is hosting a great coloring contest!  It’s open to anyone, so a great filler meeting activity would be to print out the picture and let the girls color and submit them!

Download the coloring page here.

The directions to submit your colored page to the contest are very simple.

1. Scan your finished page or take a digital photo.
2. Upload the photo to Facebook or Flickr.
3. Tag the image “jgoode halloween coloring contest 2009″
4. Visit the Halloween coloring page at JGoode.com and leave a comment with the location (web address) of your finished masterpiece.

The contest ends on Halloween, October 31, 2009.  Winners will be announced November 6, 2009.  Print out the pages and enter today!

Trick or Treat Yarn Wreath

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This Trick or Treat Yarn Wreath is a super easy project for younger girls and just in time for Halloween.  The colors of yarn chosen can easily be changed to fit any holiday or theme, so feel free to adapt the colors!

Materials Needed:

• Black yarn
• Orange yarn
• Wire coat hanger
• Pliers
• 4″ wide cardboard
• Scissors
• 1½” wide ribbon
• Purchased Halloween decorations, assorted
• Fine wire
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue sticks

Directions:

1. With pliers, shape hanger into circle, then bend hook for the hanging loop.
2. Wind yarn 20 times around the cardboard.  Slip these strands off the cardboard.  With a separate 8″ strand of yarn, tie strands together at center (see Figure 1); do not cut the yarn loops.
3. Using the ends of the 8″ strand, tie the bundle to the ring, positioning the bundle perpendicular to the wire (see Figure 2).  If necessary, trim off the ends of the 8″ strand.
4. Make another bundle and tie to the ring adjacent to the previous bundle.  Continue to make bundles and tie them to the wire in the same way, positioning each bundle against the previous bundle and working around the ring until the entire wire circle is filled.
5. Make a bow from the ribbon.  Wind yarn or fine wire through an area that can be hidden and tie or twist around wire ring.  With hot glue, attach smaller decorations.

Safety Tips!

1. Always supervise young girls when using the hot glue gun.

Here are the figures I referred to above:

Sand Art Magnets

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Sand Art Magnets are a great project for Daisies, Brownies, and even Junior Girl Scouts, but the project can take up to an hour, so if your meetings are only half an hour long, you might want to do the painting during one meeting and the sand embellishing during the next.  This is a messy project with the sand, so be sure to have smocks or old adult shirts ready to minimize the chance of stains on the girls’ clothes.  You will also want to have old newspapers down on the tables to make clean up of the excess sand easier.

This is an easy project to theme.  Standard unfinished wooden shapes can be bought in multi-packs but you can also go to craft stores to get larger unique shapes one at a time, such as horseshoes, flowers, animals, etc.   For example, if the girls are in the process of learning about insects for a badge, you can easily get bees or ladybug shaped wood piece to paint.  Using a theme will also help limit how much paint and sand you buy to keep to the colors of the theme and project – for instance you don’t need purple if all the girls are making bees or ladybugs.

Materials Needed:

• Unfinished wood shapes
• Acrylic paint
• Craft sand
• Craft magnets
• Foam brush
• Paint brush
• All-Purpose glue

Directions:

1. Use the foam brush to paint the shapes in the desired colors.  Let the paint dry.
2. Use the paint brushes to paint lines of glue onto the painted shapes where you want the sand to adhere to.
3. Sprinkle the sand onto the wet glue and shake the excess sand off onto a newspaper or scrap paper to catch the sand.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for each color sand you use.  It works best to use one color of sand at a time to avoid mixing the sands together.  Start with the darkest and end with the lightest.
5. Once the glue is completely dry, attach magnets to the back of each and let dry before using.  You can glue individual craft magnets onto the wood pieces or use magnetic strips with adhesive backing.  Usually the strips come in a roll that can be cut into pieces the right size.

Safety Tips!

1. Make sure to use glue that is kid-safe.  Not only does it work the best, but you don’t want to use a toxic glue.
2. For added stability in the magnets, an adult can use a hot glue gun to attach the magnets.
3. Look at the packaging for the acrylic paint and make sure you’re using a non-toxic, kid friendly paint.  If you cannot find kid-friendly acrylic paint, ask someone at your local craft store for a recommendation on a non-toxic paint that will work for this project.

Consider how thick the wood pieces are before deciding what kind of magnet to use.  You want to make sure that the magnet won’t fail when stuck to a refrigerator – nothing is worse than a girl bringing home her wonderful creation only to put it on the fridge and have it fall to the floor and break 🙁