Tricks and Treats!

Ava's Halloween party at school was this morning and I've spent the last couple of weeks gathering supplies to make treat bags for her classmates.  I found two cute ideas on Pinterest that I wanted to use and then I just needed to come up with a way to package them.  The first thing I made were these fun little jack-o-lantern puzzles made from popsicle sticks that I painted.  It's pretty self-explanatory but here is the link for the tutorial if you are interested: http://go.tipjunkie.com/ha/158/www.saltwater-kids.com/2010/10/jack-o-lantern-puzzle-favors-tutorial_29.html.  I did make a couple of changes--the tutorial uses tempera paint which I tried and found that the wooden craft sticks just soaked it right up.  I did four coats on each puzzle and it still had a streaky, washed out look.  So, I just picked up some acrylic paint instead and one coat of that was all that was needed.  I also did not use a stencil.  Kevin is great at drawing so I just had him freehand the pumpkins onto the sticks.  He walked away for a moment and came back to find Ava was being helpful by coloring in the eyes, noses, and mouths with a Sharpie.  Usually she is really good about staying in the lines, but this time not so much.  So I ended up just painting over the marker and honestly some of the pumpkins looked a little messy but that is okay because she was helping me make stuff for her friends.  I am getting a little better about giving up control--just a little. :)  I then took the puzzles apart and placed them in pumpkin treat bags.  I printed the label on card stock, punched a hole in it, and tied it on with pumpkin ribbon.

I also put together the ingredients for individual s'mores using fun size Hershey bars, a sheet of graham crackers, and ghost Peeps.  I also found pumpkin Peeps but since we had the pumpkin puzzle, I went with the ghosts.  I found the Peeps at Target and have not seen them anywhere else though I haven't really been paying attention.  

Now to put it all together-- I found some small fabric bags in orange, black, and lime green in the dollar section at Target.  There were three of each color for $1.  I grabbed two of each color and then went to Michael's where I found small wooden cutouts of a ghost, a cat, and a spider.  I painted one of the designs on each bag and added googly eyes.  Then I found these cute labels, printed them on card stock, punched holes, had Ava sign her name on the back, and then attached with orange and white ribbon.  Here is the link for the labels:  http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/09/todays-project-happy-halloween-tags.html.  The bags turned out to be the perfect size to hold one of each treat!

That's it--fast, easy, inexpensive, and cute!  I hope Ava's friends enjoy their trick and their treat!