We had a friend coming over recently, and she was so impressed by the fact that we had made cider for her.  She walked in the house and said it smelled “mulled.”  I asked what that was, and she told me she meant the way some people warm it with spices and everything.  So, I was all, “Yeah, that’s the kind we’re having.”  Seriously, I looked like a total Suzie Homemaker, and the whole process from start to finish took about ten minutes.

What You’ll Need to Make Homemade Mulled Apple Cider

• Apples – We used about a dozen (If you want to cheat and do really easy version, just use pre-made apple juice.  Your kid will totally not care.)
• Juicer
• Apple slicer or knife
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Cloves

I've looked into the difference between "apple juice" and "apple cider," and even though the juicer filters it to some degree, I'd say what comes out still qualifies as cider.

Wash your apples. If you happen to have a ladybug around, it makes this part more fun. ;-)

Slice your apples.

Run the apples through the juicer right into a sauce pan. Add about a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon each of ground nutmeg and ground cloves.

I didn’t get a picture of it, but the spices left kind of a scum on top after the apple cider was warmed, so I just skimmed it off.

It tastes delicious and totally made my house smell like the holidays!

Construction paper and pipe cleaners are about all you need for this paper pumpkin craft.

We’ve really gotten into decorating for both Halloween and autumn around here.  The dining room as a definite silly/spooky Halloween vibe, while the living room has more of a sophisticated “harvest” theme.  Just because it’s more grown up doesn’t mean there aren’t any kid crafts in there, with these simple pumpkins being a great example.

What you need to make paper strip pumpkins:

• Orange construction paper
• Scrap of green construction paper
• Green pipe cleaner
• Scissors
• Tape
• Stapler

Most of these craft supplies are right on hand!

Cut your paper lengthwise into strips. The width is up to you. We did 11 strips for our each pumpkin.

Fan the strips out and staple them at the gathering point. Then tape the two fans together.

Cut out a leaf and hole punch it at the bottom.

Hole punch each strip on the non-attached end. Bring them all together at the top and feed a green pipe cleaner through them and the leaf before twisting it to hold everything in place. Curl the pipe cleaner around your finger or a pen to look like pumpkin vines.

Use your paper pumpkins to add color and fun to your Halloween or harvest decorations.

You may notice a couple of our other autumn crafts in this picture, like the autumn leaf garland and paper bag pumpkin!

If you are looking for pumpkin templates, check out:

Cartoon Pumpkin Templates (Disney, Scooby Doo, Hello Kitty, etc.)

Scary Pumpkin Templates

Animal Pumpkin Templates

Cute Pumpkin Templates

Funny Pumpkin Templates

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These mustache necklaces are almost too much fun.

OK, I have to say, this is probably the coolest kids’ craft we’ve ever done.  Someone linked to these mustache necklaces that were on sale, and after giving it a quick look-see, I figured we could make our own.  Here’s how we did it.  (Also, you’ll see a couple of variations at the bottom, so if you don’t want to get as crazy with the jewelry aspect, you can still totally make them with your kiddos.)

What you’ll need for this kids mustache craft:

• Shrink film
• Marker
• Hole punch
• Scissors
• Baking sheet
• Baking paper
• Necklace (pictured is a chain from the craft store, but you can also use elastic string and beads)

Supplies needed to make a mustache necklace.

Trace the shape of a mustache onto your shrink film. (We printed some from the Internet to use as a template.)

When you shrink them, they’ll end up being about 1/3 to 1/2 the size they start out.

Color in the mustache with your marker.

Cut the mustache out as close to the edges as possible.

Punch two holes at the top as shown.

We weren’t sure what size would be best, so we experimented with a few.

We got a little creative!

Place them on the baking paper on your baking sheet, leaving plenty of room between them. Bake according to the direction on your shrink film.

Have fun watching them shrink!

Take the middle link out of the chain, and hook both ends through the holes in your mustache.

While it works as a mustache necklace, the real fun comes from sliding it up under your nose!

For a little easier version, simply use elastic string.

Hilarious, right?

We made this fancy beaded one for a teenage friend of ours.

What I Learned the Hard Way: While the chain idea is cool, I think the elastic ones with the beads turned out looking the best.  There’s even some special elastic at the craft store that won’t get all stretched out after you’ve pulled on it to put the mustache under your nose a few times.

Make a cute, no-sew tutu in less than an hour!

OK, OK.  My kid doesn’t really need another tutu.  But I saw this tutorial and just had to make one.  I did mine a little differently than hers, but she gets all the credit for the idea (and even the color choice).  You can never have too many tutus, right?

What You Need to Make a Tutu

• 3 spools of 6″ tulle (15 yards each)
• 3/4″ elastic (I’d consider going with 1/2″ next time)
• safety pin
• scissors (or a rotary cutter)

Supplies needed to make a tutu.

I chose a light purple, a dark purple, and a light yellow.  (I know, they look blue in the picture.)

