Halloween activities for older children and teenagers

This is a collaborative post

I've always enjoyed having fun at Halloween with my children, but now that they are older we've sadly moved beyond Halloween toilet roll tube crafts and dressing up in sweet costumes for trick or treating. It doesn't mean that they are too old for the fun though, there are still plenty of crafts and activities that are more suited to older children. Here are some of my favourites!

Carving pumpkins

This is the classic Halloween activity, and is definitely one of our favourite Halloween traditions. I'm not the best at carving pumpkins myself, and I tend to stick with a simple grinning face. But there are loads of pumpkin carving templates available, and if you can trust your teenager with a sharp knife then they may enjoy attempting something a bit more complicated.

Photo credit Andy Holmes via Unsplash

Doing some Halloween themed baking 

My favourite Halloween bake was these Halloween iced gingerbread biscuits. They are so simple to make, and with some clever icing you can make all sorts of different designs. Even if you don't have any specific Halloween cookie cutters you can still improvise with what you have - I used gingerbread men cutters for mummies and Easter egg cutters for skulls! You can also make really simple Halloween cupcakes with some edible eye decorations and a selection of icing in vibrant colours. 

Making Halloween decorations

The children might have grown out of toddler Halloween crafts, but you can still get them involved in decorating the house for Halloween. Just bear in mind that as they get older their imagination might turn towards more realistic and gruesome ideas! You could think about a theme for the whole house, including window displays, lighting and garden decorations. I also love the idea of repurposing some of their toys into Halloween decorations, like old dolls and stuffed animals. Then on the night itself they can dress up to help hand out sweets to the younger visitors.

Photo credit Jen Theodore via Unsplash

Painting ceramic decorations

My children have always enjoyed pottery painting, and there are some lovely kits available, either classic Halloween designs or maybe something a bit more grown up like a decorative pumpkin or sugar skull. I find that the kits don't always contain the best paints, so we usually use our own acrylic paints and take the time to mix the correct colours and let the layers dry in between coats for a nicer finish. 

Taking photos at a pumpkin patch

They might be a bit old now to pose prettily next to an aesthetic pumpkin display, but if your teenager enjoys taking photographs then they might still enjoy a visit to the local pumpkin patch. It's a fun family day out and they can take some photos to share with friends on social media.

Photo credit Marius Ciocirlan via Unsplash

Having a scary Halloween adventure

If your teenager doesn't scare too easily then they might enjoy something a bit more adventurous like a Halloween themed escape room or horror maze. In the UK these are becoming much more common, and although they are a little too terrifying for me I can imagine that plenty of teens would love them, especially if they can visit with their friends rather than their boring parents!

Have fun celebrating Halloween with your older children!

Craft ideas for a teen girls sleepover or craft afternoon

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My daughter has hosted several sleepovers over the last few years, and I always like to have an activity or two that will keep the girls busy and away from their screens for a little while. My requirements for a sleepover craft - a project that can be completed ready to take home, something that doesn't require too much supervision or cleaning up, not too expensive or too many materials needed, and a finished product that will be a nice reminder of the sleepover and their friends.

Of course these craft ideas are perfect for groups of boys as well, I'm just writing about my own experiences! These are all crafts and activities that have been tried and tested with great results.

Mini diamond painting kits or stickers

I love all the different diamond painting kits that you can buy, and a small project is perfect for a sleepover. We've had many different kits over the years, and the sticker kits are particularly good because they are inexpensive, really quick to complete and come in all sorts of designs. I would choose something like this Diamond Painting Sticker Set (affiliate link) because there's a wide range of designs and everyone can complete several. We've used them to decorate notebooks and storage boxes.

Pottery painting

Hobbycraft sells a great range of pottery painting kits, and they are often on special offer during the school holidays - there's usually a big display near the entrance and sometimes they are as cheap as £2.50 each. They come with a few paints but I usually get out our own acrylic paints for a wider range of colours, you can buy some great value sets of acrylic paints from The Works Save up a few old margarine tub lids for paint mixing, and gather paintbrushes in different sizes for large and small areas. Just make sure that everyone is wearing older clothes, or provide aprons!

Bracelet making

There is some adult supervision required with this one to avoid bead spillage disaster! Hobbycraft is a great place to buy beads as they have a pick and mix selection so that you can pick out some special beads that are themed to the girls' interests. Teenagers at the moment love making beads to wear and swap at concerts, and they like to include words so some letter beads are a great type of bead to include. Clay beads (affiliate link) are also really popular and come in a huge range of colours.

