4 Halloween Paper Crafts: No Mess, 5-Minute Halloween Decorations

Are you looking for some quick and easy Halloween crafts?

Do you want to create some cheap Halloween decorations?

Maybe you have the grandkids coming over and want to do an old fashion Halloween craft without a big mess. (You can always make a big mess with the grandkids later making Halloween cookies.)

Maybe you want to set up an arts and crafts center in your classroom for independent crafts for kids that finish their work.

As a teacher and mom, I am not afraid of a mess for a cause but there are times and places for everything and sometimes you just need a no mess, five-minute craft.

Here are four, fun and easy paper Halloween crafts that involve no glue or paints.

Halloween Straw Toppers

Kids love straws and whether they are enjoying a pumpkin smoothie, some orange ghoul juice, orange milk or a bloody Halloween beverage, it will be even more fun to enjoy these Halloween drinks with a straw and a Halloween themed straw topper.

Materials needed:

- Colored paper
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Markers
- Hole puncher

Directions:

Decide on a theme such as pumpkins, witches hats or ghosts. Show kids what a 2x 3 inch rectangle looks like to give them an idea of size. Have them draw the shapes and cut them out with scissors. They can add feature details with markers and then punch two hole, one of the top and one near the bottom. Now insert the straws (starting the bottom hole entering from the front) and let the Halloween party begin.

Tip: We loved the look of the Silver Sharpie Marker against black construction paper for many of these Halloween crafts, especially the black cat straw toppers.

Halloween Pencils Toppers

Halloween pencil toppers can turn a plain pencil into a ghoul of a writing tool. You'll use the same materials and directions that you used for the Halloween Straw Toppers. This time try some new Halloween themes like bats, eyeballs or jack-o-lanterns.

Halloween Spiral Decorations

We were actually inspired to try out this Halloween crafts while we were reading Albert's Halloween, The Case of the Stolen Pumpkins. On one page a secret message was written on a spiral cut piece of paper. Our idea: What is first drew a Halloween shape in the center and then created a spiral. Would it hang down? Could we write a Halloween message on the spiral? Yes, it really worked.

Materials:

- Square or rectangular sheets of paper
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Markers

Directions:

Sketch a simple shape in the center such as a pumpkin on orange paper or a witch's hat on black paper. From the outer edge sketch a double sided spiral, the longer the better. Cut out the shape and the spiral. You can even add a message from Happy Halloween or just Boo repeated down the spiral. Don't forget to try the silver Sharpie marker on the black paper. It looks really cool or should I say ghoul?

Halloween Paper Ghouls

Do you remember paper dolls? Introduce kids to this good old fashion crafts but with a ghoulish twist.

Materials:

- Various papers as long as possible (newspaper, construction paper, scrapbook paper)
- Pencil
- Scissors

Directions:

Fold chosen paper into accordions. Decide on a design and sketch out half of it. Remember the way you fold paper and draw half of a heart and cut it out and unfold it and you have a heart? Same idea is used here but try black cats, pumpkins or tombstones.

If you use thicker paper like scrapbook paper, you can even stand up your paper ghouls. They make adorable Halloween party decorations for a food table.

You can go green and even create Halloween decorations using newspapers. The black and white looks great for Halloween decorations. Create ghost or witches hats and hang them across window tops like crepe paper.