It’s that time of year when we get into holiday mode and I’m excited to be sharing a few seasonal craft tutorials with you on the Magazines.com blog over the next few months! The holidays are a busy time, but there’s something about pausing and taking the time to create something that makes the holiday season a little bit extra special.

I love that the first holiday that we come to is low stress: Halloween is one of those holidays that is all about having fun. No big meal involved, no gifts to buy, just dressing up, visiting neighbors, and eating candy. And let’s not forget about the crafts!

Have you seen all of the Halloween crafts out there this month? I had to try out a few myself. One of them was this adorable craft stick mummy from Disney’s FamilyFun magazine special Halloween issue.

These were a ton of fun to make and so easy that even first-time crafters could feel good about themselves! Here’s how you can make a mummy of your own.

Supplies:

• Wire snips (I used regular old scissors. A little bit more work, but just as effective)
• Wooden craft sticks and wooden craft spoons (both found at any crafts store)
• Glue dots or a hot glue gun
• The magazine calls for 1 square yard of muslin, torn into 1-inch strips, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. I like to repurpose things that I already have around the house, and I had a couple of white kitchen towels left over from a gift that I made for my sister. I just used those and they were perfect!
• Small googly eyes

Instructions

Step One: Take your material (kitchen towel in my case) and cut it into 1-inch strips.

The towel

I cut off the hemmed edges.

Make a small cut at the bottom of the material and pull both sides to tear the material. This will give the strips a worn out and frayed look, which suits a mummy.

Step two: The craft spoons will make the body of the mummy. The craft sticks will create the arms and legs. Take half of the craft sticks and cut off about half an inch to make the arms of the mummy a little bit shorter than the legs. (If you want to save a little bit of time, don’t bother with this extra step for the arms. It doesn’t make a big difference in the final product.)

Step three: Use your glue dots or a hot glue gun to attach the arms and legs to the body. If you will be doing this craft with your children, the glue dots are safer since the glue gun gets extremely hot. I found that the glue dots did not hold the appendages as well as the hot glue did. We lost a couple of legs. (Oops!) I opted for the glue gun and let the kids help with the rest when the glue was dry.

Step four: Using a glue dot or a dab of hot glue, attach one end of one strip of fabric to the head of the mummy and start wrapping it around the head and body until you run out of fabric. Use another glue dot or dab of hot glue to keep the end in place. Repeat until you have covered the entire mummy.

Step five: Use glue dots or hot glue to attach the mummy’s eyes.

My son loved this mummy so much that I couldn’t keep him still enough to get a good photo! He played with two of them for about 40 minutes while his little brother was napping.

Have fun with this craft! It’s a simple little decoration (though my son sure treats it like a toy) that’s fun to make with your kids. It takes so little time and materials that you can whip up several in no time. Have a happy and safe Halloween and I’ll see you next month!