As the weather starts to get colder and indoor boredom sets in, give your children Halloween crafts to keep them busy. Depending on their age, this may or may not get them out of their cold weather funk. But even if they are getting a little older, there could be a lot of fun to be had if you can interest your children in Halloween crafts.

A good way to get them motivated is to have them gussy up the treats for the kids who come to your house to trick or treat. Get several bags of suckers and a box of tissues. Wrap the tissue around the round part of the sucker and tie a ribbon, rubber band, or even a twist tie right below the round part of the sucker. Make some eyes and an even an open mouth if you like and you have little ghost suckers to hand out on Halloween.

Another fun idea starts with drawing a spider’s body with no legs on a piece of construction paper. Cut some pipe cleaners to the appropriate length and have your children glue them to their spider’s bodies. Get creative with what you could do with the finished product.

If you are having a hard time coming up with ideas on your own then you shouldn’t have a hard time finding plenty of children’s Halloween crafts in any craft book. You could also get a craft book dedicated to Halloween to find some more spooky ideas to fill your Halloween with fun and fright.

Pumpkin Crafts for Kids

If you are in charge of a kid’s Halloween party at your house or school you will want to be ready with Halloween crafts for kids.

Pumpkin crafts can be easily made and will be lots of fun for everyone. Here are some Halloween crafts for kids that involve pumpkins:

Pumpkin Photo Card- Take a picture of each child with a Polaroid or digital camera. Purchase pre-made frames that will allow the kids to decorate them. Have markers, puffy paint, glitter pens and other decorating supplies available for the kids to use to decorate the frames. After the frames are complete you can tape each child’s photo on the inside.

Pumpkin Seed Necklace- All you need for this project is pumpkin seeds, white thread or Scrappers Floss and a needle. Prepare the pumpkin seeds ahead of time by cutting up the pumpkin and washing the seeds. Let the kids thread the pumpkin seeds onto the thread to make a necklace. When they are finished just tie the ends. You could also use orange beads with the pumpkin seeds. +

Pumpkin Candy Jar- Purchase clear 4" jars, orange pom poms, green chenille stems, black felt and candy. Glue an orange pom pom to the lid of the canister. Fold the chenille stem in half once and the fold again and twist. Glue it on top of the pom pom to make a pumpkin stem. Use the black felt and cut out a nose, eyes and mouth. Glue these onto the pumpkin and fill the jar with candy.

Other Halloween Craft Ideas for Children

Frankenstein is always a clever theme when it comes to Halloween decorating, crafts and parties.

First of all we will make a Frankenstein painted pot. All you need is a clay pot and some acrylic paint in various Frankenstein-like colors.

A cool accent will be the two push pins used to look like bolts. Have a wire cutter handy to cut off the pin part and then use a glue gun to attach the pins to the painted pot. You can put tissue paper inside and candy or other treats.

Next let’s try the Frankenstein laboratory hand. These Halloween crafts for children are great and easy to make. Take lime green construction paper and have each child trace her hand onto a folded sheet of the paper. Put the wrist on the fold while tracing and then cut out. Don’t cut on the fold! Open the hand shape and cut and glue pieces of chenille stems to the fingers on one side of the hand. This will allow the fingers to bend. Glue the hands together to form one hand. Cut fingernails of construction paper and glue on the fingertips. Glue a popsicle stick to the bottom of the wrist and add a spider ring to one or more fingers.

Another good Halloween craft for children is the freaky Frankenstein popcorn hand project. You will need disposable clear gloves, candy corn, popcorn and green curling ribbon. Put the candy corn in the glove first to look like fingernails and then add the popcorn. Tie the top with the ribbon and you are done.

Memories to remember

There are such a lot of exciting events that occur in October, all leading up to Halloween. Have your camera prepared so you don’t miss a single Kodak moment!

To start, there’s the costume selection. Odds are, your youngster will need to try on 3 or 4 or more before settling on their ideal choice. There’s also the trip to the pumpkin patch to choose the perfect pumpkin, the one that you will turn into the “just right” jack-o-lantern. You may even want to capture memories of raking the yard, hanging up the decorations, or baking Halloween cookies and goodies.

