kid’s Halloween crafts with household items

Getting ready for the holiday with some easy Halloween crafts can be very rewarding. Doing Halloween crafts with household items you already have is a great way to have fun and save money too. You may need to make a quick trip to the craft store if you don’t have some simple craft supplies laying around but that’s it.

Whether you are planning an elaborate Halloween party for your family and friends or just spending the night at home handing out candy, Halloween lends itself quite well to DIY Halloween decorations. So let your imagination run wild and create some one-of-a-kind fun Halloween crafts.

Halloween is one holiday that offers lots of opportunities to create crafts with your family. Even the toddlers in your house can help with these crafts. The crafts aren’t so spooky that the younger children will be scared, but they still add a bit of Halloween magic and fun to your home during this delightfully spooky season.

So what are some spooky Halloween crafts you can make using simple household items?

Halloween pin with kids crafts

Ghosts from tissues, pompoms, milk jugs, or sheets

For this simple craft you will need some cotton balls or pom poms, tissues, a black marker, and string (white or colored for colorful ghosts.) To create a cotton ball ghost, open a tissue and place a cotton ball or pom pom in the center. Fold the tissue up and tie the string around the neck. This provides a great opportunity for toddlers to practice tying and work on their fine motor skills.

Finally, draw eyes and a spooky mouth on the little ghosts. You can either hang them using a fishing line or more string or create a garland out of the ghosts by tying them together with string and hanging them across a doorway.

simple tissue ghosts
Simple tissue ghosts from Learn Create Love

Tip: As an alternative to cotton balls, you can create these ghosts with suckers or lollipops under the Kleenex, and you can hand them out at Halloween as candy for the trick-or-treaters.

Ghosts can also be made in with other household materials. Another simple idea is to make ghosts with milk jugs. Draw a face on the milk jug using a permanent marker or black paint, then cut a hole on the back of the jug. Use Christmas lights or a battery operated puck light inside the jug to light up the ghost during the night.

milk jug ghosts for a Halloween craft
Milk jug ghosts from I Save A to Z

You can also make ghosts with sheets and hang these from trees or the outside of your home. Just use some black felt or black craft paint for your face pieces.

Children can also make little ghost decorations with white foam, card stock, or clay. Think outside the box and try and use up whatever you have on hand.

egg carton spiders

Spiders are often used to create a scary effect and can be a fun diy craft. The first idea is to make spiders with egg cartons. Use the individual egg cups for the body of the spider, painted black, with black pipe cleaners to make the legs. Just poke holes in the side of the egg carton section and stick the pipe cleaners into them.

Decorate the spider with googly eyes and stickers. Tip: speaking of egg cartons, you can also make egg carton bats!

spider egg crate Halloween craft
Egg carton spider from All Kids Network

How about making spiders with black pom-poms as the body and with string or pipe cleaners for the legs. Don’t forget the best part…the spider web! This can be made with black yarn by weaving the strands into a web.

I once made my little black Pug dog into a spider with a dog harness and a old large Halloween spider and it was so creepy when she walked around. LOL Memories 🙂

DIY Pug spider costume

Popsicle stick scary monsters

This is a fun and easy Halloween craft. I’m sure you have some of these household items on hand. Glue some popsicle sticks together and have the young children draw or paint monsters onto them for a really easy craft.

You could also do this with paper plates or empty toilet paper rolls. Just use items you have in your craft supply like orange paint, black construction paper, cotton balls, markers, glue, and some free printables and you have your self a free way to make some fun Halloween crafts.

Popcicle stick monster Halloween craft
Popcicle stick monsters by I Heart Arts N Crafts

light bulb Witches

Make witches with burned-out light bulbs, which are painted green. Paint a face once the light bulb dries and make a hat for the witch with foam or card stock. For the hair, use small black feathers or black yarn. Obviously, this craft isn’t for little kids but older kids and adults may like making this one.

Lightbulb witch craft
Lightbulb witch from All Free Crafts

Want to make a bigger witch? Use an old dome light or bouncy ball and wrap it with a black plastic bag and tie around the neck. Use a string mop for her hair and borrow a witch hat from an old Halloween costume.

