Fast and Frightful Halloween Crafts Ideas

For a quick Halloween pumpkin decoration, consider creating a marbled design. Our easy, no-carve tutorial requires just a few materials, and it takes much less time than stenciling. Dip your mini pumpkins in a swirled mixture of water and nail polish, then set to dry. This one-hour craft is a perfect mess-free decoration that can be used to brighten any home for Halloween.

Halloween isn’t just about showcasing your best orange and black. With this 30-minute tutorial, anyone can add a rainbow-hue pumpkin to their All Hallows Eve decor. For easy cleanup, put down newspaper before beginning this craft, then use broken crayons and a hair dryer to drip colored wax down a store-bought pumpkin. After about 15 minutes, your colorful pumpkin will be ready to stand at the center of any Halloween display.

Delight young Halloween party guests with a Mason jar filled with silly slime. This playful party favor can be easily customized to fit your spooky gathering—try using orange food coloring or adding Halloween-theme critters like spiders. The best part: this Halloween craft takes just a few minutes to whip up.

If you only have a few minutes before goblins and ghouls are at your doorstep, arrange miniature pumpkins in a simple pail. This minimalistic Halloween decoration gives off a friendly fall vibe without too much effort.

Flickering candlelight accentuates the season's moody ambience. Shadowy silhouettes depict nighttime icons. Together, they spice up glass lanterns filled with moss, miniature gourds, and bittersweet branches. Print and cut out the flying bats and moon-and-stars patterns, available below. Adhere the silhouettes to glass lanterns using spray adhesive. Arrange a candle and gourds, moss, sprigs, leaves, or other natural materials inside the lantern. Group the arrangement on a mantel, porch, or table.

Editor's Note: Keep flammable materials away from the candle's flame and heat. Don't leave burning candles unattended. A flameless battery-operated candle can be a good choice for this project.

Welcome guests with the glint of candlelight and a spark of intrigue. A stone-look urn resembling a pumpkin makes a lovely anchor for a bouquet of decorative half masks in black, white, and silver. Tuck floral foam into the urn, and press the dowel attached to the mask into the foam. Cover the opening of the urn with green moss. Place the urn on an entry table. Arrange distressed-glass votives on shiny silver fabric draped over the table edge. Accent the vignette with a bit more moss.

Editor's Note: If you can't find masks that suit your needs, embellish your own. Decoupage shiny decorative paper onto plain masks, and outline with a glitter pen. Accent with silk flowers, and hot-glue a black- or white-painted dowel to the mask.

Conjure a sense of dusk into darkness with this easy display. Reminiscent of shadows in twilight, these Halloween and autumn-theme designs transform black cutouts into graphic art. Print out the figures, available below, and trace them onto black self-adhesive shelf liner. Carefully cut out the silhouettes. Adhere the cutouts to white plates or trays. Add a Gothic accent by lining the inside of a black tray with pages from an old book; adhere a black silhouette over the printed pages. Gather the finished projects in a cabinet or on shelves for a hauntingly easy focal point. Finish the look with black or white serving pieces, glassware, pumpkins, branches, or old books.

Editor's Note: Our silhouette patterns are the mirror versions of the shapes in the image. Print and trace the patterns onto the back of shelf liner. When cut out, the figures on the front of the shelf liner face the direction shown in the photo.

Line up paper pumpkins to harvest loads of cheerful creativity. The accordion-fold shapes can spell out whatever Halloween greeting suits your style and space. Keep it short and simple with a single word (we started with "fun"), or spell out a phrase (for example, "Happy Halloween!" or "Party Like a Pumpkin") to welcome friends to your Halloween haven. To make the garland, draw and cut out stemmed pumpkins from orange cardstock. Make one for each letter of your greeting; you can make extras to leave blank, too. Cut letters from black cardstock to fit on the pumpkins. Accordion-fold the pumpkins with approximately 1 inch of cardstock between folds. Use black or brown marker to fill in the stem area. Use double-stick tape to attach a letter to each folded pumpkin, being careful not to flatten the folds. String a length of twine along a wall or above a doorway. Attach each pumpkin to the twine with a binder clip, or tape the stems to the twine.

