DIY Halloween Craft Decorations

Are you feeling “chipper” about Halloween? Pumpkins, ghosties and bats galore, it’s time to carve out some craft time and share eco-friendly ideas that teach your kids the art of recycling. Why throw something away when it can be reimagined? Chipper and his new friend Recyclesaurus, spokes-dinosaur at Keep Phoenix Beautiful, want everyone to know that landfills are running out of space; so we need to do our part to reuse, reduce, recycle and reconsider before we throw something away. Checkout these spooktacular ideas and share your ideas with us on Chipper’s Facebook page.

Halloween Critter Plastic Lids Craft

Mad Libs to Fab Lids! Make some jack-o-lanterns and other spooky creatures from recycled bottle caps or lids. Notorious for their longevity in the landfills, plastic lids can be reimagined, make holiday crafts and decorations! Follow Chipper’s blog for more ideas in the future.

Materials:

• plastic lids

• permanent markers

• some multi-colored plastic (think of using the strip from around milk jugs or bread bag holders), construction paper, or felt…and anything colorful you have around the house, like buttons, etc.

• hot glue gun

• Optional: Sticky magnet tape of you want to put your creations on the fridge!

• Optional: Google eyes for cute looking creatures!

Directions:

Simply draw your face or creature on the lid with a permanent marker then use the hot glue gun to add flare! From googly eyes, to pipe cleaners, have fun making monster lids or keep it simple with jack-o-lanterns!

Halloween Milk Jug Lanterns Craft

This is such a great and simple idea. Create Halloween ghost lanterns, Jack-o-lanterns, and more from milk jugs using these craft directions:

Materials:

• clean empty gallon milk jugs, laundry detergent containers, or any large plastic container.

• black permanent marker

• exacto knife

• holiday string lights

• sand

Optional: For colored creatures, use acrylic paint or permanent markers. Paper mache works too!

Directions:

1. Draw ghost eyes and a mouth on the milk jug/container. Leave the caps on to help keep the shape.

2. Use an exacto knife to cut a half dollar sized circle out of the side of the jug(s).

3. For one jug, place an LED light inside and you’re ready to go.

4. For a line of ghosts: Line your lanterns in a row and cut a second hole so you can string lights through the jugs. Pour sand in the bottom to weigh them down or a few rocks. Gently push in the string of lights and you’ve created a ghostly party!

Variations:

Use glow sticks or battery powered LED lights instead. Use orange and black markers to make a Jack-O-Lantern or green to make a monster. You might want to use acrylic paint. Don’t have sand? Try flipping your jug and stick the top on a stick to place in the yard (as shown in far right picture)! Get REAL crafty and try making a plastic jug skeleton:

Halloween Toilet Roll Crafts

We are always “chipper” for toilet paper roll crafts! There are so many things you can do with them! Frankenstein is one option using golf tees in his head, or try a simple mummy with some artfully draped toilet paper or cloth and some googly eyes. Sky’s the limit!

Materials:

• toilet paper roll(s)

• black marker and/or paint

• colored markers and/or paint

• googly eyes

• black pom pom for bat nose

• glue or double stick tape

• scissors

• 2 golf tees for Frankenstein’s bolts

• black construction paper for the bat wings and witches cape and hat

Directions:

1. Start by coloring your toilet paper roll. You can use markers, paint or just a cut strip of construction paper taped on and sized correctly.

2. Then add the face: use markers, googly eyes (attach with tape or glue), pompoms, pipe cleaners, or other remnants you have around  the house. Buttons work great as eyes!

3. Use scissors to cut your Frankenstein hair and cut out your bat wings. Chipper’s Helping Hands downloadable cut out work great as wings!

Place around the house or glue to chopsticks and place in the yard!

Halloween Jar Lanterns Craft

These are great looking Halloween Lantern Jars! Use fun halloween paper to cover some tins as flower center pieces or candy fillers. Or make some cute trick-or-treat jars! Just glue on orange tissue paper squares, then cut out and glue on eyes, nose, and mouth to make your Jack-o-Lantern and put a candle inside. Or make a black cat with some black construction paper!

Halloween Tissue Box Monster Craft

Here’s a funny monster craft recycled from a tissue box. Great for Earth Day, Halloween, or anytime!

Materials:

• Tissue box

• paints

• corrugated cardboard

• scissors

• tape

• popsicle sticks

• craft knife

• foam packaging peanuts

• pipe cleaners

• hole punch

Directions:

1. Remove the plastic from the inside of the tissue box.

2. Paint entire box 1 color. Allow to dry.

3. Paint a big mouth around the opening in a different color. Allow to dry.

4. Cut 2 big circles for eyes and 2 ear shapes from cardboard.

5. Paint the eyes black and the ears another color.

6. Glue packing foam peanuts into the mouth for teeth.

7. Paint 1 foam peanut for a nose and glue on.

8. Glue white bottle tops to the black eyes.

8. Cut pipe cleaners into small lengths and insert into the holes of the cardboard for eyebrows.

10. Insert a popsicle stick between the cardboard of the eyes and ears.

11. Punch a hole in each earlobe and tie a pipe cleaner loop for earrings.

12. Cut slits in the top and sides to insert the popsicle sticks for the eyes and ears.

Halloween Ghosts

Hang some ghosties from the ceiling for some fun and frightening decor!

Materials:

• white cloth or paper towels

• tissue or paper towels

• black permanent marker

• string or raffia

Directions:

1. Cut out squares from old white sheet or cloth or just tear off some large paper towels from a roll.

2. Crumple up a paper towel or some tissue into a ball.

3. Wrap your square cloth or paper towel around the crumpled ball and secure with a long string or some rafia. Make sure to use a long piece (around 1-2 feet) so you can hang from the ceiling or attach wherever you want your ghost to hand from.

4. Lastly, draw your ghost face onto the round head and hang! This cute little ghosts look great in a window or on a stairwell.

What other recycle crafts are you trying this halloween? Share them with Chipper! Have a SAFE and HEALTHY Halloween 🙂