Getting supplies together

Obviously, the first step to building a scrapbook, is getting a scrapbook to start with. While craft stores can offering a wide range of sizes and styles from which to choose, you can also download many excellent digital layouts online for your perfect scrapbook. Halloween themed kits are plentiful and popular.

While you are shopping around, you may want to have a look at the different colored papers, stickers, and other wide and varied assortment of embellishments that are available to add zip to your scrapbook pages. If you’re in need of stencils, scissors, or glue, don’t forget to add those to your shopping cart as well.

Memories to incorporate

What you choose to include in your scrapbook of Halloween is entirely up to you – be as imaginative as you want! If you like, have your child take part by picking out photographs or other items to incorporate. If your “idea tank” is running low, here’s some fuel to get get you moving forward:

Go for a walk and gather some colorful fall leaves that are always dropping from the October trees.

Halloween cards or invitations you’ve received can be used as an embellishment. You may use the whole card so you can still read the messages, or just cut off the colorful picture on the front.

Any Halloween work-of-art that your youngster has created is an excellent addition to your scrapbook. Halloween designs your child has made in school are an obvious choice. If the project is too chunky or oversized to fit comfortably in the scrapbook itself, take some photos of it to incorporate instead. Any fun art project that you and your child worked on together at home would be a great addition too.

Suggest to your child that s/he create a Top Ten list of the current crop of “favs” this year – favorite costumes, candy, books or television shows, for example. Goodies from any parties that you attended are also fun to include. The present bag, name tag, or invitation make a sweet addition to the scrapbook.

Halloween costumes are an obvious memory to include, so be sure to take a photograph of your child all dressed up for their big evening out. Keep the camera ready to snap the action as the day unfolds.

Pix, pix and more pix! A really good photograph will capture the fun of the day in a way that a written description just can’t – pictures are worth a thousand words, as they say. Hand your child the camera and allow him or her to take some shots also, to get another unique perspective on the events.

Nab any decorations, souvenirs, or other things you think may help spark memories when you look through the scrapbook after it’s all over. You want to preserve memories forever, so if you would like to recollect that perfect costume or those special moments from your child’s first Halloween party, consider making your own scrapbook. Halloween, with all its color and clutter and wide-eyed excitement, is the kind of childhood memory that deserves to be remembered in style.

The holidays are coming toward us like a train. Don’t let them slip past without grabbing the memorable bits and preserving them in a scrapbook! Scrapbook books are your secret weapon to killer pages. Don’t like reading? Don’t worry! They’re chock full of big, colorful pictures! Learn how to take your scrapbooking from good to great. Then learn what takes it from great to glorious. Kerry Hurst knows that knowledge is power. Her Scrapbook Bookstore will help you become a scrapbook genius.

Jack O’Lantern Terra Cotta Planter

For this craft you will need:

1. A terra cotta pot and dish

2. Orange, green and black craft paint

3. Paintbrushes, small, medium and large sizes

4. A plant of your choice to put in the pot

Begin this craft by spreading out newspaper to protect the surface you are working on. It is probably best to “double up” the newspaper and put down two layers of newspaper.

This craft is for a Jack O’Lantern face on a terra cotta pot. Paint the pot entirely orange; do not paint the rim of the pot. Use one or two coats, make sure the pot is nice deep orange color. Allow this to dry completely before going on to the next step.

Now you are ready to add the Jack O’Lantern’s face. A little tip in doing this: you will find this a bit easier if you sketch out the face you like on a piece of paper, and then lightly sketch it onto the planter so your child can paint into the lined area. Paint the features black. Give this one or two coats, again making sure the paint is thick.

Add a green line around the rim of the pot. Paint all around the rim of the pot using your green paint. Allow this to dry.

Once your pot is dry, you are ready to re-pot the plant into the planter.

Fall Leaves Barrette

This craft is great for girls and will go nicely with a Fall outfit.

