Little Blue Truck’s Halloween and Garland Craft

Little Blue Truck’s Halloween by Alice Shertle and Jill McElmwvy with a Garland Craft

We are definitely truck fans over here.  Especially when it is the adorable Little Blue Truck.  We were so excited to find out that a Halloween lift-the-flap board book featuring one of our favorite picture book friends was being released this year.  It is about Little Blue Truck heading to a Halloween party when along the way he runs across a clown, a witch, and a ballerina only to discover when the flaps are lifted that they are in fact his friends dressed in costumes.  It is such a cute little story and perfect for opening discussion with small children about costumes, especially those that may be fearful of them.

My favorite spread is the last page.  It folds out into the party scene with Little Blue and all his friends.  It had me thinking that a Halloween party/decoration would be the perfect companion craft for this book.

Click here to purchase Little Blue Truck’s Halloween  *affiliate link

Halloween Garland

These yarn tassel ghosts and felt ball bats are so easy to make.  In fact, my grandmother was the one who taught me how to make these tassels when I was a child.  I have very fond memories making them in her apartment and using her beloved dragon fantasy books to wind them up.  I’m kinda excited to have them up for Halloween this year, I know she would be proud.

The felt ball bats are of my own creation and are incredibly easy.  I thought they made a great flying companion to our ghostly friends.  The end result is quite fun and just a tad spooky.  My little guy is in love with this garland and it is already beginning to feel like Halloween.  We are SO excited over here!  The instructions for both are below.

Yarn Tassel Ghosts

Supplies:  White yarn, small thick book, scissors

Steps:

1. Find a small thick book or other rectangular or square object that is the height you want your ghosts to be.  I used this small sized board book.  Recognize it anyone?  Then you wrap the yarn around once and tie it off in a knot.
2. Wrap the yarn around the book over and over repeatedly until you have the thickness of yarn that you desire for your ghost.
3. Cut the yarn off and carefully slide your yarn loop off the book and slip a short piece of tie-off yard underneath about where you want the head to end.
4. Tie the section under the head fairly tight.  This holds the ghost together.
5. Cut the loops at the bottom of your ghost so they hang free as a tassel.
6. Slip a short tie-off piece of yarn in the loop of the head and tie it off at the top.  This keeps the loops for your head together in the right shape.  That’s it!  You can trim the ends to make them more even if you wish or add eyes.  I prefer them simple for now, but I think gluing on some wiggly eyes would be really cute!

Felt Ball Bats

Supplies:  3 cm black felt balls such as these ones, black felt, toothpicks, hot glue gun, paper, pencil

Steps:

1. Gather your supplies and heat up your glue gun.
2. I stuck two toothpicks in my felt ball.  One on each side where I wanted the wings to be.  (You can put a dab of hot glue on the ends of the toothpicks before putting them in if you are worried about them coming out, but they should be pretty snug.  I found that they didn’t need it.) Then to make the template  for the bat wings I put one of the toothpicks over the edge of a piece of paper and with a pencil free-handed the shape of the wing I wanted.   Then I used the template to cut out four wings for each bat.  (Each wing is doubled up.)
3. To make the wings you put hot glue (or another glue that is effective with felt) and go along the edges of the wing.  Then you sandwich that wing and another wing cut-out on either side of a toothpick in the bat.  Press them together so they adhere.  Repeat the process with the other side of the bat and you are done.  You could also put wiggly eyes on these bats if you wish.

Making the Garland

I used these bats and ghosts to make a garland that is about 7 feet long to hang in my home.  I included the instructions/supplies below.  These bats and ghosts could be used in so many different was though.  You could hang them from a chandelier, make a Haloween mobile, hang them from a mantle, and so much more!

Supplies for garland:  bakers twine or embroidery thread (6 1/2 ft-7ft), string, embroidery needle, 5 yarn tassel ghosts, 4 felt-ball bats, 15 orange felt balls (2cm), 15 black felt balls (2cm)

Steps:

1.  Prepare the bats for hanging by threading an embroidery needle with string and pushing it through the top center of the felt ball to create a loop that the bat can hang from.
2. Thread the bakers twine or embroidery thread on a needle and string it through your felt balls, top “head” loops of your ghosts, and the loop you added to your bats.  With the quantity in this supply list the pattern I used was three felt balls, ghost, three felt balls, bat and repeat.
3. Tie a loop on each end of your twine/embroidery thread and hang!

If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.