13 DIY Halloween Crafts for Kids: Will You Go Spooky or Cute?
Halloween isn’t just a single holiday. You can make it a month of awesome, amazing fun with Halloween crafts. Do Halloween up right throughout October by creating a few of these 13 simple DIY Halloween crafts for kids with your family. Not only will you have tons of fun crafting, you’ll also have family keepsakes for a lifetime. After all, you’re never too old for Halloween!
13 DIY Halloween Crafts for Kids (From Spooky To Cutesy!)
Need more inspiration? You can find similar versions of all 13 of our crafts on my Pinterest Halloween Board.
1. Footprint Ghost Family
Supplies:
Black card stock, construction paper or a board painted black
White tempera craft paint
Googly eyes and glue (optional)
Method:
Use your paper or board and have everyone dip one foot in white tempera craft paint. Step on the paper vertically to make a little ghost family of footprints. Flip the paper upside down so that your heels are at the top of the page. On the heels, create your faces. Paint or paste on googly eyes, noses and mouths and write the names of each ghostie in your family under the appropriate footprint ghost.
If you want to display your ghost family, write Happy Halloween from Our Spooky Family (or something similar) across the top of the page and use tape or string to affix it to the door or wall.
And don’t forget to write Halloween 2013 somewhere on all your Halloween crafts for kids for posterity’s sake! I suggest writing it on the back of this one you can reuse it as a welcome sign for future Halloweens.
Pin it: Footprint Ghost Family
2. Felt Ghostie Graveyard
Supplies:
Light gray, dark gray, white, green and black felt
Black permanent marker
Googly eyes and glue (optional)
Method:
Cut out a panel of light gray felt—18 to 24 inches square works great.
Use your marker to trace out 10 or so small ghost shapes and one moon on your white felt. Cut out the shapes. Be sure to include the black outlines on the part you cut out: it gives the ghosts a little more dimension. Draw on faces or paste on googly eyes and draw on mouths with a single marker dot (think spooky boo face!).
Cut five to 10 grave marker shapes out of your dark gray cloth.
Cut a single strip of grassy area out of your green cloth, be sure to make it the same width as your light gray panel so it can cover the entire bottom of the scene.
Cut tiny bat shapes (about six) out of your black felt.
Felt sticks to itself, so constructing your graveyard scene is easy! You can make it more permanent by gluing on the felt pieces, but it should stick just fine as it is.
Spread out your light gray panel and stick the grassy area to the bottom. Arrange your grave markers on top of the grass. Stick your moon somewhere near the top off to the side so you have plenty of room for ghosts and bats.
Arrange your bats on top of and around the moon. Arrange your ghosts all around the scene however you like. If you want to use this as a welcome sign on your door, write a Halloween-themed message on top with your marker. I suggest the glue method for your ghosts if you’re worried neighbor kids might pull them off!
Adapted from Miss Niff.
Pin it: Felt Ghostie Graveyard
3. God’s Eye Spider Webs
Supplies:
Yarn
Sticks or tongue depressors
Plastic spiders
Method:
Making a God’s eye into this spider web version is one of my favorite Halloween crafts for kids. You’ll leave extra string at the end (after you knot it off in the back) to tie on one plastic spider. Then you’ll wedge another plastic spider in the web.
If you’re not familiar with a God’s eye, here’s how it goes: Align your sticks (two for an easy method or three for a more realistic web) in either a cross or an asterisk pattern.
Use your yarn to tie a very tight knot in the center of your sticks to keep them from moving around while you’re crafting the web.
You’ll then want to loop enough yarn around the center of your stick array to make sure it’s nice and secure. Start wrapping that same yarn around the sticks. For the first few passes, loop around each stick in alternating figure-eights and continue on in a counterclockwise pattern (clockwise may be easier if you’re a lefty). You may have to hold your sticks in formation while you wrap these first few passes, once you get more yarn on it’ll be more stable.
Once you’ve established the base with about four layers, reverse the loops to enhance the webbiness of the string. Basically, if you’ve been looping on top of the sticks, start looping on the bottom. Continue looping the yarn around the sticks in alternating figure-eight patterns, switching your loop direction when necessary.
