It’s Halloween, and the children are all dressed up in their hand-crafted, store bought or make-shift costumes waiting for the festivities of the day to begin. Perfect Peggy is practicing for the bobbing for apples contest that could win her first place and an extra bag of treats. Little Johnny is placing a ‘kick me’ sign on the back of loud mouthed Marvin’s cowboy vest in hopes to see some great responses from his classmates. And Simple Sally is all giggles as she juggles oranges in her Homey the Clown outfit. Before the festivities begin, the teacher has all the children gather together to make holiday crafts. Today’s project is Halloween cards. A simple assignment involving poster board, glue, markers, crayons and an assortmen
t of holiday fabric; these cards will make a great gift to bring home for family and friends.
To start, the teacher hands each student an 8½ x 11” sheet of manila poster board. This will be the foundation for the card. The poster board is folded in half to look like a blank card. In each card, the teacher has the student write their own personal message to their friend or loved one for the holiday.
Next, the teacher supplies the class with an assortment of colorfully printed Halloween and harvest fabrics to select for the cover of their cards. From funny monsters, haunted houses, and scary witches to flaming skulls, dancing ghouls and jak-o-lanterns, there is something for every kiddy bopper in the room. Big Betty finds a Betty Boop Halloween fabric that she says reminds her of herself, well, at least her name. While Gentle Jane nurtures her soft spot for cats with a black cat and pumpkin fabric.
With a good pair of children’s scissors and some Elmer’s Glue, the children cut and paste images from their fabric, and in some cases, the whole piece, right onto the poster board. The teacher encourages her students to let their imagination run wild as they combine different prints and designs into a collage fashion across the 8 x 5 ½” card cover. Some wrote “Happy Halloween” on the top half and placed their material on the bottom, while others cut out individual creatures of the night and created a spread of horror around their blank canvas to make unique works of art. At the end of the day, each child had a truly one-of-a-kind Halloween card masterpieces to bring home with them.
Here’s Sweet Susan’s card. She said it reminded her of her and her twin brother Shawn. Maybe later on when the sun has cast her warm orange glow across the sky, and the bright moon has awoken to offer his light in the dark night sky, they will go out trick-or-treating in merry fashion.
Check out our colorful harvest and nature fabric here!
Check out our selection of holiday fabrics here!
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Fabrics StoreLabels: cards, children fabric, children's crafts, children's fabric, childrens crafts, childrens fabric, halloween, halloween cards, halloween crafts, halloween gifts, trick or treat fabric
I remember as a child, having a Raggedy Ann doll. I don’t quite remember where she came from, but she was about a foot or so tall, wore a red, white and blue girlie dress with a light white lace trim, and rocked that infamous mane of red yarned hair that she is still famous for today. She was soft and durable and quite the contortionist. Often times I would take her out of my wooden toy box only to stuff her quite snuggly in my old fish bowl that was two sizes too small just to see if her face would look bigger behind the glass. Other times, my sister and I would play tug-of-war with her to test her endurance and strength under extreme conditions. Despite my tough love approach, Raggedy Ann always kept an upbeat smile on her face and soon earned by respect for her tenacity and devotion to me….until Saturday April 28th, 1979. It was a dark and dreary spring day and I was nervously watching my line up of horror shows, when one came on featuring a doll quite like mine. This doll had an owner about my age as well, who trusted and loved her doll with all her heart. But it seemed the sweet smile that this Raggedy Ann carried, was just a front. In fact, the Raggedy Ann in this movie was possessed by some evil spirit and would move at will without the hands of her owner controlling her. The idea that my lovable rag doll could fall suspect to that same demonic notion as I slept innocently in the night was simply uncomfortable to say the least. So without further adieu, I quickly picked up my cloth friend and handed her over to my mother for immediate deportation to the island of Goodwill. I don’t know how my Raggedy Ann finally met her demise, but hopefully she stayed out of trouble and went out like the trooper that she projected herself to be.
My love for her over the years always remained, and often times I thought about my red headed friend. Many early stories of her and her sidekick brother Andy told of adventures in magical places and the meeting of strange new faces. They even had an animated television series that ran from 1988-92 to mark their resurgence since her original debut in the 1918 book ‘Raggedy Ann Stories’ by creator Johnny Gruelle. Images and captions of the two have even been reprinted on fabric for die hard Raggedy Ann & Andy fans alike. From ‘Raggedy Ann & Andy with Toys’ to ‘Raggedy Ann & Andy with Puppies’, the cotton prints found at J&O Fabrics are the perfect novelty item for the young at heart.
P.S., If by chance anyone reading this has seen a cute little red headed doll with a ‘P.O.W’ tattoo on her arm and a broken left leg, that means my Raggedy is still alive. Take good care of her and tell her I said “HI!”
Check out our full selection of Raggedy Ann & Andy fabric here!
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Posts by J&O
Fabrics StoreLabels: childrens fabric, childrens novelty fabric, johnny gruelle, raggedy andy, raggedy ann, raggedy ann and andy
Where would we be without Sesame Street? Probably in our graves.
My father once thanked the producers of Sesame Street for saving the lives of many children, including his own….literally. He was half serious, half joking. He spoke these words on behalf of parents nationwide who undoubtedly would have grown a few more gray hairs and raised their hands to fall upon a few more tender a rear end had it not been for the regularly scheduled, educational and highly interactive broadcasting of this wonderful children’s television program.
Weekday & Saturday mornings, children from every nationality and background across America could be found glued to the tube, singing along with their favorite Sesame Street characters in the customary call and response fashion that Grover, Oscar and now Elmo encouraged.
With the click of a button, crying infants found instant gratification in Maria’s soft ABC lullabies’. The Terrible Two’s toddlers put their home destroyer gadgets away and suddenly became the sweetest, most focused angels to roam the living room. Even moms & dads could be found learning spanish words for water, or joining their offspring in finding which of these things just didn’t belong here.
So in ode of the good-ole-days, the lives of the little ones who have absolutely no idea just how intricate their entertaining TV show really was to their survival, and to the youth of today….J&O offers a great selection of cottons and flannels donning the faces of some of the most widely recongized and favored Sesame Street characters we’ve all come to love and trust.
Click here if you’re a
Cookie Monster fabric fan!
From Elmo’s Lunchtime encouraging a healthy balance of fruits and vegetables in our children’s lunchboxes, to the Sesame Street Babies School Time series reminding our little ones of the importance of being able to read and write, the primary colors and themes that have remained consistent over the years, are available right here just for you.
So what are you waiting for? Come on down to Sesame Street at J&O where everyone might not know your name, but we'd sure like to try.
Labels: childrens fabric, cotton fabric, Flannel Fabric, fleece fabric, sesame street, television programs