18+ Halloween Crafts For Kids And Easy Guide To Make

Halloween is a favorite holiday for children of all ages! And, while getting some of their favorite Halloween sweets is definitely reason number one, we know they will have a great time commemorating the event by doing Halloween crafts as well. This selection of the best Halloween crafts for kids, with options for every age group from babies to adolescents (with the help of an adult to manage the hot-glue gun on occasion), will entertain, delight, inspire, and keep them busy for hours.

18+ Halloween Crafts For Kids

1. Cat Wreath

Kids can make something hilarious, cute, and wonderful for decorating your front door this season with a little guidance from an adult.

How to make: Wrap a 14-inch foam wreath shape with a broad black ribbon, fastening it with flower pins as you go. Make two 10-inch pieces of 18-gauge craft wire. Make holes in the top of the wreath for the ears. Form wire into ear shapes and place it into the wreath form. Wrap ribbon over wire ears and fasten with hot glue. Finish with an orange burlap bow.

2. Spooky Bird Houses

These are also known as ghost houses. In any case, this simple DIY may be reused on the mantel or Halloween treat buffet year after year.

How to make: Black acrylic paint is used to paint wooden bird homes. Fill with paper ghosts or faux birds once dried. Stretch artificial spider webs over the homes and place on the mantel. If desired, hang paper bats over the dwellings.

3. Ghost Napkin

When you put the kids in charge of making these very simple ghost napkins, they will adore helping to set the table.

How to make: Place the napkin on the table flat. In the center, place a bunched-up tissue or a little piece of tissue paper. Wrap the napkin around the tissue (the head) and attach a piece of ribbon directly below the tissue.

4. String Art Yarn Leaf Pumpkins

These string art leaf pumpkins will appeal to older children. With a simpler design—think simple shapes—this activity is suitable for children as young as 6 (for string art suggestions, see the Boston Children’s Museum). Bonus: Because pumpkin flesh is softer than wood, no hammer is required; however, if they do use a hammer or crab mallet (ideal for small hands), they must wear safety goggles.

How to make Leaf Pumpkins:

1. Draw or trace a leaf on a pumpkin (in our example, the white pumpkin is a maple leaf and the orange pumpkin is an oak leaf).
2. At the tips and dips in the leaves, press 3/4″ nails halfway into the pumpkin. Wrap the yarn over the nails and work your way across the leaf to fill in the center.
3. Insert more nails about an inch apart in the middle of the leaf and wrap them with a different color yarn to create “veining.”
4. Wrap yarn around the outer nails to outline the leaf with a third yarn color.

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5. Gnome Pumpkins

Use sittin’-around skeins, fabric remnants, and little pumpkins to create some enchantment.

How to make Gnome Pumpkins:

1. Copy the gnome hat pattern onto wool fabric and cut it out, changing the size as needed.
2. Glue the straight edges of the hat together, making a cone shape, with craft glue or iron-on fusible tape. Fill with batting to make it stand erect, then place the hat on a tiny pumpkin.
3. To make a nose, hot glue a little woodcraft bead on the pumpkin.
4. Hot-glue strands of yarn over the nose to form a beard; trim as needed.

6. Spooky Paper Cutouts

Everyone (including children) may help make these frightening classic Halloween crafts with paper using our designs for spiders, bones, and skulls.

How to make:

1.  Using a 12″W × 18″L sheet of construction paper, cut a 5″W x 18″L strip. Measure and mark 3 inches from one of the 5-inch ends. Measure and mark four additional times after that.
2. At the first mark, fold the paper. Then, at the next mark, flip over and fold again. Continue flipping and folding to form an accordion shape.
3. Print and cut out the template of your choosing. (Your template should be three inches wide.)
4. Place it on top of the folded paper and trace around it with a pencil.
5. Cut out the form, going through all of the layers of folded paper but being careful to leave the pattern connected at the broadest spots where it hits the folded edges. To unveil, unfold. Repeat the steps to make a longer row and glue garlands together using tacky glue.

7. Bat Sock Puppet

With their own handcrafted puppet, your child may go insane.

How to make Bat Sock Puppet:

1. Begin by slipping one hand into a children’s black crew sock until your fingertips reach the length of the sock and the heel rests on your palm. Choose where the ears, eyes, mouth, fangs, and wings will go using our photo as a reference; mark with chalk. Remove the sock.
2. Hand-stitch on two red button eyes, then a single-line mouth with red embroidery floss. Hand-stitch two black felt triangles for the ears and two white felt triangles for the teeth in place.
3. Cut two black felt wings that are at least 5″W x 14″L and hand-stitch them to the sock as indicated.