Measure your kiddo’s waist and then take off about two inches.  I left extra on the end and used a safety pin instead of sewing the ends together.  That way I can adjust it to be bigger as she grows.

Attach the ends of the elastic and leave a couple of inches to tuck in as you work.

Cut your tulle into 18″ pieces.  They will be folded in half and knotted, so this leaves about eight inches sticking out when all is said and done.

If you want a longer skirt on your tutu, just increase the length of the tulle pieces.

I chose to alternate colors in my tutu.  I stacked a dark purple on top of a light purple and folded them in half, scrunching them up in the middle.  The knot was formed by wrapping the loop around the elastic and the pulling the loose ends through.  I then alternated and did one that was a single piece of yellow tulle.  Work your way around, bunching them fairly close together.  They’re a little loose in this picture, but I slid them closer together as I got toward the end.

Work your way around the elastic to fill in the tutu.

How to make a tutu!

I’m satisfied with our simple tutu for now but I’m thinking that if you wanted to take a wide ribbon, fold it over the top, and stitch it down, you could have a finished looking waist band.  (Then I’d probably tack on some ribbons and flowers and get really fancy.)

This tutu is adorable all the way around!

What I Learned the Hard Way: After cutting the first spool with scissors, I decided to get out my quilting mat and rotary cutter, and it went quite a bit faster.  It’s not necessary, but I found cutting the pieces to be a bit tedious.

Making Masks

Related Pages: Printable Halloween Masks, Printable Masquerade Masks, Last Minute Halloween Costumes

Masquerade Mask Craft Materials List

Black crafting foam sheet

Colored crafting feathers

Fake flower petals

Hot glue gun plus Elmer’s glue

Glitter

Elastic thread or ribbon

Mask template:

Printable Mask Template

How to Make Masquerade Masks

Print out the mask template and trace it onto your foam craft sheet. I suppose you could make a more temporary mask if you printed out onto card stock (which is why I gave you two color choices). But I honestly don’t know how well it would hold up on paper. Just sayin’.

Cut out the mask from the foam:

Cut Out Eye Mask Template

You can’t see it very well in the photo, but I also poked holes on the sides to add elastic when done.

Pick out feathers that you can glue symmetrically to both sides of the mask. I chose three colors and made sure that each color had a ‘twin’ that was about the same length and width. Once you have enough to go around the edges, start gluing them in place with the hot glue gun. I used 10 feathers in my masquerade mask, because I didn’t want them pointing down and tickling the heck out of my face.

Glueing Feathers to the Masquerade Mask

This part doesn’t need to be particularly neat or pretty – it will soon get covered up.

Arranging feathers on the mask

After the feathers are in place, cut some petals from a fake flower into the shape you want. I used two almost half circles for each side and a small group of four petals for the center top of the mask.

Adding Flower Petals to the Mask

Glue the petals over the feather stems with the hot glue gun.

Gluing Petals to the Feather Mask

Here’s the mask with all the feathers and petals hot-glued in place:

Mask with all petals and feathers in place

Now it’s time to break out the Elmer’s glue – the hot glue gun won’t work for this part. Use a generous amount to cover up the base of the petals, being very careful to make a precise outline around the eye holes:

Gluing the glitter onto the masquerade mask

Then put it onto a piece of paper and dump a ton of glitter on your glue.

Glitter Dump on Mask

And just leave it there until it dries.

I know it’s hard. Don’t touch it.

But when it’s dry – you’re pretty much done!

Masquerade Mask Craft

Simply slip some elastic thread or ribbon in your holes and wear it with glee!

Check out all of the Woo! Jr. Halloween kids activities while you are here!

Related Pages: Applesauce Recipes, Healthy Halloween Treats, Halloween Rice Krispie Treats

Caramel Apples

Now, if you are looking for homemade caramel, Subtle Nuances has a tasty looking recipe. But the caramels you can buy in the store have a relatively natural ingredient list. So in the interest of making these fast, I just used those.

So… this is technically not a recipe, but more “instructions”. Because if you have time to make your own homemade candies, you must be a much better time manager than I.

Caramel Apples Ingredients

Store bought caramel candies (like Kraft)

Apples (we used Gala and Honeycrisp – which were perfect!)

Popsicle sticks

Sprinkles and toppings of your choice: mini chocolate chips, chopped nuts, candy sprinkles, crushed ginger snaps, mini M&Ms, gummy worms, etc.

Making Caramel Apples

Make some space in your fridge for a tray of apples – they will need to go in there asap, or the caramel will droop all over the place.

Melt the caramels in a small pan – this way the candy will be deeper and easier to dip the apples into.

Wash and completely dry your apples. Stick popsicle sticks into the tops, and place them on a tray covered with waxed paper. The finished apples still stick  to this a lot, so you may want to butter the paper or spray with cooking spray.

Washed and Dried Apples Ready for Caramel

Once the caramel is melted, start dipping the apples!

