Halloween is the perfect excuse to pull out the construction paper, paint, glue, googly eyes, and a little imagination. From smiling ghosts and silly monsters to glowing lanterns and creepy-crawly spiders, there are countless ways for kids to get creative during spooky season.
The best part? Halloween crafts don’t have to be complicated or expensive. Many of these projects use basic craft supplies, recycled materials, paper plates, cardboard tubes, jars, and other items you may already have around the house.
Whether you’re planning a family craft afternoon, looking for a classroom Halloween project, or creating homemade decorations for a party, these 25 easy Halloween crafts for kids offer plenty of cute, spooky, and delightfully creative inspiration.
For even more activities, visit our complete guide to Halloween activities for kids, where you’ll find crafts, coloring pages, games, puzzles, and printables for the whole season.
🎃 1. Paper Plate Jack-o’-Lanterns
Turn an ordinary paper plate into a cheerful Halloween pumpkin.
You’ll need:
- Paper plates
- Orange paint or crayons
- Black construction paper
- Green construction paper
- Glue
- Child-safe scissors
Paint or color the plate orange. Cut triangle eyes, a nose, and a silly jack-o’-lantern mouth from black paper and glue them in place. Finish with a green paper stem.
Every pumpkin can have a different personality, so encourage kids to experiment with happy, surprised, goofy, or slightly spooky expressions.
👻 2. Cotton Ball Ghosts
Soft, fluffy cotton balls are perfect for making friendly ghosts.
Draw a simple ghost outline on cardstock and have children fill the shape with cotton balls using school glue. Add black paper eyes and a mouth.
Younger children can make happy ghosts, while older kids might enjoy creating an entire haunted scene with several ghost characters floating around a moonlit house.
🕯️ 3. Glowing Halloween Mason Jar Lanterns
This is a wonderful Halloween craft that doubles as a decoration for a table, mantel, windowsill, or party display.
Start with a clean glass mason jar. Decorate the outside with Halloween shapes, tissue paper, paint, vinyl stickers, or paper silhouettes.
Try creating:
- Jack-o’-lantern jars
- Ghost jars
- Black cat jars
- Haunted house jars
- Spiderweb jars
- Monster jars
Place a battery-operated flameless candle or small battery-powered light inside the finished jar to create a warm Halloween glow.
Adults should handle glass jars with younger children and supervise the project from beginning to end.
These lanterns can look especially magical when several differently decorated jars are grouped together.
🦇 4. Toilet Paper Roll Bats
Don’t throw away those cardboard tubes—they can become an entire colony of Halloween bats.
Paint a cardboard tube black, purple, or another Halloween color. Cut wings from construction paper and glue them onto the sides.
Finish your bat with:
- Googly eyes
- Tiny paper fangs
- Pointed ears
- A funny smile
Make several bats and hang them with string for an inexpensive homemade Halloween display.
For more recycled craft ideas, see our 5 easy toilet paper roll Halloween decorations.
🕷️ 5. Handprint Spiders
Handprint art makes a wonderfully personal Halloween keepsake.
Have a child trace one hand onto black or purple paper. Create a second handprint and overlap the palms so the fingers become eight spider legs.
Cut out the finished shape and add googly eyes.
You can attach the spider to a paper web, hang it from string, or use several handprint spiders to decorate a classroom bulletin board.
🕸️ 6. Construction Paper Spider Webs
Paper spider webs are surprisingly simple to create and look fantastic taped to windows or walls.
Fold a square piece of construction paper several times and carefully cut small sections from the folded edges. When the paper is unfolded, the cutouts form a web-like pattern.
Children who want to try different designs can follow our complete construction paper spider webs tutorial.
Add paper spiders afterward for an extra creepy-crawly touch.
🧟 7. Paper Plate Monsters
There are no rules when you’re designing a monster.
Paint paper plates green, purple, blue, orange, or any color your little monster-maker prefers.
Then provide a pile of decorating materials:
- Googly eyes
- Yarn
- Construction paper
- Pom-poms
- Pipe cleaners
- Foam shapes
- Markers
Give the monster one eye—or ten. Add horns, crooked teeth, wild hair, or enormous ears.