When it comes to putting a bracelet together I like to keep it really simple. I buy some clear stretch elastic thread (affiliate link) and cut a length that fits easily around the wrist with some extra at each end. I use a bulldog clip on one end to stop the beads slipping off, and then the girls thread on the beads that they want. When it's long enough to go around the wrist, tie it really tightly with a triple knot, then secure with a big blob of superglue before snipping the ends. You can read how I made some bracelets for myself here - simple stretch beaded bracelets.

Bath bomb making

This is a fun one for younger children, with some adult supervision! You can keep things easy and buy a bath bomb making kit like this one (affiliate link) or else there are lots of recipes online for making your own. The only drawback to this is that you do need to have some moulds to use, and some of the ingredients might not be ones that you have in the cupboard.

Shrink plastic keychains

We've been playing with shrink plastic for years, it's a lot of fun! We recently used shrink plastic to make some cute keyrings. You just need to buy a set of the shrink plastic sheets (affiliate link) and draw on your designs. We printed out some Sanrio characters that could be traced over and then coloured - follow the instructions on the packet to check how much the image will reduce in size and what type of pens or pencils to use. If you are making keyrings, the most important part is to punch a hole in the design before you put it in the oven! Then when it has shrunk and cooled you can attach a keychain or coloured ball chain (affiliate link) so that it can be attached to a school bag or notebook.

Decorated letter shapes for room decorations

A wooden initial letter is a great keepsake and looks great on the wall. Hobbycraft sell some pretty ornate wooden letters which are easy to paint or colour using marker pens. You can also buy fun wooden fillable letters which can be decorated with fake flowers and pom poms or choose simple mache letters which can be covered with decopatch paper and glue.

Our first family escape room

At the weekend we treated Harry to an escape room for his birthday treat. This was the first time that we had tried such a thing as a family, although my husband and I had both separately completed an escape room before. A few years ago my parents and I did Time Lock: Mission Berlin in Worthing. We were terrible at it! I don't know if the room was particularly difficult or if we just weren't very good, but we were constantly asking for help, and even then we only just made it out in time!

The escape room that we did at the weekend was another of the three in Worthing, which are all run by the same company. Smugglers Ruin is inspired by local history, as you attempt to retrieve a precious barrel of gin from the town hall. Once booked, all of these escape rooms are exclusive to your group, which was a big plus point for me.

I was a little apprehensive as to how we would get on. Harry can get overwhelmed quite quickly, especially when there is a time pressure, and Mia can get frustrated if she doesn't understand something. I was worried that I'd be spending the whole time trying to keep everyone happy, rather than actually solving puzzles! But in the end I needn't have worried, as we did brilliantly. We solved the room in just 43 minutes, and we didn't need a single hint!

Obviously no spoilers, but we were helped massively by the fact that Harry has a particular knack for a certain type of puzzle that I think would have taken the rest of us much longer to solve. We all worked really well as a team finding all the things that we needed for the puzzles, and we all chipped in with our own ideas which helped us to solve them together. We had an enormous amount of fun, and were talking about it for days afterwards. 

I would love to do a few more escape rooms but unfortunately it's not a cheap hobby. I can understand  why it's expensive - only a few people can take part at a time, it takes a long time to run the room and to set it up each time, and once someone has done a room they won't be coming back even with a different group of people. It was worth it but was definitely a treat rather than something that we'll be able to do regularly, even though we all loved it! There are plenty of others to try locally, so I'm hoping that we will be able to do another one together soon.

Have you ever tried an escape room?

Simple Easter crafts for toddlers

With Easter and the Easter holidays fast approaching, today I'm sharing some of my favourite Easter crafts for toddlers and young children. Some of the very earliest crafts that I shared on this blog were Easter crafts, and so it's quite nostalgic for me looking back at them! Even though my children are a little bit older now I think that they would still enjoy some of these crafts and activities, especially the papier mache bowls and the Mini Egg cookies!

Click on the links to find a full tutorial.

Papier mache gift bowls

For these papier mache bowls I used some small plastic bowls from Ikea as a template. This is a fun craft that can provide some craft time each day over several days, as there are several different steps to the process. When finished they make a lovely Easter gift filled with Easter chocolates, or they can be used to store small items in the bathroom or bedroom.

