It seems that every year, the focus of Halloween shifts more and more toward adults, but it's always been children who have the most fun dressing up and making Halloween decorations.
Children also add a quality to Halloween that adults often severely lack — creativity. That's right: Children take a lot of pride in Halloween. Besides making delicious Halloween treats with your kids, or simple home decorations, this is the perfect time to get crafty with your little ones.
What child doesn't enjoy doing arts and crafts? Sure, maybe their grandiose plans are a little unrealistic, and perhaps you have trouble coming up with original ideas for the little ones yourself. However, with this list, you will be able to help put the fun and originality back into Halloween for your children.
These crafts aren't expensive and don't require any natural talent, but they will definitely keep your child occupied, and might even afford you a few quiet minutes to yourself — something that rarely happens at this time of year.
1. Paper Plate Witch
What you'll need:
- Paper plate
- Green paint
- Purple, black, orange, white paper
- Black sharpie
- Scissors
- Glue
How to make it:
- Trace your child’s handprint on top of two pieces of orange paper, folded, so you only have to cut once.
- Paint the paper plate with green paint and set aside to dry.
- Cut out a witch’s hat and the eyeballs.
- Once the green paint is dry, glue on the hat, handprint “hair,” and the eyes. Draw on a witches face and you’re done!
2. Candy Corn Painting
What you'll need:
- Black paper
- Yellow, white, orange paint
- Pom poms
- Clothespins
How to make it:
- On a black piece of paper, draw the outline of a candy corn shape with white crayon or chalk, add two lines.
- Have the kids pick up pom-poms with their clothespins, dip them in the paint and paint the different sections.
3. Spider Hat
What you'll need:
- Black paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Plastic eyes
How to make it:
- Cut a long strip of paper to fit your child’s head. If it isn’t long enough, glue two pieces together.
- Cut eight thin strips of paper for the legs.
- Fold the legs to make them look bendy and attach to the headband piece, leaving a blank space in the middle so your child can see.
- Glue eight plastic eyes to the blank space
4. Cotton Ball Ghosts
What you'll need:
- Card stock cut into a ghost shape
- Black paper
- Glue
- Cotton balls
- Hole puncher
- Yarn or string
How to make them:
- Dip each cotton ball in glue and stick on the ghost, or cover the ghost in glue and stick the cotton balls all over it.
- Cut eyes and mouth out of black paper and glue on.
- When it dries punch holes and hang with yarn or string.
5. Paper Bag Puppets
What you'll need:
- Brown paper lunch bags
- Acrylic paint in green, red, purple, black, orange and white
- Construction paper
- White paper
- Glue
- Scissors
- Markers
How to make them:
- First, paint all of your paper bags with acrylic paint and let them dry completely.
- Cut out shapes from construction paper to decorate the puppets.
- Draw eyes with a black marker onto white paper, then cut out or use plastic eyes.
- For mouths, glue the teeth onto the mouth hanging over the edge, then trim by cutting around the outline of the mouth.
- Make clothes like Frankenstein’s jacket, Dracula’s cape or the witch’s dress from construction paper.
- For the mummy, use a black marker to draw lines to look like bandages. For the Jack O’Lantern, use an orange marker to draw lines.
- Other decorations can include bolts for Frankenstein’s neck, use a hole punch in purple paper for the witch’s nose wart, and use a marker to draw on noses and Frankie’s stitches.
- Use glue to attach everything to the bag.
6. Jack-O'-Lantern Collages
What you'll need:
- Orange and green construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Sharpie
- Magazines
- Materials for facial features — paper clips can make great glasses, an upside down heart sticker makes a cute nose, and pipe cleaners work nicely for making a mustache
How to make them:
- Make pumpkins from construction paper.
- Add facial features, either drawn or glued on.
- Facial features cut from magazines can be fun, too.
7. Clothes Pin Bats
What you'll need:
- Black paper or card stock
- Plastic eyes
- Scissors
- Clothes pins
- Silver Sharpie or crayon
- Black crayon
- Glue
How to make them:
- Color the clothespin with the black crayon.
- Cut out some bat wings and a bat head from the black paper.
- Decorate the wings with a silver sharpie.
- Glue eyes on the head.
- Clip the wings on and then clip on the head.
8. Frankenstein Sun Catcher
What you'll need:
- Black paper
- Contact paper
- Green tissue paper
- Scissors
How to make it:
- Cut out the Frankenstein facial pieces.
- Lay out one of your contact paper pieces, sticky side up.