Tilt the pan a bit to get the tops of the apples covered.

Dipping Caramel Apples

The lift it up and let the excess candy drip off back into the pan.

Dripping off Excess Caramel

Scrape off the excess on the bottom and place it onto your waxed paper tray. Be sure to leave plenty of room between the apples – they are a little like velcro and love to stick to each other.

Scraping Off Excess Caramel

Get a few done and get them into the fridge to cool the caramel more quickly. They need to be in there for at least 10 minutes so they are not sticky to the touch.

To dip the caramel apples in sprinkles, it’s easiest to set up a few bowls with different tasty tidbits in them.

Dipping Caramel Apples in Sprinkles

Then simply dip away!

I have to say that the ugliest and hardest to eat apples were the ones dipped in crushed ginger snaps – but OMG they were soooo good!

Keep an eye on your finished apples – they tend to disappear when you aren’t looking.

Yummy Caramel Apples with Chocolate Chips

More Fun Kids Recipes Great for Fall Cooking

Homemade Taffy

Root Beer Cookies

Pumpkin Cookies

Adorable Owl S’mores

I don’t get to draw too often these days anymore, so when I get to put up a post with my own hand-drawn artwork, I get way excited. :) So if you use these, I’d be even happier if you uploaded a picture of your project in the comments on this page!

Special printing note: PLEASE do a test run on your printer’s draft setting before you print these out onto your expensive iron-on-transfer paper! You may need to adjust your printer settings to get these at the size you want. At the VERY least, use the Print Preview!!

Related Pages: Halloween Paper Toys, Vintage Halloween Cards, Hello Kitty Pumpkin Stencils

Halloween T-Shirts - Too Cute to Spook	Halloween T-Shirts - Bugs and Hisses to You!	Halloween T-Shirts - Have a Fang-Tastic Halloween!
Cute Black Cat T-Shirt	Cute Spider T-Shirt	Cute Halloween Bat T-Shirt

These Halloween iron ons also match our printable Halloween animal masks and these printable Halloween cupcake toppers/stickers!

***These iron ons are for personal use only. No commercial usage or unauthorized reproduction allowed.***

These gorgeous vintage Halloween postcards are free and printable – I’m dying to come up with some kids crafts to make with them (hint: stay tuned)!

Related Pages: Printable Halloween Masks, Black Cat Halloween Crafts, Scary Pumpkin Stencils

Printable Vintage Halloween Postcard	Cute Witch Girl Vintage Halloween Postcard	Black Cat Scaring Pumpkins Vintage Halloween Postcard
Cute Cat and Witch Vintage Halloween Postcard	Beautiful Vintage Jack-o-Lantern Postcard	Trick or Treat Girl Vintage Halloween Postcard

Check out all of our Halloween kids activities, printables and crafts from Woo! Jr.

Usage Guidelines

I tend to get lots of questions about how Woo! Jr. Network printables can be used – and I’m sure to get tons more after posting these! So here’s a little FAQ as to what you can do with this vintage artwork:

You may use these printables in crafts and artwork that you sell.

You may use these printables for educational and personal projects.

You may not repost these printables on your own website without permission. I spend hours scanning and retouching these images and according to public domain copyright, can retain publishing rights to this work.

You may repost a sample image -as long as you link back to this post- if you want to spread the word about these vintage freebies!

Please email me if you are unsure these usage guidelines cover the project you have in mind.

I’ve tried to find Cricut craft projects that don’t require a big investment in more cartridges, though some do, of course. Several of them offer free template downloads or instructions on how to create the projects on your own. Also, some of these patterns are just as easily made on other paper cutting craft tools, such as the Gypsy and Cuttlebug.

Related Pages: Printable Box Templates, Printable Vintage Postcards, Printable Dragon Paper Craft

Cricut Paper Crafts

Cricut Paper Purse	Cricut Robot Papercraft	Pretty Cricut Cupcake Wrappers	Cricut Paper Flowers Craft

Halloween Cricut Crafts

Cricut Halloween Decorations	Cricut Paper Pumpkins	Decorated Halloween Candles	Halloween Door Hangers

Thanksgiving Cricut Crafts

Cricut Thanksgiving Turkey Craft	Cricut Thanksgiving Pie Favor Boxes	Cricut Thanksgiving Place Cards	Thanksgiving Paper Banners

Christmas Cricut Crafts

Paper Cutting Christmas Ornaments	Cricut Glitter Snowflakes	Christmas Mouse Candy Cane Holders	Cricut Paper Christmas Scene

Valentines Day Cricut Crafts

Cricut Valentine Treat Bag Toppers	Cricut Strawberry Valentine Treats	Cricut Valentine Cards	Cricut Valentines Day Banner

Easter Cricut Crafts

Cricut Spring Flower Easter Treats	Cricut Easter Bunny Basket	Cricut Easter Egg Holder	Cricut Easter Place Cards

Check out more paper cutting crafts while you are here, too!