Mini Pumpkin Patch from rocks and twigs

You will need some small round rocks (that will fit in your hand), twigs, orange acrylic paint, a paintbrush, and a hot glue gun. To create this fun craft, take a nature walk with your child and collect rocks and twigs. The rocks should be small since this is a mini pumpkin patch.

Once you collect your materials, paint your rocks orange and let them dry. Once they are dry, glue tiny twig pieces on top using hot glue. These will be your pumpkin stems. Set your pumpkin patch out on the table and you are finished.

You can always add curls of green ribbon or leaf stems for the pumpkin vine as a finishing touch.

Painted rock pumpkins
Painted rock pumpkins by Chica Circle

pillow case Trick-or-Treat Bags

Kids of all ages can create their own Trick-or-Treat bag. If you have some white pillowcase, acrylic paints, paintbrush, Halloween-shaped cookie cutters you’re all set.

To create this fun Halloween trick-or-treat bag, lay your white pillowcase flat on the table. Using your cookie cutters, place them on your pillowcase and paint inside them for perfectly shaped Halloween designs. Or, use a stencil and paint Halloween words such as ‘Boo’ on your pillowcase. Be creative, have fun, and the bag can be used to collect candy on Halloween night.

DIY pillow case Halloween craft
Pillowcase Halloween Craft from Kid Friendly things to do

Casket Cooler

Hosting a Halloween party can be a lot of fun, and you can make that celebration even more engaging by serving your drinks in a cooler shaped like a casket. You can shape your own casket-shaped cooler out of cardboard, then line it with black plastic and fill it with ice.

Or you can paint a cheap Styrofoam cooler which is already shaped like a coffin and make it look like wood. After that macabre cooler is ready, you can simply add your favorite drinks and invite everyone to grab their favorite.

Pumpkin decorating without carving

Pumpkins, whether real or fake, can be a simple and fun Halloween craft for your kids, especially if you don’t have to carve them. This site has some really cute pumpkin decorating ideas using paint, felt, paper, crayons, sprinkles and more.

Pumpkin crafts for kids
No carve pumpkin crafts from Kids Activities

Halloween lanterns from baby food jars

Make some Halloween crafts using some household items like empty baby food jars to make some cute Halloween lanterns. Simply paint the jars with orange paint and add Jack-o-lantern faces with paint or felt and googly eyes. Finish it up by dropping in a battery operated candle or fairy lights.

baby food jar Jack-o-lanterns
Baby food Jar Jack-o-lanterns by Pretty Providence
PAINT SWATCH

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Looking for more ideas to use up those empty glass jars you have laying around? Read my post to get some great ideas!

Halloween Snakes

Use some old stuffed door draft stoppers to make some creepy evil or funny looking snakes. You can also use some old socks and fill with dried beans, peas, or rice. Simply paint the color of your preferred snake with fabric paint.

Cut out some fangs from felt, attach them with craft glue, and then spread these snakes around the house. Drape them from the sofa, the kitchen table, and so forth.

Door draft blocker snake diy
Door draft stopper snake by Woo Jr.

Table Covers

To give your house a creepier look, cover your kitchen table with an old white sheet then dip your kids hands into red paint and put their handprints all over the sheet. The bloody handprints will look so real.

Use a thin paintbrush and make some blood splatters down the sides of the sheet. Not only will you get a spooky Halloween decoration, but you’ll also get a keepsake of your little ones handprints.

bloody hand print tablecloth prop
Bloody handprint tablecloth by Ann’s Entitled Life

Black cats, little monsters, spooky spiders, and bat crafts from household items

Toilet paper rolls are a great craft tool for making Halloween crafts. All you need are the empty toilet paper rolls, craft paper, googly eyes, glue, pipe cleaners, markers, and glue. You can make any Halloween themed character you want with these items. Below are three simple ideas of an owl, a cat, and a bat.

Halloween crafts from household items
Halloween crafts from household items

Halloween crafts can be made to decorate the house and also encourage your children’s creativity while getting them excited for the upcoming holiday. Regardless of the purpose, there are many Halloween crafts made with household items suitable for adults and children of all ages. So why not take your Halloween to the next level and treat your party guests to a great time with your creative Halloween crafts.

PAINT SWATCH

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