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Real Families, Real FUN: Get Crafty

Tricky Treat Holders
By Elizabeth Wells for Real Families, Real Fun


Now you see them. Now you don't! You can perform your own Halloween magic this season by turning your old snack-size containers into a decorative treat display. Tricky Treat Holders are simple to make. A little paint plus some sweet treats will transform them into a great gift for fellow trick-or-treaters, teachers or neighbors.

Here's what you need:

• Empty snack-size potato chip canisters, such as Pringle's, Snack-Ums, or a generic brand 3-inch-diameter plastic-foam balls
• Orange, black and white paint
• Suckers
• Yellow, red and green tissue paper
• Tape

Here's what you do:
Paint the canister orange, and allow it to dry completely. (Spray paint is easiest but brush-painted acrylic also works. It just takes more time and coats.)

• Add a jack-o'-lantern face in black. After it's dry, you can outline it in white.
• Wrap tissue paper around sucker sticks, and attach them with tape.
• Pop the plastic-foam ball into the canister, and arrange the suckers by poking the sucker stick into the ball.

Ghost Tricky Treat Holders

What you'll need:

• Empty snack-size potato-chip canisters, such as Pringle's, Snack-Ums, or a generic brand
• 3-inch plastic-foam balls
• White and black paint
• Snack-size candy bars
• Crafts sticks
• White tissue paper
• Packing tape

What you'll do:

• Paint the canisters white, and allow it to dry completely. (Spray paint is easiest, but brush-painted acrylic also works. Brush painting just takes more time and coats.)
• With black paint, make the ghost's face.
• Cut packing tape into strips and use it to tape snack-size candy bars to the crafts sticks.
• Wrap tissue-paper strips around the sticks, and tape them in place.
• Pop the plastic-foam ball into the canister, and arrange the sticks by poking them into the ball. You can also wrap suckers with white tissue paper and attach them with tape as you did with the pumpkin canister.

The Hannan family of Ohio made several ghosts. Because the children are 4 years and 18 months and were visiting at their grandparents' condo, they opted to skip the paint and cover the containers with paper. Mom, Lynda said they would use the treats as the grand prize for the best-carved pumpkin at their annual Hannan Halloween Hoo Ha.

The LaClair family also covered their creations with paper. Ryan (12) and Rachel (9) made ghosts while Christine (5) made a pumpkin. "The kids really enjoyed just drawing on the designs. Rachel wrote 'RIP' and 'Do Not Be Afraid' on hers. They got really creative and spent a lot of time happily coloring," said Mom LaClair. They used small boxes of Halloween candy taped to craft sticks.

Some tips from Beth S.' family:

• Tell the kids not to push the sticks down too far into the plastic-foam ball or the pumpkins and ghosts won't stick out of the can very far.
• Be sure to cut the tissue paper large enough to cover the lollipops. We underestimated how big to cut the paper and ended up wasting some pieces.
• For a quick ghost, use a white plastic container from ready-to-spread frosting and draw ghost eyes with permanent marker.
• White facial tissue is faster and easier than tissue paper when covering candy bar/crafts stick combinations or lollipops. You can then draw on eyes with black permanent marker. Make an entire pumpkin patch or graveyard of goofy ghosts. The magic is only half done, though. Just wait, they'll soon disappear!

TAKE IT FROM ME:
If you don't have any plastic-foam balls, you can use crumpled and rolled-up aluminum foil to put the sticks into. --Peggy LaClair

If you don't have any plastic-foam balls, you can use crumpled and rolled-up aluminum foil to put the sticks into. --Peggy LaClair


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