The stranger it looks, the better!
🎃 8. Painted Mini Pumpkins
Pumpkin decorating doesn’t have to involve carving.
Small pumpkins can become adorable Halloween characters with washable paint and a little imagination.
Try transforming mini pumpkins into:
- Ghosts
- Black cats
- Monsters
- Witches
- Mummies
- Bats
- Silly jack-o’-lanterns
Kids can also decorate them with stickers, ribbons, googly eyes, or foam shapes.
Painting pumpkins can be an especially nice choice for younger children who want to participate in pumpkin decorating.
🧙♀️ 9. Paper Witch Hats
Create miniature witch hats from black construction paper.
Cut a circle for the brim and roll another piece of paper into a cone. Glue the cone onto the circle and decorate it with ribbon, stars, moons, glitter glue, stickers, or colorful paper buckles.
Small paper witch hats make cute table decorations, while larger versions can become part of a homemade Halloween costume.
👁️ 10. Googly-Eye Monster Rocks
A handful of clean rocks can become an entire family of colorful monsters.
Paint each rock a bright color and let it dry. Then add googly eyes, painted teeth, spots, stripes, horns, and funny expressions.
Children can create:
- One-eyed monsters
- Vampire rocks
- Frankenstein-inspired creatures
- Pumpkin rocks
- Ghost rocks
Display the finished monsters together for a tiny Halloween creature collection.
🧛 11. Halloween Finger Puppets
Turn Halloween characters into a miniature puppet show.
Kids can make finger puppets featuring:
- Vampires
- Witches
- Ghosts
- Pumpkins
- Skeletons
- Black cats
- Monsters
After creating the puppets, encourage children to invent their own Halloween story and perform it for the family.
Halloween Haunt also has Halloween finger puppet cutout templates to help get the show started.
🧻 12. Toilet Paper Roll Mummies
Wrap cardboard tubes in strips of white paper, tissue paper, or gauze to create silly miniature mummies.
Leave a small opening near the top and add two googly eyes peeking through the wrapping.
Allow some of the strips to hang loosely for a wonderfully ragged mummy look.
Line several finished mummies along a bookshelf or Halloween party table.
🐈⬛ 13. Paper Plate Black Cats
Paint a paper plate black and turn it into a Halloween kitty.
Add triangular ears, paper whiskers, bright eyes, and a curled construction-paper tail.
Children can make classic black cats or invent wildly colorful Halloween cats in purple, orange, green, or striped designs.
Add a crescent moon and stars to the background to transform the craft into a complete Halloween scene.
🍬 14. Halloween Construction Paper Treat Boxes
Homemade treat boxes combine crafting with one of the best parts of Halloween—treats!
Kids can decorate little paper boxes as:
- Pumpkins
- Bats
- Black cats
- Ghosts
- Monsters
When they’re finished, fill them with wrapped candy, stickers, pencils, erasers, or other little Halloween surprises.
See our complete tutorial for DIY Halloween construction paper treat boxes for even more ideas.
👻 15. Footprint Ghost Keepsakes
A child’s footprint makes an adorable ghost shape.
Paint the bottom of the foot with washable white paint and carefully press it onto black or dark-colored paper.
Once the print dries, add eyes and a mouth.
Write the child’s name and the year underneath to create a Halloween keepsake parents may want to save long after spooky season is over.
🍭 16. Popsicle Stick Haunted Houses
Line up craft sticks and glue them together to create the walls of a tiny haunted house.
Paint the structure black, purple, gray, or another spooky color.
Decorate it with:
- Paper windows
- Ghosts
- Tiny pumpkins
- Spider webs
- Bats
- Stars
- A crooked front door
Older kids may enjoy building several houses and turning them into an entire haunted village.
🦇 17. Paper Bat Garland
Cut bat shapes from black construction paper and let children decorate them with crayons, chalk, stickers, glitter glue, or googly eyes.
Punch a small hole in each bat and thread them onto ribbon or string.
