3 Fun Halloween Crafts

Halloween is a fun time. A time to dress up your selves and your world. Here are some basic guides to some fun Halloween craft ideas that you can make. Remember these are basic guides that leave you much room for creative license.

Tombstones.
These are fun and SO simple to make. Plus you can get very creative on the sayings you put on your tombstones, make them spooky, or make them funny. Its up to you as to who is buried in your grave yard and what kind of ghosts remain there.
You will need.
Large Styrofoam squares or rectangles.
Knife ( Adult use only)
Spackleing and Spackle knife
Paint and brushes
Letter Stencils if you want.
Glue
To make.
Cut a tombstone shape out of the foam. Vary your sizes for a fun and interesting look. They should be longer then wide though. Cut out lettering for your words if you like. OR you can paint your words on later with a letter stencil. If you cut out your letters, then glue with a strong adhesive to your tombstone. Spackle the entire tomb stone and let dry. Spackle adds dimension to your tomb stones, this is optional, but it really gives the stones a fun feeling to them. Paint your tomb stone with gray and black paint. If you glued on your lettering, paint the sides of the letters with black paint to help them pop out from the tomb stone. Add white paint to the letters to make them pop as well. If you want to ad a crack in your tombstone its easy to do with black paint, just add a jagged line. If you are stenciling on your letters. Do it after you have painted your tomb stone with gray, black and white paint. Use the stencils as a guide to paint on your letters with black or white paint. Or add a 3D look to them by using both. Be creative, you can add red paint to simulate some blood, or add ghosts to the sides of them, or even bones at the base. To set up, add a base with extra foam, or bury 2 inches of the tomb stone in the ground, put some rocks against the base for fun.

Haunted Houses.
Make a small haunted house to sit on your mantel or bookshelf.
Pick up a wooden bird house from a local craft store. This will the basis for your haunted house.
You will need.
Wooden bird house or other decorative house.
Variety of paints.
Craft Foam Halloween shapes such as ghosts and spiders.
Permanent marker.
Hot Glue Gun.
Craft foam paper

To make.
Decide what kind of haunted house you want to make. Is it a friendly witches house, or a ghost haunted house. Pick out your wooden house and paint it to reflect what kind of house you are making. A ghost haunted house might be black or Grey, wheres a friendly witches house might be brightly mismatched colored. Use a Permanent marker to draw windows and doors on the house. Paint them decoratively, or leave them as an outline. Use the foam Halloween shapes and hot glue ones you want to use to your house. Perhaps a Ghost coming out a window, or a spider walking down the roof. Use craft foam paper to make a chimney. Bats coming out of the chimney is fun. To assemble a chimney, cut 4 pieces of foam proportionate to your house. glue together using hot glue gun, then glue onto your house.

Scarab Beetles

In Egypt Scarab beetles are very important.
You will need.
Plastic foam eggs ( each egg will make 2 beetles)
Knife
Black paint and brush
Clear glossy paint
Brown, blue, or green ( or a verity ) of puffy craft paints.
Black pipe cleaners
Scissors
Hot Glue gun

To make.
Cut each egg in half length wise. Then cut a small v shaped wedge out on each side of the egg on the small side of the egg. This wedge doesn't need to be very large. This will make the head and body separate and form a neck. Paint each beetle black. Then paint several layers of clear glossy paint, allowing beetle to dry between each coat. Then following diagram 1. ( in the photos to the left) use puffed paint to distinguish wings ( vertical line) and the body ( horizontal line). Decorate with different colors ( blue green or brown) for different beetles, to add verity. To make legs and antenna, cut the pip cleaners into lengths. You will need 6 equal lengths of the legs and 2 smaller equal lengths for the antenna. Attach by pushing the pip cleaner into the foam and securing with hot glue gun. When its dried, bend legs so the pipe cleaners support the beetle. And Voila. Scary scarab beetles.