It’s the spookiest time of the year! Why not celebrate the impending Halloween holiday with some messy, spooky and fun crafts!
Halloween Rice!
Making this rice is SO easy – and so fun! So the official recipe is basically for every one cup of dry rice you put a tsp of rubbing alcohol and a few drops of food coloring…put it in a zip lock bag and shake, shake, shake to mix. You can do that… or you can just eyeball it like I did – I tossed a few cups of rice and several squirts of rubbing alcohol and food coloring in separate bags before shaking. To get more vibrant colors – use more food coloring. Once the rice is covered in color, spread on towels for a few hours to dry (the alcohol smell does go away). Toss in a plastic tote, toss in utensils, cups and treasures and have fun!
Pumpkin Painting!
Painting and decorating pumpkins is literally the easiest and cheapest activity ever (I didn’t say it’s the cleanest though… it gets messy, fast… hence why Sam is wearing a trash bag.) Get some paint, paint sticks, glitter, and sequins! How cute are these spooky glitter packs I grabbed at Michael’s? (Note – all Halloween crafting stuff is half-off at Michael’s right now!!)
Pumpkin Fairy Houses!
Sam and I’ve never met a fairy craft we didn’t like – and these pumpkin fairy houses are no exception! We each picked out two pumpkins at the patch, painted them and then hot glued together. Then, with your clean-slate, get busy! Glitter, sequins, feathers, more paint, pipe cleaners, DIY ladders (we used little sticks we found out back, hot glued together and painted), more glitter and then a little more glitter. Just the right amount of spooky for our sweet neighborhood fairies!
Wooden Jack-O-Lanterns!
Over the summer my stepdad cut up a ton of old birch branches into little discs. We painted little stepping stones for Sam’s fairy garden, but didn’t even make a dent into the giant bag of them we had. But they came in handy the other day for an instant jack-o-lantern! Sam just added a layer of orange paint, lots of orange glitter while the paint was still wet and a little face! I added a layer of mod podge after it was dry to lock in the glitter. Halloween crafting at it’s finest!
Leafy People!
While the leaves aren’t starting to show those beautiful colors yet, a few have made their way to the ground! Why not celebrate the cooling temps with some hilarious “leaf people.” Use popsicle sticks, googly eyes, stickers, feathers and leaves!! Easy and hilarious (and crumbly after a few days so they eventually found their forever home in the trash – ha!)
Leafy Owls!
While you’re collecting leaves for the leaf people, grab a few extra for these owls! We attempted to make leaf owls, but eventually they took on a life of their own (and a whole bunch of glue). Grab some leaves and get creative! A $0 craft!
Mummy Rocks!
Grab some rocks out of your yard (we got these flat-surfaced ones at Home Depot), paint and add some googly eyes and rubber bands. The rubber bands create a spooky mummy effect!
Five Little Wooden Pumpkins!
My stepdad cut these tall square pieces of wood for us (or look at Michael’s, they often have wooden shapes ready to be painted). Sam painted them orange and then painted jack-o-lantern faces on them. I grabbed a few little branches in the backyard and hot glued them on the top to create little stems. (I love how these turned out. I have them sitting on our windowsill.)
Prickly Hedgehogs!
Sam is obsessed with hedgehogs so this craft was a no brainer to do! We trekked to our neighbor’s yard and rounded up dried pine needles and then just glued to a hedgehog-type shape I had cut out in advance. Add a googly eye and a pom pom nose and it’s ready to go!
Halloween Slime!
I mean, is it really a holiday if you aren’t making slime? This is the best recipe for Halloween slime I have found.
Ingredients:
- 6 oz Clear Glue
- 1 tablespoon Glitter
- 1 Tablespoon of water
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 2 tablespoons of contact solution
Directions
- Using a spoon, mix glue with glitter
- Mix in water and baking soda
- Mix in contact solution as an activator. You’ll notice slime consistency will start to form and become firm. Keep stirring and manipulating the slime. Add additional contact solution if it’s still too sticky (pro-tip — you’ll need WAY more contact solution than what this recipe calls for).
Eventually you’ll get a jiggly slime!
Día de Muertos Skeletons!
In honor of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and the fact Samantha watches Coco over and over and over again on Disney+, we decided to make our own Día de Muertos crafts! We started making Qtip skeletons. Sam glued, cut the Qtips, and then glued them on. Here’s to Día de Muertos, it’s meaning and everyone who celebrates it! And here’s to watching Coco another 45 times this week (which I am completely ok with…. it’s the best movie ever)!
Coffee Filter Monsters!
We love crafting with coffee filters year round – and Halloween is no exception! These are super easy: 1) Stack two coffee filters on top of each other and decorate with felt-tip markers. 2) Use a little spray bottle or water dropper and spray water soaking the coffee filters until the colors start to bleed together. 3) Let dry completely (we let them dry over night and made this a two day activity)
4) Once dry, Sam used a glue stick to glue them together in the middle (just to hold them in place together) then she practiced cutting making “hair” around the edges. Add googly eyes and boom! Funny and spooky monsters!
Sweet and Soft Ghosts!
These spooooooky Kleenex ghosts were easy, cute and gave Sam the chance to practice cutting pipe cleaners. Put a cotton ball in the middle of a tissue, tie a piece of string around its neck – we used orange pipe cleaners so Sam could cut them and then also twist them together (since she can’t tie yet – I didn’t want to use string). Decorate and voila, funny little ghosts.
Pumpkin Science Experiment!
SO easy – and lots of fun! All you need -> a pumpkin, dish soap, baking soda and vinegar! Start by cutting and cleaning the inside of a pumpkin as you normally would – scooping out the goop. Next, pour baking soda and dish soap into it (we used lots and didn’t measure anything!) Then, pour a bunch of vinegar in it and watch it react and foam over! We did it several times until we were out of baking soda!
