Halloween Insulters

This is a wicked little paper toy that insults everyone who tries it; the only question is - is how will it choose to insult you.

The Halloween insulter is great fun for kids to trick and insult their friends and can also be used as the trick when out 'trick or treating'. Or how about printing off a few Halloween Insulters to slip into the trick or treaters goodie bags when they come to call - they cause a lot less tooth decay!

The Halloween insulter is easy to you, you inset a finger and thumb into the four pockets on the under side and keep all of the points together and ask you unsuspecting Halloween victim to select a number. Then you move the Halloween insulter that about of times.

To move:

Move one - open your fingers and thumbs whist keeping your two fingers together and your two thumbs together. After you have 'opened' as far as it will go, you return your fingers so that all of the points are together again.

Move two - Keeping your fingers and thumbs on the same had together move the pairs of fingers and thumbs away from each other. After you have 'opened' as far as it will go, you return your fingers so that all of the points are together again.

Continue these two moves until you have counted the number that the victim chose, keep the insulter open at this place.

This step can be repeated if desired.

Then hold the insulter open and show the victim inside and ask them to select a picture.

Lift the flap that that picture is on to reveal the insult and read it aloud to them.

The Halloween insulters are quick and easy to make, simply click the link below and print off the insulters. Two insulters fit on to a size A4 sheet of paper.

Then cut out the insulters and lie them print side down on the table. Fold each corner into the centre to reveal the print side, you will notice that all the numbers end up in the middle of the square. There are black lines to guide your folds.

Then flip the insulet over, and again fold the corners into the centre using the lines as a guide. The insults will end up being on the inside and the pictures will be showing.

Then fold in half horizontally, firm the fold and open out.

Then fold in half vertically, firm the fold and leave folded. You will notice that the numbers are now on 'flaps'. Push your finger and thumb from each hand inside the flaps to the pocket like corners, and then bring all the corners together buy moving your fingers and thumbs.

You're ready to start insulting people!

Click Here to Print Out the Halloween Insulters...

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How to Make a Halloween Paper Plate Ghost

Most of the Halloween preparations, including crafts, are very simple to execute. The material requirement is equally modest, as most of the work is done with household things, waste stuff, and simple craft material. Usually, minor or no supervision is required when the children create the crafts. Paper plate ghosts are such easy Halloween decorations that even preschoolers can make them. These ghosts can be used as magnetic stickers, danglers, floating decorations, or occasionally, as face masks. Of course, depending upon the end use the structure will differ slightly, but the base remains the same - a paper plate.

Preparations: Secure everything you need in one place to save time and hassles. The ideal size of the paper plate should be 9 inches in diameter. The requirement of the other material will depend upon the variant of the ghost you are making. An inclusive list can be:

• A pair of craft scissors
• Pencil, eraser, and sharpener
• Colors or marker pens
• Black paper strip or black tape
• Hanging chain, yarn, or ribbons
• Construction papers in black, white, orange, or red colors
• Magnetic strips
• Glue

Steps to make a paper plate ghost:

• Basic delineation: If you are making a face mask, you will draw a face only with prominent eyes. In other cases, you have several options, wherein you may draw a face, full figure, or an irregular shape. Another choice, which is not very common, can be a ghost painting on a paper plate that is used as a hanging piece. Keep the shape simple or irregularly flowing, if you intend to make a cutout.

• Details: The next step is to create the facial features, which primarily give the spooky effect to your work. You may use ready made stickers or create the details with colors, particularly black, or markers. The crafts, where the face appears prominently, the eyes and mouth should be large sized ovals. Try to add effects by marking hung pupils, cross-eyes, joint eyeballs, etc. A mango shaped black mouth area gives a perfect impression of a yelling ghost. You may also run an internet search for more ideas. For complete figure, cut the paper plate along the outlines to give a final structure to your ghost. If you have made a large face only, use construction paper to create raised hands. The lower body is best represented by paper strips, wool, or jute pasted along the width. This is particularly suitable for the hanging pieces.

• Finishing: Stick hanging chain or yarn for your danglers or floaters, while paste magnetic strip on the back to create stickers.

Annette Labedzki received her BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She has more than 25 years experience. She is the founder and developer of an online art gallery featuring original art from all over the world. It is a great site for art collectors to buy original art. Is is also a venue for artists to display and sell their art. Artists can join for free and their image upload is unlimited. Please visit the website at http://www.labedzki-art.com


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Country Chickens Novelty Tea Cosy and Egg Cosy Knitting Pattern

An unusual novelty tea cosy and egg cosy featuring small stuffed chickens. These cosies would fit right into a country cottage kitchen with the free-range hens roaming around the top. Ideal for keeping the teapot and boiled eggs warm too, children really enjoy them. Taking less than an hour to make they do make a lovely surprise on Good Friday and Easter Sunday when you present someone a hard boiled egg for their breakfast that still has a hen sitting on top of it.