Create a spooky cast of characters for your dining room table. Use spools of thread for the mini-monsters' bodies. Embellish with googly eyes, ribbon, and string. We used felt cutouts for the creatures' eyes and mouths.  

Editor's Tip: Repurpose old jewelry boxes with scrapbooking or wrapping paper to create fun pedestals for the spool monsters.

Two seasonal staples come together to make a ghostly garland that's not too scary. Use a stencil or a real leaf to trace the shape onto white cardstock and cut out. Use a black marker to add teardrop-shape eyes, and tie string around the leaf stems to finish the garland. Hang it from the doorway, inside or out, or drape across a deck railing.

These no-fuss pumpkin face decorations require no messy pumpkin carving and can be made in minutes. Cut the smiling pumpkin faces from black cardstock and tape the shapes to orange cardstock that has been cut to fit the lantern panels. The finished product will brighten railings or steps during the day and can also light up the night when you put battery-operated candles or flashlights inside the lanterns.

Editor's Tip: For a longer-lasting decoration, put the jack-o'-lantern faces behind the lantern's glass panels.

Fill a cone with some dried naturals and a crow or two for a unique and inexpensive door decoration.

Enliven glassware for Halloween with dancing skeletons. Download our free pattern, trace onto tracing paper, and cut out each skeleton, 1/2-inch from the design. Tape a cutout inside a glass or plastic tumbler (ones with flat sides work best). Use the pattern lines as guides to draw the skeleton and facial features using a black waterproof paint marker; let dry. Add details and fill in the shapes with a white waterproof paint marker; let dry. (Note: We recommend hand-washing the glassware.)

Ring in the crisp temperatures and warm colors of Halloween with a new decoration at your front door or over your fireplace. This autumn beauty captures the glorious shades of turning leaves with plaid ribbon and fabulous wool-felt blooms. Start with a straw wreath and 2-inch-wide plaid ribbon in harvest colors. Hot-glue a ribbon end to the back of the wreath. Wrap ribbon around the wreath; glue the other end of the ribbon to the back. Add other rolls, if necessary, in the same manner until wreath is covered. Embellish the wreath with purchased felt flowers and leaves in complementary colors. Loop a wide ribbon through the wreath as a hanger.

Editor's Note: Before gluing ribbon in place, wrap it around the wreath to make sure you have enough to cover it.

Nothing can disguise the appeal of this black-and-white Halloween wreath. The wreath displays all the mystery and excitement of a masquerade ball. To make the wreath, remove the elastic bands from simple black and white half masks. Using a plastic foam wreath form as a base, arrange the masks around the form, alternating colors and overlapping masks. Adhere the masks using straight pins or hot glue. For a colorful contrast, tie a black-and-orange ribbon bow, and glue or pin to the wreath.

With a layer of orange felt beneath, the dotted design on this table runner conjures the image of a field of pumpkins. The chocolate-brown felt top layer will carry through the harvest season; use black felt for a traditional Halloween look. Trace circles of various sizes onto a length of dark-color felt; cut out. Layer the felt over a length of same-size orange felt. Secure the two layers with glue, if desired, and drape the runner over the table.

Decorate hurricane lanterns to add an old-fashioned candlelit glow to any Halloween party. Click on the link below for step-by-step instructions for this easy project.

Cast a spell on a new or vintage plate using stenciled letters and black glass paint. Freehand-paint a lifeless branch for extra chills. The design takes little time to create, but give it plenty of time to dry and cure. To stencil the design, transfer the pattern, available below, onto stencil plastic. Carefully cut out letters using a crafts knife. Securely tape stencil to plate. Dip an angle-tip paintbrush into glass paint. Lightly dab paintbrush onto a paper towel, then dab paint inside the letters. Let dry; reapply paint until you are satisfied with the result. Draw a tree branch on the plate using a pencil. Paint penciled lines with glass paint. Let dry 24 hours. Bake the plate in a 325-degree F oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool slowly.

