Grandmother Wren's Halloween Pages
More Vintage Halloween Handicrafts for Children
(first published in 1938)
More Vintage Halloween Handicrafts for Children
(first published in 1938)
Popcorn Cats make amusing party favors. Each cat is a popcorn ball with almonds stuck on for eyes and candied cherries for the nose and mouth.
The cat is wrapped in orange cellophane. The upper corners of the cellophane are twisted into ears.
The cat is wrapped in orange cellophane. The upper corners of the cellophane are twisted into ears.
Here are some funny costumes you can fix up for yourself. In these you can have just as much fun as you could in store-made ones-maybe more.
Being a scarecrow is always a good stunt for Hallowe'en.
Any of Dad's old coats and trousers will do-but the older they are the better. Also the bigger the better. Then the suit will hang in wrinkly folds and look almost as though you weren't inside it at all. By putting long rubber bands around the legs and sleeves, you can keep them from getting too much in your way.
Bits of excelsior or broom straws should be sticking out of all the pockets and through buttonholes. Put some in the hat band, too, and perhaps have some poking out of the sleeves and trouser legs. Of course broomstraws should be taken only from an old, cast-off broom-never from a new one.
A hat for the scarecrow should be the biggest, squashy looking old felt hat you can find. Then put on a mask. Even a little domino mask will make you into a person nobody knows. People won't even know whether there's a boy or a girl inside this absurd outfit. The scarecrow dress is also splendid for a Hard Times Party.
We know one girl who wanted to make a costume in a hurry. She cut arm and leg slits in a hundred-pound sugar sack and ran a heavy draw string around her neck.
She not only looked fat as a kewpie but when she turned her back, her friends saw the printing across her shoulders -"100 LBS. PURE CANE SUGAR"- then what a big laugh there was!
Our illustration also shows a girl in a gunny sack, fixed the same way as the sugar sack was, with arm and leg slits.
Being a scarecrow is always a good stunt for Hallowe'en.
Any of Dad's old coats and trousers will do-but the older they are the better. Also the bigger the better. Then the suit will hang in wrinkly folds and look almost as though you weren't inside it at all. By putting long rubber bands around the legs and sleeves, you can keep them from getting too much in your way.
Bits of excelsior or broom straws should be sticking out of all the pockets and through buttonholes. Put some in the hat band, too, and perhaps have some poking out of the sleeves and trouser legs. Of course broomstraws should be taken only from an old, cast-off broom-never from a new one.
A hat for the scarecrow should be the biggest, squashy looking old felt hat you can find. Then put on a mask. Even a little domino mask will make you into a person nobody knows. People won't even know whether there's a boy or a girl inside this absurd outfit. The scarecrow dress is also splendid for a Hard Times Party.
We know one girl who wanted to make a costume in a hurry. She cut arm and leg slits in a hundred-pound sugar sack and ran a heavy draw string around her neck.
She not only looked fat as a kewpie but when she turned her back, her friends saw the printing across her shoulders -"100 LBS. PURE CANE SUGAR"- then what a big laugh there was!
Our illustration also shows a girl in a gunny sack, fixed the same way as the sugar sack was, with arm and leg slits.
One Hallowe'en another little girl without a costume had her chum pin colored funny-papers all around her dress with safety pins. Not only that, but she had also pinned newspapers into a tall cone hat, big enough to cover her hair and go well down over her eyes and nose. She cut slits for eyeholes so she could see. The costume didn't last long, but it lasted long enough for her to march in the children's parade, and that was quite enough. When friends asked her what she represented, she said she was
"A Joke."
As Hallowe'en draws near, you must remember that you can't hope to do any good scaring without a mask.
From paper bags you can make a mask so scary that you'll jump when you look in the glass. Your friends will jump, too. Even your own mother won't know you.
Save up large paper bags beforehand. The bag marked14 (14-pound size) is the best to save. It will be big enough to slip on and off your head easily. Try the bag on your head and have a black crayon handy so you can mark a dot for each eye, one at the end of your nose and one for the center of your mouth. Also outline your ears lightly on the bag.
