4 Easy Fun Halloween Craft Ideas

Kids always have fun making crafts, especially holiday-themed crafts.
Here are some fun Halloween craft ideas for your kids to make this year.

1. Trick-or-Treat bucket

Supplies:

ice cream bucket
construction paper
markers, crayons
glue
glitter

Directions:

Use construction paper to draw ghosts, pumpkins, scarecrows, etc. Cut out your decorations and glue them to the outside of an ice cream bucket.

2. Trick-or-Treat goody bags

Supplies:

small brown paper bags
Halloween stickers
markers
treats (candy, pencils, erasers, bubblegum, etc.)

Directions:

Decorate paper bags in Halloween themes using your art supplies. Put treats inside bags. Fold the top of the bag down and tape shut with a Halloween sticker.

3. Tiny pumpkins

Supplies:

acorns
orange paint
green paint

Directions:

Lay acorns on a sheet of newspaper. Paint the bottom of the acorns with orange paint. After the orange paint dries, paint the top of the acorns green (for the stem of the pumpkin). Allow to dry thoroughly.

4. Spooky Spiders

Supplies:

black construction paper
cotton balls or cotton stuffing
black pipe cleaners
small bowl or saucer
stapler

Directions:

Using black construction paper, trace around a small bowl or saucer. (Cut out two circles per spider.) Place stuffing or cotton balls on first circle. Lay second circle on top of cotton stuffing and staple half-way around. Insert 3-4” pipe cleaners on each side, then staple the second half of the circles together. Bend pipe cleaners to make the “legs” of the spider.

2 Quick and Easy Halloween Crafts

By James Watts

Making Halloween crafts can really get you into a festive mood for this spooky holiday. Here are 2 fun and easy craft ideas:

Tin Can Lanterns

Did you know that you can easily create Halloween lanterns out of those old tin cans? Use cans that have a smooth surface to accurately display your designs. All you need to complete this Halloween crafts project are cans, a hammer, and a nail.

Use a nail to press very shallow points into the cans, designing Halloween images like, a jack-o-lanterns, skulls, cats, half-moons, and stars. If you don't want to do this free-hand, tape a drawing onto the can.

So, how to make the holes without denting the metal? The trick to this is to fill the can with water, and freeze it. Next, hammer simple designs into the can with a nail. One or two good taps should do it, depending on the size of the hole that you want.

When your cans are complete, place tea lights or votive candles inside to illuminate.

Spooky Bags

If you are hosting a Halloween party, or handing out candies to trick-or-treaters, decorate small bags to hold assorted treats, and surprises.

Here's what you'll need:

- scissors

- a glue stick

- brown paper bags with handles (5x8-inch, or smaller)

- several sheets of construction paper, in colors like, purple, green, yellow, orange, black, and white.

Draw simple shapes like, jack-o-lanterns, moons, stars, and witch's hats, on card board, and cut them out. Now, you have templates to work with. Trace these shapes onto your construction paper, cut them out, and attach them to the bags with a glue stick.

James writes for Ghoulish Halloween, a site that tries to entertain and inform. For more great Halloween articles, visit our Halloween articles archive.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Watts http://EzineArticles.com/?2-Quick-and-Easy-Halloween-Crafts&id=33907

Halloween Decorations

Here are some simple Halloween decorating ideas that will make your home look festive but won’t break the bank.

Orange Lights

Change the light bulbs in your outdoor lanterns or house lights to orange lights. If you can’t find orange light bulbs, you can purchase inexpensive Halloween themed string lights (like Christmas lights) and hang them around your front door.

Make Your Own Luminaries

Place homemade Halloween luminaries alongside the sidewalk or walkway up to your front door. You can make easy and inexpensive luminaries with paper lunch sacks. You can either leave them the original brown or spray paint them orange.

On each bag, lightly draw in pencil a rough outline of a pumpkin, ghost or spider. With a sharpened pencil or nail, poke holes about every inch along the outline of the design.

Fill each bag with approximately 1 ½-2 cups of sand. Place a votive candle in a glass votive holder and securely place the votive in the sand (or use glow sticks if you’re leaving your home unattended). Light the votives at dusk on Halloween night and your home will have a beautiful Halloween glow.

Make Your Own Scarecrow

Using old slacks, an old flannel shirt, some hay and a straw hat, you can make your home come alive with a friendly scarecrow welcoming your trick-or-treaters.

The other supplies you’ll need are twine, permanent marker, an old pillowcase and an outdoor chair.

Stuff the pants and shirt firmly with hay, leaving some of the hay sticking out from the bottom of the legs and bottom of the sleeves. Position the scarecrow’s pants in the chair and shift the hay so he “sits” comfortably in the chair.

Tie the arms and legs off with twine. Stuff the old pillowcase with hay. Tie off with twine and position the pillowcase inside the shirt collar to appear as the “head” of the scarecrow. Secure the pillowcase to the shirt by tying off with twine. With the permanent marker, draw a scarecrow face and place the hat on top.

Make Your Own Pumpkin Family

By painting silly and whimsical faces on pumpkins, you can create an entire pumpkin family that can be proudly displayed on bales of hay on and around your front door.

On paper, sketch your ideas of what kind of face you’d like to put on your pumpkin. Transfer that design to a cleaned and dried pumpkin using a non-permanent marker. Paint the design using craft paints. Seal with a spray glaze or sealer.

If each member of your family (even the little ones) paints their own pumpkin design, you’ll have a memorable collection of painted pumpkin decorations for your home.