With Halloween just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to unearth all your craft supplies, from googly eyes to pipe cleaners, and get creative with your little ones. Halloween has always been a cherished time for my kids and me, even during our ten years here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We’ve crafted countless party invitations, using tiny footprints as ghosts and messy handprints as spiders – memories that now reside safely in Mom’s treasure box.

Here, we’ve gathered some fantastic and spooky crafting ideas for decorating your home, and the best part is, they’ll keep your kids happily occupied for hours. Stay tuned for some edible Halloween delights coming up next week!

Ghostly Footprints

Begin by crafting adorable ghost decorations and a “trick or treat, smell my feet” sign using your child’s feet. We took an 8×10 blank canvas and painted it orange with craft paint. For the text, we designed a stencil with our trusty Cricut machine and used a black paint marker. Non-toxic white craft paint is perfect for the ghostly feet, while a black marker adds the eyes and mouth. These footprints can also double as charming Halloween invitations. Simply print them on black cardstock and add bats or stars for an extra spooky touch.

Hand-print Spider Cards

These charming handprint spiders are great for party invitations, name cards, or even eerie menu cards for your Halloween dinner. All you need is orange cardstock or colored paper, black paint, a white marker or paint pen, and some googly eyes. Remember to leave the thumbs unpainted so you end up with four legs on each side of the handprint! You can draw a spiderweb onto the card or, for a more creative touch, use black yarn to create one. Add googly eyes and either a friendly smile or a surprised expression!

Haunted House

My kids used to adore creating their haunted house, and one year, we turned it into a Halloween countdown calendar by cutting out 31 small doors. This project from Coloring Home even provides a convenient template for the house that your kids can decorate. They can fill the windows with spooky characters, Halloween stickers, or, if you’re feeling extra creative, make small windows that open like an advent calendar. You can include a little message behind each window to keep the kids entertained in the days leading up to Halloween.

Mummy Lights

These fantastic mummy lights are always a hit with the kids and are incredibly easy to make. All you need are some glass jars or vases, gauze bandages, and googly eyes. Simply wrap the bandages around the jars, securing them with tape, and attach googly eyes to create your mummy. Place a small plastic flameless candle inside, and the kids can keep these lit in their rooms all night long.

Paint a Pumpkin

Finding giant pumpkins in Chiang Mai can be quite a challenge, and they often come with a hefty price tag from Villa Market and other farm suppliers. A great alternative is using watermelons. They’re easy to carve, and you can leave them green for a monster look or paint them orange for a classic jack-o’-lantern appearance. The bonus is that the kids can enjoy the insides of the watermelon while having fun creating different faces for Mom or Dad to carve.

We’ve shared our top five craft ideas for kids, but there are plenty of websites and videos offering even more creative and elaborate projects, as well as simple ideas that kids can tackle on their own.

Wishing you a spooktacular Halloween season!