Halintines

I love fall and I love family traditions. Before I had Shane I sat down and wrote down a lists of family traditions that I wanted to start with my kids or keep from Brian's and my family traditions list. I will add a post of that list in the coming weeks but today I wanted to share one of my very favorite ones for fall. Each year we make Halintines which are like fall themed Valentine's Day cards. We mail them to family, pass them out to friends and deliver them in person to our neighbors. The extra fun memory is that we send one to work with Brian on Halloween in his lunch box. I think on a night that is not as much fun to work for a police officer its nice to have a little fun card from your family. After he gets home from work we add the card to our piano display and can look back for years to come on the fun memories of our kids spreading some fall cheer.

So this year we made cute ghost cards. They took about an hour start to finish but they had to dry for about 35 minutes so only about 25 minutes of actual crafting time. To get started you need a paint brush or sponge to apply the paint, wet wipe or a damp towel for cleanup, white or tan non toxic paint, card stock paper in fall colors, googly eyes, scissors, and glue. I also used some cute letter stamps with a gold ink pad for the wording but a pen would work as well. 

To get started I cut the card stock into 4x10 inch strips and folded in half. Shane worked on coloring some pumpkins while I was cutting, I like to keep him busy with another activity if I am doing anything with hot glue, scissors, or  permanent markers. Keith was hanging in his high chair with some kitchen spoons which are awesome to a 9 month old.

Next I laid the card so the crease was on the right and the left side would open which is backwards for a card. I wanted to stamp their hands so they were upside down thus the card orientation is flipped during this part. I painted a thin layer of paint on their hand, stamped their hand on the card anywhere, and then used a wet wipe to clean their hand off.

I set the cards on the counter to dry while we worked on more pumpkins and made some Halloween hats for fun.

After the cards were dry Shane and I used our alphabet stamps to stamp "BOO" on top of each card.

                                           

Shane picked out googly eyes for the ghosts. I dabbed the glue and Shane placed the eyes where he thought they looked best. These cards are so forgiving because they look better with the hands not perfect, the googly eyes slightly askew and mismatched, and the writing a bit off center. Perfect for kids!

After we were done I wrote on the inside of each card "Boo-hoo-hoo. We miss you!" and let the boys add stamps and doodles to personalize them. 

So that is this years Halintines! I really liked how they turned out. Brian's card I added both boys hand prints to and the rest were a singular ghost that Shane addressed with a little help from his mama. I love this tradition with my kids and adore how each year I can add one more to our collection. 

What traditions do you do with your kids this time of year? I would love to hear new ideas to add to my ever growling list of memory making tools.

Happy Halloween! Boo!