Janis P.
Hallowe’en is a great time of year to get the creative juices flowing, and you would be surprised at how excited your children can get at the prospect of glueing bits of orange paper to glass jars (and to themselves), or making monstrous creatures out of scraps from your recycling box. There are so many ideas out that it’s hard to know where to start, so we’ve put together a little list of our 3 favourite Hallowe’en crafts for kids…
1. Hallowe’en Lanterns
First up are these fabulous Hallowe’en Lantern from Red Ted Art, an easy Hallowe’en craft for children of any age.
Be warned though, this is not a great activity for a Hallowe’en fancy dress party unless you’ve got some painting smocks to protect their costumes while the kids get (literally) stuck into the glue.
Watch the video for instructions on how to make Hallowe’en Lanterns:
2. Hallowe’en Origami
Our very own Louise Hobson (you’ll know her from the immensely popular National Trust series) from Sew Sensational has taken a break from fashion and sewing to fold, crease and snip her way to a spooky flat full of Hallowe’en origami creatures. Being a huge fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I will of course be compelled to try my hand at the folded paper Jack Skellington, although it looks much too tricky for any child under about 8.
Louise seems to have stumbled upon a brilliantly simple, easy and mess-free craft for young children, perfect for our pre-trick-or-treating Hallowe’en party. The snipped paper spiderwebs are a Hallowe’en take on the snipped paper snowflakes we know so well, and will no doubt be a hit with our pack of 3 and 4 year olds who just can’t get enough of weilding sharp scissors and making the mums nervous.
Check out Louise’s Hallowe’en Origami
3. Hallowe’en Owl Masks
We came across another perfect, almost-mess-free craft for children this Hallowe’en from the BAFTA-nominated creators of The Land of Me and Me Books. This crackly spooky Owl mask is inspired by the darling little Willow the Owl from The Land of Me, and makes great use of the beautiful autumn leaves from your garden or local park. Most preschoolers can do this craft with very little assistance, and your toddlers will love getting involved in collecting the leaves and adding the glue.
For older kids, why not set them a challenge? They can create the most stunning masks by layering the different coloured leaves, or get just the right owly face by finding two partially curled leaves for feathery eyebrows.
Instructions for making an Owl Mask
More Halloween Crafts
There are some fab craft ideas over on PattiCrafts, all using materials you can find around the house, or to buy from the wondrous treasure trove that is Baker Ross. The bunting and the pop up witch need a steady hand with the scissors, so you might find they’re better for children age 5 and up. Click the images below for step by step instructions.
Which crafts or homemade Hallowe’en decorations will you be making this Hallowe’en with the kids?
Here’s a great party idea for the kids on Halloween – give them some different colour face paints and get the youngest ones to paint the others faces, then just stand back and watch the fun!
My son and I have just had fun making some paper “jack-o-lanterns”!
Very simple to make too –
you need strips of
8 orange coloured card paper – we got some A3 sized paper from the local craft store
a stapler, sticky tape and glue
string
black paper or a black pen for the detail of the eyes and mouth
Method –
Place the strips of card flat down like the spokes of a wheel and staple in the centre
Gather all the ends and staple at the top – the paper will form a circular ball shape –
Attach a piece of string to the top – (I used sticky tape)
Make some features with the black card…. some freaky eyes, a zig-zaggy mouth and glue on. Simple and effective and so very easy for a young kid to make! My son is 4 and we have just made 8 of these and are decorating our living room just now!
Another easy one is an empty and clean jam jar, cover in orange crepe paper (I would advise thin layer of glue on the jar and then apply the crepe paper!!)
Allow to dry then give your kid artistic licence to draw on the eyes and mouth.
Place a tea light candle inside… Viola!
or if you are anything like me and do not like using real candles when kids are around, I got the fake ones from the pound store which are battery operated
We make stone spiders for Halloween. We collect stones from the beach then bring them home and paint them black (or any colour you choose) then stick pipe cleaner legs onto them, or pieces of string or card if you haven’t got pipe cleaners and finally add googly eyes. They look really effective and the kids really enjoy making them. We have even added glitter to them as the paint dries and they look very effective too.
This is for the DS comp as an extra entry.
My daughter made a little ghost for Halloween. You need a piece of kitchen roll (white!) and some scrunched up toilet paper. Place the kitchen roll flat on a surface and put the scrunched up toilet paper in the middle. This will make the ghost’s head. Bring the corners of the kitchen roll together and tie directly underneath the head area to secure it. You should have a full ghost head and then his body which will be all floaty. Draw some eyes on him in black pen and you’re good to go!