It’s safe to say that Halloween is one of the most exciting times of the year. With the fancy dress, parties and of course all of the sweets and chocolate, there are more than enough things to get excited about! It is particularly popular with young ones and they love to get into the spirit of spooky season. Aside from the obvious trick or treating and scary movies, you may be looking for something different to do with them. Kids love the chance to be creative and arts and crafts are a great way to let them express themselves. There are often adorable results, too!
Carving pumpkins is obviously a Halloween classic, but there are plenty of other activities that are quicker, easier and make a lot less mess! Whether you’re making spooky decorations or a seasonal gift, you don’t have to be an artistic genius to really make your mark. Here are some of our favourite Halloween crafts that you can do with kids!
Scary Slime
If you’re looking for a Halloween craft that will continue to entertain the little ones long after they’ve made it, then we’d recommend making some slime! You may be thinking that it isn’t the sort of thing you can make at home – but it is! Don’t worry, once you know how to make slime, it is easy.
The play putty is the sort of wacky creation that will capture the imagination of so many little ones – and it doesn’t take long to make at all. There are several simple recipes to make it that all use stuff you’re likely to have around the home!
The easiest slime recipe only requires three ingredients. With as little as washable PVA glue, bicarbonate of soda and contact lens solution, you have everything you need for some homemade, slimy fun! In a mixing bowl, simply combine a cup of the glue with some food colouring of your choice, then add 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda along with 2 or 3 tablespoons of contact lens solution, too. Add the last ingredient one spoon at a time and mix it in, then before you know it you’ll have some amazing slime! For extra Halloween spookiness, you can add some glitter so it sparkles like a witches magic potion. Or you can use clear glue and no food colouring, then add little plastic spiders for maximum creepiness!
You could go the extra mile and use this glow in the dark slime recipe. It’s a very similar recipe that uses glow powder, and it is guaranteed to entertain the little monsters for the whole of the spooky season! It will also make awesome decoration at Halloween parties and you could even hand it out as party favours.
Haunted Home Decorations
For those of us who really get into the spirit of Halloween, decorating the house is one of the most fun aspects of the holiday! Homemade Halloween decorations are often the most characterful, and you can get the little ones involved in many of them, too.
Bunting is an easy way to spread the Halloween spirit around your home. With some string, a few simple supplies and some googly eyes, you can soon have a colony of the most adorable bats! If you like the sound of this then start saving your carboard tubes as they make wonderful bodies! Paint your tubes black – or whatever colour you feel like – and stick a couple of eyes to the front. Draw out a single shape for the wings on some black card, cut it out and staple it to the back of your tube. For an added dimension, add a few concertina folds. Then cut out a couple of ears and attach them to the front of the tube and there you have your bat! With a pen of correction fluid you can add mouths and details so each have their own personalities. To put them up either thread some string through them or attach them with a staple and hang them up. Now you have a band of adorable bats that’re perfect for Halloween. Using different colours you could have Frankenstein, witches, pumpkins, or anything else you and your little monsters come up with! You don’t have to add them to bunting either, they can stand in windows, on bookshelves or anywhere else around the house!
Lighting plays a big part in Halloween decoration, and there are several household items that you can easily turn into spooktacular lights. Effective and quick to make, these Mummy Mason Jar Luminaries are a great addition to any home this Halloween – you could even use real candles in them to really set the tone. We also think they’d be an adorable way to store and serve Halloween pick n mix sweets, or give them as gifts!
With a little bit of creativity and some electric lights, your empty milk bottles can become adorable Halloween ghosts! Firstly you’ll want to wash your milk bottle out, then cut the shapes of a spooky face out of some dark card or paper. Stick them to the outside of the bottle put your light source inside and you’ve got yourself a glowing ghost! If you don’t have battery powered lights around, don’t worry, you can use Christmas lights, or even a torch!
If you’re a stickler for details like us, you’re probably thinking about supporting decorations to add to the atmosphere. Spider webs are a great way to do this, and don’t worry, we don’t mean actual spider webs! Making faux webs yourself is very simple, however you choose to do it. For an eerie outcome, you’ll need some cotton wool and some hairspray. All you need to do is stretch out the cotton wool so it’s as thin as you’d like and then spray it with the hairspray so it doesn’t shrink again! For a more refined option, you can weave a web yourself with some wool. This will take more time, but you can get amazing results! This step by step guide explains perfectly how to make a beautiful decorative spiderweb.
Top Tips for Carving a Pumpkin
You didn’t think we’d forgotten about pumpkin carving, did you? It’s the quintessential Halloween craft and it wouldn’t be the same without them. Whilst everyone loves the messy activity of gutting and then carving a Jack o’Lantern, it isn’t necessarily easy. So, here are a few tips to make it a little easier, as well as some pumpkin carving ideas.
What’s the first step of carving a pumpkin? Cutting the top off? No, it’s choosing the pumpkin! They come in all shapes and sizes, so decide whether a taller or rounder pumpkin will suit your design idea best. Also, bear in mind that flatter surfaces are easier to carve, so perhaps avoid one with deeper ridges all the way round.
To get your design cut as accurately as possible, there are two main things that we would recommend. Firstly, draw it out onto tracing paper first, then you can transfer it to your pumpkin! Then, when hollowing the fruit out, we’d make sure the sides we’ll be carving aren’t too thick. If you scrape a little more from the side you’re planning to cut into, so it’s around an inch thick, you’ll be able to cut more easily.
Whilst scary faces are a Halloween classic, you don’t have to stick to the same pumpkin designs every year. There are plenty of places to take inspiration from, whether it’s your favourite scary movies or other Halloween characters like witches, cats or bats. Rather than carving right through the walls of your pumpkin, you could also try different layers. By combining classic cutting and shaving the skin away, you can create some scarily effective designs!
During the Halloween season, there’s plenty of opportunity to celebrate – and you’ll find all of the sweets you need right here at Wholesale Sweets! Whether you’re stocking up for trick or treaters or hosting a Halloween party, we’ve got the chocolate bars, pick n mix and everything else you’ll need for a sweet spooky season!