Don't be fooled into thinking this tea cosy and egg cosy with hens must be difficult to make, because they are really very quick and easy with minimal shaping.

To make the three country hens, tea cosy you will need...

5.5 mm, UK size 5 or US size 9 knitting needles,

3.25 mm, UK size 10 or US size 4 knitting needles,

50g White double knitting wool,

50g Lemon double knitting wool,

25g Dark Brown double knitting wool

25g Red double knitting wool

The pattern for this tea cosy can be bought here...

How to Make a Halloween Cake Stand

Picture the scene, you have spent all morning making spooky Halloween cupcakes for your friends and family who are coming over for a Halloween Party, but you don't have an attractive Halloween cake stand to display the cakes and mine pies on! This is a really clever way to make a Halloween cake stand the perfect table accessory for any Halloween party. Who would guess that the Halloween cake stand is made from old plates and glasses?

To make the Halloween Cake Stand you will need...

A dinner plate,
A side plate or tea plate,
A saucer,
2 wine glasses,
Glue - suitable for sticking ceramics,
Ceramic primer paint and Orange paint, spray paint gives a better finish.

You may have all the crockery that you need at home, but if not you can find all the items that you need cheaply at charity shops or on car boot sales. You should be able to buy all the pots for a couple of pounds.

Give the plates and glasses a good wash and dry before you begin.

First you need to mark out on the dinner plate where the centre is. Put your glass in the centre and mark it with a pen so that you know where to stick the glass when the glue is added.

Read the packaging of the glue, and follow the instructions of use. Then apply glue to the rim of the glass, and stick the glass in place on the centre of the dinner plate. Leave to one side to dry.

Next take the side plate, and in the same way as before, stick the second wine glass upside down in the middle of the side plate and leave to one side to dry.

The next step is to join the two pieces that you have made. Apply glue to the base of the glass stick to the dinner plate, and stuck the side plate on top, as close to the centre as possible.

Now apply glue to the base of the glass on the side plate, and stick the saucer on the top. Leave the cake stand to dry completely before painting.

Spray paint the cake stand with the primer paint to make sure the orange paint will stick to the ceramic surfaces. Read the back of the paint tin and follow the manufacture's advice of how to use the spray paint and make sure that everywhere is covered in newspaper.

Give the cake stand a coupe of coats of Orange paint and be sure to cover all the nooks and crannies. Leave to dry.

Your Halloween Cake stand is ready to be loaded up with Spooky Owl cakes and and other Creepy Halloween delights! For added glamour, paint some glow in the dark skulls and bats around the rim of each plate.

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Hooting Halloween Owl Cakes

Ingredients
280g butter, softened
280g golden caster sugar
200g self-raising flour, minus 1 rounded tbsp
1 rounded tbsp cocoa powder
6 medium eggs

For Icing and Decoration
200g butter, softened
280g icing sugar, sifted
1 tube orange ready-to-use icing
1 small bag Maltesers
1 tube choco M&Ms minis (use just the brown sweets) or Cadbury's mini buttons
1 tub jelly diamonds (just the orange ones) 

Method
1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with brown muffin cases. Beat the first 5 ingredients to a smooth batter and spoon between the cases, almost filling them to the top. You may have a little left over. Bake for 20-25 mins until risen and spongy. Cool on a rack.

2. Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Slice off the very tops of the cakes and cut each piece in half. Spread a generous layer of icing over each cake.

3. Working on one cake at a time, squirt a pea-sized blob of orange icing onto two Maltesers and use to fix a brown M&M on each. Sit the eyes, two pieces of cake top (curved edge up) and a jelly diamond on the icing to make an owl.

For more Halloween recipes visit http://www.halloweenmania.co.uk

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Halloween Treats That Are Easy to Make!

Halloween is associated with delicious treats. If you are planning on throwing A Halloween party you are going to want to be sure that you have delicious Halloween treats to offer your guests. However, with your busy schedule it makes sense that you are looking for easy to make Halloween treats. Thankfully there are many different delicious treats that you can whip up quickly and easily for your party.

A traditional option when it comes to Halloween treats has to be caramel apples. These are festive and delicious. To make them all that you need to do is to get some apples, some caramel, and some sticks. To start you should melt down the caramel. While the caramel is melting you are going want to pierce each apple with a stick.

Once the caramel has been melted you should pick up the apple by the stick and dip it into the caramel. You can either leave the apple plain or you can roll the freshly dipped apple in some nuts or candies to make it even more delicious. Then set it down on some wax paper to dry, and in no time you will have delicious Halloween treats.

Halloween treats don't have to be just sweet and filled with candy. There are also delicious snacks that are also nutritious that you can make for your Halloween party. One of the most festive options has to be carrot finger food. To make this you will need vegetable dip, carrots (small, medium, and large), softened cream cheese, and sliced almonds.

