Nicola Natland: Halloween Craft - Not so "Scary Spider"

OK - time for another craft! I volunteered to come up with a craft for the Halloween party for my daughter's class and it has kind of evolved, and I am now doing the craft for all of 4th Grade! No pressure then? I am finding that as my daughter is growing up it is getting harder it is to come up with a craft that is not too babyish and also that appeals to boys and girls. After racking my brain this is what I came up with. I have to say it makes me smile every time I look at it.

You will need:

1 1/2 foot piece of foam pipe insulation
Duct tape. I used black and you will need a 6" strip
18 lengths of 19" tulle. It is 6" wide and comes on a roll.
10 chenille straws
2 ping pong balls
2 x 3/4" round stickers
2 pieces of white card stock - approx. 2 x 3"
Double sided tape
strong cotton

The foam pipe insulation comes in 6ft lengths and you will find it in the plumbing section of the hardware store. My original plan was to use foam wreaths but they are so expensive. So I went ahead and made my own. All you need is a piece of the pipe and a strip of duct tape. I got four pieces from one 6ft piece. Join the ends together and then wrap with the duct tape.

Then cut approximately 18 pieces of tulle about 19" long. I say approximately because there are different thickness of tulle. (I love the thicker tulle but it does cost more and as I was making 80, I wanted to keep the cost down.) Fold the length of tulle in half and the loop end goes underneath the ring, then bring the 2 ends over the ring and go through the loop and pull.

Continue around the ring.

You need to make a hole in each of the ping pong balls. (You can also use practice golf balls - I prefer these, but again to keep the cost down I used ping pong balls.) I used my soldering pick, but a small screwdriver would work fine. Just make sure that you make a small hole - otherwise, your eyes will not stay up.

Poke your chenille straws about 1/2" through the holes and set aside. For the iris part of the spider's eye, I decided that for the kids it would be easiest to color two 3/4" round stickers and then stick them on the ping pong balls. If you have more time then you could paint directly onto the ping pong balls.

I hole punched a hole into each of the stickers and then slip the sticker over the end of the chenille straw and fold the straw over to make a pupil. On the back of the eyeball, I bent the straw a little so that the ping pong ball did not slip down the straw. Then wrap the ends of the chenille straws around the foam ring and wrap the end a couple of times around the straw to secure.

Take the 8 remaining chenille straws and place them around each side of the ring. Secure in place just like the eyes. Then bend the straws and give your spider knees and feet.

At this stage attach the cotton thread. I used a 12" length of strong thread doubled it over and put a knot in the end. I then secured it between the eyes using the same method as I did with the tulle. I found it helpful to do this before I stuck on the teeth.

For the teeth I used 2 pieces of card stock, but you could use foam sheet and I stuck a piece of double sided tape on the top and then drew and cut out the teeth. Stick on to the back of the ring. Now is the time, if you think that your spider is looking a little bit too hairy, you can give it a little trim. A few little snips with your scissors and you can cut off any extra long pieces of tulle.