• The Nightmare before Christmas picture book by Tim Burton front cover
    book review - Halloween crafts

    The Nightmare before Christmas picture book by Tim Burton

    October 23, 2016 - By 

    I count myself as a bit of a Tim Burton fan but I never realised he wrote The Nightmare before Christmas! A new version has just been published, not only written by, but also illustrated, by the talented Tim Burton. We were kindly sent a copy to review. This is the book that came BEFORE the film. This is the book that fans of all ages will be coveting. This is the book that contains exclusive, never seen before original sketches. This is the book filled with skill, craft, cunning and misery. This is the book of the Pumpkin King.…

  • Ready for Halloween with Boohoo Kids
    Autumn - clothing - parenting

    Ready for Halloween with Boohoo Kids

    October 20, 2016 - By 

    I’m sure I’m the least fashionable mum on the school run but I love my children to look good. Luckily they both love to go clothes shopping and have an eye for fashion – perhaps they’ll be taking me shopping when they’re older! Anyway, Boohoo.com recently got in touch and asked if we’d like to review the new Boohoo Kids collection. I find it much quicker and easier shopping online than I do in person so I was delighted to spend a quiet hour with a nice cup of hot tea looking at their site. I was asked to take…

  • Tech!

    The Haunting of Bagger Bones

    October 31, 2015 - By 

    As today is Halloween we’ve been having lots of Halloween fun. The children have worn their skeleton onesies all day long, we watched scary films, eaten spooky treats  and are gearing up for a little Halloween party with more ghoulish food. The Haunting Of Bagger Bones is a frighteningly clever story app for kids. A revolution in digital storytelling, it puts your child at the heart of the action and turns them into a star instantly: first by seamlessly integrating their face into the illustrations; then by adding a personalised narration by Ray Brooks – the iconic voice of Mr…

  • EASY FABRIC PUMPKINS
    Halloween crafts - sewing

    How to make fabric pumpkins

    October 28, 2015 - By 

    We’ve carved our pumpkins but they’re already beginning to look a little rough around the edges. This year my 5 year old made a little instruction booklet for my husband, each page has a different step in how to carve a pumpkin, which we both thought was very sweet. My 5 year old insisted on carving a Creeper face into his pumpkin as he’s a huge Minecraft fan. I wanted to make something a little simpler and which lasts a lot longer so I made some sweet fabric pumpkins. They are really simple to make and you can make a…

  • baking - gingerbread - gingerbread house - Halloween crafts - Kids crafts - STEM activity - tutorial

    Decorating a Halloween gingerbread house

    October 28, 2015 - By 

    I posted a few pics of our gingerbread house on Instagram yesterday and got comments saying I was far too early for Christmas! Since when was a gingerbread house just for Christmas? I think they make a pretty good treat for Halloween too as they are really versatile and easy to decorate for any season. Decorating a Halloween gingerbread house As we’re currently in the middle of half term we decorated a gingerbread house as part of our Halloween celebrations. This is always a great activity to do with my children and it kept them occupied all afternoon. It also…

  • Halloween crafts - handmade

    Getting ready for Halloween with DYLON

    October 26, 2015 - By 

    My children have been looking forward to going trick or treating for a while. This year it looks like we will be away over Halloween so, to make up for them missing out, I thought I would help them make their own Halloween costumes so we can have a little party whilst we are away. I’ve previously had fun experimenting with Dylon dyes so I thought I would make them costumes. Dylon sent us some plain white costumes along with a selection of Dylon dyes and a colourful Halloween palette for inspiration. When I showed my children the Halloween palette…

  • Halloween crafts - Kids crafts - Staedtler Try It Tribe

    Inventing our own Halloween characters

    October 13, 2015 - By 

    Halloween is all about pumpkins, ghosts and bats in our house. Thankfully we were challenged to create our own Halloween characters using a selection of Staedtler products. My 3 year old was excited to get creating and used pencils to design her special Halloween character. She decided to draw a scary spider. She gave it a body, 8 legs, 2 eyes and a smile – not very scary! Then she coloured it in with the highlighters. I love the fact the legs look like hair and it’s smiling. She was very proud of her spider I’m a member of the…

  • Baker Ross Blogger Network - Halloween crafts - Handprint art - Kids crafts

    Halloween decorating ideas from Baker Ross

    September 30, 2015 - By 

    We are currently enjoying a sunny and warm Autumn but that hasn’t stopped us making a head start on our Halloween decorations. We received some great value craft kits from Baker Ross and I thought I would show you the end results, you can order from them online here. Halloween decorating ideas from Baker Ross My children like all kinds of crafts and they enjoyed trying something new with the Spider weaving placemat kit. The pre-cut spider shape is huge and my 5 year old immediately knew how to weave the ribbons through it as he had tried weaving in…

  • Halloween gingerbread ghosts
    baking - gingerbread - Halloween crafts

    Halloween gingerbread ghosts

    September 28, 2015 - By 

    We’ve had a steady stream of visitors recently so thought we should give our baking a seasonal twist. We love gingerbread so made our favourite gingerbread biscuit recipe and used a great Halloween cutter to make Halloween gingerbread ghosts. Ingredients for Halloween gingerbread ghosts: 350g Plain flour 1tsp Bicarbonate of soda 2 tsp Ground ginger 100g Butter 175g Light muscovado sugar 4 tbsp Golden Syrup 1 large egg How to make Halloween gingerbread ghosts: Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger in a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then stir…