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Looking to do a hassle-free activity with your preschooler? Try this. All you need are some color paper, scissors, glue and magic pen. Decide how many shapes you want to work with e.g. circles, square, triangle etc…. Cut those shapes out. You can make them different sizes too.

Now have your preschooler decide what he wants for the head and body. Draw in eyes, nose, mouth, legs and arms.

If you are looking for a homeschool preschool curriculum, click this affiliate link:
ABC Home Preschool

Are your photos still lying around forgotten in your computer’s harddisk? Well, let me show you how easy it is to create a scrapbook page using My Memories Suite. Here is the link to the step-by-step tutorial (tells you how to get the free page kit too): My Memories Suite 1st Page Tutorial

Click here for a review of Polaroid My Memories Suite: Software For Scrapbooking

Here’s my latest scrap with this wonderful software.

The holidays are just over. Did you get tons of photographs? Well, don’t let those precious memories hibernate on your computer harddisk. Do a digital scrapbook and display them in a beautiful way. If you’ve never done digital scrapbook before, you may be wondering “How do I do it?” Well, many people use an image editing software like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro but there’s a learning curve to it. If you want to jump right in and start creating scrapbook pages in a snap, I suggest you take a look at this: Polaroid My Memories Suite, software for scrapbook.

Here’s a page I did with it. It was no trouble at all. I just needed to select a template and then inserted my picture. I also used an embellishment that I already had on my computer. So yeah, it’s very versatile as you can use stuff that comes with the software and also your own stuff.

If you want to see the power and ease of this scrapbook software, check out this video:

So, what do you want to do now?
1. Click here to grab your copy and start scrapping: Shop the #1 Rated Digital Scrapbooking Software Now
2. Check out my review: Polaroid My Memories Suite Review

Pumpkin painting is a wonderful alternative to carving pumpkins. It is a perfect Halloween craft for little kids because it is easy and don’t require the use of a knife. Actually, it’s an enjoyable activity for anyone of any age. Pumpkins make such versatile canvases. There are different ways to paint a pumpkin.

Here are 5 pumpkin painting ideas:

1. Metallic paint
Metallic painted pumpkins are simply elegant and beautiful. Spray your pumpkins in different metallic colors such as gold, silver, copper and bronze. Add some glitter to make it sparkle. Don’t forget wired bows to enhance elegance. Group the different colored pumpkins together to create a gorgeous display.

2. Black paint
Spraying a pumpkin completely black may not sound interesting at all. On the contrary. Spray pumpkin with a black chalkboard spray, then use a chalk to draw patterns against the black background. You’ll end up with a beautiful decorated pumpkin. You can even write messages on it, like a chalkboard.

3. Use a stencil to create patterns
Place a stencil on your pumpkin and lightly spray paint over it. Stencils can be bought at the store or homemade. It is a convenient tool to help you paint images such as bats, cats and ghosts onto your pumpkin. You can use paper doilies to create lacelike patterns. To create masked images, use die cuts or even pressed leaves.

4. Glow-in-the-dark paint
Your painted pumpkins may be beautiful but when night falls, you won’t be able to see them. This is where they lose out to carved pumpkins. But all is not lost. You can still make them visible at night with glow-in-the-dark paint. You don’t have to use glow-in-the-dark paint for the entire design, you can use it to highlight certain parts.

5. Painting Faces
Painting pumpkin faces is so much fun. You can paint spooky faces that are scary or goofy faces that are sure to delight and make people smile. Some have even painted celebrity faces. Dress up your pumpkin with hats, rafia, tinsel and other embellishments.

Don’t let this fall pass without you trying your hand at pumpkin painting. Get down to the pumpkin farm and get yourself some nice pumpkins. Let your creative juice start flowing. Showcase your painted pumpkins around your house and soon the compliments will start rolling in. It might even turn out to be a money making opportunity when people offer to pay for your work.

There’s an easy way for you to create stunning pumpkin designs that you can finish in around 1 hour. “Pumpkin Painting, Anyone Can Do It, Really!” is a guide with pumpkin painting ideas, instructions and step-by-step photos. If you are not too creative and are a beginner at pumpkin painting, this is what you need. Click here to read more about easy pumpkin painting for Halloween.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tierra_D._Stahl
http://EzineArticles.com/?Different-Ways-to-Paint-a-Pumpkin&id=3096568

With each annual visit to the pumpkin patch, teachers, room mothers, scout troop leaders and parents alike often wonder how to make the most of the prize pumpkin that was chosen by a child. Forget the messy and dangerous ideas of carving. Pumpkin Painting is the perfect solution to a creative dilemma!

