Halloween time isn’t just for costumes and candy… it’s also a great opportunity for some fun crafts! And while there’s some pretty amazing and elaborate stuff out there, sometimes, less is more, right? Which is why these easy Halloween paper plate crafts are one of my favorites, especially for little kids!
[Originally published September 26, 2013 as part of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network Pinterest Day! We posted all about Fall and created a Pinterest Board devoted to this wonderful season… be sure to check it out!]
Easy Halloween Paper Plate Crafts
Kye has been SO PUMPED about it being fall. He keeps talking about it and asking me when the snow is going to start falling. Well a) snow is typically a winter thing, not a fall thing and b) we live in South Georgia…the only snow this kid is gonna see falling is on the day at the local library when they make fake snow for the kids to play in. He was pretty bummed when I broke the news to him that we live in a place where it’s pretty much summer time all the time haha.
To make up for my news, I have been focusing a lot on Halloween. Even though it may be warm here during fall and we may not even see many leaves change, we still have Halloween! It’s def a fun holiday and something to look forward too about the changing season!
I am not a big crafter. It’s just not my talent. Actually one of the reasons I started Kye in preschool when I did was so that he could do more crafts and such, since it’s not something I’m great about doing at home. When I DO crafts though, I like to keep it simple. I always use stuff I already have around the house and some of my favorite craft projects use paper plates. So today I bring you four simple, fun, Halloween, paper plate craft ideas!
At first I felt like all of these crafts were going to be more age appropriate for Kye, being that he’s a preschooler so I let Britt play with some buttons while Kye and I did a good bit of the crafting!
Frankenstein Paper Plate Craft
Once the buttons got boring, I decided to let Britt join in on the fun! I was hesitant since Father’s Day crafting didn’t go over so well but she did awesome with the paint this time! She took it very seriously and worked hard to paint her plate! I used green washable paint and let her go to town on the plate then just helped her make sure the whole thing was covered. While she was painting I cut out all of the other pieces and then once it dried I let Kye help me glue them on while Britt was finishing up her nap that afternoon.
I don’t have any googly eyes so I cut out white paper and glued on black buttons for the eyes! I think he turned out very cute and he might be my favorite of the four craft ideas!
Spider Paper Plate Craft
While Britt painted her Frankenstein, Kye painted the spider. Again I just used black washable paint and had him cover the plate in it.
While he was working on it, I cut out the eyes but I had him cut out the strips for the legs. He’s working on his cutting skills and on his shapes at school so this was a great opportunity to practice both! Once the spider was dry I also had Kye glue on the legs and just told him to put four legs on each side and let him count them out etc to practice the skill!
Paper Plate Ghost Craft
Since Britt was so interested in helping I cut out the pieces for the ghost and let her glue them on. I did take over when it came to gluing the tissue paper on the bottom b/c it rips so easily! I used a glue stick for ALL the gluing in these projects and it all stuck very well!
Pumpkin Halloween Paper Plate Craft
I thought of the idea of the pumpkin specifically for Kye’s cutting and shape practicing. I told him to cut out rectangles with the orange paper and I cut out the mouth for him.
He then also glued all the pieces on. This child cracks me up how precise he is about things because he didn’t want to glue any of the orange pieces outside of the center of the plate haha. He took it very seriously!
None of these Halloween paper plate crafts costs ANY money! We had all the supplies on hand and even if you were to have to buy them, it wouldn’t cost much.
You only need:
- Paper plates (mine are the cheap, cheap ones)
- 1 page of orange construction paper
- 1 page of black construction paper
- 1 page of brown construction paper
- 1 page of black construction paper
- A glue stick
- Scissors
- Googly eyes (or do like I did and use an extra paper plate to cut out the eyes and glue buttons on top)
I did all four plates in one crafting session but you could easily spread them out and use them for four separate sessions! We had fun making them and surprising Daddy with them when he got home 🙂
Be sure to follow us on Pinterest for lots of other seasonal ideas as well as TONS of Babywise and other parenting tips and tricks!
Other Halloween Posts to Check Out:
- Family Halloween Costume Ideas: Costume Round-Up!
- 60+ DIY Disney Costumes for Adults and Kids
- Brave Family Costumes for Halloween
- Ducktales Costumes: Family Halloween Costume Ideas
- Wreck It Ralph Family Costumes
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Very cute. We do a lot of crafting around here, but those are definitely going on my list for the fall!