Home Spooky Home: Easy Halloween Crafts

This spectacular paper tree makes the perfect display for hanging treat bags or the best backdrop to a fun DIY photo station at a Halloween-theme party.

Make the Halloween craft: Begin by laying sheets of black construction paper side-by-side on the floor until you have enough to create the size of tree you want to make. Create a tree trunk and branch pattern atop the construction paper, and cut out. Flip the pieces over, and tape their seams together with black masking tape. Use hanging strips to mount the tree to a wall. Trace and cut out patterns for the crow, owl, and spider. Trace the owl's eyebrows, eyes, beak, wings, and other details onto the back of a piece of glitter paper. Cut those pieces out and use a glue stick to attach them to the owl. Position the animal patterns on the tree using hanging strips.

Decorate the front of your house with these alluring, Pinterest-worthy portraits that add a Halloween twist to your outdoor decor.

Make the Halloween craft: Cut an artificial pumpkin in half and spray-paint each half white. Once the paint is dry, stick tape along the natural indents of the pumpkin pieces to create stripes and then spray-paint the halves black. Let the paint dry before removing the tape. Hang the pumpkins and frames using picture hooks.

Lure guests in with this enchanting wreath that will add texture to your front door in an unexpected but mesmerizing way.  

Make the Halloween craft: Trace a witch's hat pattern onto a piece of lightweight wood, and cut out the pattern with a jigsaw or fine handsaw. Sand the wood to smooth any rough edges, and then adhere preserved moss to the entire wood hat using hot glue. Position a piece of festive ribbon just above the brim of the hat and secure the ends of the ribbon to the back of the hat with hot glue. Create a square buckle using different ribbon or decorative beads and glue it onto the plaid ribbon.

Welcome guests to your home with a haunted birdhouse town that is full of Halloween charm (and a few plastic spiders).

Make the Halloween craft: Round up an array of wooden birdhouses and coat them with glossy black and matte gray spray paint. Position your tiny town on a vibrant orange bench, and garnish the display with an eerie branch and mini pumpkins. Use adhesive to secure the spiders in place.

If you're not a fan of a pumpkin's slimy insides, skip the pumpkin carving and opt for this chic decorating idea instead.

Make the Halloween craft: Pick three pumpkins of varying sizes: small, medium, and large. Cut the stems off the two bigger pumpkins. Paint all three pumpkins black. Trace a "B" on the small pumpkin, the first "O" on the midsize pumpkin, and the second "O" on the large pumpkin. For each pumpkin, fill in the letter outline with metal-leaf adhesive and place a silver-leaf sheet on top. Brush the silver leaf in place using a soft bristle bush until no excess leaf remains. Gently brush the silver-leaf letters with a sealer, and outline each letter with decorative tacks. Complete the look by stacking the pumpkins, starting with the largest on bottom.

You've never seen a creepy-crawly look this fabulous, but a store-bought glittery spider on an orange web makes a stunning statement on this DIY striped wreath.

Make the Halloween craft: Mark even sections on a plastic foam wreath form using a ruler and a pencil. For each section, hot-glue the end of a long piece of yarn to the back of the wreath form and begin wrapping the section with yarn -- alternate black yarn and white yarn. At the end of each section, cut the yarn and hot-glue its end to the back of the wreath. Add a purchased spider web decoration to the center of the wreath.

This too-cute-to-be-true garland proves Halloween decor doesn't have to be frightening or eccentric to fit the theme. Create this adorable DIY Halloween craft to add simply festive style to your home.

Make the Halloween craft: Use fishing line to hang yarn spiders, ghosts, and pumpkins to a long string of twine. Tie the fishing line to the twine in loose knots so you can space the critters evenly once you hang the garland on your mantel.

Add pizzazz to your kitchen table with a spellbinding table runner you can DIY -- no magic needed.

Make the Halloween craft: Lay a witch stencil on a solid black table runner or piece of cloth. Load a small foam paint roller with an even coat of white paint and roll it over your runner in even strokes, moving in the same direction. Repeat this process on various parts of the runner until you're satisfied with the result.

Create 3-D designs that resemble spiderwebs on painted pumpkins for a look that will brew major envy in your neighborhood.

Make the Halloween craft: Trace a moon on one pumpkin and a bat on another using a pencil. Leaving the traced shapes unpainted, paint the rest of the moon pumpkin black and the bat pumpkin white. Hammer a crafts nail every ¼ inch around the edges of the moon and bat, making sure the nails are slightly above the surface of the pumpkin. For each pumpkin, randomly wrap string in a contrasting color around the nails to create the webbed design. Finish by looping the string around the adjacent nails to create an outline.