Once you have enough web, knot your yarn off on the back of the web and leave enough extra string to tie one of your spiders on the end so it can hang down. Wedge more spiders into the webbing before hanging.
Pin it: God’s Eye Spider Webs and Craft Stick Spider Webs
4. Mason Jar Spookies & Pumpkins
Supplies:
Mason jars and lids (be sure to select from your stash of busted lids for this project)
Spray Mod Podge
Tempera craft paint (The colors depend on what you’re making. Our examples use black and either orange, green, white or purple.)
Tissue paper and jarred Mod Podge (optional for younger kids’ method)
Paint brushes
Method:
To mnake jack-o-lanterns with the paint method, I like to fill the jars with a bit of the orange paint, slap the lid on and slosh the paint around until the inside of the jar is coated with orange. Then you can paint the faces of the jack-o-lanterns on the outside of the jar while the orange dries on the inside. If you’d prefer, you can just paint the orange on the outside, let it dry and then paint on your faces.
For Frankenstein jars, use the same method, but use green paint instead of orange and don’t forget to add Frankie’s hair and head bolts in black.
For ghost jars, use white as your base paint and paint on spooky “O” ghost mouths and eyes.
For creepy bat jars, use purple as your base and paint on spooky bat faces in black.
Once your paint is dry, use spray mod podge to seal the paint.
If you’d rather not use the paint method, you can create a similar look by squishing strips of colored tissue paper onto the inside of the jars. This can be an especially useful for tiny little ones who can’t be trusted with paint yet!
Lastly, place a little LED tea light inside your jar for nighttime illumination.
Pin it: Tissue Paper Mason Jar Spookies and Painted Mason Jar Pumpkins
5. Jack-o-Lantern Door Sign
Supplies:
Tongue depressors/craft sticks/popsicle sticks
Orange tempera craft paint
Black and green construction paper
Cardboard
Yarn for hanging
Hot glue gun
Method:
This is a classic among Halloween crafts for kids. Start by cutting your cardboard to the size of pumpkin you’d like (make sure to cut it the same height as your sticks). Figure out how many sticks you’ll need to make your pumpkin by laying your sticks out flat vertically abutting each other to make a large rectangle. Ask the littles to paint the sticks orange and then let them dry.
Once the sticks are dry, glue them down to the cardboard with your hot glue gun (if you don’t have one, good craft glue can hold the sticks if you let it dry flat).
Cut a jack-o-lantern mouth and eyes out of the black construction paper and a pumpkin stem out of your green construction paper. Glue those down to your pumpkin. Glue the yarn hanger onto the back of the cardboard and let the pumpkin dry before hanging.
Adapted from Kids Frugal Fun
Pin it: Jack-o-Lantern Door Sign
6. Tie Dye Tissue Bats
Supplies:
Wooden clothespins
Coffee filters
Markers
Spray bottle of water
Black paint
Method:
Cut coffee filters in half. Then, cut each side into bat wing-like shapes. This is when it gets interesting. Check out Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas’ guide on exactly how to do the cool wing coloring technique. You’ll be using the markers to color the coffee filters and then spraying them with water to swirl the ink around—it turns out kind of like tie dye.
Then you’ll paint your clothespins (one per bat) and let everything dry. Once that’s done, layer your wings and clip the clothespin in the center for the bat’s body. Once your bats are complete, you can clip them to a cord or some yarn to hang them around your house.
Pin it: Tie Dye Tissue Bats
7. Paper Plate Spiders
Supplies:
Paper plates
Tempera craft paints (any color)
Pipe cleaner (any color, glittery is extra fun)
Stapler
Dry pasta or beans (optional)
Googly eyes and glue
Hole punch
Yarn for hanging
Method:
Paint the bottom side of your plates—two per spider—and let them dry. Cut legs—eight per spider—and bend them to make spider leg joints. Place the pipe cleaners—four legs per side—in between your spider body plates with the painted sides of the plates facing out. Staple the legs in and then continue stapling around the perimeter of your spider body to seal it up. Feel free to add some dry pasta or beans to the inside of your spider body before stapling them all the way closed. After all, a shaky spider is a creepy spider.
