Spooooky village.

I think we have found one of the most age appropriate and earth friendly crafts...may I introduce, the Haaauuunnted Village. Wha-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah.

Haunted Village followed by dark laughter, for those of you who cannot translate scary accents in print.

It begins with the boxes I have been hoarding for weeks (to the dismay of my husband). But they actually did find a purpose!!! To make them "house-like" you'll want to cut windows into them with an X-acto knife or scissors. You are welcome to let your three-year-old do this, but I have a feeling it might end badly. With blood...which would fit in nicely with the Halloween theme.



I also used a glue gun to seal the tops of the boxes shut, before letting them go at it with paint. Because I wanted to cover the brand names/logos on the box, I opted for acrylic paint, instead of the safe, Tempra stuff. For this reason, I stripped my kids down to their undies before painting! See picture below, to understand why non-washable paint and 4-year-olds are not a good idea.



The Village! If your children do not completely cover their boxes, never fear! I feel that adds to the spooky look! I also gave them a packet of bat stickers to embellish with, and I bought one of those large spiderwebs that we cut into pieces and draped all over the houses.

The part that really brings it to life, is the Christmas lights--which set the village aglow from the inside! I fished these out of our basement (as they are sitting at the bottom of the staircase, just where we left them in January), plugged them into the wall, and went to town weaving them through the village. Here is also where I had to cut big holes in the back of the houses to loop the lights through each house (in the hole on the back, out the bottom of the box). I did a really messy job, and half this strand isn't working...but it fits with the spooky/rundown theme!

A last minute addition: bats, cut out of fleece, and glued on to clear fishing wire. I may not have mentioned this earlier, but i heart fishing wire, as a decorating tool!! In this case, I cut out two identical bat shapes, applied hot glue to one of them, added the fishing wire, and then sandwiched it with the second bat shape. I did about 5 bats per fishing wire length--when taped to the molding above our mantle, it looks like the bats are flying over the village!!

Happy Halloween!!!