Hot Chocolate and Paper Plates

Hip Hip Hooray, it's fall!  

For as much as I love summer and all it's outdoor goodness, I love fall as much for the amount of time we spend inside, focusing on time together, holidays, and traditions.  Two of our time honored and closely held traditions are drinking vast amounts of hot chocolate and doing crafts, usually enjoyed together.

 Our first craft of the season was simple, inexpensive, and a ton of fun.  With the exception of the $2 pack of paper plates I bought, everything else we used came from craft supplies we had on hand.  After gulping hot chocolate, we set out to make paper plate jack-o-lanterns, ghosts and Frankensteins.

Crafting tip - use plastic table cloths from The Dollar Tree to cover your work space.  When we use newspaper, there invariably ends up being something spilled between the gaps.  This way the whole table stays covered, and then just wraps up to toss in the trash.  I usually keep 2-3 stashed in with our craft supplies

 Austin prefers to craft semi-nude, and was pretty proud of his inner Hulk coming out.  I really need to invest in some craft time smocks.

 Leah has no qualms about getting really into her work.

 The finished products!  The kids had so much fun making them, and now they can serve as decorations for the rest of the month. 

 Leah's

 Austin's

 Jake's

 After hauling out a good portion of my scrap supplies for the project, I realized they were in disarray and in need of some organizing.

 So much better!  I think this was as much fun for me as the plates were for the kids. 

I have issues...