I am a lover of holidays for many reasons, one of which is the excuse to try out some fun arts and crafts projects with my kiddos. With Halloween just around the corner I thought I would share a couple of spooktacular crafts that I recently did with my littles, and that you may want to try out with yours! I’m pretty excited that Halloween actually falls on a Saturday this year. I’m just wondering how many times I’ll be asked, “Is it time to go trick-or-treating yet?” before dinner. Perhaps trying out one (or both!) of these crafts can help keep your kids entertained until it’s candy o’clock!

First up, bats! What kind of Halloween would it be without them?

What you’ll need:

• Black construction paper
• Paint (bright colors)
• Q-tips
• Double sided tape (I’m sure you can use regular tape as well)
• Bat Template
• Scissors

What to do:

1. Cut out your bats and tape the backside to your construction paper.
2. Dip Q-tips in the paint and make dots around the bats. You’re going to want a lot of dots right around the outline of the bats. The more concentrated the dots are, the more visible the bat will be.

   

   

3. After your child has finished making the painted dots, remove the bat cut-outs from the construction paper.

In hindsight, I think that having the kids use their fingers to make the dots instead of the Q-tips might have helped make the bat shapes more visible. My girls still had fun making these though, and that’s the most important part!

Next… handprint spiders!

What you’ll need:

• Orange construction paper
• Black paint
• White or yellow paint (or googly eyes)
• Black marker or crayon

What to do:

1. Paint your child’s hand with black paint. (Warning: they’re probably going to giggle and say it tickles!)
2. Have them press their hand on the orange paper and let the handprint dry.
3. You can use white or yellow paint to make eyes, or you can glue some googly eyes on instead.
4. Use a marker or crayon to make a spider web in the corner of the paper and a wavy line connecting the spider to the top of the paper (as if it’s hanging by a strand of its silk.

Sorry, no pictures of my kids doing this craft. I was way too focused on making sure they didn’t leave any little black handprints anywhere in the house. It’s a fun, easy craft. You just want to make sure you’re fairly close to soap and water when you do it!

Here’s an oldie (but goodie)…

I made this gem a couple of years ago and have used it as a Halloween decoration ever since! A canvas, black and white paint, and my daughters’ feet. Simple! It’s a cute decoration, but a sentimental one as well. Those feet of theirs have certainly grown quite a bit since then!

Happy Halloween everyone! And, as always, happy crafting!