Mother-of-three Sharon Pulis shares a step-by-step guide to make a quick and easy trick or treat kit for your children. It’s a good idea to get the kids involved too: they like to get their hands dirty and will get more into the fun spirit.
Halloween tops
You need: black top, black fabric or cardboard, PVC glue, blue and silver glitter, white fabric
Top with pumpkin motif
1. Cut bats from black fabric or cardboard.
2. Cover with PVC glue and sprinkle with blue glitter. Leave to dry.
3. Meanwhile, cut a pumpkin shape out of orange-coloured fabric and sew on to a black top.
4. Stick the bats to the top with Velcro.
Right: Julian, 6, and Ally, 2, helped create their own costumes.Top with ghost motif
1. Cut ghost shapes of various sizes from white fabric (see top).
2. Sprinkle silver glitter on PVC glue (optional). Leave to dry and remove excess glitter (left).
3. Sew the ghost shapes to a black top.
Spider and bat headpieces
You need: a black pompom, four pipe cleaners, googly eyes, dark blue glitter (optional), bat cut-out from crafts foam, hair band and hair clip.
Spider headpiece
1.Fold the pipe cleaners in two halves and tie them by twisting them together (bottom left).
2. Tie them to the black pompom.
3. Glue the eyes and mouth to the pompom. One can use googly eyes or yellow small pompoms for a more scary look.
4. Tie the spider to the hairband (above).
Bat headpiece
1.Cut a bat out of black craft foam or cardboard.
2.Draw the outline with PVC glue (optional).
3.Sprinkle with blue glitter and remove the excess glitter when dry.
4.Using Velcro, stick the bat on to a hair clip.
Trick or treat bags
You need: orange-coloured cardboard, yellow kite paper, coloured marker pens or crayons, string or short rope
Pumpkin bag
1. Draw two pumpkin shapes on orange-coloured cardboard.
2. Cut out the eyes, nose and mouth and stick yellow kite paper to them. Add details.
3. Cut a rectangular piece of orange-coloured cardboard and fold it in three to form the base of the bag (top).
4. Pass a string or short rope through two thin holes to form the handles.
You can also use up old paper bags you have at home and let the kids be creative and create their own bags (right).