Conjure up the illusion of haunting spirits with this easy project. Sand a corner of an old mirror down until it is clear, feathering it at the edge. Copy a photo of a frightened face onto translucent paper and again on white paper. Tape the translucent print to the back of the mirror, then tape the white one behind it, slightly off-center, for a ghostly image.

Shock guests with a gallery of macabre images. Search your basement, local dollar store, and thrift store for old white plates and bowls. Then look on the internet for free clip art of skulls, skeletons, and other anatomical prints. (Think images from old medical textbooks.) Print your finds in black-and-white, then decoupage them onto plates and bowls. Use removable adhesive picture-hanging strips for this seasonal display.

See your nighttime festivities in a new light by adding letters to glass pillar-candle holders. Wrap the outsides of the holders with colored tissue paper and secure with tape. Adhere a 2-inch letter sticker (find at office supply or crafts stores) to each pillar to form a word.

This easy-to-make pumpkin decoration requires no carving at all—simply paint 10 pumpkins and the stems (we used light green and black paint, but you can choose whatever colors you like), arrange to form a caterpillar, and cover with adhesive felt dots. Finish the creepy creature with a pair of large googly eyes.

Framed as portraits, these spooky silhouettes add Halloween flair. To create the characters, download our free patterns, enlarge to desired size, and trace onto black cardstock. Cut out the silhouettes using small, sharp scissors, glue to off-white cardstock, and frame.

Turn creepy Halloween creatures into giggle-causing ghouls. Vampires, black cats, bats, and jack-o'-lanterns aren't nearly as scary made from plastic plates, colorful paper, and puffy paint. With googly eyes and crafts foam accents, these Halloween faces band together for a smile-inducing seasonal door accent. Create the faces, then simply glue the shapes to a plastic foam wreath form.

Editor's Note: Kids will love making the Halloween faces. Cut out the shapes for facial features ahead of time and let your kids assemble the faces, adding imaginative touches to personalize their silly monsters.

Imagine glowing jack-o'-lanterns without the mess of scooping out pumpkins or fiddling with candles. These paper-wrapped glass cylinders mimic the look, brightening the steps even during the day. Simply cut the provided patterns out of orange paper and wrap yellow paper around glass cylinders, followed by your trimmed orange paper. If desired, add a battery-operated candle or mini flashlight inside.

Dress up a black urn planter with a pair of cat eyes to make it a creepy black cat. Search online for copyright-free images of cat eyes or draw your own, and adhere to the urn with crafts glue. Fill the urn with plastic foam or sand and top with flowers, twigs, or leaves to finish this hair-raising decoration.

Editor's Tip: Outline the eyes with glow-in-the-dark paint for a memorable nighttime stare.

Seed beads and glitter team up to blanket votive candleholders with ghoulish glitz. Use a paintbrush to apply thick decoupage medium to glass votive cups, working in small sections at a time. Sprinkle the wet medium with beads or glitter as desired. Allow medium to dry in one section before moving to the next.

These pretty flowers get a fun Halloween makeover with frightful faces made out of orange cardstock. Cut out a face and attach to the middle of the flower with small amounts of crafts glue.

The witch who owns this hat must have a few fashion spells up her sleeve. To make the chic hat, start with a 3-7/8x8-7/8-inch plastic-foam cone. Cut black silk flowers, leaving a 1-inch stem. Beginning at the top, insert the flowers into the cone. (You could also hot-glue them to the cone.) For the brim, cut an 11- to 12-inch circle from thin cardboard (a recycled cereal box works great) and paint it black; let dry. Hot-glue the cone to the center of the circle and add purple flowers around the base of the cone.

These pull-apart plastic ornaments transform into larger-than-life eyeball candy holders. Use a circle cutter to make two round stencils, then emblazon the peering design using spray paint. Enclose treats inside the spooky eyeballs for added fear factor.