Painting silly, goofy or scary faces or other designs can be a fun, yet relatively simple activity for children and adults. Preschool age children can even participate in creating their own designs for their pumpkins. You certainly can’t say that about carving pumpkins!

The easiest design to paint on a pumpkin is a traditional jack-o-lantern face. But here are some other ideas for festive designs:
- silly or goofy faces
- favorite cartoon characters
- fall leaves
- scarecrow
- witch
- princess
- turkey
- spider
- ghosts
- cats
- goblin
Painting pumpkins is a very economical craft as most supplies are readily available (you probably already have some of these in your home):
- washable markers
- acrylic craft paints
- newspaper
- spray sealer
- accessories such as raffia, jewelry, hats, etc.
Before beginning, decide what design you are going to paint and trace that design onto a clean pumpkin. You can freehand the design or select one of the many designs in the ultimate e-guide for pumpkin painting, Easy Pumpkin Painting.
Once you or your child has painted their first pumpkin, chances are you’ll want to paint an entire pumpkin family to proudly display at your home.

Pumpkin Painting is an annual family tradition at our house. We hope it will be at yours as well.

Easy Pumpkin Painting is a guide that contains step-by-step instructions and color photographs of exactly how to paint the cutest Halloween pumpkins. It also contains templates that you can use to paint your first pumpkin in about an hour! Easy Pumpkin Painting makes painting pumpkins, well, Easy!

Disclosure note: Yup, the links above are my affiliate links. Hope you don’t mind. Have a great Halloween.

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• Easy Kids Crafts For Halloween (valuebookshop.com)

It’s halloween and your kids just can’t wait to go trick-or-treating. Need some ideas to keep them preoccupied? While waiting, you can keep them busy with these easy kids craft ideas.

Ghost Hand Puppet
Kids love playing with puppets and there’s hardly an easier puppet to make than a ghost. All you need is a white paper towel, or a white handkerchief, a rubber band and a black marker.

Ask your child to spread out her thumb and pinky, but keep the 3 other fingers together. Drape the paper towel over her hand and secure the rubber band around the three fingers. This will be the ghost’s head; the thumb and pinkie form the arms. Draw eyes and a mouth on the paper towel and the little ghost puppet is finished.

Ghost Lollipops
Dress up the lollipops you are giving away for Halloween by wrapping a white tissue or small piece of fabric over them. Secure it with a piece of string or a rubber band. Take a black marker and draw eyes and a round mouth on the ghost’s face.

Spider Webs
What would Halloween be without spiders and spider webs? Make these cute little spider webs with the kids and hang them in the window. All you need are 3 craft or clean popsicle sticks and some white or black yarn. Take two of the craft sticks and glue them together to form a cross. Glue the 3rd one right in the middle, forming a star shape. Tie one end of the yarn around one of the craft sticks in the center. Start weaving it over one craft stick and under the other. Keep going around, forming your spider web. Make sure you leave at least 1/4th inch of the craft sticks sticking out and secure the loose end by tying it to one of the craft sticks. Glue a small plastic spider in the center and hang your spider web up.

Witch Broom Pencil
Witch broom pencils make a cute Halloween gift that doesn’t involve candy. You can turn any pencil into a witch’s broom with a handful of household items. All you need is a regular pencil, some small twigs out of the yard, some string and a little glue.

Break the twigs into equal lengths pieces and line them up around the unsharpened end of a pencil. Make it look like an old fashioned broom. Secure the wigs with string, and then apply a thick layer of glue to keep it all in place.

Cauldron Candy Dish
To make this cute cauldron candy dish, start with an empty round plastic container (like a cool-whip container). Clean it, dry it, and then paint it black. Paint three small wooden balls black as well. After the paint is dry, glue them to the bottom of your plastic container. Add a handle made out of wire if you’d like and your candy dish cauldron is done. Just add some of your favorite Halloween candy.

Pumpkin Painting
Carving funny or scary faces into a pumpkin is a lot of fun, but it also gets quite messy and small kids can’t really do much since there’s a knife involved. Buy a few small pumpkins instead, or in addition to the big carving pumpkin. Use permanent pens or acrylic paint to draw funny faces on your mini-pumpkins.

p.s. Want to save some money by making your own Halloween costumes? Click here for Quick, Homemade Halloween Costume Ideas