3 Easy Halloween Crafts for Kids

Although Halloween isn't just for kids, it is a holiday celebrated by almost all kids in America and kids everywhere love to do crafts. Here are a few easy Halloween crafts for children to get their spook on with.

Plastic Spoon Witches

Materials:
Plastic spoon
green felt
purple felt
black felt
small scrap of white felt
1 green pipe cleaner
2 small googly craft eyes
miniature light green pom poms
miniature light purple pom poms
Scissors
Hot glue gun (only adults should handle a hot glue gun)

Instructions:
Cut a square of the green felt so that it is large enough to fold over and cover the top part of the spoon. Set aside.

Lay your spoon face down on top of the felt. Do not lay the handle of the spoon on the felt as it will not be covered with it.

Fold the felt around the top "cupped" part of the spoon and secure in the back with glue. Be sure to completely cover the top part of the spoon, gluing as you go until the entire top is wrapped up.

Cut two dress pieces from the black felt. (see illustration 1)

Lay one dress piece on the table, lay the handle of the spoon on top of that dress piece so that the green wrapped part is above the dress and then lay the other dress piece on top of the spoon. You should now have a spoon sandwiched between dress pieces with the green part sticking out.

Glue the shoulder and neck pieces together.

Cut the green pipe cleaner into 4 pieces and fold each piece in half. Lay one on the inside of the arm of the dress so that the folded ends of the pipe cleaner are sticking out. Glue the dresses arm pieces together. Repeat for the other arm.

Glue the rest of the dress together. (for added creativity shove a little batting or some napkins inside the dress before gluing closed.)

Use a strip of the purple felt to make a belt. Glue it together in the back.

Cut a square of black felt and then cut a smaller square out of the center of that. Glue it in the center of the front of the purple felt belt to make a buckle.

To give your witch some hair cut a rectangle of purple felt, fringe it on the end with scissors and glue to the back of the head. You can also cut several pieces of colorful yarn and glue to the head for a more textured look.

Make a hat for your witch by cutting two small triangles from the black felt. Lay one down on your work surface and lay the green covered head of the spoon on top of it. Lay the second triangle on top of that and glue together. You'll have to work with the felt a little bit to get the right fit and it's easier to do that by adding bits of napkin or batting to the inside of the hat before you glue it closed. Make sure that you also glue the hat to the head of the spoon itself. Use a small strip of purple felt to glue around the hat like a hat band just like you did when you made the belt.

Use your hot glue gun (or elmer's glue) to glue eyes on the face of your witch, add pom poms around the neck as a necklace and use scrap pieces of felt to decorate the face.

Dangling Ghost
Materials:
Bandana, handkerchief or other piece of scrap material
String to tie around neck
1 piece of yarn to hang ghost with
2 Pipe Cleaners
Glue (tacky glue or other unheated fabric glue is best for kids)
Scraps of black felt or Fun Foam
Two small googly craft eyes
1 small Styrofoam ball

Instructions:
Place Styrofoam ball in the middle of your bandanna or piece of material and tie closed with a piece of string. This will create the head of your ghost.

Twist the top inch or so of the 2 pipe cleaners together. Don't twist too far down or your ghost won't have nice arms.

Bend the pipe cleaners in the middle and shove about 1 inch into the Styrofoam ghost head. For added stability put a little glue on the tip of the pipe cleaners before inserting into the Styrofoam.

Bend the pipe cleaners out to each side of the head to form arm shapes.

Tie several knots in the end of a piece of yarn to create a good sized ball. Glue the knotted end to top of head and let dry.

Cut mouth from felt or foam and glue to the head. Glue on googly craft eyes and you have a face. Hang these all over the house for ghostly haunt.

Paper Mache Spider

Materials:
A round balloon
Newspaper
Flour and water
A pan and a stirrer
Aluminum foil
Hot glue
Black spray paint
Googly eyes

Papier-Mâché Glue:
Mix ½ cup flour and 1/2 cup water until mixture is thin and runny. Add 2 cups of boiling water and boil for 3 minutes. Let cool before using.

Create Your Spider:
Grab your newspaper and tear it into about a million strips. The best size for strips is about an inch wide but it really doesn't matter as long as you have lots of them.

Blow up a balloon.

Take one newspaper strip and dip it into the paper mache glue. Wipe off the excess paste and wrap it around the balloon. Let it sit overnight to dry. Repeat this process until the entire balloon is covered in at least 2 layers of newspaper strips.

When all layers of newspaper has dried pop the balloon inside, pull it out and throw it away.

Use Aluminum foil to make your spider's legs by twisting strips of foil into long stick shapes. You will need to make 8 of these unless you plan for your spider to be disfigured.

Glue all 8 legs to the newspaper body of the spider.

Spray paint your spider black and allow it to dry.

If you are feeling really creative hot glue some googly eyes or fun foam onto it to create a face for your spider and use a paintbrush and tempura paint to add designs to your spider's body.

Hang spider with clear fishing line.Happy Crafting!