For this craft you will need:

1. Silk leaves of traditional Fall leaves, golden, orange and red

2. A low-temp glue gun

3. Large barrettes (can be found at your craft store)

Plug the glue gun in and wait until it is hot. Add a glue stick to the glue gun. You will know when the glue gun is hot typically because the glue at the tip will be ready to melt (squeeze the trigger to test this). Follow your glue gun’s directions. Most children will need supervision using a glue gun.

Take the barrette and place a several small dots of glue on the barrette across the entire barrette. Remember that this glue cools quickly so you need to work fast.

Place the silk fall leaves along the barrette. You may want to place them diagonally, or use only two or one leaves depending on the size and shape of the barrette. Use your best judgment as to how many leaves to select.

Allow the glue to set, this usually takes thirty minutes. Once this has done you can use the barrette and enjoy.

Black Cat Halloween Card

This is a great craft that will give your child a Halloween card to send to their grandparents or family or friends to celebrate the holiday.

For this craft you will need:

1. Blank cards and envelopes

2. Black card stock

3. Yellow card stock

4. A gold metallic paint pen

5. Scissors

6. Non-toxic glue

Begin this craft by cutting the shape of a cat out of the black paper. Tip: if you have trouble cutting out a cat, look for a cat in your clip art program and use this shape to guide you.

Then cut a large full moon out of the yellow paper. Once you have both of these cut out, glue the full moon to the paper first. Then glue the black cat to the paper, with the black cat halfway on the full moon.

Write about a quarter of the way down on the full moon “Happy Halloween” using the gold metallic paint pen. Allow the paint and the glue to dry. Once this is dry, your card is ready for you to send.

If you would like to make this project a little differently, make bats instead of cats.

Abigail Beal enjoys sharing her love of crafting with others. She also writes for several online publications including superfundraiser.com a site which helps schools and other groups find ways to fund their programs. By answering a few simple questions you’ll get a free fundraising match report with the best school fundraisers for your group.

Irish folklore has the origins of Jack O’ lanterns in the story of a greedy farmer named Jack (strangely). Through cunning, this Irish farmer managed to trick the devil into climbing a tree and then whilst the devil was in the braches, Jack cut a cross into the trunk of the tree thereby trapping El Diablo by preventing climbing out of the tree.

Not best pleased with this result, the devil laid a hex on Jack condemning him to an earth bound eternity in limbo. And as a continual reminder of the flames of Hell, the devil tossed Jack an undying ember which he was further condemned to carry with him all the time. Jack carved a turnip and placed the ember inside before setting off on his quest to find solace from his sentence of purgatory.

With the mass exodus of Irish to escape the great famine, the tradition of carving turnip and swede spread across the globe and the pumpkin, always considered as being the iconic harvest produce began to be similarly carved. The natural link to celebration of All Hallows Eve and the story farmer Jack happened around the middle of the nineteenth century when carved pumpkins (primarily) became commonly referred to as Jack O’ lanterns.

If you want to join in the fun and carve your own Jack o’ lantern, shops and markets will be stocking pumpkins ranging in size from the tiny to gigantic and all have a place in decorating for Halloween. Large pumpkins make stunning centerpieces and can be used for elaborate and complicated carved designs. Small examples are used to demonstrate fine carving and are usually pride of place in any display. For beginners and experienced alike, a good display of medium sized pumpkins makes an ideal and welcoming Halloween decoration.

Pumpkin carving has become so much simpler with the advent of stencils which can be fixed to the pumpkin side making guide for the carver to follow. These usually also come compete with useful instructions which combined bring the skill of carving a beautiful pumpkin within the reach of most.

Before starting to carve your pumpkin, it is a good idea to consider how you will be lighting it. This will determine whether you should cut from the top or the bottom. If you are using a candle, cutting the top creates a natural vent for the heat produced to escape. If using a battery operated light, cutting from the bottom will allow easier and quicker access to it. This will be especially useful if you are planning to use Jack o’ lanterns in a graveyard scene or on mass.

Scoop out the inside of the pumpkin so the side to be carved is about 1″ thick. This makes the effort of carving much easier. Apply any stencil to the smoothest side of the pumpkin making sure it’s as central as possible.

