How to Make Giant DIY Spiders for Halloween

Foam tubes and faux fur make it easy (and cheap) to infest your home with this spooky DIY Halloween décor.

Project Overview
  • Working Time: 1 hour
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Skill Level: Beginner

Foam and fabric never seem so frightening as when our spiders strut their stuff down the stairway, over the mantel, or up the side of your home. Hot-glue faux fur on floral forms, cover wire legs with foam tubes and bend them into synchronized outdoor Halloween decorations. It's so easy that your colony may quickly get out of hand. We'll show you how to make this spooky DIY Halloween craft—and how to easily hang these Halloween spiders inside your home or on top of it. Make a 2-foot spider, 4-foot spider, or a 7-foot spider—or one of each! We'll show you how to make them and how we styled them to create the ultimate spooky DIY Halloween decorations.

What You'll Need

Equipment / Tools

  • 1 Hot glue gun and glue sticks
  • 1 Awl

Materials

  • 1 Faux fur fabric
  • 1 16-gauge stem wire
  • 1 6 ft by 1 inch foam tube
  • 1 Zip ties
  • 1 Two 4-inch foam half balls
  • 1 2-Inch foam half ball
  • 1 Two 8-inch half-sphere wire globes
  • 1 16-Inch half-sphere wire globe

Instructions

  1. Small Halloween Spider Decorations

    Large DIY fuzzy spiders climbing in a line down stairs
    Marty Baldwin

    To make the smallest of the giant Halloween spiders, you'll need two foam balls—one should be half as wide in diameter as the other. We used half of a 2-inch foam ball ($5 for 28, Amazon) for the head and a 4-inch foam half ball ($4, Michaels) for the body. You can purchase foam half balls at a crafts store, or use a crafts knife to cut the whole ball in half.

  2. Build the spider body

    1. Make a head and body for your spiders by hot-gluing a 2-inch foam half ball to a 4-inch foam half ball so the sides touch, as shown.
    2. Cut a piece of faux fur that's large enough to cover the foam shape.
    3. Pull faux fur around the curved sides of the glued shapes and hot-glue on the underside.
    4. Working with one leg at a time, use an awl to poke a hole through the fur into the foam.
    5. Place a dab of hot glue on one end of a 12-inch length of crafts wire ($6, Amazon) and push it about 1 inch into the hole. Repeat for all eight legs.
  3. Make foam legs

    1. Bend a loop at the end of each leg.
    2. Cut black foam tubing ($5, Lowe's) into 9-inch pieces and slip each piece over a leg, pushing it close to the body.
    3. Bend the looped end of the wire back over the tube to secure, then hot-glue the tube to the fur.
    4. Bend the wire to shape the legs as desired.

    We suggest using adhesive strips or hooks to secure the spiders to your stairs or mantle. You can also display the Halloween house decorations outside of your home.

  • Medium Halloween Spider Decorations

    spiders on fireplace mantel
    Marty Baldwin

    This Halloween spider is perfect for decorating large spaces like a holiday mantel, fireplace, or a set of double doors. You'll need a foam ball and a half-sphere wire globe for these spiders; we used a 4-inch foam half ball and an 8-inch half-sphere wire globe.

  • Build the spider form

    1. Make the head and body form by hot-gluing the foam half ball to the wire half globe.
    2. Cut faux fur pieces to cover the shape.
    3. Pull the faux fur around the curved sides of the forms.
    4. Use hot glue ($4, Amazon) to secure the fabric on the underside of the shape.
    5. Working with one leg at a time, use an awl ($5, Amazon) to poke a hole through the fur on both sides of the body.
    6. Thread a piece of wire through, distributing the length equally on each side.
    7. Repeat four times to make eight pairs of legs. Hot glue the wires on the underside to secure them.
  • Add the legs

    Medium size halloween spider put together
    Adam Albright
    1. Bend the wire into a loop at the end of each leg.
    2. Cut foam tube into 18-inch pieces and slip each piece over a leg, pushing it close to the body.
    3. Bend the looped end of the wire back over the tube to secure.
    4. Hot-glue the tube to the fur and bend the wire to shape the legs as desired.
  • Giant Halloween Spider Decorations

    make giant spiders climbing over white house
    Jay Wilde

    We're totally obsessed with this outdoor Halloween decorating look. Ditch the foam balls and use two half-sphere wire globes to make spiders large enough to cover an entire house. Despite their size, the globes weigh next to nothing, making these giant spiders super easy to hang. We used an 8-inch half-sphere wire globe and a 16-inch half-sphere wire globe ($21, Amazon). Instead of hot glue, use zip ties ($6, Amazon) to join the wire globes to form the head and body.

  • Build the spider body

    For this spider, you'll use two separate pieces of faux fur to cover the body:

    • Cut a piece large enough to cover the head, pull the faux fur around the head globe's curved sides, and hot-glue the material on the underside.
    • Starting where the head and body join, weave a piece of wire through the body globe, distributing the length equally on each side.
    • Loop around the frame on each side to secure.
    • Repeat four times to make eight pairs of legs.
    • When the wire legs are attached, cut a piece of faux fur large enough to cover the body. Pull the material around the body's curved sides and hot-glue on the underside. Make sure the exposed leg wires are still easily reachable.
    • Attach foam legs

      Large spider body covered in brown faux fur with black foam tubes folded to look like legs
      Adam Albright
      1. Bend a loop at the end of each wire piece.
      2. Cut foam tubing into 36-inch pieces, and slip each piece over a leg, pushing it close to the body.
      3. Bend the looped end of the wire back over the tube to secure it.
      4. Hot-glue tube to the fur, then bend the wire to shape the legs as desired.

      Use twine, wire, adhesive strips, or hooks to suspend these giant Halloween spiders from the sides and roof of your home.

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