A Halloween Craft Activity to Decorate Your Home by Terri Evans

If you are looking for a Halloween craft activity that will produce an effective Halloween decoration for your home then you have come to the right place. Whatever you have the kids creating for craft, you'll want to make sure that they will be proud when they display it on Halloween.

One very effective Halloween craft is to make luminaries that can line the walkway on Halloween night. These can be made with a simple brown paper lunch bag. Draw a pumpkin face or a bat on front of the bag. Next cut out the shape you have drawn. Spray paint the bag on both sides with black or orange paint.

When the paint is dry, open up the bag and place sand in the bottom. Use a candle to light it up and you have an effective decoration for Halloween. You'll want to use a small candle placed in the center of the bag so a tea candle placed inside a small glass votive is recommended. These luminaries can be placed in a window but obviously not near a curtain or they can be used to line the walkway and greet the trick or treaters.

Of course it isn't Halloween without a few spiders lurking about. One simple Halloween craft activity uses egg cartons to make spiders. The spiders are made from one of the cups placed upside down and painted black. Add googly eyes to your spider body and then create legs by adding black pipe cleaners. Make four holes on each side and push the pipe cleaners through the holes. Knot the end that is pushed through the holes so that they don't slip out and then shape the legs so that your spider will stand. These can be hung around the house or can be stood on shelves or hung from shelves.

The best decorations at Halloween are those that are handmade. The kids will be very proud of what they have done and will learn different skills as they craft their Halloween decorations. A Halloween craft activity doesn't have to be expensive. Often decorations can be made from house hold items.

White plastic shopping bags can be turned into ghosts. Old white sheets can become ghosts too. Egg cartons can become spiders or bats. Cardboard boxes can be shaped into tombstones. Choose each Halloween craft activity carefully and with a little imagination and creativity, your whole house can be decorated with very little expense and you and the kids will be proud of what you have created.

Terri Evans is a parent and teacher who has created a collection of Easy Halloween Crafts for Kids. For more Halloween craft activities visit www.easy-kids-halloween-crafts.com.

Cake Decorating - More Ways To Create Outstanding Cakes by Tyler Branson

When you want to make a great impression to your guests then you need to make a great cake which you design yourself using some cake decorating techniques that you can find online. You can match your cake decorations with your chosen theme or color. You may also decorate your cake according to your age or to what you usually do. Just like what you see in wedding or Holiday cakes, they are influenced by the usual colors and theme of the occasion.

Some Good Cake Decorations

For adults, one of the most used cake decorating ideas is the use of cupcakes to signify the age of the celebrant. Typically, birthday cakes are just single cakes that are either round or square. Putting numbers in your cupcakes is a good and certainly unique idea. Don't worry too much about the decorations as you can always use the things that are memorable to the guest of honor. Pictures, favorite toys or candy are good cake decorations. This kind of decorations is a lot cheaper and the clean-up will be a lot easier for you later on.

Another good idea is to color your cakes differently to stand out. You can use this during Halloween or in Gothic themes parties. Instead of just using ordinary colored cakes, you can use food color to make a black cake. Bake the cake in a coffin shape or scary bat or anything resembling the creepy world of the dead. An alternative is to use red color instead of black to signify blood. Add some black sprinkles, frosting and you have a cool, Goth cake.

Cake decorating for children's cakes are uniquely challenging. This is due to the fact that children want a lot of things and that includes the design of their cakes. But this should not be a problem because there is one thing that all kids love - cartoons or childrens movies. An easy way to decide on a theme is to know their favorite superhero or cartoon characters. Pictures and figures of these characters are sure hit to them. One good example is the movie "Cars" which a lot of kids love and enjoy. This theme is fun and easy to do because making a car-shape cake base is easy. This is a great choice for boys.

Little girls love fairy tales and princess stories so they will usually like cakes with designs of Snow White or Cinderella while, younger children enjoy Winnie the Pooh and other cartoon characters. So for the next child's cake that you bake, know what cartoon characters they want and you won't have any worries about how to decorate their cake.