Simple paper plate baskets

All you need to make these little baskets is a paper plate, a stapler and a strip of cardboard for the handle. We painted ours and decorated them with fake flower petals, then the children had fun collecting flowers and grass in the garden. You could also use them as personalised gift baskets for Easter.

Easter bunny egg holders and Easter chick egg holders

These simple bunnies and chicks are made from old cardboard tubes and they are the perfect size to hold a small egg like a Cadbury Creme Egg or similar. I remember making these for family members as Easter gifts when I was little!

Easter sensory tub

I loved putting together sensory tubs for my children when they were toddlers, I made them on all sorts of different themes. This Easter sensory tub has plenty of rice dyed in bright colours then coloured pom poms, shredded paper, tiny Easter chick toys and some spoons. In a plastic tub along with an old egg box and some plastic eggs there is plenty to keep young children busy!

Hama bead Easter egg suncatchers

If you read this blog regularly you'll know how much I love crafting with Hama beads! These Easter egg suncatchers use the large Hama bead Easter Egg pegboard to make frames which are then filled with coloured scraps of tissue paper. You could also use the frame for an Easter drawing or photograph.

If you like crafting with Hama beads then you might also enjoy this post - Easter crafts using Hama beads.

Mini Egg cookies

Finally a delicious Easter recipe! These Easter Mini Egg cookies are very easy to make and don't need an egg. I make them all the time with different chocolate but the Mini Eggs are definitely my favourite.

Happy Easter crafting!

A year of Hama bead crafts - part 2

A few years ago I published a long post containing an entire year's worth of Hama bead crafts and projects - one for each month. I've published so many more ideas since then that I thought it was time to publish part two! 

So here goes, twelve more Hama bead projects, one for each month of the year.

January - Hama bead snowflake bunting. The Christmas decorations might have been tidied away but you can still decorate seasonally and we are often lucky enough to see some snow in January! These snowflake patterns were designed to be strung up as bunting, but would also make lovely coasters or as a small mat underneath a candle or ornament.

February - Spinning Hama bead heart decorations. These spinning hearts are made using the large and small heart pegboards, with the smaller heart suspended inside the larger one. When they are hung up the hearts spin really prettily. You can also find more Hama bead Valentine's themed crafts here - Hama bead crafts for Valentine's Day.

March - 3D layered Hama bead Easter eggs. I used the large Easter egg pegboard to make Easter eggs in different sizes which are then layered together to make some unique Easter decorations. 

April - Easter egg Hama bead sun catchers. A second Easter themed craft, these sun catchers also use the large Easter egg pegboard with coloured tissue paper stuck to the inside. They look lovely when they are stuck up in a sunny window! You can find more Hama bead Easter crafts here - Easter crafts with Hama beads.

May - Hama bead flower wreath. I love decorating with flowers for spring, and I used the small flower pegboard and some foam shapes to make this simple and colourful wreath.

June - Hama bead flower bouquet craft. The small flower pegboard was used again to make these Hama bead flower bouquets which would make a great front piece for a greetings card or a simple decoration for a mantlepiece or window.

July - Tin can pots with Hama bead flowers. Finally I used the small Hama bead flower pegboard to decorate these old tin cans to make little planters for the garden. 

August - Mini Hama bead decorative plant markers. This craft uses mini Hama beads which are very tiny and allow for some really intricate designs. I created some small designs which are glued to small lollipop sticks and can be used to add some pretty colour to flower pots around the house.

September - Autumn leaf Hama bead coasters. These Autumn themed coasters are inspired by fallen leaves and can be customised with all different colours to make a unique design.

October - Halloween Hama bead coasters. I love crafting for Halloween and I was really pleased with these Halloween themed Hama bead coasters, also perfect for placing underneath candles or small ornaments. You can find more Hama bead themed Halloween crafts here - Hama bead crafts for Halloween.

November - Small Hama bead rangoli for Diwali. These mini rangoli are made using the small circle pegboard and using bright colours. They make lovely coasters, or you could string them up as bunting, scatter them around the dining table, or stick them to walls or windows as decoration.

December - Hama bead mini Christmas wreaths. These little Christmas wreaths are made once again with the small circle pegboard. I've used Christmas pictures from cards but you could also use photographs of family and friends. They can be hung from the Christmas tree or you could attach a magnet to the back to display on the fridge. You can find more Hama bead themed Christmas crafts here - Hama bead Christmas crafts.

I hope that this has given you plenty of inspiration for Hama bead crafts!