Halloween crafts do not have to require expensive supplies or complicated instructions. An empty cardboard tube, a little paint, some construction paper, and a few basic craft supplies can become a whole collection of pumpkins, ghosts, bats, monsters, and witches.
These easy Halloween toilet paper roll crafts are especially useful when you want an inexpensive activity for a family craft afternoon, classroom Halloween celebration, playdate, or party. Younger children can help with painting, gluing, and decorating, while adults or older children can handle more complicated cutting.
When you’re finished, the crafts can double as homemade Halloween decorations for tables, shelves, bedrooms, classrooms, and party displays.
🎃 5 Easy Halloween Toilet Paper Roll Crafts
For these projects, you can use empty toilet paper tubes, cardboard craft tubes, or paper towel tubes cut into shorter sections.
The five crafts in this guide are:
- Friendly toilet paper roll monsters
- Hanging cardboard-tube ghosts
- Mini toilet paper roll pumpkins
- Hanging Halloween bats
- Mini witch hats
Make one of each character or create an entire collection for a larger Halloween display.
✂️ Supplies You’ll Need
You do not need every item on this list for every project. Gather the supplies that work best for the characters you plan to make.
Basic supplies:
- Empty cardboard tubes
- Construction paper or cardstock
- Washable craft paint
- Paintbrushes
- Markers or crayons
- Glue sticks or craft glue
- Child-safe scissors
- String, ribbon, or yarn
- White tissue paper
- Googly eyes, if desired
- Pencil
- Hole punch, if making hanging decorations
Traditional Halloween colors such as orange, black, white, purple, and green work well, but children can choose any colors they like.
You may also want to cover the work surface with scrap paper or a reusable craft mat before bringing out the paint and glue.
For even more simple projects, explore these Halloween crafts for kids.
👹 1. Friendly Toilet Paper Roll Monsters
Difficulty: Easy
Best for: Kids with adult help as needed
Use them for: Table decorations, monster displays, party crafts
Monsters are one of the easiest cardboard-tube crafts because there are no rules about what they are supposed to look like. Give each monster one eye, six eyes, crooked teeth, striped hair, horns, spots, or anything else you can imagine.
What You’ll Need
- Cardboard tube
- Green, purple, orange, blue, or another paint color
- White and colored construction paper
- Markers
- Glue
- Scissors
- Googly eyes, optional
How to Make It
- Paint the outside of the cardboard tube. Let it dry.
- Decide how many eyes your monster will have.
- Draw eyes on white paper and cut them out, or use googly eyes.
- Glue the eyes to the front of the tube.
- Draw a mouth with a marker.
- Cut small triangles from white paper to make teeth and glue them around the mouth.
- Cut narrow strips of colored paper to create messy monster hair.
- Glue the hair just inside the top edge of the tube so it sticks upward.
- Add spots, scars, eyebrows, freckles, horns, or other details.
Make a Monster Family
Instead of making just one, paint several tubes different colors and give every monster a different personality.
Try creating:
- A one-eyed green monster
- A fuzzy purple monster
- An orange monster with giant teeth
- A tiny vampire monster
- A silly Frankenstein-inspired creature
- A monster covered in colorful spots
Line them up along a mantel, bookshelf, windowsill, or Halloween party table.
👻 2. Hanging Toilet Paper Roll Ghosts
Difficulty: Easy
Best for: Kids who enjoy painting and decorating
Use them for: Doorways, windows, classroom displays, party decorations
These simple hanging ghosts combine a painted cardboard tube with lightweight strips of tissue paper that move when air passes through the room.
What You’ll Need
- Cardboard tube
- White paint
- Black marker
- White tissue paper
- Glue
- Scissors
- String or yarn
- Hole punch or pencil
How to Make It
- Paint the entire cardboard tube white.
- Allow the paint to dry.
- Draw two eyes and a mouth with black marker.
- Cut several long strips of white tissue paper.
- Glue one end of each strip around the inside bottom edge of the tube.
- Allow the tissue-paper tails to hang freely beneath the ghost.
- Make two small holes near opposite sides of the top of the tube.
- Thread string through the holes and tie it securely.
- Hang the ghost where it has room to move.
Create several ghosts with different expressions—surprised, silly, sleepy, happy, or spooky—and hang them at different heights.
For a child-friendly room or party, combine these ghosts with other cute Halloween decorations for kids.
🎃 3. Mini Toilet Paper Roll Pumpkins
Difficulty: Easy
Best for: Family craft sessions and classroom projects
Use them for: Tabletop pumpkin patches, shelves, fall displays
Cardboard tubes make easy miniature pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns. Children can create traditional orange pumpkins or experiment with white, green, pink, or patterned designs.
