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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A Homemade Medieval Circlet Can Really Finish a Medieval Costume

If you need something to adorn your head to finish your medieval or renaissance costume, you could make yourself a fabric medieval circlet. A medieval circlet is a hoop shaped ‘crown’ that sits on the head and can be worn with or without a veil. If you are making a fabric medieval circlet, you can tailor make it to compliment the rest of your costume. If you have made your dress, you would use left over fabric to make the circlet.

To make a Fabric Medieval Circlet you will need…

Some Fabric,

Soft toy stuffing,

Ribbon, lace beads or contracting fabric to decorate.

First you need to cut out the fabric that will form the main part of the circlet. If you are making the circlet for someone you know, you can measure their head to make the correct size. Otherwise cut a rectangle of material that is 60cm long and about 6cm wide. The width is your own personal preference, and you can make the circlet chunkier or thinner if you prefer.

Fold the strip in half lengthways with the right sides of the fabric together. Sew along the length edge and turn right sides out.

Lightly stuff the ‘tube’ with some toy stuffing. Try not to make it lumpy. Fold the end bits of fabric in to cover over the ends.

With the seam on the inside, bring the two tube ends round to meet one another and sew them together to form a hoop. Try to keep the stitches small and discreet, but don’t worry about them too much because they can be hidden under ribbon.

At the seam that you have just stitched (the back of the circlet) anchor a length of ribbon with a couple of stitches. Now wrap the ribbon evenly around the circlet to give a candy stripe look. Tack the end of the ribbon to the back of circlet. Then cut a couple of lengths of ribbons to tack to the back of the circlet. Tie a bow in one of the lengths of ribbon and sew this in place on top of the other tacked ribbons.

Add a veil to the circlet by simply taking a rectangle of organza, edge the organza with ribbon and then gather the top edge with a row of running stitches. Sew the gathers to the back inside edge of the circlet.

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How to Make a Medieval Headdress

Accessories always make a costume look special, and what medieval lady would be without some sort of head gear? This is an easy to make medieval headdress that can be made from left over scraps of material – Great if you have made your own dress, you can use the off cuts to make a matching hat.

To make this medieval headdress you will need…
Scraps of contracting material,
A plain plastic head band,
A clear plastic bottle without ridges,
Some organza – embroidered, sparkly, or diamonte can add more glamour.
Glue
And ribbon and beads to decorate.

You need to make yourself a pattern first on plain paper it will be a rectangle. Measure the out side of the hair band from where the teeth start to where they end. This is usually the right place for the top of the headdress to come around to. This is the length of the rectangle. The width is a matter of choice; you could have a look in the mirror and choose a width. Around 5.5cm is good.

Cut out two pieces of material using your pattern. Cut the material slightly bigger than the pattern to give yourself a seam allowance.

With right sides of the fabric together sew along the two width sides and one of the length sides. Turn right sides out.

Using your pattern again cut out a piece of clear plastic from the bottle. The plastic should be slightly smaller than the pattern. Insert the plastic into the ‘pocket’ you have just sewn. Work with the curl in the plastic, so that when you come to attach the headdress to the hair band, the curve goes the right way. Use a spot of glue to hold the plastic in place.

To make the veil, cut the organza double the length of the pattern and cut it to the length you require. Again this is personal taste. But for around shoulder length, cut to about 50cm. Round the corners on what will be the bottom edge. Edge the sides and bottom of the organza with ribbon.

Along the top edge of the organza, sew a row of running stitches and slightly gather up. Pin the gathered organza, to the pocket opening. You need to make sure that you have the top side of the pocket, and that you pin the right sides together, so that the raw edges of the organza and the pocket material are lined up. Add a couple of extra gathers at the two ends. Sew across the gathers.

Turn the raw edges of the pocket and the organza inside towards the plastic, leaving enough room to sew the opening closed. Sew across the opening.

Using glue, stick the plastic hair band to the inside of the headdress making sure that the fabric part is in the centre. It should start at the teeth on one side and end where the teeth end on the other side.

The hair band should be about 0.5 cms back from the front edge of the fabric part.

Use pegs to hold the hair band in place whilst the glue dries.

Sew a row of beads over the stitching when you closed the pocket. This covers up the sewing and embellishes the headdress.

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