Glowing Spiders

I have to pass along this craft idea because it is so darn easy and cute, and you have just enough time to make one before Halloween on Sunday.

I saw this post on My Little Gems, so Jackson and I headed to the Dollar Tree today. [As an aside: I was at Michael’s yesterday and almost bought styrofoam balls for this craft, but ONE pack of balls was five bucks. I would have to spend ten bucks to get two sizes for the spiders, plus $1 for each pack of glow sticks. No way dude. I knew Dollar Tree had a better deal, so we headed there. Oh, one more tip: Deals does NOT sell craft stuff anymore. The manager explained to me Dollar Tree owns Deals, and decided to move all the crafty stuff to Dollar Tree instead.] Okee dokee. Shopping lesson is over. Back to our craft!

After bath, Katie and Jackson gathered around the table and stuck glow sticks willy nilly into their styrofoam balls. The placement isn’t what I would have picked and the spiders look really lopsided now, but the kids wanted to make the spiders on their own and didn’t need my adult input. To connect the head to the body, we used a short glow stick that came in a pack of four pairs of glow earrings. Then we opened a tube of glow stick bracelets and poked them all the way through the spiders’ bodies. (I’m cheap that way – why use eight sticks when three will work fine?)

Oooo, the kids were impressed. They immediately tried to attack each other’s spider, then headed to the basement to play with them before bed. 

Jackson put his glow spider on his dresser tonight at bedtime, but Katie ended up moving hers to the hallway outside her door. She says the spider glows too brightly and creates shadows in her room. “And I don’t like shadows, Mommy. Why don’t you and Daddy sleep with my spider tonight? You can put it between you in bed!”