Glue on multiple googly eyes in whatever pattern you like and let dry. Hole punch a hole in the top of the plate and thread your yarn through the hole so you can hang your spiders.
Pin it: Paper Plate Spiders
8. Cardboard Tube Mummies
Supplies:
Toilet paper or paper towel cardboard tubes
White and black construction paper
Glue
Googly eyes
Method:
Glue a small strip of black construction paper around each tube near the top. Then glue your googly eyes on top of that strip.
Tear your white construction paper into mummy-bandage strips. Glue those strips around the rest of your tube, leaving a peep hole for the black background and googly eyes so your mummies have the opportunity to effectively creep out your friends and family.
Pin it: T. P. Tube Mummies
9. Monster Hand-Print Puppets
Supplies:
Construction paper (any colors)
Tongue depressors/craft sticks/popsicle sticks
White construction paper
Black marker
Glue
Kids’ hands (Don’t worry, we’re not THAT spooky, you’re allowed to keep them attached!)
Method:
This is one of the simplest Halloween crafts for kids every invented. Trace hands in various positions on your colored construction paper. Cut out the hands. Cut eyeballs and mouths out of your white paper, glue them onto the hands and add details with your marker.
Glue the hands onto the end of a craft stick to turn it into a handy Halloween puppet (ha!).
Pin it: Monster Hand-Print Puppets
10. Recycled CD Frankenstein
Supplies:
Old CDs or DVDs
Green, black and gray felt
Black marker
Googly eyes
Glue
Scissors
Method:
Trace the outside of your CD on the green felt. Cut out the circle of felt and glue it to the label side of your CD. Cut a hair rectangle the width of the CD (with Frankensteiny spikes at the bottom) out of your black felt. Glue that to the top of the CD. Also cut a uni-brow rectangle out of the black felt and glue that to the eyebrow area. Glue the googly eyes on, partially overlapping the uni-brow.
Last, cut out two small rectangle bolts from the gray felt and glue those to the back of the CD, so they’re poking out of the sides of Frankie’s head.
Pin it: Recycled CD Frankenstein
11. Milk Jug Ghost Lanterns
Supplies:
Milk jugs
Black marker
LED tea lights
Method:
Pull those clean milk jugs out of your recycle bin. If necessary, peel off any labels. Draw spooky ghost faces (or pumpkin faces if you have orange LED lights) on the outside of the jugs. Drop in the LED tea light and you’re done!
Pin it: Recycled CD Frankenstein
12. Spooky Pasta Skeletons
Supplies:
Black construction paper
Dried pasta, various types (mostly penne)
Glue
Method:
If you want to follow Martha Stewart’s example exactly, you’ll need several varieties of dried pasta. Check out her pasta skeletons as a guide.
But I’ve got a kid-friendly cheater method. Get whatever variety of cheap dried pastas you want to use. Set out a large picture of a human skeleton (you could even print out Martha’s craft as a guide) and let your kids go to town with the glue and pasta. They are sure to come up with something super creative and cute—though maybe not so anatomically correct. Let the glue dry and hang them up.
Pin it: Spooky Pasta Skeletons
13. Coffee Filter Spider Webs
Supplies:
Coffee filters
Scissors
Black felt (for spiders)
Yarn for hanging
Method:
If you’ve ever crafted coffee filter snowflakes, you’ve got this one in the bag. Check out this post on coffee filter spider webs for several different methods. You fold your filters up (just like you used to do with paper and snowflakes and even paper dolls) and then cut shapes out of the sides of it. Unfold the filter and you have coffee filter spider webs. If you like, you can cut little spiders out of black felt and glue them on. Run some yarn through the web to hang it in your window.
Pin it: Coffee Filter Spider Webs
Have fun with these Halloween crafts for kids, and if the little ones get too crazy with the glitter, you can always mix yourself up some boozy Halloween drinks to relax after they go to bed!
Related on Organic Authority:
5 Pumpkin Carving Tips For The Perfect Jack O’ Lantern
Green Halloween? Check out these 13 Spooktacular Eco Tips
6 DIY Halloween Crafts for Your Kids’ Halloween Party or Home
Image: Stitcher Scribbler via Compfightcc
