Kid-Friendly Halloween Decorations & Crafts

Candy isn't just for trick-or-treating. Unleash your child's inner Picasso with this crafty painting project for a candy corn Halloween garland.

Make a spooky family tree to display on your wall this Halloween. Download our free tree stencil, enlarge to desired size, and trace onto rolled black crafts paper. Cut out the tree shape, tape to the wall, and affix "family" silhouettes printed on white cardstock to the branches. Is that a witch in your family tree?

Don't set out on trick-or-treat night without a bag to hold all your loot. Help your little ghosts and goblins make this eye-catching tote, complete with peepers printed by apples.

More friendly than frightening, these vampire pinwheels make a fun Halloween party decoration.

A row of goblins leads trick-or-treaters to your door. For each ghost, insert a 1/4-inch-diameter dowel into an 8-inch-diameter plastic-foam ball; glue to secure. Drive the other end of the dowel into the ground. Cut up both sides of a white garbage bag; lay it over the ball. Layer one yard of cheesecloth over the bag. Gather both materials below the plastic-foam ball and tie with a ribbon. Cut three ovals from adhesive-backed black felt and place on ghost's head. To make a row of ghosts, use safety pins to attach the edges of the ghosts together.

Last minute costume woes? This easy ghost shirt shapes up with some black fabric paint and a few other basic craft supplies.

Let your little pumpkin wear this chapeau just for fun, or make it part of an easy Halloween costume. Pair the orange hat with an orange shirt and pants for trick-or-treat night.

Put away the knife and decorate your porch pumpkins with embellishments from the crafts closet: glitter, rhinestones, masks, and more.

This friendly spider's fuzzy body is formed from yarn wrapped around a plastic foam ball.

Cast a Halloween spell with a fun witch's broom. Use acrylic paint to add stripes or other designs to a bare branch; let dry completely. Trace and cut out eight handprints from a paper grocery bag. (Both sides of the handprints will show, so use areas of the bag without printing or graphics.) Make a chain of handprints by overlapping each cut out thumb to another hand's pinkie, and gluing them together. Once the glue is dry, tape one end of the hand strip to the bottom of the branch, wrap around, and tape to secure the end. Cover the tape by wrapping raffia around it and securing with a knot. Crumple the hands to make a fuller broom.

Make a frightening accessory with shrink wrap that will go with any Halloween outfit. Download our free ghost pattern and trace the ghost outline and the eyes and mouth onto clear shrink fill. Fill in the eye and mouth shapes with back colored pencil or permanent marker. Punch two holes in the top of the ghost and bake according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once cooled, string the ghost onto orange elastic cord and tie to secure.

To set the scene for Halloween, cut circles out of black and orange construction paper and arrange them on flat surfaces throughout your home. If you're handy with scissors, try cutting pumpkins, witches, and witches' brooms out of paper instead.

Are those spiders jumping out of that candy jar? Not quite: A spray of chartreuse spider mums tops a jar full of candy corn. Insert a smaller, waterproof container filled with floral foam and flowers inside the candy-filled glass vase.

Whip up your very own Halloween candy dispensers and use them to hold treats for your costumed set. Oversize round ornaments fit atop mailing tubes; attached shapes create the faces of a cat, a witch, or a jack-o'-lantern.

Give orange a rest -- a coat of white paint makes no-carve pumpkins jump out of the shadows. Use different color paints to create peering eyes.

Coordinated crafts turn a room's focal point into Halloween central. The grouping is simple: glass cylinders filled with Halloween snacks, candy corn topiaries, and windows dressed up with paper.

Assemble a pair of candy corn topiaries out of a dowel, poster board, and rickrack to spruce up an entry table.

Trim the edges of construction paper with decorative scissors. Then tape paper-punch circles and the decorative strips to a container. Swap out the colors and shapes to repurpose the bowl for use at birthday parties, holidays, or other special occasions.

Keep color at bay for contrast and impact. Here, paper borders cut from poster board (and available at most crafts stores) surround a window that's enhanced with a scalloped black paper valance.

Dress up a plain white lampshade in trademark black and orange, using fringed paper and polka dots. Use double-sided tape instead of crafts glue if you plan to use the lampshade post-Halloween.

Are those eyes following you? Quirky stick-on peepers poke out of a photocopied portrait of author Edgar Allan Poe. The black-and-white photocopy pops behind an inexpensive crafts-store green mat and frame. Any scary print -- a witch, ghost, or ghoul -- will work.