Using a pumpkin pricker or toothpick, transfer the design to the pumpkin and then using a combination of pumpkin saw and knives or blades create your desired pumpkin carving by following the pricked outline on the pumpkin.

To prevent your pumpkin spoiling and drying out too quickly, smear any cut edges with petroleum jelly. When not on show, keep it cool and in the dark and lastly, if it does dry out, revitalise it by plunging it in bucket of cold water.

Karnival Costumes stocks pumpkin carving kits along with a huge selection of Halloween props including gravestones, artificial moss, monster chains, creepy cloth, skeletons, spooky animals, flying ghosts and ghouls along with a huge selection of fancy dress costumes and accessories Halloween adults and Children; go to: http://www.karnival-house.co.uk/acatalog/Halloween.html Feel free to browse our website and purchase your Halloween props, costumes and accessories with confidence from one of the leading costume suppliers in the UK.

We also have a large selection of articles on a wide range of party themed topics. Why not join our newsletter for up to date information on the latest trends in costumes, news and notification of our special offers.

Article submitted by: KV Sinclair. Keith Sinclair has over 35 years of business experience and in addition to being a part time University Lecturer on Business Studies, he is CEO of Cavalcade; a group of companies operating in the party sector. Cavalcade operates Karnival-House http://www.karnival-house.co.uk one of the UK’s leading internet Fancy Dress Retailers. With massive stocks for immediate dispatch and an ever expanding range, Karnival-House continues to strive simply to offer outstanding service combined with outstanding value.

Trick or Treat Bags

One great project for easy paper Halloween crafts are bags that you can give away during trick or treat. The simplest trick or treat bag design would be pasting pumpkin cut outs made from pieces of orange, black and green construction paper. If you want to be more creative with these easy paper Halloween crafts, you can cut out different facial features from construction paper to paste on the bag. You can add special scary features like fangs and horns. Fill the bag with goodies and fold and close the top with some tape. Cut some yarn and glue on the fold for hair.

Witch Masks

Paper plates are one of the most versatile easy paper Halloween crafts. Any Halloween decoration with a circular shape like a wreath or a pumpkin could be made out of paper plates. Aside from decorations, a variety of homemade masks can be made out of them like a witch mask.

In making witches from paper plates, simply paint the back part of your paper plate with light, lime or mint green. Let it dry and carefully cut out eye slots. You can trace the outline of the slots with black ink for effect. For the nose, cut a triangle from a piece of green construction paper and fold the triangle in half. Put some glue on the two long edges of the triangle and attach to the center of the plate just below the eyes. Cut a squiggly mouth from black construction paper and paste below the nose. Cut circles from brown construction paper for moles and warts.

Cut a triangle with curved edges from black construction paper and glue to the top of the plate to make a witch’s hat. Cut a long thin strip of construction paper and paste just below the triangular hat to serve as the hat’s base. Cut holes and insert rubber bands on the opposite sides of the mask. There are no other easy paper Halloween crafts than this.

Ghost Streamer

These easy paper Halloween crafts use additional materials other than paper. Get a circular object such as an old ping pong ball. Cut white crepe paper into long strips with widths that are slightly wider than the circumference of the ball. Stick the ball onto the center of one crepe strip. Put adhesive on the back of the crepe and ball and lay it horizontally on a vertically positioned strip. You should now have a cross of two strips with the ball at the center.

Stick a third strip of crepe to the back of the ball again. Do the same with the other two strips but this time, the crepe should be placed diagonally. Stick a fourth strip going in the opposite direction. Gather the remaining strips and continue sticking horizontally, vertically and diagonally.

Insert your hand under so that you are holding the very base of the pieces of glued crepe. Invert the strips such that the ball becomes completely covered. Gather the strips together and tie at the bottom of the ball. Draw ghostly features on the ball with a marker. Thread a piece of double white yarn on a small square of white cartolina and knot at the bottom. Stick the piece of cartolina on the head of your ghost.

Low on Halloween arts and crafts budget? Learn how you can turn old paper materials into fun and easy paper Halloween crafts.

