Hi, I’m Rebecca. I write books and I write here at This Joyful Mess to inspire everyone to find JOY in the everyday messes of life. Here you’ll find inspiration, educational resources, and so much more. Please explore and connect—I’d love to hear from you!
The Best Scented Playdough Recipe (Gluten Free!)
Holiday scented playdough? Beautiful consistency and long-lasting? Yes, please! We can’t make Christmas cookies every day (can we?!?), and many little hands don’t always make light work, as the proverb says. What do we do when it’s not cookie-making time, or littles are quite ready for the real thing?
Retell Little Red Riding Hood (aka Violet and the Woof)!
I’ve created a set of Violet and the Woof stick puppets—complete with a puppet stage. Print (card stock is best for this), cut, paste onto craft sticks to retell the story of Violet’s adventure again and again. And be happy knowing you’re helping develop the love of literature and early reading skills.
6 Adorable and Easy DIY Halloween Costumes for Kids
Find six of the absolute cutest and easiest DIY Halloween costumes for kids. All no-sew and take less than an hour to make. Plus they’re literary, based on the picture book, Halloween Good Night.
Halloween Giggles: Free Printable Joke Cards for Your Next Halloween Party
Yes, I managed to collect the corniest yet entirely appropriate jokes available. I added them to my book release goodie bags, but I'm sure they'd go over with a groan at any Halloween occasion. And here they are for you! Forty jokes in total on five printable pages. Enjoy!
FREE Printable Finger Puppets for Halloween
Just in time for Halloween crafting fun, here are ten FREE finger puppets, printer-ready, just waiting for little fingers and the accompanying book, Halloween Good Night by Rebecca Grabill (me). In fact, there's the link to purchase (affiliate), or check it out from your library!
10 Best Halloween Monster Crafts! Perfect to Go With New Book, Halloween Good Night
What's more fun than dressing up on October 31st and filling a bag with treats? Slime! Piñatas! Crafts! Fun! From all around the web, I've curated my favorite Halloween crafts for preschoolers to early elementary, each to go along with the picture book, Halloween Good Night. Without further introduction, let's get some BOO! on!
Cutest Halloween Finger Puppets Craft: Free Patterns and Tutorial
I could almost die from the cuteness of these finger puppets! To think, an adorable zombie? A cute-as-a-button vampire? All the creatures in my book, Halloween Good Night, in finger-puppet form. Perfect craft and plaything for preschoolers!
Halloween DIY: Globster Plush Stuffed Toy!
What, you may ask, is a Globster? Well, one might say it's a mythical sea monster, a relative of the classic horror beast, The Blob. Or, if you're familiar with the amazing picture book Halloween Good Night, you'll learn that a Globster is: epically cute, squishably cuddly, not the slightest big frightening, and every preschooler's new must-have bedtime friend!