Only 19 more days until Halloween and I can’t wait to throw my Hot Witch Halloween Party! I took games, crafts, and recipes from my creative guide for young girls, Handbook For Hot Witches, and created a Hot Witch Halloween Party Package. Suitable for all ages, teens, tweens, moms (and guys who care), this party planner gives mothers and their daughters a chance to bond over the Halloween season by party planning. Moving on from costume-making and trick-or-treating (or maybe not), now moms and their teens can be seen at the same party together, say what?! Yes, it’s true.

Here are a few tips on how to throw a fabulous Halloween party:

Crafts, lots and lots of crafts! And scrapbooking! If you want to appeal to the woman’s creative mind, and in this case you are, then you want to have plenty of activities that exercise the mind. In my Halloween package, I give advice to the anxious party planner how to make silhouettes that look like shadows of ghosts dancing on walls and also how to make the Halloween favorite, a Jack o’ Lantern:

 Instructions for Paper Mache Jack o’ Lanterns:

1.) To make paper mache paste, simply mix together 1 part flour and 2 parts water. The consistency should be similar to thick glue, but also runny and not thick like paste. Add more water or flour as necessary. Mix well to remove any lumps. You should be able to store glue in the refrigerator in closed container for a few days.

2.) Blow up a balloon. Draw nose eyes and mouth with a marker, color of your choice. Make them simple triangles, and a smile moth like a crescent moon.

3.) Cut strips of newspaper, dip into the paper mache paste. Place in layers around the balloon, leaving the tie at the top and the areas around your lines for the face uncovered by the strips.

4.) Make 2-4 layers of the strips. Once it is dry, pop the balloon and take the popped balloon out of your now paper mache shell.

5.) Paint the shell orange with acrylic or other water based paint like tempera. Outline the face in black or cover the entire balloon and draw a face on the orange shell afterward in black. Hang from a light bulb to light it up or use it as a Jack o’ Lantern to put the raffle tickers and spells into.

Tips:

• If you live in an area with high humidity, (like Savannah, the most haunted city in America) add a few tablespoons of salt to help prevent mold.
• If you don’t like the smell of the glue mixture you can add a few sprinkles of cinnamon to sweeten it up.

This is the first of three Halloween-themed posts from Dame Darcy, author of Handbook for Hot Witches: Dame Darcy’s Illustrated Guide to Magic, Love & Creativity, a guide for girls who want cool things to do and great friends to do whem with, who aren’t afraid to be their different, awesome selves.