If you’re new to cake decorating or cake sculpting, you’ll find the Jack O’ Lantern cake is fun and easy. And, if you’re already experienced, you will have all the more fun by adding intricate details. Either way, this Jack o’ Lantern Halloween cake is sure to light up faces at your next Halloween party.

Jack o’ Lantern Cake Instructions

Before you whip up a batch of buttercream, take out a piece of paper and sketch some Jack o’ Lantern faces. If you have kids at the house, enlist their help. Searching “Google Images” for Jack o’ Lantern will also deliver lots of ideas. Once you’ve narrowed down your favorites to a final selection, practice drawing it to make the piping easier.

Ready? Here we go!

1. Bake 2 Bundt cakes. Coincidentally, pumpkin works like a charm for a Halloween sculpture cake because of its firmness (see recipe below). Butter cake works well too.

2. After releasing and cooling the 2 cakes, level the bottoms.

3. Ice the bottoms with orange buttercream (non crusting is best for this project). Place one upsidedown, and the other on top, so the iced bottoms fit together.

4. Now, cover the cake with orange buttercream. As you smooth your icing, you can work with the natural indentions left by the Bundt pans that mimic the vertical lines on a real pumpkin.

5. Using the orange buttercream, pipe the outlines of the facial features. If you make a mistake, just smooth it and start over. 5. Now for the fun part! Here are a few ideas for creating the details of your Jack o’ Lantern’s face.

a. Fit an icing bag with a small star tip and fill with chocolate buttercream. Fill in the eyes, nose and gaps between the teeth.

b. After completing the step above, add details such as pupils to the eyes with icing candies, like M&M’s and black licorice.

c. To make your Jack o’ Lantern glow, use yellow gel instead of chocolate buttercream (remember not to cover the teeth and other places that would be left intact in a real Jack o’ Lantern).

d. Instead of piping facial features, bring Jack to life by modeling eyes, nose, teeth and any other features you want to add (eyebrows?) with rolled butterceam icing or marzipan.

Just like a real Jack O’ Lantern your Bundt o’ Lantern will have a hole in the top. Here are a few ways you can put the lid on Jack.

a. Cover an ice cream cone with green or chocolate buttercream and using icing, adhere this upside down over the hole in the top. Then using a large leaf tip, pipe a few green leaves around the top.

b. Model the stem and leaves with rolled buttercream.

c. Save just enough batter from the recipe below to make a cupcake. Trim it for the stem shape you want and adhere with icing to the top.

And here’s your pumpkin cake recipe!

Halloween Pumpkin Cake

Note: This pumpkin cake makes a great treat for grown-ups too, and it’s even more devilishly delicious with a buttercream and chopped nuts icing.

4 cups canned pumpkin

6 cups sugar

2 cup vegetable oil

6 eggs

6 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour 2 10-inch Bundt pans. Blend the pumpkin, sugar, oil, and eggs. Sift remaining ingredients into a separate bowl. Mixing as you add it, spoon the pumpkin mixture into the dry mixture. Blend well. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middles comes out clean (around an hour and 15 minutes). Allow cakes to cool in pans for 5 minutes. Release, and after completely cooled, decorate.

Serving Tip: This is even better tasting and easier to work with after mellowing overnight, covered in the refrigerator.

The Homemade Pumpkin Cake recipe is adapted from “Cake Decorating Made Easy!” Here’s what one reader wrote about our Video Books:

“Incomparable! I’ve not opened my other books now that I have yours…don’t decorate another cake until you’ve seen these Video Books!”

Pia, Lynnwood, WA

Last but not least, here’s one more tip. The quantity of liquid food coloring needed to concoct Halloween brown and black will bring a bitter flavor to your buttercream. Here’s what you can do to keep the ghoulish elements in the design and out of the icing:

• Instead of liquid food coloring, opt for the more intense gel or paste forms. Can’t find these locally? Try www.CandyLandCrafts.com

• Use chocolate for brown and start with dark chocolate for black (and you won’t need as much black food coloring).

• Skip the chocolate and food colorings, and use instead candy and cookies. String black licorice works great for outlining. Crush, dark chocolate cookies or crumble dark chocolate cake to use to fill in large areas, like around Jack’s teeth.