To start you will fill a bowl with the vegetable dip. From there you want to wash and peel 4 large carrots and 1 medium carrot. These are going to make up your "hand." With a knife cut a small notch in the tip of each carrot, and with the cream cheese acting like glue you will want to slide in a sliced almond to act as a finger nail. Then stick those "finger" carrots into the dip and surround the bowl with extra baby carrots for dipping.

Apple Bites are great Halloween treats for parties with lots of vampire enthusiasts. This is also a great treat to make because you only need two ingredients to make it. As long as you have apples and slivered almonds you will be good to go. Basically you want to core and quarter your apple. Then cut out a wedge from the apple's skin side effectively creating a "mouth." From there you just need to insert the almonds into the flesh of the apple to give the illusion of teeth.

Of course Worms in Dirt are a great option when it comes to Halloween treats. This is a hit with folks of all ages. To make it you will need chocolate pudding, crumbled chocolate cookies, and gummy worms. All that you need to do is pour the chocolate pudding into cups, sprinkle the pudding with the cookie crumbles, and then submerging a few gummy worms into the pudding. Try to leave the tops of the gummy worms sticking out for a colorful bit of flair to your presentation.

Spookynite.com is a great family fun Halloween website with all the information and resources you need for your Halloween Decorations, Halloween costumes so that you can create a great night of fun for family and friends.

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Halloween Crafts - Silhouette Ghost

Final Craft:

Materials Needed:
1. Terra cotta or clay pot - 10 inches
2. White cement powder - 500 Gms
3. Black paint - small tin
4. Large brush
5. Small brush
6. Glue, bungy cord or tape
7. Clay Pot used for cooking (round bottom pot) - small size
8. 1 sheet of cardboard paper
9. Marker pen
10. Scissors
11. Water for washing the pot and for mixing the white cement powder for painting

Craft Procedure:
Halloween is an event which everyone look forward to. Kids just love Halloween. They are thrilled to dress up in creative and scary costumes, make things which are very scary and display it in their favourite places. Kids love to decorate their place using the things they make creatively. One such craft is the silhouette ghost which is bright, simple but equally scary. It includes simple steps and with little help from elders, kids can make it easily. It is just fun and a pleasure to watch kids create this and display to scare others.

Step 1: Take the terracotta or clay pot and turn it upside down. Position this in a place where it can be painted and dried thoroughly.
Step 2: Mix the white cement powder with water and paint around the terracotta or clay pot fully using the large brush.
Step 3: Also paint the clay pot used for cooking thoroughly using the white cement powder with the same brush. Allow it to dry completely.
Step 4: Place the clay pot used for cooking above the terracotta pot. The clay pot also should be placed upside down.
Step 5: Use a bungy cord or a tape to hold both the pots and using contractor strength glue, stick them together.
Step 6: Take the card board sheet and draw the wings, both left and right wings using a marker. Both the wings should be of similar size and the drawing marks should not be visible after cutting the wings from the cardboard paper.
Step 7: Using the scissor, cut them and paste them to the side of the terracotta pot, just like how the wings come from the shoulders. Make it stiff by smoothing the folds.
Step 8: Using the black paint and small brush, paint 3 circles for eyes and nose.
Step 9: Allow it to dry thoroughly. Place it wherever you want for Halloween and sit back and relish the creative craft

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How to Make a Quill Biro Pen

Quill pens are great fun to write with, but not completely practical with the ink pot and the problems with ink dripping and blotting. Thank goodness for twentieth century biro style pens, they eliminate all that messiness, but do lack that je ne sais quoi.

Making a quill pen from a feather and a biro pen is quick and easy to do, and also much more cost effective than buying a ready made quill pen.

All you need to make your quill pen is…

Some large feathers, one for each pen. You will find packets of feathers in most craft shops. They usually have both dyed feathers in vibrant colours as well as natural looking feathers. Choose feathers with quite a big shaft, because this has to be big enough to house the biro.

You also will been a biro pen for each quill and you will need a bamboo skewer to use as a tool.

First take a feather and cut off the end of the shaft at the writing end. The cut needs to expose the hollow cross section of the feather, and be a large enough hole to slot the bamboo skewer up. Push the skewer up inside the feather as far as you can, and then pull it back out again.

Next take the biro pen, and take it to pieces. All you need is the plastic tube part that holds the ink and the nib. Discard the casing of the pen.

If you take a look at the plastic tubing on the pen, its probably not filled to the end with ink. Snip of the surplus tubing so the plastic is just a couple of centimetres away for the ink line.

Push the ink filled plastic tub up into the feather so that only the nib of the pen is showing; the rest of the biro should be in the feather shaft. If you can not push the pen up into the feather this far, you need to repeat the procedure with the bamboo skewer and try to push it in deeper.

Once you are happy that the biro is snug inside the feather, you can add a small amount of glue just to keep it securely in place. You quill pen is now ready to use, However, you could make the pen more glamorous buy tying a ribbon around the shaft or maybe you could add some glitter to the feather.

Quill pens make a great gift for people who like writing and can be given in a long slender box, or can be given with a notebook or diary.

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