2020 has been a weird year, right? I feel like we haven’t been able to do much and yet we are already near the end of October! In the UK, we are back in different stages of lockdown so we will be unable to do a lot of the usual Halloween activities. No trick-or-treating, no costume parties, and definitely no apple bobbing.

However, a good craft session at home is enough to keep any age entertained (just try not to worry about the mess)! The best part? Most of these activities will be made from things you’ll be able to find in or around your own house.

Here are our 6 favorite Halloween crafts for little ones:

Handprint Spiders

This is a good activity for the younger kids to get involved in. Get some black or purple paints and dip your little one’s hand in. Keeping their thumb close to the hand but spreading the other four fingers out, press down onto some paper or card. Then flip the piece around so that the handprint fingers are facing you and do the same thing again with your palm print overlapping in the middle (this is the spider’s body). You should now have eight little fingerprint ‘spider legs’ pointing out of the palm ‘body’. When it is dry, paint or draw little eyes onto it and cut it out and attach some string if you want to hang them up for some spooky decoration. You could even add some cotton wool ‘cobwebs’ to really make an effect.

Apple or Potato Print Pumpkins

You can this to the age of your little one(s). For the older children, cut big potatoes or apples in half and they can carve out little jack-o-lantern faces onto them. Then, dip the pieces of potato/apple face down into some orange paint - et voila! Lots of pumpkin faces looking back at you. For the younger ones, get an adult to cut the potatoes or apples in half and simply dip them into orange paint and print them onto card or paper. Then when the prints are dry, get some crayons or felt tips and draw your own little faces onto each print. You can make them as spooky or as crazy as you like!

Mummy Toilet Rolls

Get some empty toilet rolls and some tissue or tissue paper. Glue the tissue onto the cardboard tubes in a wonky fashion. You can use some bandages for a real mummy effect if you have any spare. When this is dry, glue some googly eyes onto them and there you have it - some scary mummies to dot around the house!

Painted Pumpkins

If you’ve been pumpkin picking but feel that carving the things aren’t a good idea for little hands, then here is an easy (and fun) alternative! Paint an image freehand or use a stencil to make a scary picture onto your pumpkin. Really, little ones can put some white handprints onto them and add ghostly faces. Simple, but effective!

Ghost Leaves or Pebbles

This one can get your kids out into nature before we start crafting. Get them to forage some big leaves and pebbles from outside. Carefully clean them up and put lots of newspaper down before you start to protect any surfaces. Cover one side of the stones and leaves with white paint and leave them to dry. Once dry turn them over and cover the other side in white paint too. When that side is dry draw on some ghostly faces with some black marker pen. You could leave them around your house and make some ghoulish noises that really scare the rest of the house!

String Pumpkins

This one is quite fiddly, but gives a really good effect. Blow up some balloons to the size you’d like your pumpkins. Get some string and dip it into some glue. Wrap it around the balloon in a random way as much or as little as you like. When the glue has dried, pop the balloon and pull it out of the middle of your new string ball. Paint it orange and attach some greenery on top- either some bay leaves or painted or colored in card. Put on your windowsill and admire your handy-work!

We hope you enjoyed these ideas and let us know if you try any! Wishing you all a Happy & Safe Halloween!