Happy Halloween Cake Making!

If cake decorating sometimes feels more like a trick than a treat, sign up for our free newsletter at http://www.CakeAnswers.com and receive devilishly delightful cake decorating tips, along with step by step videos (from the “Cake Decorating Made Easy!” Video Books).

The most commonly used decoration item is the traditional Jack o lantern. One can arrange them in a line or put them upon porch railings. They can be also decorated along the driveway or the walkway. Some other traditional decoration items like the candles and dishes of alcohol can also be paced with them. To enhance the effect you can even use blue Halloween lights for a ghostly look. You can also cut out free hand shapes from black or orange colored construction papers and hang them on the windows and walls for a spooky effect. You can cut out silhouettes of witches, cats, elves, bats, pumpkins, owls, spiders, cauldrons, peaked hats or broom sticks. You can search the net for more interesting shapes. Take their print out and trace them on these construction papers. You can also make lamp shades out of paper and hang real lights in them.

You can also create decorative items from a variety of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables like apple, carrots and turnips can be cut into monstrous faces and they can be hung from the ceilings or used as a candle stand. Halloween goblins can also be created from these vegetables and fruits. To make the heads one can use the Jack o lantern and for the body one can use a small sized pumpkin to make the body. The hands and the legs can be made from the carrots. The body parts can be attached to each other with the help of wires. Any Halloween party is incomplete without the ghosts. Ghosts can be created by hanging the Jack o lantern from an upright post. The Jack o lantern will be the head. The post can be covered or draped with a white curtain. The sheet can be tucked or just left free to flow in the wind.You can ask all the guests to come dressed up as characters from famous ghost stories to make the environment creepier. One can also draw skulls on paper and cut them out. These can be painted in bright colors that will glow in light. Hang these from the ceilings. These skulls will be moving around the room and will look absolutely spooky.

Give spooky names to the food. The cherry lollipops can be known as Acid Pops or the blood flavored lollypops and the dessert sherbet balls can be transformed into fizzing whiz bees. The cupcakes can be decorated in the form of spider webs. Halloween is known for spooky and creepy parties. These decorative items will set the theme for the party. But there are certain things that must be kept in mind that there are no kids below three years of age who may actually get scared. The party must not be spooky to the extent that it seriously scares people.

Keep it light so that everybody has fun at your party.

For any help on halloween party stuff, check out the info available online; these will help you learn to find the halloween lights!

Halloween is just about creating a theme and strictly abiding to the theme. You can also have a normal party with people coming in different costumes but it would be real fun if you set aside a theme for Halloween. Halloween is about having fun decorations making it scary and eerie.

Let us take some time in going through a few ideas that can make you Halloween interesting.

Idea #1 – Do you have a bush in front of your house? Or can you create one just for the occasion? If yes, you are about to be the point of attraction in your neighborhood. Make a note of the items required for this idea. You need a white sheet as per the size of the bush, a newspaper, permanent black magic marker or fabric paint and cloth pins. The idea is to make a ghost like figure by painting a ghost on the white paper, folding the white sheet, balancing the sheet with the newspaper and securing the figure with the help of clothespins. Sounds really simple but it is definitely going to scare the passerby.

Idea #2 – The other idea for Halloween is to make your house look very festive and very scary, both the inside and the outside. I will show you how to get a scary path way. You will need lots of brown lunch bags, orange paint, sand and tea light or votive candle. Paint the bags orange in color and cut it out to make a scary face of a pumpkin. Fill half of the pumpkin face with sand and put a candle in it and light it. Make lots of these along the pathway and it would look really scary.

Idea #3 – You will require orange construction paper, white construction paper, pencil, scissors, string, tape, glue and staples. Draw a picture of a ghost on the white chart paper and pumpkin faces on the orange one. Be sure to make it a free hand draw to get originality. Also leave some space on top of the chart so that you can hang it to make a garland of ghosts and pumpkin faces. Fold over the space and place the string by the fold. Secure the created articles using staples, glue and tape. The pumpkin garland would look good with a green string and the ghosts with a black string to have a good contrast. Hang them all round your house and start the party.

