How to Make Halloween Decor

Lit pumpkins add to a spooky atmosphere.

Halloween is often represented by pumpkins, ghosts, bats, spiders and black cats. These simple shapes with basic colors such as orange, white and black provide an ideal opportunity to create your own Halloween decorations. Show off your crafty side and enjoy time with your children by creating festive decor to hang from the ceiling or decorate your snack table.

Things You'll Need

• Craft paint
• 6 foam craft balls
• 24 black pipe cleaners
• Scissors
• Cotton cobweb
• Coat hanger
• String
• 6 thumbtacks
• Orange fabric
• Green fabric
• Roll of toilet paper
• Brown paper lunch sack
• Mixing bowl
• 1-1/2 cups ground cinnamon
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup white school glue
• Wax paper
• Rolling pin
• Halloween cookie cutters
• Baking sheet

Instructions

Spider Mobile

1. Prepare spiders by painting six foam craft balls black. Allow to dry and then paint on eyes.

2. Cut four black pipe cleaners in half. Insert four pieces in each side of the foam ball to create spider legs. Bend each leg in the middle to most resemble an actual spider.

3. Wrap the cotton cobweb around the coat hanger. Cut six pieces of string of varying lengths for hanging spiders from the coat hanger.

4. Tie one end of each piece of string securely to a thumbtack. Tie the other end of the string to the base of the coat hanger, spacing each string evenly.

5. Insert the thumbtack attached to the string into the top of each foam ball spider. Hang your mobile near the door or over your food table.

Pumpkins

1. Cut a large 14- to 16-inch circle out of an orange piece of fabric. Cut a piece of green fabric that is 2 inches wide and 4 inches long.

2. Place the roll of toilet paper in the center of the circle of orange fabric. Fold up the fabric to wrap the toilet paper and stuff the extra down the center of the roll to completely cover it in orange. This is your pumpkin.

3. Stuff the center of the green piece of fabric in the middle of the roll so the ends stick out like leaves.

4. Twist the brown paper lunch bag tightly and fold it in half. Stick this in the center of the roll to secure and hold the fabric. This becomes the pumpkin's stem.

5. Put out the pumpkin for decoration as it is or use black craft paint to create a jack-o'-lantern face on its front.

Scented Cats and Bats

1. Combine 1-1/2 cinnamon, 1 cup of applesauce and 1/4 cup white school glue in a mixing bowl to form a dough.

2. Put the dough between two pieces of wax paper and roll it out with a rolling pin until it is about 1/4 inch thick.

3. Use bat and cat cookie cutters or other Halloween cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Place the shapes on a baking sheet and use a toothpick to create a small hole at the top of each for hanging.

4. Allow the ornaments to dry for three to five days until they are firm or bake them at 200 degrees Farenheit for about two hours.

5. Paint the ornaments once they are dried and cooled. Insert string through the hole to hang the Halloween ornaments throughout a room to provide decoration and a festive scent.

Tips & Warnings

• Create similar mobiles using bats or pumpkins in addition to spiders if you want more variety. Instead of cookie cutters, cut out your own Halloween shapes by hand from the cinnamon dough to create larger ornaments.

• Adults should supervise the cutting and baking if young children are working on this project.

References

• Disney Family Fun: Halloween Crafts
• AllFreeCrafts.com: Halloween Crafts
• Kaboose: Cinnamon Dough Ornaments

Resources

• eHow Halloween Directory