Laura and I are kicking off a new series we’re planning to do once a month (ish!): Mommy + Me Crafts! We are having so much fun navigating our children’s toddler years and adding craft time every chance we get. So we thought it would be a lot of fun to share some of our tested and (kid) approved crafts with you!
So, first up, Halloween village!
Nova and I were browsing JOANN (as you do—lol) and she got so excited when we strolled past the birdhouses. I had just finished decorating for Halloween and I had no intention of adding on an extra time-intensive project, but we picked up a few birdhouses anyway. I thought we’d save them for holiday decor, but as soon as we got home she was begging me to paint the houses. And so our Halloween village was born!
Here are Nova’s houses. She did these on two separate days and had so much fun both times. Obviously, I added the bats behind her back.
Here’s the whole village!
It’s definitely on me that I spent hours and hours and hours painting my houses (I wasted, like three naptimes on them—haha), but I got obsessed and it was so much fun!
The best thing about this project is that we can add another house next year if it sounds fun. I love that!
If you make your own Halloween village with your littles, we’d LOVE to see it. Tag us on Instagram @abeautifulmess XOXO! Elsie
23 Comments
I think I’d go crazy over those wooden birdhouses if I saw them here in Hong Kong! They’re already so cute unpainted! Making them a DIY project is a genius idea. 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
How cute and fun! 🙂
Oh my goodness, this is adorable and so creative! So fun to branch out from the typical gingerbread house and incorporate home crafts into other seasons!
x Sarah
http://www.seasonsbysarah.com
This is so adorable, I love the idea of doing projects with your kids!
https://www.makeandmess.com/
All of these are adorable! I’ve noticed Nova using some really great paint colors, both on her houses and canvases posted on IG. Do you mix the colors or buy them pre-mixed in the colors you prefer? Your palettes are so inspirational!
Hi! Thank you.
I always pick the colors out for her. Most of them are pre-mixed. I use regular acrylic craft paint (aka- my paint) for a lot of projects. We have kids paint too but it’s a little more watery so we only use it to paint on paper. xx!
They came out so cute! What I really love about this project is the versatility. You can essentially switch up any of the big calendar holidays with this project and it works well for children with special dietary needs (celiac, sugar free, nut allergies, eggs, etc) who could enjoy this instead of a gingerbread type project where one might have to worry about cross-contamination and whatnot.
My daughter and I were at Michael’s last weekend, and walked past the unfinished bird houses. She asked if she could get one to turn into a haunted house. I thought it was a great idea! She’s painted it in spooky colors (including spattering green paint for a “mold” effect), and used sculpey clay to make bats, spiders, cats and pumpkins, which she used hot glue to then attach. She also decided to create some ghosts and evil eyes using cardstock, which she then glued to the interior so they are peering through the various windows. I’m loving what she’s come up with–and she’s 9, so this idea definitely works beyond the toddler years! And I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what she comes up with for the gingerbread/ Christmas bird house she’s already talking about creating!
Clay figurines, eyes in the windows?! I love it all!! Your daughter sounds very creative 🙂
Adorable!!
This comment is unrelated to this post – but I just wanted to drop a note and say that I LOVE how the homepage now shows 6 recent posts (I think it used to be 3). Huge improvement, IMO 🙂
Thank you!
really sweet and pretty things
Seriously cute & easy idea!! Love the house with the evil eyes 😉
Woof Xo,
Michelle & Watson
https://www.watsonandwalls.com/
Nova’s pigtails are too cute!
And that candy corn bottle brush tree is super fun!
Oh, and of course the village looks like a fun project!
Thank you! :))
This is the CUTEST IDEA EVER!! I’m a sucker for cute villages and it never occurred to me to make a Halloween one! ♥♥♥
Yay for the new series!!
They all turned out beautifully. Great idea, Nova!
The new Mommy + Me Crafts series sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun. 😀
I love this mommy/daughter idea! My babe LIVES for painting. My mom always had a Christmas village set up at her house, so I might put a Christmas twist on this idea for the holidays!
Haha and I completely cracked up about wasting naptimes on crafts. MY LIFE. ^_^
My son is absolutely loving this project! We went to the store on Sunday and started painting that night. We also got some miniature figures to hot glue into our village.
We don’t really do Halloween in NZ much but I am loving this idea for Christmas décor and am already hunting out some little bird houses for my kids to turn into a mini Santa’s village in our living room.
Aww These are almost as adorable as the pigtails on the sweet little shopper! Love them! Happy Halloween to you and yours!