Want some fun decorations around the house this Halloween? Have the kids help you make some fun and spooky Halloween decorations with these easy crafts.
Hairy Spider
This is one of the easiest crafts to make and also one of the least expensive. At a crafts store, get a few tennis ball-sized styrofoam balls and some black pipe cleaners. Have an adult spray paint the styrofoam balls black in a well-ventilated area. Once they are dry, attach the black pipe cleaners to the styrofoam ball to create the legs of the spider. Remember, a spider only has eight legs, so put four legs on one side and four on the other. Bend the pipe cleaners at a ninety degree angle downward to give the spider's legs a realistic look. Using paint you can draw in some red eyes for the spider and some white teeth. Or, if you are going for a silly effect, glue on some wiggle eyes you get from a crafts store. To hang your spiders around your house, stick a paper clip or straight pin down into the top of the center of the styrofoam body and tie a piece of black or white string around it. Use the string to hang it from the ceiling or from the rails on the stairs.
Creepy Ghosts
You will need some old pillow cases for this one, so if you have some laying around, great. If not, you can find pillow cases at garage sales or discount stores. Blow up a balloon and tie it up. Insert the balloon into the pillow case and underneath the balloon, bunch the pillow case up and wrap some white rope or string around it, as if you were tying a noose underneath the balloon. You can leave the ghost like this without a face, or using black paint or black marker you can create a spooky face. Once the paint or marker is dry, hang these ghosts all around your front yard to give the trick-or-treaters a scare. You will want to do this a day before Halloween, at the earliest, so the balloons do not begin to deflate.
Jack-o-Lantern Luminaries
On some regular brown paper bags (the ones you would put a lunch in), have the kids cut out goofy or scary jack-o-lantern faces on one side of the paper bag. Once they are done, fill the bottoms of the bags with a layer of sand about an inch tall. Snugly place a tea light into the middle of the sand layer and place the bags outside lining the sidewalk or front porch. On the night of Halloween, have an adult light the tea lights to give the luminaries a creepy Jack-o-Lantern effect.