Apart from these ideas, tons of examples and ideas can be found on the World Wide Web, but the best information center is your brain. As said creativity is the master of all arts.

Abhishek is an expert at making Halloween Crafts and he has got some great Halloween Craft Secrets up his sleeve! Download his FREE 93 Page Ebook, “How To Make Your Own Spooky Halloween Crafts!” from his website http://www.Fun-Galore.com/99/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.

Ghost Hand Puppet

Kids love playing with puppets and there’s hardly an easier puppet to make than a ghost. All you need is a white paper towel, or a white handkerchief, a rubber band and a black marker.

Ask your child to spread out her thumb and pinky, but keep the 3 other fingers together. Drape the paper towel over her hand and secure the rubber band around the three fingers. This will be the ghost’s head; the thumb and pinkie form the arms. Draw eyes and a mouth on the paper towel and the little ghost puppet is finished.

Ghost Lollipops

Dress up the lollipops you are giving away for Halloween by wrapping a white tissue or small piece of fabric over them. Secure it with a piece of string or a rubber band. Take a black marker and draw eyes and a round mouth on the ghost’s face.

Spider Webs

What would Halloween be without spiders and spider webs? Make these cute little spider webs with the kids and hang them in the window. All you need are 3 craft or clean popsicle sticks and some white or black yarn. Take two of the craft sticks and glue them together to form a cross. Glue the 3rd one right in the middle, forming a star shape. Tie one end of the yarn around one of the craft sticks in the center. Start weaving it over one craft stick and under the other. Keep going around, forming your spider web. Make sure you leave at least 1/4th inch of the craft sticks sticking out and secure the loose end by tying it to one of the craft sticks. Glue a small plastic spider in the center and hang your spider web up.

Witch Broom Pencil

Witch broom pencils make a cute Halloween gift that doesn’t involve candy. You can turn any pencil into a witch’s broom with a handful of household items. All you need is a regular pencil, some small twigs out of the yard, some string and a little glue.

Break the twigs into equal lengths pieces and line them up around the unsharpened end of a pencil. Make it look like an old fashioned broom. Secure the wigs with string, and then apply a thick layer of glue to keep it all in place.

Cauldron Candy Dish

To make this cute cauldron candy dish, start with an empty round plastic container (like a cool-whip container). Clean it, dry it, and then paint it black. Paint three small wooden balls black as well. After the paint is dry, glue them to the bottom of your plastic container. Add a handle made out of wire if you’d like and your candy dish cauldron is done. Just add some of your favorite Halloween candy.

Pumpkin Painting

Carving funny or scary faces into a pumpkin is a lot of fun, but it also gets quite messy and small kids can’t really do much since there’s a knife involved. Buy a few small pumpkins instead, or in addition to the big carving pumpkin. Use permanent pens or acrylic paint to draw funny faces on your mini-pumpkins.

Make a Halloween Costume

Would you like to quickly make creative Halloween costumes that you and your children will be proud of — for a fraction of the price of store-bought? Susanne Myers has put together a book to show you how — no sewing involved. Visit http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/ebooks/halloween.html to learn more.

For more crafts and activities for you and your child visit http://www.kinderinfo.com

A fun craft is something that can keep you occupied for hours on end especially if you enjoy it. Here are some ideas that will hopefully set you on your way in preparation for your next Halloween…

Halloween Crafts Part 1:

If you live in a house that has a wood-burning fireplace, then chances are that you have access to tree stumps or large blocks of wood. These are great for making stands for your Jack O’Lanterns. You could use a chisel to slightly hollow out the middle of the stump so that the lantern can sit stably or simply use some Blu-Tack or Velcro.

Get some small or mini pumpkins and hollow them out to use as candle holders. If open flames are out of the question, you can put glow sticks instead of candles for a different effect. You can carve, draw or paint faces on the pumpkins too. Instead of pumpkins, you could use apples as well. Ensure that you choose apples that sit well and flat or cut off the bottom to make a flat surface. Remove the stem and cut around it deep enough for the candle. It is best to use taper candles for a better fit.

