How to: Old Fashioned Halloween Crafts

Carve an old-fashioned jack-o-lantern for Halloween.

Enjoy an old-fashioned Halloween with homemade crafts to light your holiday table or to give away as treats. Old fashioned treats and decorations have a charming simplicity that stands out against today's sometimes over-the-top spooky décor. Remember jack-o-lanterns with two triangle eyes, a triangle nose and a jagged grin? Modern pumpkin carvings are often much more elaborate than the old-fashioned design, but nothing says 'Halloween' like a snaggle-tooth jack-o-lantern.

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4 red apples
4 wooden craft sticks
Sauce pan
1-1/2 cups white sugar
1/4-cup light corn syrup
1/2-cup water
Candy thermometer
Baking sheet
Wax paper
Canning jars
Tall pillar candles
Candy corn
Pumpkin
Newspaper
Serrated knife
Spoon
Triangle template
Crayon
Rectangle template
Votive candle

Instructions

Candy Apples
- 1
  
  Wash and dry four red apples to prepare them for the candy coating. Insert wooden craft sticks into the bottom of each apple. Plain, red candy apples are an old-fashioned favorite and were the predecessor to today's favorite caramel apples and candy apples coated with nuts, sprinkles and chocolates.
- 2
  
  Mix 1-1/2 cups of white sugar, 1/4-cup of light corn syrup and 1/2-cup of water in a sauce pan. Heat the ingredients over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to a boil and heat until the temperature is 300 degrees. Use a candy thermometer to determine the temperature. Remove the pan from the heat.
- 3
  
  Cover a baking sheet with wax paper. Hold one red apple by the wooden stick. Dip the apple into the candy mixture and swirl it until the apple is coated. Place the apple, stick-end up, on the wax paper. Repeat with each apple. Reheat the syrup if it starts to thicken. Let the candy coating cool completely before serving.
Canning Jar Candles
- 4
  
  Purchase orange and black pillar candles tall enough to stand inside old fashioned canning jars. The candles should be nearly as tall as the canning jars.
- 5
  
  Stand the candle inside the center of the jar. Affix the base of the candles to the inside of the jar with melted wax, if desired. Light the pillar candle, or a different candle and the drip the melted wax into the canning jar. Quickly position the pillar candle on top of the warm wax and hold it in place for one minute.
- 6
  
  Fill in the space between the sides of the pillar candle and the insides of the jar with candy corn. Fill the jar with corn 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the sides of the canning jar. Alternatively, anchor orange candles with black glass beads and anchor black candles with orange glass beads.
Snaggle-Tooth Pumpkin
- 7
  
  Cover the work surface with newspapers. Cut a circle in the top or bottom of a pumpkin with a serrated knife. Remove the pumpkin circle and scoop out the inside pulp. Discard the pulp.
- 8
  
  Trace two triangle eyes and one triangle nose on one side of the pumpkin with a crayon. The triangle eyes should have the point facing up, the triangle point of the nose should be facing down.
- 9
  
  Trace three vertical rectangles 2 to 4 inches below the nose to represent the pumpkin's teeth. Space the teeth several inches apart. Trace two vertical rectangles 1 inch below the first three, spaced between the first three. Connect the top line of the first three triangles and the bottom line of the bottom two triangles with a marked line. Extend the lines beyond the rectangles, curving them to shape a mouth.
- 10
  
  Erase the top lines of the three top teeth and the bottom lines of the three bottom teeth. Carve the pumpkin along the remaining crayon lines. Remove and discard the cut pumpkin.
- 11
  
  Insert a votive candle inside the pumpkin.