Halloween is one of the most thrilling times of the year for hands-on creative play. Festive magic comes into your home with simple crafting activities and develops fine motor skills.
Kids love to make cute ghosts, friendly pumpkins, and silly monsters. Autumn crafting doesn’t have to be stressful or expensive when you use common household items.
Over the course of my career as a paediatric behavioural specialist I enjoyed incorporating seasonal arts and crafts to foster focus and sensory exploration. Creative art sessions help kids work through excitement in a calm, hands-on way.
If you’re planning more festive fun, check out our favourite halloween baby costume ideas. Want to get a bit more hands-on with your play? Check out our toddler sensory bin ideas or our general toddler activities guide.
When crafting with young children, it’s important to use non-toxic materials and age-appropriate tools. Make sure all the paints, glues and small parts are safe for early play by checking out the AAP toy and craft safety standards.
Here are 20 fun and adorable Halloween crafts your kids will love to make this season.
Halloween Fun & Festivity Crafts
These 20 craft projects make adorable Halloween decorations from common items like paper plates, yarn, and cardboard.
1. Bat Puppets Flying with Popsicle Sticks
Paint wood craft sticks black and glue black construction paper wings with googly eyes. The kids will have fun flapping their bat puppets around the living room.
Securely attach craft sticks using washable glue. A fun afternoon activity for preschoolers.
2. Pumpkin Lanterns on Paper Plates
Classic jack-o’-lantern faces are easy to make by painting basic white paper plates orange and glueing on black paper triangles. Top with green pipe cleaner stems.
Hang them with yarn on windows. It’s an instant festive window decoration and there’s no pumpkin carving mess.
3. Cardboard Crafts with Yarn-Wrapped Mummy
Cut out simple body shapes from cardboard and let kids wrap them in soft, white yarn to make mummies. Put large googly eyes between the yarn layers.
Yarn wrapping develops fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. The tactile texture is interesting to toddlers.
4. Ghost Cotton Ball Garlands That Float
Glue glittery fluffy cotton balls to ghost shapes cut from cardstock and string together on twin strings. Drape your garland over mantles or doorways.
The soft cotton balls make these ghosts friendlier than spooky. It’s fast and cheap.
5. Spooky Monster Mason Jar Glow
Cover clean glass jars with washable mod podge and green or purple tissue paper. Create glowing lantern nite lights with flameless LED tea lights.
Battery operated tea lights are completely safe for bedtime illumination. Kids will love their bedside monster-lights.
6. Keepsakes with Black Cat Handprints
Cat bodies stamped on bright orange cardstock with black handprints. Draw pointy ears, yellow eyes and whiskers with paint markers.
Handprint crafts are a wonderful way to capture those precious milestones of childhood memory. Frame the completed print for seasonal art work.
7. Monster Shakers (Paper Cup)
Fill paper cups with dried rice or beans, seal the tops with cardstock and decorate them to look like silly monsters. Add googly eyes and horns made of pipe cleaner.
Kids love making rhythmic music with their home-made monster shakers. It’s art and play all at once.
8. Spiders, Egg Carton Friendly
Cut out the cups of an egg carton, paint them black and poke fuzzy pipe cleaners through the sides to make eight legs. And put some googly eyes on front.
Teaching kids to recycle egg cartons establishes sustainable crafting habits early. These nice spiders sit well on tables.
9. Pumpkins in Tissue Paper Stained Glass
Black pumpkin outline frames covered in clear contact paper, with orange and yellow squares of tissue paper inside. Tape them to sunny windows and get suncatcher effects.
Sunlight filters through tissue paper, giving a warm glowing stained-glass light. It beautifies the rooms of autumn.
10. Pinecone Friendly Forest Beasts
Take an autumn walk and gather pinecones, then paint them in bright neon purple or green and glue on felt teeth and mini pom-poms.
Nature craft walks are about getting out to exercise and in to express your creativity. Every pinecone monster is different.
11. Frankenstein Friendly Paper Towels
Paint paper towel rolls bright green and place black paper fringe hair across the top. Draw stitched smiles using black permanent markers.
Silver glue bolt cutouts on sides. This is an iconic Halloween craft that kids love to create.
12. Felt Pumpkin Face Boards Mix-and-Match
Cut out a large orange felt pumpkin shape and black felt eyes, noses and toothy smiles. Felt sticks naturally to felt no glue needed.
Kids can change pumpkin expressions again and again. It is a quiet, mess-free sensory board.
13. Coffee Filter Tie-Dye Bats
Colour white coffee filters with washable markers, mist lightly with water to blend colours, and clip the centers with clothespins to make bat wings.
It’s a fun visual science experiment to watch colours blend. The tie-dye patterns look pretty when dry.
14. Clay Ghost Thumbprint Ornaments
Roll out white air dry clay Cut out circle discs Press your kid’s thumb into the surface. Once dry, use black paint to make small eyes in the thumbprint depression.
Poke a top hole before drying to string hanging ribbons. Makes a treasured keepsake ornament.
15. Patterned Washi Tape Monsters
Have the kids put strips of colourful patterned washi tape on cardboard monster cutouts. Cut the overlapping edges of tape to clean up monster outlines.
Tape tear crafts are no mess and perfect for travelling or quiet time. Patterned tapes add vibrant textures.
16. Pipe Cleaner Beaded Spiders
Thread colourful pony beads on black pipe cleaners and twist them together to create spider legs. Spiders are fun and malleable with the beaded texture.
Stringing beads helps develop finger pinch accuracy and concentration. Bend your legs and stand on tables.
17. Witch Hats Made From Paper Plates
Wearable Witch Hats Roll black cardstock into cones and glue to circular paper plate rims. Decorate the bands with purple glitter ribbon.
Wearable crafts can be used as costume accessories for dressup play. Kids love to wear their creations around the house.
18. Pumpkin Keepsakes Salt Dough
Combine flour, salt and water to make small dough pumpkins. Bake until firm and let the children paint them in bright autumn colours.
Homemade salt dough is non-toxic and cheap to make in large batches. Seal painted pieces for a long lasting display.
19. Autumn Creatures Leaf Stamped
Use washable paint to paint fresh fallen leaves and then press them onto cardstock to print leaf textures. When dry add googly eyes and draw legs.
The combination of natural leaf silhouettes with funny monster details encourages creative imagination. It celebrates the great outdoors in autumn.
20. Yarn Pom Pom Friendly Monsters
Wrap colourful yarn around cardboard rings to make fluffy pom-poms. Glue on felt teeth, felt horns, googly eyes. Make adorable mini monsters.
Adorable desk buddies or backpack clips. Soft yarn pom poms. Kids love to crush their plush things.
Sloane’s Take
“Making art with children at Halloween is not about perfection, it is about fun. Keep materials simple, celebrate silly expressions, and let your children lead their own creative explorations.”