An inexpensive frame and plastic spider make a creepy combination in this done-in-minutes Halloween craft.

Make the Halloween craft: Remove and discard the glass from the frame; insert a piece of web-pattern paper cut to size. Using crafts glue, add decorative stripes on an oversize plastic spider. Attach to the paper with a dab of hot glue.

Prep a literal round of applause for trick-or-treaters to see on Halloween.

Make the Halloween craft: Apply a few even layers of silver spray paint to nine plastic skeleton hands (available at dollar stores). Add a liberal amount of hot glue to the back of the hands and affix in place around a small chalkboard circle. Write a spooky phrase with chalk, and hang the wreath with string.

Looking for Halloween paper crafts? A cute and clever collection of crafts and party basics lends this front porch an enviable sense of Halloween style.

Make the Halloween craft: Paper lanterns -- black, silver, and white -- hung at alternating heights offer visual interest and a backdrop to a few "sleeping" cut-out paper bats. Plastic spiders scatter across a trio of simple pillows with the aid of hot glue.

Even if you don't have paving stones, you can re-create this simple Halloween theme pathway to your front door.

Make the Halloween craft: Purchase new pieces of stone in various sizes; piece them together and "draw" a spiderweb using black electrician's tape. Spread the pieces apart and lay on the ground for an "eek" entrance to your home.

Off-the-shelf supplies make a big impact when gathered together to create spooky Halloween crafts.

Make the Halloween craft: Choose sticker or die-cut letters in a style or size to your liking and hot-glue to a plastic bucket. Pull apart some polyfill and drape inside and to the side of the bucket to imitate bubbly witch's brew.

If your decor tends toward the less-scary side, try this clever craft to repurpose ordinary pumpkins. This craft idea for Halloween is chic and will stand out from the scary crowd. 

Make the Halloween craft: Purchase real or crafts white pumpkins; trace a design imitating lights on the pumpkins. Using yellow and black crafts paint, fill in the designs. Stack the pumpkins on flea market or new balustrades painted glossy black.

Use orphaned plates and platters to create dishes with ginormous insects.

Make the Halloween craft: Download our free images, below, then use them to create custom decals that work on smooth, nonpourous surfaces. Follow the decal-paper manufacturer's instructions to transfer the images. Then stick the decals to the dishes and spray on a coat of clear high-gloss acrylic finish. Hang your infested dishes in a swarm for intimidating impact.

Give guests a fright with an ominous raven wreath covered in feathers. This craft for Halloween is simple, but makes a spooky statement!

Make the Halloween craft: Watch the video for the complete tutorial!

Magnify the fun on your beverage table or buffet with this spellbinding centerpiece.

Make the Halloween craft: Adhere our downloadable vintage images to magnifying glasses. Place the magnifying glasses on a newspaper or book page for a more believable trick.

Equal parts humorous and Halloween-themed, this ingenious Halloween craft is great for a shed or a garage, or even a series of front yard windows.

Make the Halloween craft: You'll need bright colored cardstock or tissue paper and black cardstock. Cut out the bright color to fit the windows; set aside. Cut outlines of hands and feet from the black cardstock. Attach the hands to the bright cardstock and adhere to the windows using removable tape. Attach the feet to the base of the door or house.

Set the mood for a spooky event and welcome guests to your home with this easy spiderweb doormat idea.

Make the Halloween craft: First, cut a 3x4-foot mat into a 36-inch diameter circle with heavy shears. Using chalk, draw a spiderweb on the mat. Cut pieces of clothesline to fit your design. Singe the ends of the clothesline to keep them from fraying. Use heavy-duty white glue to adhere the pieces to the mat, covering the chalk lines.

The great thing about Halloween is that you can lower or boost your scary decor based on your own preferences -- or your kids’ ages. Here, the vibe is decidedly friendly, thanks to the collection of smiley-faced carved pumpkins and gourds, stacked cleverly on half of an old ladder.

Make the Halloween craft: Select carvable elements that vary in shape and size for visual interest, and tuck in other seasonal accents -- here, crows -- around the pumpkins.

Halloween crafts and decor don’t need to be scary and dark. This adorable gathering of colors and images offers a humorous hint to traditional holiday colors and images.

Make the Halloween craft:

Create your own silhouettes of family members (cast a light against a wall and trace the outline of their heads) or download silhouettes of your choice from the Internet. Mount on bright cardstock and add patterned tape as borders. Create another design on the wall out of more patterned tape. On the mantel, collect a few old-fashioned plastic treat buckets and other paper accents, such as an accordion fan. Drape honeycomb garland in seasonal hues, too.

