Cookie Cutter Art and Unexpected Banners

Did you know themed cookie cutters should be on your wishlist?  What's that? You are trying to be healthy and you don't eat cookies?  You still need cookie cutters.  I can't tell how many times I have used my giant set of cookie cutters and not once have I made cookies with them.  I got a giant Wilton set at Michael's with a 40% coupon, but really any kinds of cookie cutters will do.  You might be wondering what does this lady use cookie cutters for if not for cookies?  I mean it's almost blasphemous not to use them for cookies.

Before I get into today's project, I want to throw out some quick cookie cutter ideas.  They make great play dough accessories.  Kids can roll out the dough and cut out fun shapes.  They are an easy way to spice up meal time.  Cut a fun shape out of a piece of bread or sliced cheese and you have just become the cool mom and added some interest to a meal.  And I suppose you can use them to make cookies as well.

With Halloween fast approaching I thought some Halloween activities were in order.  So I dug out my Halloween cookie cutters and decided that we could use them to make prints with paint.  In addition to Halloween cookie cutters, you will need some paper (copy or construction)  and appropriately colored Halloween paint.  I started out with orange and white.

Directions for this one are as you would expect, just dip the cookie cutter in the paint and press down on the paper to make a print.   I am not sure if I did not use enough paint in my tray for dipping, but I found that just dipping the cookie cutter in the tray did not always give it a full coating of paint.  Often, we had to move the cutter back and forth in the paint to get it fully covered.  

B made some pumpkins.  

I really like the look of this on black construction paper.

C made a picture with the moon cookie cutter.

Spooky Haunted Houses

We added some black paint to the mix and A experimented with the moon shaped cutter.

So I think these came out really cute and I think they would be even more adorable if you have kids who are a little older and have more hand control.  I will warn you ahead of time that this was a very messy activity.  If you don't like messy activities (you might want to check out the name of the blog) then this is not for you.  There was paint everywhere!  At one point when they were drying the cat jumped up on the table and got paint on her tail.  She did not sign up for this.  Please note, no cat was harmed in the creation of this art.  But one cat got her pride wounded.

When I was trying to clean up the paint "A" said, "I have an idea!"  Usually nothing good can come of that as her ideas usually involve her mouth and copious amounts of M & M's.  But this time it was a good idea.  She took a sheet of copy paper and pushed it onto her tray to make a print.  We had done this a while ago, and I guess the experience stuck with her.  When B saw her doing this she wanted to do it too.  Little C had checked out of the activity a while ago.  

The next day when all the paint had dried, I was left with dozens of these prints.  They were pretty enough on their own, but I wanted to do something more with them.  Since the colors were so festive I decided to make some Halloween banners.  

Some of the prints after they dried.

For the first banner, I used my Halloween cookie cutters (see, I am using them again!) to trace a ghost and pumpkin shape on the dried prints.  I traced 7 ghosts and 6 pumpkins and cut them out. A hole punch would be great here, but I think ours has up and left.  I haven't seen it in forever and I don't want to buy another one because I know it's around.  Anyway, I just used a scissor to poke the holes.  So don't worry if you don't have all the proper tools since you can always improvise.

Next, I strung up my shapes on some white grosgrain ribbon and our banner was complete.

I was pleased with this banner but still had so many prints left.  I got this idea to cut letters out of the prints to spell "Happy Halloween" and make another banner for the mantle in our family room.  I just hand drew the letters and cut them out.  I used some cream colored scrapbook paper as the backdrop for my letters.  I am pretty lazy and so I didn't want to do anything that needed to be that precise.  I tore the cream paper with my hands to get a rustic treasure map kind of look (I love to use this technique when scrapbooking) and glued the letters on.  

I like to make hair clips for my girls so I have a basket of various grosgrain ribbon.  I found some orange ribbon and poked some holes in the squares of letters and strung them up.  

Here it is, a festive addition to our Fall Mantle

Big props to "A" and her good idea!  The kids were very excited to see what I made with their art.

I linked this to Show and Tell Hop, Too Cute Tuesday, Blue Cricket Design, Milk and Cuddles, It's Playtime, Tutus and Teaparties, For the Kids Fridays, Kidding Around Friday, DIY Thifty Thursday, I Heart Naptime, Sunday Showcase, Made By Little Hands Monday, Tatertots and Jello, Making the World Cuter, Show Me What Ya Got, Toot Your Horn Tuesday, Get Your Craft On, Teach Me Stuff, Creative Creations Tuesday, Sugar and Dots, House of Hepworths, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Creative Juice Thursday, Crazy Cute Link Party, Sassy Sites, Saturday is Crafty Day, Young and Crafty, Think Pink Sundays