Halloween Crafts

Making your own crafts for Halloween means making a whole lot of fun, and each finished craft project is a unique one that only you could have made. House decorations are terrific ways to accommodate guests, whether at a party or tick or treaters. They are usually super-easy to make and quite inexpensive. We have some tips below and hopefully they will help you to realize a few crafts of your own.

Design a pumpkin or ghost-like face on empty one-gallon milk jugs then paint on the face. After you’ve cut out a back hole, light the jugs with candles or bulbs. Those battery operated candles are the best, and safest.
Get a few of those twig wreaths from the craft store and seasonal decorative items and flowers for them. You can make a Fall one first for Halloween, then one for Winter, Spring and Summer.
Spiders! These can be made from all sorts of found and purchased objects. One of the easiest is to get 8 of those chenille stems, a couple of googly eyes, a small styrofoam ball, and a suction cup. Paint the ball with appropriate paint, stick the stems in like legs, glue on the eyes and suction cup, and stick it on your windows.
Make a crowd of ghosts for the front lawn — Set up a few tomato cages and use twigs for arms. Weave a strand of lights through the cage and test to see if they light up. Cover with sheet or muslin and always use tiny lights for safety.
Eyes on the passersby. Use ping pong balls and tea lights which are battery powered. Paint the ping pong ball to look like an eyeball then cut a small hole in the bottom and stick it on to the tea light. Line up in your front window on a ledge.
Purchase one or more of those white translucent paper globe lights. Decorate with scrapbooking or construction paper and then plug it in. This is one lit owl!
Paint acorns orange then draw faces on them with a permanent marker. Arrange the tiny “pumpkins” how you like. This is a good one for kids as the pumpkins like tiny hands to make them!
Pumpkins can be changed into baseball players. Put a real hat on them, paint some eyes and part of a face, then blow up a small pink balloon, tie it off, then make a small hole and poke it into the pumpkin where the mouth would be.
Your own batmobile, or other mobile. Start with a wire hanger then cut out bat shapes and hang them from the hangar with twine or fishing line. Make a hangar go through another at right angles and you’ll have more hanging points. Use pumpkins instead, or ghosts.
Paint small pumpkins black, put on fierce eyes, cut out wings from craft foam, and you’ll have some unique bat-pumpkins. If you paint the eyes differently they will have different expressions.
An assortment of creepy creatures. Use craft foam and cut out bats and spiders and black cats. You can out these on a mirror or the inside of your windows.
Bats that are fuzzy. Cut a little puff off of a feather boa, attach craft foam wings and eyes, and you’ll have a whole bunch of bat kitties.
Cut a band of paper and measure it to fit around a votive candle holder. Cut eyes out of the paper in pairs and when a candle is lit, the eyes will dance.
If you are camping around Halloween, then make yourself a nice sign out of cardboard like : The Smith’s Campsite. Decorate with leaves and hang on the nearest to the campsite post.
Permanent pumpkins can be made by using clay pots, upside down, and decorate with yellow Jack O’Lantern faces and a piece of foam or branch for the stem.
If you have a pair of windows in your house, then decorate each half from the inside to look like a Jack O’Lantern from the outside.
Make a big spider for your window by using a half of a large styrofoam egg, then sticking bendable foam legs into the side. Don’t forget there are 8!
Use battery powered tea lights in small brown paper bags and line your walkway with them.

Halloween crafts can be projects that bring the entire family together. These are projects that can be used to decorate the home, so that your house is transformed into a spooky and festive place. It also gives you ideas for things you can do with groups of children at Halloween parties or school craft classes. Whatever your reason, Halloween is a great time to get crafting.

Halloween Crafts for the Yard

Aside from the classic and traditional carved pumpkin jack-o’-lantern, there are other things you can do to get creative and make the exterior of your house look festive. In fact, you can add to your jack-o’-lanterns with other styles of decor that have the same idea. Turn flower pots into painted pumpkins, either upside down or right side up.

You can also use empty milk or orange juice jugs for a new twist on an old classic. Using a black marker you can create ghost faces on white milk jugs or jack-o’-lantern looks on the orange juice ones. Using a blade to cut away part of the bottom, you can use Christmas or string-bulb lights to illuminate the inside. Put as many bulbs in as you like, then set more jugs side by side with the rest of the string lights running into these.

Also, make use of what you have on hand and create a giant black spider to scare the neighbors. Using a giant black trash bag stuffed with leaves, you create the body. The head is the same process, only a smaller end result. Twist more bags in pairs lengthwise to create the legs, then use black electrical tape to fasten it all together. Get creative with eyes; you can cut them from plastic cups, paper plates, construction paper or paint them on. Don’t forget fangs and an hourglass for a really sinister arachnid.

Bats and Spiders

Speaking of giant spiders, not much else creeps people out for Halloween more than spiders and bats. So what better way to get creative with Halloween crafts than to incorporate these critters into the plan. One method you can use includes mini-pumpkins as the body of either one.

The basic idea is to paint the pumpkins black, and be creative with the faces. Wings, ears or spider legs can be created from thick construction paper, poster board or craft foam. You can also use pipe cleaners to create spider legs or add dimension to bat wings. Simply glue on or attach with black electrical tape.

The same principle can be applied to creating bats or spiders from black balloons. A larger one for the body, smaller for the head, and use paper for the features. Make eyes, ears, fangs, wings or legs and attach with glue or tape. Remember, the balloons don’t get filled very full. That way you avoid them popping or looking like overstuffed critters.

Recycle, Reuse and Get Scary

A great way to make decorations is by repurposing items meant to go to the trash bin and giving them a new use. The skeleton of plastic bottles is a neat way to do this. Keep in mind though, it does require cutting, and only adults can do most of this activity. Also, you can use clear or white, or paint clear bottles white, but you want to end up with a consistent end result.

Milk jugs become the head and chest cavity by bringing them together where the lid openings are. Your child can paint on a skeleton face while you do some cutting of the ribs. The pelvis is yet another jug, but just the bottom part cut and shaped a bit like hips. The bones are made from plastic bottles, with or without the centers cut out. It looks more realistic with them cut, but does not have to be. Attach the bones with wire so the skeleton has some realistic movement involved.

Use old white sheets stuffed with old newspapers to create ghosts around the home. If you have some old white pillowcases too, then you can vary the size of the ghosts. Either use the entire sheet, or divide into smaller sections for a family of ghosts. Decorate the faces with markers, partially fill with newspaper and cinch off with wire or rubber bands. Suspend them from rafters or doorways to spook your guests.

There are plenty of ways to get crafty for Halloween, decorate the home and create some family bonding moments. Have kids offer their own ideas or at least express their individuality by decorating pieces. Halloween crafts can be saved for the next year when a whole new bunch of ideas get added.

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Halloween Crafts for the Holiday