Hang your bat garland across:
- A doorway
- A mantel
- A classroom wall
- A party table
- A child’s bedroom
Mix bats with pumpkins, ghosts, or stars to create a longer Halloween banner.
🍂 18. Leaf Ghosts
Autumn leaves can become naturally shaped little ghosts.
Collect fallen leaves, flatten them if necessary, and paint them white.
Once the paint dries, add black eyes and mouths.
Kids can glue their leaf ghosts onto construction paper, string them into a garland, or arrange them around a handmade haunted house picture.
It’s an easy way to combine an autumn nature walk with Halloween crafting.
🧹 19. Mini Witch Brooms
Make tiny witch brooms using twigs and raffia, yarn, paper strips, or straw-like craft material.
Bundle the broom material around one end of the twig and secure it tightly.
The finished mini brooms can become:
- Doll accessories
- Table decorations
- Halloween ornaments
- Additions to witch crafts
- Decorations for a miniature Halloween village
Older children can personalize the handles with ribbon or paint.
🧡 20. Pumpkin Sun Catchers
Bring glowing orange color to a window with a tissue-paper pumpkin sun catcher.
Cut a pumpkin outline from black construction paper. Place pieces of orange and yellow tissue paper inside the outline using clear contact paper or another translucent craft method.
Add a green stem and hang the finished pumpkin in a sunny window.
Create several pumpkins with different faces for a colorful Halloween window display.
🕷️ 21. Egg Carton Spiders
An empty cardboard egg carton can become several little spiders.
Cut individual sections from the carton and paint them black, purple, orange, or green.
Add:
- Pipe-cleaner legs
- Googly eyes
- Paper fangs
- Painted spots
These little spiders can crawl across tables, shelves, homemade webs, or Halloween displays.
👻 22. Tissue Paper Ghost Garland
Create a friendly parade of floating ghosts using white tissue paper.
Place a small ball of crumpled paper in the center of a tissue square to form the ghost’s head. Gather the tissue underneath and secure it with yarn or ribbon.
Draw or glue on a face.
Make several ghosts and attach them along a string to create a lightweight Halloween garland.
🦴 23. Cotton Swab Skeletons
Black construction paper makes the perfect background for a simple skeleton craft.
Use cotton swabs to create arms, legs, ribs, and other bones. Glue them into place and add a paper skull at the top.
Children can arrange their skeletons in funny poses—dancing, waving, running, or even doing a Halloween jig.
This project works particularly well for older children who enjoy arranging all the little pieces.
🎨 24. Sponge-Painted Halloween Pictures
Cut inexpensive sponges into Halloween shapes such as:
- Pumpkins
- Bats
- Ghosts
- Stars
- Cats
Dip the shapes lightly into washable paint and stamp them onto paper.
Kids can layer several shapes to create a complete Halloween scene.
For younger children, an adult can prepare the sponge shapes ahead of time so the activity is ready for stamping.
🏚️ 25. Cardboard Haunted House
Finish your Halloween crafting marathon with a project the whole family can help create.
Use a cardboard box, cereal box, or sturdy piece of recycled cardboard to construct a haunted house.
Add:
- Crooked windows
- Pointed rooftops
- Paper ghosts
- Spider webs
- Black cats
- Pumpkins
- Bats
- Bare trees
- Gravestones
- A glowing moon
Kids can color, paint, cut, and glue the different elements while adults help with any difficult cutting or assembly.
A large haunted house can become the centerpiece of your Halloween decorations, while small cereal-box houses can be combined into an entire spooky neighborhood.
✂️ Simple Halloween Craft Supplies to Keep on Hand
You don’t need a huge craft cabinet to enjoy most of these projects. A small collection of versatile supplies can handle dozens of Halloween ideas.
Useful supplies include:
- Construction paper
- Cardstock
- Paper plates
- Cardboard tubes
- Child-safe scissors
- Washable markers
- Crayons
- Washable paint
- Paintbrushes
- Glue sticks
- School glue
- Googly eyes
- Yarn
- Pipe cleaners
- Tissue paper
- Craft sticks
- Pom-poms
- Stickers
- Ribbon
- Battery-operated flameless candles
Save clean cardboard boxes, paper tubes, jars, and egg cartons throughout September and you’ll already have many of the materials needed for October crafting.