What You’ll Need
- Cardboard tube
- Orange paint
- Green construction paper
- Brown construction paper
- Black marker
- Dark orange or brown marker
- Glue
- Scissors
How to Make It
- Paint the cardboard tube orange and let it dry.
- Use a darker orange or brown marker to draw vertical lines around the tube to suggest pumpkin ridges.
- Cut a small rectangle from brown paper for the stem.
- Glue the stem just inside the top of the tube.
- Cut one or two leaf shapes from green paper.
- Glue the leaves beside the stem.
- Leave the pumpkin plain for an autumn decoration, or draw a jack-o’-lantern face with black marker.
Create a Cardboard Pumpkin Patch
Pumpkins look especially fun in groups.
Try making:
- Traditional orange pumpkins
- White ghost pumpkins
- Green pumpkins
- Silly jack-o’-lanterns
- Scary jack-o’-lanterns
- Pumpkins with stripes or polka dots
Arrange them on brown or green construction paper and add paper leaves to create a miniature pumpkin patch.
🦇 4. Hanging Toilet Paper Roll Bats
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Best for: Kids who can cut simple shapes or work with an adult
Use them for: Windows, walls, doorways, classrooms, Halloween parties
A black-painted cardboard tube makes an easy body for a Halloween bat. The biggest creative decision is designing the wings.
What You’ll Need
- Cardboard tube
- Black paint
- Black construction paper or cardstock
- White paper or white marker
- Glue
- Scissors
- Pencil
- String or yarn
How to Make It
- Paint the cardboard tube black and let it dry.
- Fold a piece of black paper in half.
- Draw one bat-wing shape along the fold.
- Cut out the shape and unfold the paper to create matching wings.
- Glue the center of the wings to the back of the cardboard tube.
- Add two small white eyes or glue on googly eyes.
- Cut two tiny triangles from black paper for ears and glue them near the top.
- Add a small mouth or tiny white fangs if desired.
- Attach string near the top if you want to hang the bat.
Make a Bat Colony
One bat is cute. Ten bats can transform a corner of the room.
Make several in slightly different sizes and place them:
- Across a window
- Along a wall
- Over a Halloween party table
- Around a doorway
- Near a homemade haunted-house display
If you’re decorating an entire room, our guide to Halloween decorations has more ideas for creating a coordinated display.
🧙 5. Mini Toilet Paper Roll Witch Hats
Difficulty: Moderate
Best for: Older children or younger children working with an adult
Use them for: Table decorations, party displays, Halloween place settings
For this project, the cardboard tube forms the lower portion of a whimsical witch decoration while paper creates the traditional pointed hat.
What You’ll Need
- Cardboard tube
- Black or purple paint
- Black, purple, or another dark construction paper
- Yellow, orange, or glittery paper for decorations
- Glue
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Ribbon or a narrow strip of colored paper
How to Make It
- Paint the cardboard tube black, purple, or another witchy color.
- Let the paint dry completely.
- Trace and cut a paper circle that is wider than the cardboard tube. This will become the hat brim.
- Have an adult carefully cut a smaller opening in the center of the circle.
- Slide the brim over the top of the tube. Adjust the opening as needed so it fits.
- Roll another piece of construction paper into a cone.
- Trim the bottom of the cone so it sits neatly above the brim.
- Glue the cone in place.
- Wrap ribbon or a narrow strip of colored paper around the base of the cone.
- Decorate the hat with paper stars, moons, dots, spiders, or a tiny buckle.
Don’t worry if the cone bends slightly. A crooked witch hat can look even more Halloween-like.
🎨 Easy Ways to Personalize the Crafts
The basic instructions are only a starting point.
Let children turn the cardboard tubes into their own Halloween characters by adding:
- Pipe-cleaner arms
- Yarn hair
- Paper bows
- Glitter accents
- Stickers
- Pom-poms
- Paper hats
- Tiny capes
- Paper fangs
- Painted patterns
- Construction-paper ears
- Funny facial expressions
You can also combine ideas from different crafts. Give a monster bat wings, put a witch hat on a pumpkin, or turn a ghost into a friendly vampire.
Creative combinations are often more fun than trying to make every project look exactly the same.
👧 Tips for Making These Crafts With Younger Kids
Children do not need to complete every step independently to enjoy these projects.
For preschoolers and younger children, an adult can prepare difficult pieces ahead of time. Cut out bat wings, witch-hat shapes, teeth, stems, and leaves before the activity begins. Children can then concentrate on painting, choosing colors, arranging the pieces, gluing, and drawing faces.
A few other ways to simplify the projects include:
- Use glue sticks instead of liquid glue when practical.
- Draw cutting lines onto the construction paper first.
- Offer large pieces instead of tiny decorations.
- Let paint dry before beginning the assembly stage.
- Put each child’s supplies in a small container or tray.
- Make one finished example but encourage children to design their own versions.
If you’re looking for more projects designed for little hands, see our 10 Halloween crafts for preschoolers.