Its just-right scary aesthetic belies the simple construction of this spooky-theme wreath.

Make the Halloween craft: Purchase a premade wreath -- this one is made of grapevine. Using acrylic spray paint, lightly cover with paint; when almost dry, rub off bits of the paint with sandpaper for a rough look. Tuck in a bit of grown moss as well as a few Halloween-theme accents -- here, a miniature crow, a small skeleton, some spiders, and a sign. You also can change the accents to make them more or less scary depending on the rest of your decor.

This screamworthy doormat is perfect for scaring trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. 

Make the Halloween craft:

Spray-paint rubber snakes glossy black. Cut the snakes in two, creating different lengths. Arrange the snakes along the edges of a thick plastic-foam board so some are slithering in under the mat and some are slithering out. Glue the snakes to the board's edges. Set the foam board under your doormat, and arrange the snakes to their fullest spooking potential.

Pieces of a plastic skeleton make a creepy entrance in this simple outdoor Halloween decor idea.

Make the Halloween craft: Prop up an odd-shape piece of hardscape material at an angle. (In place of heavy rock, use a piece of foam core, painted and streaked gray.) Tuck skeleton hands and skull, and feet if desired, in a pose and scatter fallen leaves around the scene.

A few well-chosen accents can transition from Halloween into Thanksgiving, and give you a chance to flex your crafty muscles, too.

Make the Halloween craft: Gold makes an impact in this vignette: Using gold paper, accordion-fold half sheets and attach to sticks for a fan display. Paint a few frames -- some black, some gold -- as well as other accents of your choosing (here, a few masks). Look for gold-foil leaves or paint some faux options to glue to a ribbon for a homemade garland. Once Halloween is over, swap in some pretty bursts of color -- flowers and dried seeds, for example -- to transition to Thanksgiving.

Once you get the hang of them, rolled felt flowers are easy to make and a fun way to decorate a premade wreath form.

Make the Halloween craft: Cut a square of felt -- start with 5 inches -- and round the corners. Cut the square spirally, until you end at the center. Begin rolling at the outer edge, hot-gluing as you go, to create the flower. When you reach the center piece, glue it to the bottom to hold in place. Attach the felt flowers to a wreath form in a color pattern of your choosing. Add googly eyes as desired and a pretty patterned bow for a visual accent.

Simple, spider-theme luminarias lead the way to Halloween fun.

Make the Halloween craft: Decorate white paper bags with spider rub-ons, stickers, or trims. Fill the bottoms of the bags with sand, and place them on stairs or along a walkway. Rather than real candles, we used battery-operated votive candles for safety. Push the candles into the sand for stability.  

Let guests (or even trick-or-treaters!) scoop up their favorite treats from these tantalizing boxes.

Make the Halloween craft: Add a coat of white paint to small peat pots. Glue black trim around the top of each pot, finish with a spiderweb die cut, then fill with your favorite Halloween candies.

Welcome trick-or-treaters to your home this Halloween with an eerie trio of floating ghosts.

Make the Halloween craft:

Buy three white plastic bowls and predrill holes in the bottom centers. Run twine or fishing line through the holes and anchor with duct tape. Cut two large squares of white cotton cloth, snip holes in the centers, and thread onto the overturned bowl. Cut black felt facial features, adhere with hot glue, and hang ghosts on your front porch or entryway.

Flickering candlelight is perfect for sharing ghost stories. We used sheets of decorative aluminum to cast spooky shadows long into the night.

Make the Halloween craft: Cut the sheets into strips with tin snips. Use food containers, such as soup cans, to figure out your dimensions. A 10x17-inch piece makes a large lantern; a 4x10-inch strip makes a votive.

Roll the strips into cylinders, using the food containers as molds. To secure, twist wire through the mesh at the top, middle, and bottom of the seams. Turn edges of wire to inside and trim excess. Spray surfaces with two coats of black primer; let dry between applications.

This hair-raising tablecloth can be made in minutes with our scaredy-cat pattern, available below.

Make the Halloween craft: Download our free pattern and cut out the cat shapes from black felt. Attach the shapes to a large piece of gold felt using fusible web or fabric glue to finish the tablecloth.

Light up your living room with these Halloween-inspired silhouette lanterns.

Make the Halloween craft: Print the silhouettes and trace onto the back side of vinyl or adhesive shelf liner. Cut out the shapes and adhere to the lanterns. Fill with moss, candles, and miniature gourds to finish.