8. Washi Tape Pumpkins 4 Ways

All the kids need is a little determination to re-create these simple patterned beauties. Most of all, there is no mess with this no-carve, no-paint sculpture.

How to make:

• Single Washi Tape Quilt Square (shown on a smaller white pumpkin): Using a scrap piece of paper, draw a quilt pattern (or use our quilt square templates). Cut strands of washi tape to fit the pattern, then wrap them around a medium-sized white pumpkin.
• Multiple Washi Tape Quilt Squares (shown on the large white pumpkin): Cut strands of washi tape to make a square in the center of a large white pumpkin. Make another square within the previous one by using a narrower width of a second color of tape. Place a square of tape in the center, followed by a smaller square. Continue to make squares, changing up the designs as you go.
• Washi Tape-Covered Pumpkin (shown on the mini blue pumpkin, mini black pumpkin, and small orange pumpkin in the bottom right corner): Cover a small or medium-sized pumpkin vertically with lengths of washi tape. After coated, wrap a piece of twine around the base of the stem and fix it with hot glue.
• Washi Tape Plaid Pumpkin (shown on the large orange pumpkin on the left): To make a plaid design, layer different colors and thicknesses of washi tape vertically and horizontally on a medium-sized orange pumpkin.

9. Rickrack Bats Pumpkins

Use the zigzag trim to provide an old-fashioned touch to your farmstand discoveries. With the hot-glue gun, an adult should help.

How to make Rickrack Bats Pumpkins: To make a bat, cut a length of extra-large black rickrack. Make ears out of 1″ lengths of 16-gauge black craft wire and hot glue them to the back of the bat. Repeat as needed. Hot glue the bats to the pumpkins.

10. Vintage Halloween Masks Wreath

Make this fun wreath with vintage masks or have your kids sketch a pair for you!

How to make Halloween Masks Wreath: You will need 10 to 15 colorful vintage paper masks from places like Etsy and eBay. Apply a dab of hot glue to an 18″ craft ring, piling and overlapping them as you go.

11. Natural Owl Pumpkin

Take the kids out into the yard to gather materials and assist them in making this sweet-faced feathery buddy (hot glue is… hot!).

How to make Owl Pumpkin: Collect small to medium-sized leaves, acorn tops, grasses, and pinecones from your yard. To make feathers, glue little leaves on the front of a small oblong pumpkin, gently overlapping them. To make wings, glue four bigger leaves on each side, overlapping them. To make the contour of the face, hot glue a piece of thin leather string to a small acorn squash. Separate a pinecone and use the individual scales to make the nose, gluing them together using hot glue. Attach acorn caps as eyes and grass as ears and whiskers.

12. Mummy Pumpkins

Little ones will enjoy wrapping the little pumpkins in gauze strips, but leave the staple gun and hot-glue operations to an adult.

How to make Mummy Pumpkins: Wrap a tiny white pumpkin in gauze strips, using hot glue to fix the strips in place as necessary. To make eyes, hot glue two different-sized black buttons together. To make a mouth, staple a length of thin black yarn with a staple gun.

13. Rickrack Spiderweb Pumpkin

This rickrack web is adorable and simple to make—just make sure youngsters work with an adult to handle the hot glue.

How to make the Rickrack Spiderweb: Hot-glue horizontal lengths of large gray rickrack around the top three-quarters of a medium-sized white pumpkin. Hot-glue vertical lengths to the pumpkin, allowing them to sit in the natural grooves. Hot-glue small plastic spiders in place.

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14. Rack-O’-Lantern

With this no-carve cutie, you can achieve the iconic jack-o’-lantern look. With the hot glue gun, an adult should help.

How to make the Rack-O’-Lantern: On a pumpkin, lightly design a simple pumpkin face. Cover the drawing with lengths of black rickrack, secured with hot glue. Hot-glue little white buttons to the corners of each eye. Cut pumpkin-shaped leaves from green felt and lengths of green rickrack to make tendrils; hot glue them to the pumpkin stem.

15. Halloween Candy Wreath

This will necessitate parental supervision (those glue guns get hot!). But, children can help by selecting the candy and tying the bow on the candy-covered wreath form.