🧼 Using Cardboard Tubes for Crafts
If you would rather not craft with tubes that have been stored in a bathroom, plain cardboard craft tubes are an easy alternative. You can also cut empty paper-towel tubes into shorter pieces.
Whichever option you choose, start with tubes that are dry, clean, and in good condition.
⚠️ Halloween Craft Safety
A few simple precautions can make craft time easier for everyone.
- Supervise children when they use scissors.
- Choose craft materials appropriate for the child’s age.
- Follow the instructions printed on paints, glues, and other craft products.
- Keep very small decorations away from children who may put them in their mouths.
- Adults should handle any difficult cutting.
- Protect clothing and surfaces before painting.
- Let painted pieces dry before children handle or assemble them.
- Keep string and hanging decorations out of reach of very young children.
These projects can be adapted according to each child’s age and crafting experience.
🏠 Ways to Display Your Finished Halloween Crafts
Once the paint and glue are dry, the crafts become decorations in their own right.
Make a Halloween Table Centerpiece
Group monsters, pumpkins, bats, ghosts, and witches together on a tray. Add artificial leaves, paper spider webs, or battery-operated lights around them.
Decorate a Bookshelf
Create a row of Halloween characters between books or family decorations.
Build a Mini Haunted Scene
Use a cardboard box as the backdrop for a small haunted house, graveyard, or monster village. Add the cardboard characters in front.
Create a Classroom Display
Give each child a tube and let everyone design a different Halloween character. Display the complete collection together.
Turn Them Into Party Activities
Set out pre-painted cardboard tubes, paper shapes, markers, glue, and decorations so children can create a character during a Halloween party.
Make a Hanging Halloween Display
Use the ghosts and bats to create a lightweight hanging display above a party table or along a wall, making sure the decorations are securely attached and positioned safely.
For more activities that work well at parties or in classrooms, explore our collection of Halloween games.
💡 More Halloween Toilet Paper Roll Craft Ideas
Once you’ve made the five projects above, try using the same basic cardboard-tube technique for other Halloween characters.
Ideas include:
- Frankenstein’s monster
- Vampires
- Black cats
- Mummies
- Skeletons
- Spiders
- Zombies
- Candy corn characters
- Jack-o’-lanterns
- Haunted trees
- Owls
- Werewolves
You could even challenge each family member to invent an original monster and then create a name and story for it.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What can I make with toilet paper rolls for Halloween?
Cardboard tubes can become pumpkins, ghosts, bats, monsters, witches, vampires, mummies, cats, spiders, and many other Halloween characters. They work particularly well for small tabletop decorations and hanging crafts.
What paint works for cardboard tubes?
Many ordinary children’s craft paints can be used on cardboard. Always follow the product directions and choose craft supplies that are appropriate for the people using them.
Can preschoolers make toilet paper roll Halloween crafts?
Yes, with suitable adult help. Preschoolers can usually participate in painting, drawing, choosing decorations, and gluing larger pieces. Adults can prepare complicated shapes and handle cutting when necessary.
You can find more age-appropriate ideas in our Halloween activities for kids collection.
What can I use instead of toilet paper rolls?
Plain cardboard craft tubes work well. You can also cut paper-towel tubes into smaller sections.
Can these crafts be used as Halloween decorations?
Absolutely. Finished cardboard-tube characters can be displayed on tables, shelves, mantels, classroom boards, windowsills, or party tables. Ghosts and bats can also be made into lightweight hanging decorations.
What should I do while the paint dries?
Turn craft day into a larger Halloween activity session. Children can complete a printable, play a game, or color one of these free cute Halloween coloring pages while waiting for painted pieces to dry.
🎃 Make Your Own Cardboard Halloween Crew
A few cardboard tubes and basic craft supplies can become an entire cast of Halloween characters. Start with one easy project, then use the leftover paper, paint, and decorations to invent new variations.
The best part is that the finished projects do not have to look perfect. A crooked bat wing, mismatched monster eyes, or slightly lopsided witch hat simply gives each creation more personality.
Once everyone is finished, put the characters together and turn them into a miniature Halloween display of your own.
🔗 Related Articles
Continue the Halloween crafting fun with these guides from Halloween Haunt:
- Halloween Activities for Kids: Crafts, Coloring Pages & Printables
- Spooktacular Halloween Crafts for Kids
- 10 Spooktacular Halloween Crafts for Preschoolers
- Halloween Decorations for Kids: Fun, Cute, and Not-Too-Scary Ideas
- Spooky Construction Paper Spider Webs Tutorial
- 5 Free Cute Halloween Coloring Pages to Print
- Halloween Games: Fun, Spooky Games for Kids, Parties & Classrooms
- Halloween Decorations: Indoor, Outdoor, Yard & Theme Ideas