Get a large pumpkin and hollow it out to use as a salad bowl or to serve fresh vegetables. Cut off the top, hollow and clean it out and let it dry in the sun. You could carve a jagged edge design on the top. Do the same with some smaller or mini pumpkins to use for dips or salad dressings.

Make a scarecrow in your front yard. You need two pieces of wood, one put into the ground and the other nailed across for the arms. Use old jeans and a shirt and stuff them with newspaper. Add some straw for effect. You can use a plastic pumpkin for the head and draw a face on it. This makes a great Halloween craft for the whole family.

Tie glow sticks to helium balloons and let them float around the house. Ensure that some string extends below so that people can easily reach them if they get stuck somewhere or simply to play with them.

Use publicly available Halloween fonts on your computer to make banners or invitations for your party. It’s a fast, easy Halloween craft you can use instantly to enhance your party theme. Print them onto inkjet iron-on transfer paper and put them onto your favourite t-shirt or Halloween outfit.

Halloween Crafts Part 2. OK, Now We Are Getting Scary…

A visit to your local hardware store for some basic items and you could make your own tombstones transforming your garden into an instant graveyard. Paint them grey to resemble stone. Do not worry about the details as it will be dark, but do put on some exciting or scary wordings. By the way, your local hardware store is loaded with Halloween craft ideas.

Going trick or treating? Why not make a special jug to collect candies? Cut off the top two inches of a gallon milk jug. Soak to remove any labels. Paint orange. Once dry, paint or stick on eyes nose and mouth resembling a Jack O’Lantern. Use fluorescent paint for a nice effect. The jug can be kept for future reuse.

Using six pipe cleaners, you can make your own skeleton. Bend one pipe cleaner into two for the backbone. Twist another around the bottom of the backbone to make into the legs. Do the same for the arms. Join two pipe cleaners and twist them around the backbone leaving some space forming a ribcage. Twist the last pipe cleaner for a head and glue on some eyes. Hang with a rubber band for a bouncing effect. Your kids will love making halloween crafts with pipe cleaners. But be careful when cutting and keep them out of their mouth.

Using glue and food coloring, you can make a see through painting. Paint a Halloween image onto a piece of plastic wrap. Before the mixture dries, put another piece of plastic wrap on. Cut it out and hang it in front of a light source for a see through effect. You could also frame the plastic pictures using wood or cardboard if you want them to be longer lasting.

Halloween Crafts Part 3. The Real Scary Stuff…

Make some hand printed spiders. Apply black paint to your palm and 4 fingers leaving out the thumb. Place palm onto a piece of paper. Turn the paper 180 degrees and print again making sure the palm overlaps. Add some wiggly eyes using either paint or sticks. This is suitable for even 2 or 3 year olds.

Make your own blood. It is less expensive than buying ready made blood from the Halloween shops. It’s not difficult; all you need is Karo syrup and food coloring. While you’re at it, why not make some slime using glue, water and borax powder. This is an advanced Hallween craft, so take your time and be careful.

Using apples, you can make dried, shrunken heads. Peel the apples and coat with a mixture of lemon juice and salt to prevent browning. Carve out a face of eyes, nose and mouth. Do not worry about the finer details as they will probably be lost when the apple dries. You can use whole cloves for the eyes and rice grains for the teeth. Let the apples sit out in a warm place for about 2 weeks. If you don’t have 2 weeks, you can speed up the drying by putting them into an oven on the lowest temperature for about 45 minutes and then to dry out naturally for the next 2 days or so. Once dried, they shrink and deform into weird and scary looking faces.

Says Angie Maroevich, “You don’t have to spend a fortune on commercial Halloween supplies to have a great party. There are many inexpensive alternatives laying around the house or at your local store you can use to create a Halloween theme that will impress all your friends.”

About The Author

Angie Maroevich is an arts and crafts enthusiast, business owner, and athlete. Her arts and crafts articles and be found at http://www.craft-ideas-guide.com.

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angie@craft-ideas-guide.com