Take the bag off your head and fold it flat. Draw eyes on the eye dots you marked. Draw a nose and mouth where you had marked dots for them.
Cut out the eye-openings. You can either cut out a triangle for the nose, or you can cut it along only three sides, like the illustration—across the bottom and an inch up each side. Cut out the mouth—a good big one—and draw some red color around it, for lips.
"A Joke."
As Hallowe'en draws near, you must remember that you can't hope to do any good scaring without a mask.
From paper bags you can make a mask so scary that you'll jump when you look in the glass. Your friends will jump, too. Even your own mother won't know you.
Save up large paper bags beforehand. The bag marked14 (14-pound size) is the best to save. It will be big enough to slip on and off your head easily. Try the bag on your head and have a black crayon handy so you can mark a dot for each eye, one at the end of your nose and one for the center of your mouth. Also outline your ears lightly on the bag.
Take the bag off your head and fold it flat. Draw eyes on the eye dots you marked. Draw a nose and mouth where you had marked dots for them.
Cut out the eye-openings. You can either cut out a triangle for the nose, or you can cut it along only three sides, like the illustration—across the bottom and an inch up each side. Cut out the mouth—a good big one—and draw some red color around it, for lips.
Now for the ears. If you cut only along the top, back and the lower part of each ear, leaving the front attached by a flap, you can then bend the paper ear forward so it will stick out and make the mask look even funnier. Besides, your own ears will be right at the ear openings so you can hear better.
The nose should be bent forward so that it sticks out; then it can be curled around a pencil. If you wish, you can outline the eye slits with a heavy black line and great black eyelashes.
Perhaps you want to fringe the lower edges of the bag into a beard. Gutting it into a coarse, straggly fringe will make it into regular witches' hair. Each strand can be curled a little by drawing it carefully across a dull knife blade.
The part of the bag most likely to tear is the upper lip, for it is only a narrow bridge of paper. This part should be reinforced inside with a piece of adhesive tape, friction tape or even paper tape.
Do you want a bristly black mustache? Then attach pieces of rubber band to the upper lip with a piece of gummed paper-tape the same color as the bag. The mustache will look as prickly as a thistle. It will quiver with every move you make.
Draw the outline of a cap around the top part of the bag. The quickest way to trim it is to poke a paper feather through two slits, like that in the illustration of the Indian.
These paper bag masks can be made as fantastic or as fierce or as woeful as you like. It is fun to make the mask face completely different from your own face. If you are an agreeable person—as you probably are—a Cross-Patch mask would be fun to wear. But if you are a Cross-Patch— which you probably aren't—you could make a smiling mask and wear a wide grin for once in your life.
Remember that when you put on a scary mask you are likely to be a rather frightening person. So be careful that you startle only big people or children your own age with your masks, never little children.
The nose should be bent forward so that it sticks out; then it can be curled around a pencil. If you wish, you can outline the eye slits with a heavy black line and great black eyelashes.
Perhaps you want to fringe the lower edges of the bag into a beard. Gutting it into a coarse, straggly fringe will make it into regular witches' hair. Each strand can be curled a little by drawing it carefully across a dull knife blade.
The part of the bag most likely to tear is the upper lip, for it is only a narrow bridge of paper. This part should be reinforced inside with a piece of adhesive tape, friction tape or even paper tape.
Do you want a bristly black mustache? Then attach pieces of rubber band to the upper lip with a piece of gummed paper-tape the same color as the bag. The mustache will look as prickly as a thistle. It will quiver with every move you make.
Draw the outline of a cap around the top part of the bag. The quickest way to trim it is to poke a paper feather through two slits, like that in the illustration of the Indian.
These paper bag masks can be made as fantastic or as fierce or as woeful as you like. It is fun to make the mask face completely different from your own face. If you are an agreeable person—as you probably are—a Cross-Patch mask would be fun to wear. But if you are a Cross-Patch— which you probably aren't—you could make a smiling mask and wear a wide grin for once in your life.
Remember that when you put on a scary mask you are likely to be a rather frightening person. So be careful that you startle only big people or children your own age with your masks, never little children.