Do your kids know what they want to be for Halloween yet? One of mine has no idea, and the other one decided months ago (vampire bat). Of course, there’s a good chance the one who has decided will change her mind at least three times between now and Halloween, so I’m not actually going to start making and/or buying costumes for at least a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, we are starting to spruce up the house for the spooky season with a couple easy decorations. My kids helped me make these simple Halloween pom pom pals:
These cute decorations are a fun and easy Halloween craft for kids. Each pom pom pal starts with a big homemade pom pom, which school age kids can make almost all by themselves (they will need a little help tying the poms off). My two younger kids LOVE making pom poms, and my older kids even made a few as well!
It takes just a few basic craft supplies to turn each pom pom into a favorite Halloween character. We used googly eyes and pipe cleaners along with quick dry tacky glue to adhere them. Today I’ll show you how to make your own yarn pom poms, and then how to transform them into cute Halloween pals!
We modeled our Halloween pals off the fun characters on the new NESTLÉ® PURE LIFE® Halloween themed water bottles. These 8 oz water bottles are the perfect size for my kids, and they’re a fun way to get excited for the Halloween season while making sure my kids are staying hydrated.
It can be hard to get kids to drink enough water since they often want sugary drinks instead. A new report from the CDC recently found that more than two-thirds of children in the US consume at least one sugary beverage on any given day. Replacing a single 12-ounce, 140 calorie sugar sweetened beverage with water each day for a year can cut more than 65 cups of sugar from your child’s diet.
A 2015 survey conducted by NESTLÉ PURE LIFE revealed that drinking water is one of the biggest “healthy habit” struggles moms have with their kids, even more than struggles like “eat your fruit” and “get enough exercise”1. But kids who do drink plenty of water (4+ glasses of water per day) are more likely to frequently exhibit other healthy habits, like eating fruits and vegetables at meal times without reminders and requesting healthy food and beverage options for school lunches.
My kids were happy to drink from the NESTLÉ® PURE LIFE® Halloween themed water bottles while we worked on our Halloween pom pom pals, and anything that make it easy for me to get my kids excited about drinking water is a win in my book!
How to make a yarn pom pom
There are a couple different ways to make your own pom poms. For really perfect poms, I recommend using a pom pom maker like this one available from Amazon (affiliate link). You just wrap the pom pom maker with yarn, clip the loops, and tie it off for the perfect pom!
If you don’t want to purchase a pom pom maker, you can use two empty toilet paper rolls for a DIY pom:
1 – Sandwich yarn between two toilet paper rolls as shown and start wrapping yarn around both rolls. Don’t wrap too tightly. 2 – Keep wrapping! You’ll need quite a bit of yarn for a nice full pom pom. When you have a nice thick loop, cut the yarn. 3 – Cut a 12 inch piece of yard and slide it between the toilet paper rolls and tie a knot around your loop of yarn. Gently slide the yarn off the toiled paper rolls while pulling your knot nice and tight. Tie a double knot. 4 – Clip through the loops of yarn on either side of the pom. 5 – It will look a little shaggy and uneven at first. 6 – Trim off the longer pieces of yarn to get a round shaped pom.
How to make Halloween pom pom pals
Decorating each Halloween pal is really easy. For the ghost, just glue on some eyes:
For the pumpkin, twist a piece of green pipe cleaner around a pencil and glue it on top for a stem. Then glue on eyes:
For the spider, cut 8 pieces of black pipe cleaner and bend them to create legs. Glue them on, then add as many eyes as you want!
For the scarecrow, we used button for eyes and a bit of pipe cleaner for a mouth. Then I cut a hat and nose out of colored cardstock.
The Frankenstein is my favorite! I made a pom pom that’s black on top by wrapping my pom pom maker with a section of black yarn, then wrapping the rest with green yarn. Then we used pipe cleaner to make Frankie’s stitches and the bolts that stick out on the side of his neck.
Have fun making pom pom pals with your kids!
And if you’d like to learn more about NESTLÉ® PURE LIFE® and find the limited edition bottles at a store near you, visit nestlepurelife.com. Also find them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Show us how you use bottles in your Halloween festivities with the hashtag #HydrateYourHalloween and by tagging @nestlepurelifeus.
Sources:
1 http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nestle-pure-life-kicks-off-the-ripple-effect-movement-to-encourage-healthy-hydration-habits-among-kids-300143584.html
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Nestlé® Pure Life®. The opinions and text are all mine.
More Halloween fun:
Make paper pumpkins with your kids
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