Every Halloween we are too busy trick-or-treating our way through multiple high rise buildings to actually stay home to hand out candy. Instead, we decorate our front door and leave a big bowl of candy out for other trick-or-treaters.
A few years back, I realized I could dump off Simon & Ethan's excess toys by filling a second bowl with all sorts of bits and pieces - little cars, pencils, miniature pads, plastic guys, etc... Gotta tell you, the neighbor children all love digging through our junk bin for free toys.
This year, instead of using a plain box for our junk bin, I made a big Frankenstein monster head out of an old plastic planter.
Found the planter in my favorite salvage spot - my building's garbage room. Dumped out the potting soil. Gave the whole thing a good scrubbing. Then stuffed it in a closet where it sat for about six months until I dreamed up a use for it.
Two nights ago, Ethan and I decided our urn looked like a head. We tried putting his face on with pipe cleaners and glue dots.
We weren't particularly excited about our results. It just looked like a cheap planter with pipe cleaners glued on to it. Not to mention, the pipe cleaners were falling off by the next morning. It would never survive an entire evening of enthusiastic trick-or-treaters brushing up against it.
E took on the tedious task of peeling all the pieces off. I experimented with other materials we could use on the planter.
I started playing around with a roll of bright green duck tape. Nifty stuff. It reminded me of the first Frankenstein monster head I'd put together last year. We were really sad to toss that craft but the cardboard box was simply too big to keep around. So, I decided to make the head one more time - this time in a more manageable size and with this sturdier base.
Just a few pieces of random card stock and lots & lots of duck tape (in green, black & silver). I was the one to execute the craft, but my boys made sure to tell me how I could improve on it. Simon reminded me to give the guy ears. Ethan wanted one red eye and one white one. They fetched supplies and cleaned up my scraps.
In no time at all, our new Halloween Junk Bin was complete. Filled it with this year's worth of give-away toys. And now just 7 more days until Halloween.