- Arrange the Frankenstein outline and press it into the contact paper so that it sticks.
- Take the tissue paper pieces and either just cut them into squares or rip into pieces and cover Frankenstein with the green paper.
- Take the second sheet of contact paper and cover your sun catcher with it.
- Cut him out and stick him up on the window.
9. Handprint Spiders
What you'll need:
- Paper plates
- Colored paint
- Black paint
- Paintbrushes
- Plastic eyes or white paint
- Hole punch
- White twine (you’ll want about 36 inches or so for each plate)
How to make them:
- Completely cover their paper plate in paint and let dry.
- Paint the palm of the child’s hand and four fingers (don’t paint the thumb) with black paint.
- Press hand down on dry painted plate, then repeat with other hand. When pressing the second hand down, overlap on the other palm print. Let dry.
- Attach eyes or paint on eyes with white and black paint.
- Punch 16 holes around the inside edge of the plate.
- Secure the twine with a large knot on the back side of the plate, then let your child create a web with the twine, using the plate as a lacing card.
- End the twine in back and secure it by tying it off.
10. Masking Tape Mummy
What you'll need:
- Black paper
- Masking tape
- White crayon
- Scissors
- Glue
- Plastic eyes
How to make it:
- Draw the outline of a body.
- Cut or rip strips of tape off the roll and stick to the edge of the table.
- Add the tape to the outline.
- When they have added all the tape they want to add, cut it out.
- Grab the glue and add some eyes.
11. Popsicle Stick Ghosts
What you'll need:
- Popsicle sticks
- White paint
- Paintbrush
- Black sharpie
- Glue
- Black cardstock
How to make them:
- Make a fence by laying down two popsicle sticks horizontally and gluing more sticks across them vertically.
- Paint the “ghost” white and let it dry.
- Draw on eyes and mouth.
12. Bottle Cap Pumpkin Stamp
What you'll need:
- Orange, brown, and green paint
- Water bottle
- Paintbrush
- Black paper
How to make them:
- Dip the water bottle cap into some orange paint and make three circles in a row on the black paper.
- Take a small paintbrush and add a stem and leaf with paint.
13. Egg Carton Bat
What you'll need:
- Egg carton
- Plastic eyes
- Glue
- Black paper
- Scissors
- Black pain
- Paintbrush
How to make it:
- Paint the egg carton with black paint and let dry.
- Stick on some plastic eyes.
- Measure around the egg carton and draw an outline of the wings. Glue them together.
- Cut two triangle ears out of black paper and make folds so that you can glue them to the top of the bat’s head.
14. Kleenex Box Monsters
What you'll need:
- Tissue boxes
- Egg cartons
- Paint
- Paintbrush
- Plastic eyes
- Hot-glue gun
- Craft foam
How to make them:
- Painted an empty tissue box.
- Draw some teeth on white craft foam and cut out.
- Glue plastic eyes onto egg cartons and cut out.
- Use a hot glue gun and glue the teeth and eyes on.
15. Q-Tip Skeletons
What you'll need:
- Q-Tips
- Glue
- Black construction paper
- White construction paper
How to make them:
- Cut the Q-Tips to the size you want, position your skeleton on the black paper and glue on.
- Cut a head out of white paper, draw a skeleton’s face on it and glue to skeleton.
16. Salt Ghost
What you'll need:
- Salt
- Glue
- Black paper
- Black paint
- Paintbrush
How to make it:
- Draw the outline of a ghost on a black piece of paper with glue and fill it in.
- Sprinkle some table salt all over the ghost and shake off any excess.
- Take some black paint and make a mouth and some eyes.
17. Coffee Filter Spiderwebs
What you'll need:
- White coffee filters (the basket kind, not the cone kind)
- Scissors
- Black felt or construction paper
- Glue stick
How to make them:
- Make a series of “V” cuts down one side of the folded coffee filter.
- Cut rectangles along one side of the folded coffee filter.
- Cut out a few tiny spiders from black felt and glue them to the spiderwebs.
18. Craft Stick Puppets
What you'll need:
- Craft sticks
- Paint
- Plastic eyes
How to make a ghost:
- Paint your craft stick white.
- Add two small black circles for your eyes.
- Add a larger black circle for your mouth.
How to make a mummy:
- Paint craft stick black.
- Use your white paint to paint zig-zags along the length of the entire craft stick.
- Add a couple of plastic eyes.
How to make a pumpkin:
- Paint your craft stick orange.
- Paint 3 small black triangles for the eyes and nose.
- Paint a black zig-zag line for the mouth.