Post comments or ideas. looking forward on reading them.

Tabletop Haunt

Total Time Needed:

2-3 Hours

Filled with restless and hungry spirits, this spooky abode makes a great centerpiece for a Halloween party buffet table.

Materials

• Pencil and ruler
• Square tissue box
• 2 rectangular tissue boxes (ours were about 5 by 9 inches)
• 2 (5- by 8 1/2-inch) pieces of thin cardboard
• Craft knife
• Scissors
• Glue dots or double-sided tape

• Paintbrush
• Black and gray craft paint
• Orange tissue paper or paper napkins
• 4 (3-inch) lengths of white pipe cleaner
• 4 (1-inch-wide) Styrofoam balls
• White facial tissue, cut into 4 (4-inch) squares
• Black permanent marker

Instructions

1. Draw windows, a door, and a front-porch overhang (a 1 1/4-inch strip that folds out from the floor of the second story) on the tissue boxes. Draw 2 roof pieces on the thin cardboard, as shown.
2. With a craft knife, cut the openings in the boxes, leaving one side of each door attached and saving the window cutouts for shutters (for a swinging shutter, leave one side attached). Then cut out the roof pieces with scissors, fold them in half, and assemble them one on top of the other. Attach the roof to the square tissue box with glue dots or double-sided tape.
3. Paint the boxes and shutters. Once they’re dry, stuff the boxes with orange tissue paper or napkins and then glue or tape them together. Glue the shutters in place.
4. Now conjure up some ghosts. Push one end of a pipe cleaner into each foam ball and glue or tape the white tissue squares to the balls. Pinch the tissue around each ghost’s neck and draw on eyes. Glue or tape the ghosts to the house by their pipe cleaners.

Pumpkin Roll

Total Time Needed:

1 Hour

Give your extra toilet tissue a festive look this Halloween.

Materials

• Toilet tissue rolls
• Orange fabric
• Brown paper bag

• Glue
• 12-inch green pipe cleaners
• Green felt leaves

Instructions

1. Set each roll in the center of a 22- by 18-inch piece of fabric, gather the fabric around it, and tuck the edges into the top hole (A).
2. For a stem, roll a strip of brown paper bag and glue the edge (B).
3. For a vine, glue one end of a pipe cleaner to a felt leaf, then curl the pipe cleaner around the stem (C). Insert the stem in the hole.

Craft Stick Mummy

Total Time Needed:

1 Hour

Party guests are sure to get wrapped up in this activity: crafting mini mummies to take home as favors when the festivities are over.

Materials

• Wire snips
• Wooden craft sticks
• Wooden craft spoons

• Glue dots
• 1 square yard of muslin torn into 1-inch-wide strips (this should be enough for at least 7 mummies)
• Small googly eyes

Instructions

1. With the wire snips, trim 2 craft sticks to 2 1/2 inches for the arms and 2 more to 3 inches for the legs. Attach an arm and a leg to each side of a wooden craft spoon using 1 glue dot per limb.
2. Stick the end of a muslin strip to the skeleton with a glue dot and wrap the rest of the length around the wood, using another dot at the end. Wrap 4 or so more strips around the skeleton in this way. Use glue dots to attach googly eyes.

CandleEyebra

Total Time Needed:

1 Hour

When illuminated, these votive holders cast an eyeful of moody shadows on the walls.

Materials

• Glass votive holders
• Black construction paper
• Hole punch

• Mod Podge
• Paintbrush
• Black paint

Instructions

1. Tear a sheet of black construction paper into about a dozen small rectangles that measure roughly 1¼ inch by ½ inch. Use a hole punch to add two eyes to each piece.
2. Brush a portion of a plain, glass votive holder with Mod Podge, affix a paper rectangle, then paint more Mod Podge over it. Add the other pieces the same way, making sure the edges overlap.
3. When the candleholder is dry, use a tiny paintbrush and black paint to add little round pupils inside the eyes.

Acorn Pumpkins

Total Time Needed:

30 Minutes or less

Want a festive decoration that won’t clutter up your porch? Try a patch of mini pumpkins small enough to fit in your child’s hand.