🧡 Tips for Halloween Crafting With Kids
Halloween crafting should be fun—not an attempt to create picture-perfect decorations.
Choose projects appropriate for each child’s age and let children make as many creative decisions as possible. A purple pumpkin, pink ghost, or monster with twelve eyes may not look traditional, but that’s exactly what makes children’s crafts memorable.
For younger crafters, adults can prepare complicated pieces beforehand. Pre-cutting shapes lets little kids concentrate on painting, arranging, gluing, and decorating.
It’s also helpful to cover your work surface, put supplies within easy reach, and choose washable materials whenever possible.
Adults should supervise the use of scissors and other tools. Hot glue guns, craft knives, glass containers, and similar items should be handled by an adult when children are participating.
And when a craft needs a spooky glow—especially the Halloween mason jars—choose battery-operated flameless lights rather than open-flame candles.
🎃 Turn the Crafts Into Halloween Decorations
One of the best things about Halloween crafts is that the fun doesn’t have to end when the glue dries.
Display finished projects around the house.
Tape paper bats to a wall so they appear to fly toward the ceiling. Hang ghosts across a doorway. Place monster rocks on a bookshelf. Arrange painted pumpkins on the mantel. Put glowing mason jar lanterns in the center of the table.
Children get the satisfaction of seeing their artwork become part of the family’s Halloween celebration.
For more inspiration, explore our guide to Halloween decorations for kids.
🏫 Halloween Crafts for Classrooms and Parties
Many of these crafts can easily become classroom or Halloween party activities.
For larger groups, choose projects with:
- Few materials
- Minimal drying time
- Simple instructions
- Easy cleanup
- Plenty of room for personalization
Paper plate monsters, cotton ball ghosts, paper bats, handprint spiders, and toilet paper roll mummies are especially easy to adapt for groups.
Set out the materials at a craft station and display a finished example, but don’t require every child to copy it exactly.
The results are much more interesting when every little ghost, monster, pumpkin, and spider looks different.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What are the easiest Halloween crafts for kids?
Paper plate pumpkins, cotton ball ghosts, handprint spiders, toilet paper roll bats, paper bats, and painted mini pumpkins are among the easiest projects because they use familiar materials and relatively few steps.
What Halloween crafts can preschoolers make?
Preschoolers can enjoy painting pumpkins, making paper plate characters, creating cotton ball ghosts, stamping pictures, decorating cardboard tubes, and assembling crafts from shapes prepared by an adult.
For more age-specific projects, explore our guide to 10 Halloween crafts for preschoolers.
What Halloween crafts can I make with things around the house?
Cardboard tubes can become bats and mummies, egg cartons can become spiders, cardboard boxes can become haunted houses, jars can become lanterns, fallen leaves can become ghosts, and paper plates can become pumpkins, monsters, cats, and other Halloween characters.
How can I make Halloween crafts less scary for young children?
Use smiling ghosts, colorful monsters, cute black cats, cheerful pumpkins, and silly witches rather than realistic or frightening characters. Bright colors can also give traditional Halloween creatures a friendlier appearance.
Can kids make Halloween decorations?
Absolutely. Garlands, painted pumpkins, paper bats, glowing mason jars, paper spider webs, cardboard haunted houses, and tissue-paper ghosts can all become homemade Halloween decorations once the craft session is finished.
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🧡 Make Something Spooktacular Together
Halloween crafts don’t need expensive supplies or elaborate instructions to become special.
A cardboard tube can become a bat. A footprint can turn into a ghost. An ordinary rock can become a goofy little monster. And a simple mason jar can glow like a tiny Halloween lantern once the sun goes down.
Choose a few favorite projects, spread the supplies across the table, turn on some Halloween music, and let the kids create.
The wonky pumpkins, crooked spider legs, enormous googly eyes, and wonderfully imperfect ghosts are all part of the fun—and those handmade decorations may become some of your favorite pieces of Halloween décor.
Happy crafting! 🎃👻
