How to Make Your Own Halloween Mask

Halloween is a fabulous time of year for creating and crafting. Whether it’s carving a pumpkin and making some delicious spiced pumpkin soup for the family, or making your own costumes for a touch of trick-or-treating, there are activities to suit the whole family and children of all ages.

We all hate to show up to a party wearing the same shop-bought masks and costumes, so why not start making your own? Halloween isn’t until the 31^st after all… and the kids will love showing off their home made scary masks. Here’s GaltToys’ suggestion:

What you need:

Galt Play Apron
A protective cover for the surface you will work on
Galt PVA glue
Balloons
Old Newspapers
Galt Paintastics water-based paints
Galt Paint Brushes – one for glue and one for paints
Galt Safety Scissors
An Egg box (with no eggs in!)
Card

1) Squeeze some PVA glue into a container and mix with a little water. Cut or tear your old newspapers into strips around six inches long by one inch wide. Inflate one balloon per mask.

2) Paste half of the balloon with your PVA glue mix and stick your newspaper strips onto the balloon, painting them with PVA glue mix once in place. 

3) Create your monster face! Use the cup sections of an egg box to make monster horns or a witch’s chin and cheekbones. Make a hooky nose or spiky hair out of card, or use newspaper sausages for scary monster eyebrows. More card can make spiky scary teeth or a monstrous mouth! Use newspaper and PVA glue mixture to secure the facial features in place. Cover with one final layer of paper (white or green or orange can be especially Halloween-y!)

4) Allow to dry (you’ll know it’s done when you can knock on it and it is rock hard). If it appears a little soft, add another layer or two of newspaper, pasting it each time with PVA glue mixture. Once your mask is completely dry, pop the balloon and ease it away from the back of your mask. Trim the edges to make them smooth (a grown up should do this as scissors can dangerous in little hands). Then, cut some eye holes and a slit for a mouth.

5) Time to paint! Either paint the whole face or, if you pasted with a background colour like green, then paint the mask’s features. Black eyebrows, dark red lips, or a cut and a bruise on your monster's head adds to the full effect. 

6) Once dry, coat with a layer of PVA glue mixture to seal in the colour. When completely dry, an adult can make a hole in either side to attach elastic or string.

You don’t have to stop here! Make hair with wool or string. Add a scary beard. Whatever you and your little one can think of is a possibility.

Now this year, you’ll have a unique mask that stands out from the crowd. 

Happy Trick or Treat-ing!!!!

(Disclaimer: This is a guest post from Galt Toys. I was not compensated for publishing this post in any way.)

Encouraging Self Expression Through Play

For a child to develop well, they must be able to express themselves through play. Play itself is an incredibly important part of a child’s life, as it is the primary way they learn about the world around them and develop on emotional, social and physical levels. In many ways, a child playing is an experience very similar to that of school or work; necessary activities that help us to get on in life. So, as a child develops through play they begin to get a sense of themselves, which will naturally lead to a desire to explore it, which they can continue to do through play.

Play acting, or make believe, is a time honoured favourite amongst young children and is one of the best for encouraging self-expression. With a few simple props, children can transport themselves to a world of their own creation and be whoever they want to be. Though your natural instinct might be to think that playing other people is bad for a child’s self-expression, it is in fact the complete opposite. The more children explore at playing characters of their own creation, the more sure they will become of themselves. Play acting is a wonderful exercise for the imagination and will help children to understand the power of their own minds and form independence. Not only that, but play acting will also help them grow in confidence as well as enabling them to understand any fears or concerns they might have. Children sometimes struggle with difficult issues and find it easier to express their worries through play, and parents can help their children to overcome these worries by participating in make believe or whatever method the child chooses to express themselves in. Generic puppets like the range by Galt Toys, for example, are often used for talking children through complex ideas.

Parents can also play their part in encouraging self-expression through play by providing encouragement and the right tools. There are plenty of creative activities that children love to participate in, such as painting, drawing, and arts and crafts in general. For children, these activities are a great way of making sense of things they’ve seen and done through their own creations; namely taking the knowledge they’ve already acquired and presenting it the way they see it. Similar to play acting, children can take a few simple tools and use them to create something unique and meaningful to them. In some ways, children expressing themselves in this manner is similar to the process of dreaming; a sorting of ideas and information in an accessible way. Parents should be supportive in any kind of creative forms of self-expression; it’s a healthy emotional outlet as well as an enjoyable form of play.

The ability to self-express is valuable to a child, as it will form the basis of how they handle both themselves and the world around them when they grow up. Self-expression can lead to talents emerging, aid growth in confidence, emotional and social skills and more; the more a child plays in this way, the more they will learn about themselves and be happy with who they are.

(This is a featured post for Galt Toys).