Salt Dough Bat Craft

One more Halloween craft for you. This one is so fun. I love salt dough, don't you?? I decided to make a spooky bat tree with black glittery salt dough and I thought it came how quite nice. Want to make them?

Salt Dough Recipe:

2 cups Flour

1 cup Salt

3/4 to 1 cup water

Other Essentials:

Gold Glitter

Mod Podge (or watered down elmers glue)

Bat Cookie Cutters

fishing line

toothpick

Watered down black paint (or black food coloring)

Paintbrushes

~Mix the salt dough ingredients with the watered down black paint, and if it is too wet/sticky you can add equal amounts of salt and flour to bring it to the right consistency. 

~Knead in the glitter:

~Roll it out to whatever thickness you'd like and then use the cookie cutters to make the bats. Put them on a non-stick cookie sheet. 

(I used other Halloween shapes as well to further decorate my house)

~Poke a hole with the toothpick into each shape, so that you can thread the fishing line through it.
~Bake it at 250 for several hours until hard.
~Find a nice leafless branch.
~Coat the (cooled down) ornaments with mod podge/watered down glue to preserve them.
~String the fishing line through each salt dough ornament and secure the ends with a knot.
~Loop over the branches and make a Bat Tree!!

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Buying Glasses Online Successfully

Is it just me or are the glasses at Optometrists offices getting more expensive? For the last 10 years my eye sight has gotten progressively worse and it's time for me to think about some new prescription glasses. When I shop in the store, I'm shocked!! 

There are some great online sites that I have seen much better deals on. GlassesUsa.com is a fun site (especially because you can use a virtual mirror to see the glasses on yourself!!).

I've been wearing a lot of brown recently. Not just because it's fall but because I love the way it looks and feels. Very earthy, ya know? I'd like this pair (to match a brown outfit):

 The thick designer eyeglass frames are so cute!!

Love these too:

They've also got a great sale going on: 

Buy 2 sets of glasses and get all three protective lens coatings and shipping for FREE!!

I definitely recommend looking for Glasses online. You never know what kind of deals you might find....and I have no doubt they are as competitive as a walk-in store. In fact, Glasses Usa offers a 110% lowest price guarantee and a 100% satisfaction guarantee!! 

You can totally shop for eyeglasses online successfully. It always makes me feel a little self conscious to try on glasses in the store....with the employees looking over my shoulder. The virtual mirror at Glasses USA definitely comes in handy!!

You can find Glasses USA here:

www.glassesusa.com

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This post was written in association with Glasses USA. All opinions are my own and it is written in my own words.

Halloween House Kids Craft

I've really been skimping out on my library craft posts!! Yikes. I thought I'd better toss this one in before we're moving on to Thanksgiving!! This is a Halloween House for toddlers and preschoolers to make. Pretty simple and *kinda* spooky....but not scary. :-)

What you need:

black poster paper (Dollar Store for .50cents each)

gluesticks

large white (or any fun color) 8x11 cardstock

Halloween Stickers (Target for a $1)

white printer paper

~Trim out the posterboard into pieces shaped like these (in black, below) and make duplicates:

 

 There is a folded door to make (seen on the right, here). It's just a rectangle with it's side folded, large enough to fit over the silo-shaped doors.

~Trim out the two white pieces seen above (small square and silo-shape) and make plenty of duplicates as well....these are the doors and windows of the house.

~Have the kids place the black pieces on the colored cardstock and make the house. 

~Have them add the windows and white doorways. 

~Glue the folded part of the black doors to the sides of the white door shapes so that the doors can open and close. Then start adding stickers behind the doors and around the house!!

Peek-a-boo!!

I shared this post at the following funky linky parties: