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Halloween has always been one of my favorite seasons for getting creative with the kids. I’m definitely drawn more to the cute, colorful and playful side of Halloween than anything too scary, so over the years we’ve made a lot of ghosts, pumpkins, bats, silly monsters and other Halloween projects at home.

Some of these are actual crafts we’ve made together over the years, while others are simple variations you can create with the same supplies and techniques. I’ve also included a few easy Halloween activities for the days when you want something festive without committing to a full craft.

Most use basic art supplies we already keep around the house, and several can be adapted depending on your child’s age or whatever you happen to have available.

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Easy Halloween Craft Supplies to Keep Around

You definitely don’t need to buy a new set of supplies for every Halloween project. A pretty basic kids’ art stash can make most of the crafts on this list.

Some of the supplies we use over and over include:

• Construction paper and cardstock
• Washable tempera paint
• Paint sticks
• Watercolors
• Washable markers and crayons
• School glue
• Kid-friendly scissors
• Paintbrushes and sponge brushes
• Googly eyes
• Tissue paper
• Q-tips
• Yarn
• Perler/fuse beads
• Paper plates
• Toilet paper rolls and other clean recycled cardboard

If you like keeping a basic craft stash ready to go, I put together our kids’ art and craft supplies we actually use in one place. It includes the paper, paints, scissors, glue, googly eyes, Perler beads, and other supplies we reach for again and again.

Tip: Save clean cardboard, toilet paper rolls and scraps from other projects. They’re surprisingly useful for kids’ crafts, and you’ll see several ways to use them below.

Cute Ghost Crafts for Kids

Ghosts are probably one of the easiest Halloween themes to turn into a kids’ craft. They don’t need to be perfectly shaped, which also makes them especially good for letting kids make their own versions.

1. Colorful Scrape-Painted Ghosts

These might be some of my favorite Halloween ghosts because there’s no reason Halloween art has to be black and orange.

Add several colors of paint to paper, then use a piece of scrap cardboard to pull or scrape the paint across the page. Once it dries, cut the painted paper into rounded ghost shapes and add simple faces.

We added little bows to ours, which made them even cuter.

You’ll need: paper, washable paint, scrap cardboard, scissors and markers.

2. Leaf-Print Ghosts

Paint the surface of a leaf white and press it onto colored construction paper. The leaf texture creates an imperfect little ghost shape all by itself.

Once the paint dries, add googly eyes and a small painted or drawn mouth.

It’s a fun way to combine a fall nature activity with Halloween.

You’ll need: leaves, white paint, construction paper and googly eyes.

3. Yarn Ghosts

These yarn ghosts are one of the Halloween projects that eventually became decorations in our house. They’re made by wrapping and tying white yarn, shaping the head and adding simple details like googly eyes and ribbon.

You can make one or make several and turn them into a garland.

I already have the complete step-by-step instructions, photos and a little trick I used to help the ghosts keep their shape in my yarn ghost craft tutorial.

4. Watercolor-Resist Ghost Art

Draw ghost shapes using a white crayon or another resist medium and paint watercolor over the page. As the paint moves across the paper, the hidden white design begins to appear.

You can use the same idea for candy corn, spiderwebs, pumpkins, bats or Halloween words.

You’ll need: watercolor paper, white crayons and watercolor paints.

Pumpkin, Bat & Fall Art Projects

5. Paint-Stick Pumpkin Art

Paint sticks are one of those supplies that make it ridiculously easy to pull out an art project without setting up cups of paint and brushes.

Draw or lightly outline a pumpkin and let kids layer orange, red, yellow, brown and green paint-stick colors to fill it in. The chunky texture works especially well for pumpkins.

6. Paint-Stick Fall Leaves

The same paint sticks can become a completely different art project.

Fill a sheet with overlapping fall leaf shapes and use bold fall colors inside each one. Kids can add veins and outlines afterward or simply experiment with the colors.

This works as a general fall activity too, so it doesn’t have to disappear the minute Halloween is over.

7. Patterned Fall Leaves

For kids who like drawing details, divide paper leaves into different sections and fill each section with its own lines, dots, waves, grids and other patterns.

We paired our black-and-white leaves with a bright red, orange and yellow background.

There really isn’t a right pattern to use — that’s part of what makes this a good open-ended art activity.

8. Colorful Bat Art

Cut bat silhouettes from colored paper or use them as a resist while kids create colorful backgrounds around them.

Our bats ended up surrounded by bright brush strokes rather than traditional Halloween colors, which is exactly why I like this project.

9. Halloween Watercolor Art

Watercolor also works beautifully for simple Halloween shapes. Pumpkins, ghosts, bats and candy corn are all recognizable enough that kids don’t need complicated drawings.

Let them draw their own shapes first or provide a simple outline and let the painting be the main activity.

Halloween Crafts Using Paper

10. Witch Hat Cutting Practice

Cutting simple witch hats is an easy way to turn basic construction paper into a Halloween activity.

Draw or provide several triangle-style witch hats and let kids practice cutting around the shapes. Older kids can decorate them afterward with patterns, buckles, stars or whatever they come up with.

You’ll need: construction paper, pencil/marker and kid-friendly scissors.

11. Tissue-Paper Halloween Mosaic

Cut tissue paper into little squares and glue them onto a simple Halloween outline.

A pumpkin, candy corn, ghost, bat or witch hat would all work. Kids can completely fill the shape or layer colors to create their own pattern.

We’ve used this mosaic-style technique for other projects, and it’s easy to adapt to practically any season.

12. Torn Paper Halloween Characters

Instead of cutting everything into perfect shapes, let kids tear construction paper into pieces and use them to build a Halloween character.

A pumpkin, ghost, monster or black cat can all be made from simple torn shapes. Younger kids can work from a basic outline, while older kids can build their picture from scratch and add details with markers or googly eyes.

This is an easy one to adapt to whatever paper colors you already have.

You’ll need: construction paper, glue, markers and optional googly eyes.

NO IMAGE NEEDED.

13. Build-a-Monster Paper Craft

Give kids a pile of colorful paper scraps and let them build the silliest monster they can imagine.

Start with a larger shape for the body, then cut or tear paper to add arms, legs, horns, ears, teeth or whatever else the monster needs. Add googly eyes—or several of them—and use markers to finish the face and other details.

There’s no example to copy and no right way for the monster to look, which is part of the fun. It’s also a good way to use up the random construction paper and cardstock scraps left behind from other projects.

You’ll need: construction paper or cardstock scraps, glue, scissors, markers and optional googly eyes.

Easy variation: Instead of building the monster entirely from paper, have kids create the body with paint, a handprint or another art technique first, then add the paper details once it’s dry.

Recycled Halloween Crafts

14. Halloween Toilet Paper Roll Characters

This is one of those activities where one material turns into an entire afternoon of ideas.

We’ve made Halloween characters from toilet paper rolls including a mummy, ghost, monster, vampire, pumpkin, Frankenstein, bat and witch. The basic roll becomes the body and kids can completely change the character with paper, paint and little details.

Rather than repeating all eight tutorials here, you can find the complete ideas in my Halloween toilet paper roll crafts for kids post.

15. Egg Carton Halloween Creatures

Don’t toss an empty cardboard egg carton—it can become a whole collection of little Halloween creatures.

Cut the individual cups apart and let kids paint and decorate them as pumpkins, spiders, bats, ghosts or silly monsters. Add googly eyes, pipe cleaners, paper wings or other craft scraps depending on what they’re making.

For a spider, poke small holes in the sides and add pipe-cleaner legs. A pumpkin only needs orange paint and a little green paper stem, while monsters can have as many eyes, teeth and weird little details as kids want to give them.

You’ll need: a clean cardboard egg carton, washable paint, glue, scissors and whatever extras you have around—googly eyes, pipe cleaners, construction paper, pom poms, or markers all work.

Halloween Crafts With Everyday Supplies

16. Q-Tip Skeleton Craft

Q-tips make surprisingly convincing little bones.

Kids can arrange them into a full skeleton, skeleton hand or another X-ray-inspired shape on black construction paper. Cutting some Q-tips into different lengths gives them more pieces to work with.

We made skeleton hands, and I have the complete instructions — including the much-less-messy way we applied glue — in my Q-tip skeleton craft tutorial.

17. Halloween Perler Beads

Perler beads are especially good when kids have moved beyond some of the younger paper-and-glue crafts but still enjoy making things.

Pumpkins, ghosts, candy corn, spiderwebs and other small Halloween designs work well because they’re recognizable without requiring enormous patterns.

18. Halloween Googly-Eye Art

Sometimes the googly eyes are basically the whole craft.

Paint or print simple Halloween shapes — ghosts, monsters, pumpkins or even leaf prints — and let kids choose mismatched eyes to give each character its own expression.

This is particularly good for using up assorted googly eyes left over from other projects.

Halloween Sensory & Play Activities

19. Halloween Sensory Bin

A sensory bin doesn’t need to be complicated to feel seasonal.

Start with a base such as dried beans, rice or another sensory material and add Halloween pieces, little containers, scoops, tongs and measuring tools.

Kids can scoop, sort, hide objects, count pieces or simply play.

20. Halloween Play Dough

Turn regular play dough into a Halloween invitation-to-play by adding orange, purple or black dough along with Halloween cutters, googly eyes or small accessories.

Kids can make pumpkins, monsters, ghosts and whatever else they invent.

Easy Halloween Activities & Printables

Not every Halloween activity needs glue, paint and a cleanup afterward. These are good options for quieter afternoons, learning breaks, restaurant activities or simply when you need something you can print and use.

21. Free Halloween Activity Sheets

I made a small set of printable Halloween activity sheets that combines seasonal fun with simple reading, counting and observation.

The five-page pack includes:

• Halloween word search
• Count and match
• Read and match
• Which one doesn’t belong?
• Halloween I Spy/counting activity

The free printable pack includes all five Halloween activities shown above. Download it below, print the pages you want, and you’re ready to go.

22. Free Halloween Coloring Pages

For something even easier, print out a few Halloween coloring pages and put out crayons, colored pencils or washable markers.

I have two free Halloween coloring collections to choose from, depending on the age of your kids and how much detail they enjoy.

The first collection includes a mix of simple and more detailed Halloween designs, from a pumpkin and candy corn to witches, monsters and other playful Halloween characters. The variety makes it easy for kids to choose a page based on how much detail they feel like coloring.

I also have an older collection of eight simple Halloween coloring pages. These have larger designs and less detail, making them an especially good option for toddlers, preschoolers and younger kids.

23. Draw Your Own Halloween Characters

Give kids blank paper and a few Halloween prompts instead of a template:

Can you draw a silly monster? A friendly ghost? The weirdest pumpkin ever? A bat wearing a costume?

It’s incredibly simple, but sometimes removing the example produces much more interesting artwork.

Use markers, crayons, paint sticks or whatever you already have out.

24. Halloween Color Challenge

Pick a Halloween shape and challenge kids to make it using completely unexpected colors.

Pink ghost? Blue pumpkin? Rainbow bat?

It’s a tiny twist, but it’s a fun way to move away from always giving kids an orange-and-black example to copy.

And considering how many of our own Halloween projects ended up pink, purple, blue and neon, I’m clearly not very committed to traditional Halloween colors anyway.

25. Create Your Own Halloween Art Station

If you have several of these supplies already, you don’t even have to choose one craft.

Set out construction paper, paint sticks or markers, scissors, glue, googly eyes and a few scraps of paper and let kids decide what Halloween creation they want to make.

You may end up with ghosts and pumpkins — or something you never would have thought to put on a craft list.

That’s part of the fun.

Keep Halloween Crafts Simple

You don’t need elaborate craft kits or perfectly planned projects to make Halloween feel fun.

Some of our favorite activities over the years came from things we already had around the house: Q-tips became skeleton bones, leaves became ghosts, cardboard became a painting tool, toilet paper rolls became an entire collection of Halloween characters, and regular art supplies became whatever the kids imagined that day.

If you want to try several of these throughout October, keep a small basket of your most-used supplies somewhere accessible and rotate the activity rather than buying something new every time.

And if you’re looking for more ways to make the season fun beyond crafts, I also have a collection of Halloween-at-home ideas and activities. The article was originally written during the pandemic, but several of the activities still work for any Halloween at home.

A Few of Our Favorite Halloween Crafts

If you’re not sure where to start, I’d pick:

• For an easy art project: scrape-painted ghosts
• For older kids: Halloween Perler beads
• For little hands/fine-motor practice: tissue-paper mosaic
• For recycled materials: toilet paper roll Halloween characters
• For almost no setup: free Halloween printables
• For something you’ll actually decorate with: yarn ghosts

The best Halloween activity isn’t necessarily the fanciest one. Pick something that fits the supplies you already have, your kids’ ages and — maybe most importantly — how much cleanup you’re willing to deal with that day.

Happy Halloween! 🎃