Materials

• Acorns
• Orange acrylic paint

• Brown acrylic paint
• Black permanent marker

Instructions

1. Remove the caps from a handful of acorns.
2. Coat each one with orange acrylic paint, adding a bit of brown to the acorn’s point for a stem.
3. Let the paints dry, then add a jack-o’-lantern face with a black permanent marker.

Tips:

Warning:
As several FamilyFun readers who made this craft found out, some acorns are infested with weevils. The weevils feed on the nutmeat while they develop over the summer, and when the acorns hit the ground in the fall, these insects know it’s time to start chewing their way out and into the ground — or your home. Reader Janie Foster offers a solution: before you start the project, bake the acorns in a slow oven to kill the weevils. Just be careful not to burn the acorns!

Awesome Arachnids

Add creepy fun to your Halloween celebration

Total Time Needed:

1 Hour

Suction cups let these cute-yet-creepy spiders lurk overhead, just like their living counterparts!

Materials

• Chenille bump pipe cleaners
• Small suction cup
• Glue dots

• Pom-pom
• Red artificial gemstones or googly eyes

Instructions

1. Form the spider’s legs from four equal lengths of chenille bump pipe cleaner and a small suction cup, as shown.
2. Use glue dots to affix a pom-pom body on top of the knob and red artificial gemstones or googly eyes.

Vampire Balloon Bat

Want to string up some little suckers?

Materials

• 2 black balloons
• Black duct tape
• Black and white card stock

• Scissors
• Ear, eye, wing, and fang templates
• Black ribbon

Instructions

1. For each bat, inflate two black balloons to make a body 12 inches in diameter and a head 8 inches in diameter. With black duct tape, attach them at the knots, as shown.
2. Cut ear, eye, wing, and fang shapes from black and white card stock (download our templates), then use duct tape to attach them to the balloons.
3. To hang the bat, attach one end of a black ribbon with duct tape near where the head and body meet.

Charming Companions

Mini mummies and diminutive Draculas make great Halloween charms

Total Time Needed:

1 Hour

This terrible trio loves to hang out around dark and mysterious places — like your kid’s backpack.

Materials

• Pipe cleaners
• 1-inch Styrofoam balls
• Key clips
• Jute twine

• Embroidery floss
• Clear gel tacky glue
• Googly eyes and other decorations

Instructions

1. For all three charms, fold an 8-inch piece of pipe cleaner in half, then push the folded end through a 1-inch Styrofoam ball. Attach a key clip through the pipe cleaner loop as shown, then tug the pipe cleaner to pull the clip snugly against the ball.
2. To make arms for Backpack Drac or Mini Mummy, twist a 4-inch piece of pipe cleaner tightly around the body. For Jack o’ String’s arms, knot the ends of two 4-1/2-inch lengths of jute twine together, then tie the doubled section around his body. Fold the ends of the pipe cleaners for hands and feet.
3. Cut lengths of embroidery floss, knot them around the charm’s body, and wrap them as shown. Before covering the head, dot the ball with clear gel tacky glue. Also smooth a small amount of the glue over the hands and feet to prevent any unraveling and to secure any loose ends of floss.
4. Glue on googly eyes and other decorations.

Yummy Mummies

Total Time Needed:

30 Minutes or less

Filled with small candies, these simple treat holders can serve double duty as festive table decorations and party favors for your Halloween bash.

Materials

• Toilet tissue tubes
• White paper
• Clear packing tape
• Roll of 2-inch-wide gauze

• Craft glue
• Googly eyes
• Small candies

Instructions

1. For each holder, trace one end of the empty tissue tube onto a piece of white paper, then cut out the circle, making it slightly smaller than your trace line. (If you fold the paper into a few layers, you can cut out several circles at once.)
2. Cut the tube in half (you can make 2 holders per tube) and tape the paper circle to the bottom of each half.
3. Wrap a 2- to 2 1/2-foot strip of gauze around the tube, first taping the beginning of the gauze to the tube. Gently stretch and twist the gauze as you wrap it to give it some dimension. When you’ve covered the tube, cut the gauze and tuck the end under a nearby layer.
4. Finally, glue on googly eyes (or use the self-adhesive kind), then fill the mummy with candy treats.