Tutorial: A Halloween Keepsake Craft with Kids

I am always envious of the parents who have time to decorate their houses for each holiday. Around here in the South, they must store boxes and boxes of decorations because there are some homes that change their decor for each holiday. Well we don't have the space nor the time to do that BUT I wanted to do a little more than the nothing I usually do.

So I decided to make something for Halloween but I wanted to make it something I could use year after year, something that the kids could help with, and something that could be a keepsake as the kids grow up.

Enter Feet Ghosts. Simple, easy, fun and most of all, fairly cheap! For this craft we used:

• One 11x14 Stretched Canvas (found at JoAnn's for 50% off)
• One bottle of black acrylic craft paint
• One bottle of white acrylic craft paint
• One bottle of orange acrylic craft paint
• And a few paint brushes of various sizes

Step 1: Paint the Canvas with the black paint. I used a wide brush and did three coats, waiting for each coat of paint to dry in between

Step 2: Assemble kids and make sure their feet are clean.

Now painting with kids isn't for the faint of heart and painting their feet can make your heart race if you are not fast enough to catch them as they run off through your house with paint still at the bottom of their feet. So I highly suggest laying our a large sheet of plastic (I like the tacky and cheap table cloths that you find that has plastic on one side and fabric on the other).

Step 3: One child at a time -- paint their feet with white using a very thick brush. OR they can paint their feet -but warning... it tickles.

Step 4: Press their painted foot down on the canvas and make sure to "roll" the foot around (roll meaning pressing all of the edges) so the painted print comes off on the canvas.

Since the canvas is stretched there is no backing to the middle of the canvas, so if you step on it, it will not hold it's shape. So I found a book the size of the opening and sat the canvas over it... making a hard area for the child to step on.

Repeat steps 3 & 4 for each child.

Let dry and wash those little feet.

Step 5: When the picture is dry, you can use the orange paint to create a hair bow and bow tie and the white paint to write in a title and name labels!

Step 6: Display on a table top easel or use some pretty craft ribbon to hang!

Enjoy your scary ghosts!