For occasions like Valentine's Day, many are using real fresh flowers flowers such as red roses. A heart-shaped cake is also one of the widely used cakes for this occasion. You can also use cupid figurines to decorate it. As for the other decorations, you can use sprinkles, chocolate chips, tiny mallows and flower candies. White chocolate grated on top is a perfect match to your chocolate cake.

With your imagination and the proper techniques, cake decorating is fun and easy as 1,2,3. But, like all skills, you don't acquire them at birth. You have to learn baking and practice some decorating techniques. When you aim to hone your decorating skills, you will be highly rewarded.


Tyler is fond of baking cakes with his family. He encourages the use of cake box to maintain the beautiful form and aroma of the cake. visit his website for more details on the use of
different cake boxes
.

Keeping Your Pet Safe This Halloween by Juli Woods

It's almost Halloween... a traditionally favorite time of the year. Many people love all the excitement, the costumes, the candy, the decorations, and did I mention the candy?

Our animal friends, however, just might find this time of year, this holiday, a bit too scary for them.

1. The days before, and the day of Halloween can be hazardous for your pet - especially dark colored cats. Please follow the advice of the ASPCA and keep your cats and dogs indoors during this time of year. Too many cases of malicious pet torture and injury are reported, don't let your pet become a statistic.

2. Costumes are such fun - all ages enjoy dressing for the season. If you are a pet owner who enjoys dressing your pet in a costume please see that some basic safety measures are followed. Masks should be avoided completely - they can inhibit your animals' sense of sight and smell - both of which are necessary for your pet to know what's happening around them. If your pet becomes confused through sight or smell inhibition they can become stressed - which could lead to irritability, snapping behavior, or fearful, hiding/ running away behavior.
Costumes should be manufactured to be worn similarly to a sweater or jacket. Any trailing aspect of a pet costume - a cape, for instance, needs to attach in such a way as to not put stress on to the neck of your pet. Rubber bands in any part of your pet's costume must be avoided. Because of their elasticity they burrow into the animal's skin, resulting in injury or choking. And, just as in children's costumes, insure your pet's costume is not flammable.
Please leave off any face/body paint or cream. Skin irritation or rash can easily result from any body paint use.

3. Candy - the piece de resistance of Halloween - can be quite toxic for your pet. Chocolate is deadly to both cats and dogs. Ask your children to keep their candy to themselves. This is not a time to encourage sharing! Signs of toxicity are the following: hyperactivity, excessive drooling, vomiting and diarrhea, muscle tremors and/or seizures, and coma. An immediate trip to the Vet ER is called for if your pet exhibits any of those signs. But more than the candy itself, it's the hazards of candy wrappers that's concerning. Tin-foil or cellophane or plastic wrappers, as well as lollypop sticks, can become serious digestive obstructions, when swallowed, necessitating an emergency trip to your veterinarian.

4. Halloween Night - the ghosties and ghouls and fairies come to call. Your pet might not recognize the Trick-or-Treaters as neighborhood kids, or even as human because of the shape, size of their costumes and the masking scent of the fabrics. As a result, your pet might be more aggressive or fearful. To protect your pet keep them on a leash when answering the door, or in another room behind a closed door. This also helps to prevent any escaping through that opened-to-the-ghosties door your pet might do.
Also, when you go out trick-or-treating, leave your pet at home. The sounds, smells and bustle might be too much for your pet, resulting in a run-away or an aggressive incident.

5. Jack-o-lanterns and other candles pose a hazard to our curious pets. Paws and tails can easily be burned. No burning candle should be left unattended for even a second.

6. Pet ID - In case of the accidental escape, insure your pet has a current and accurate ID tag. Microchip them, if possible. The sights and sounds can be quite stressful, resulting in running behavior. ID tags and microchipping are insurance of return.

Halloween is great fun. With proper precautions for your pets, they can also enjoy this holiday.

Juli Woods, when not researching information for her blog, http://paradeofpets.blogspot.com, spends quite a bit of time with her silkey terrier. She also volunteers regularly at various animal support agencies in her area. To keep body and soul together she works within the medical field.