How to make Halloween Candy Wreath: Get a collection of vintage candies in autumnal colors like yellow, orange, and magenta. Wrap white ribbon around a 14″ foam wreath form. Apply hot glue to the candy, layering and overlapping as you go. Add a yellow burlap bow to finish.

16. Cat Face Garland

Help your kids cut out purr-fect black cat faces for a glowing garland.

How to make Cat Face Garland:

1. Cut out the cat face template.
2. Trace the template onto black card stock with a white pencil and cut out the necessary number of faces.
3. Using scissors, fringe the sides of the cat’s face and the top of its head.
4. Cut three 4-inch pieces of black waxed thread for each cat “long. Tie them in the center of the twine and attach them on the cat’s face like whiskers.
5. Make 2 0.5-inch holes for eyes with a regular single-hole punch “apart.
6. String lights are hung and cat faces are attached by inserting a light through each eye hole and spreading the faces apart at regular intervals.

17. Fun Painted Pumpkins

A steady hand and regular acrylic craft paint will suffice. Participants of all ages and ability levels are welcome—beginners can make basic reverse image templates on painter’s tape mats (with an adult to handle the Exacto knife). Artistic middle students, teens, and adults can showcase their skills by creating a freehand haunting countryside scenario.

How to make the Painted Reverse Images:

1. Put down lengths of painter’s tape on a self-healing mat, overlapping the lengths so they attach to one another, to create a “sheet” that is somewhat larger than the image you want to make.
2. On tape, draw the desired image (we created a lantern, a cat’s face, and a headstone).
3. With an Exacto knife, cut out the drawing. (You can use a paint pen to add details like the cat’s eyes, RIP, and lightning bolts later.)
4. Adhere the cuts to the pumpkin with care, making sure the edges are firmly pressed down. Painters tape the pumpkin stem. Let the pumpkin dry completely after spray painting it black.
5. When the paint is dry, carefully remove the painter’s tape. Add details with a paint pen and lengths of black pipe cleaners hot-glued together for the cat’s whiskers.

How to make the Haunted Countryside Pumpkin:

1. Place a large oblong pumpkin on its side and draw a light line one-third of the way up from the bottom.
2. Above the line, draw an agricultural scene (barn, windmill, moon, tractor, and hay bales).
3. Using the line as a guide, paint the bottom third of the pumpkin with black acrylic paint.
4. Fill in the moon using a white paint pen. If desired, add detail to the moon with a gray paint pen.
5. Fill in the picture using a black paint pen, freehanding corn stalks, and flying bats.

18. Paper Pumpkins

These paper pumpkins may look fancy, but they are actually super easy to make.

How to make:

1. Cut 4 paper strips 1 inch wide by 11 or 12 inches tall for a little pumpkin. Cut 8 paper strips 1.5 inches wide by 9 inches tall for a larger pumpkin.
2. Make a little pumpkin by gluing two paper strips together in the center to form a plus shape. Attach two more paper strips diagonally on top to make it seem like the picture. Glue the eight paper strips together in a circle to appear like the picture for the larger pumpkin. Make a hole at one end of each strip. Each paper strip has a hole punched in the end.
3. Fold a pipe cleaner in half and twist a little loop at the end to make a small loop. Make the loop flat.
4. Thread the pipe cleaner through the loops on the end of the strip, starting with the top strip. Rep with the remaining strips. (For the larger pumpkin, start with the bottom strip and proceed up).
5. Thread the pipe cleaner through all of the strips to form a pumpkin shape. Spin the pipe cleaner again on top of the pumpkin to fasten the paper strips. Wrap the pipe cleaner around a pencil and secure it.
6. If desired, roll up a small scrap of brown paper and glue it to the pipe cleaners to make a stem.

Bottom Line

In short, the collection of Halloween crafts for kids provides a terrific opportunity to spark creativity, develop learning, and celebrate the spirit of the season in a hands-on and unforgettable manner. From creating spooky creatures to creating pumpkin masterpieces, these innovative projects allow youngsters to express their artistic talents while also improving fine motor skills and imaginative thinking. The combined experience of creating Halloween-themed wonders not only enhances family and classroom relationships but also generates treasured memories that will live for years. Engaging in these projects with children promises a fun and gratifying journey of self-expression, laughter, and shared joy when the air becomes crisp and the excitement of Halloween fills the atmosphere.