Now, the problem is, where to start?

Easy Halloween crafts

We’re not talking start from scratch craft ideas here (we have those elsewhere on the site). Instead, there are some nice bits at Yellow Moon which allow your kids to be creative, but not have to get so deep into something that it never gets finished.

Here are just a few of the fun ideas that stood out for me…

Halloween gift bags and gift boxes

It’s always nice to receive a gift, so why should Halloween be any different? And if you want to give someone a special something (be it something genuinely nice, or a nasty surprise) you want it to be presented in the best possible way.

Here are two kits that would make the tackiest gifts look good.
With the gift boxes, each kit contains a coloured card craft box, pre-cut foam pieces and wiggle-eyes. There are 4 designs with a pumpkin, cat, bat and spider and they’re all pretty cute. They’re 6cm in diameter and would be perfect for say… and engagement ring or perhaps part of a severed finger… Or just some sweets I guess.

The bags are a similar deal with 4 designs again (witch, pumpkin, spider and bat) and the same kind of materials for the face parts. The bags themselves are paper and would make excellent party bags or of course trick or treating bags. The bags also offer a bit more freedom with the design as there are more bits to stick on.

They’re good value both coming in (at the time of writing) at around £3-£4 a pack.

Halloween 3D decorations and scratch art

If you’re looking for some nice Halloween crafts to decorate the place with, then a quick win would be the 3D shapes.
No doubt you’ll have seen this kind of thing before. In fact Asda are selling some similar 3D Halloween decorations right now. They’re pretty cheap, but are they HAND-MADE BY YOUR OWN CHILD? No, I didn’t think so. But these items from Yellow Moon could be.
Coming with 3 assorted designs, they come flat, and once opened up can be painted and decorated however you like. They come with the ribbon to hang them with and you can even buy suitable paints from the same site, which is convinient.

The scratch art stuff is cool. These black shapes look pretty spooky out of the packet, but when you scratch away the matt black surface, you reveal the colourful second layer. This allows for some really cool effects and makes for some nice colourful yet terrifying wall decorations.
Best of all, these ones are also magnetic, so you can stick them on your fridge with ease!
Oh, and you get a scratch tool to do the scratching with – essential!

 
Halloween window huggers and tattoos!

If you’re still in the mood for decorating (can you EVER have enough Halloween decorations?) how about trying some ‘make them yourself’ window huggers?
They’re made of card and the idea is that you colour them in, stick them together, then put them on the window using the suction hooks provided. Suction hooks are good because unlike the ‘sticky’ window hugging competition, they will be far more re-usable and so can come back out next year, and potentially many more after that.
Each pack makes 12 huggers which is pretty good for £3.

And when you’ve run out of space on the walls and windows, why not decorate yourselves with these cool Halloween tattoos. Don’t worry, they’re only the temporary ones, so you won’t have to regret the decision for years afterwards.
There are 12 designs in each pack ranging from the cute little ghost to the more rugged and intimidating skull and crossbones. Plus one pack contains 36, YES 36 tattoos!

Halloween finger puppets

Finally, why not entertain your guests with your Halloween crafts too?
Puppet shows always get a crowd going, so put your fingers to good use first making the puppets, then helping the puppets to walk about convincingly on stage!
The first set comes with 6 designs and includes all of your favourite Halloween characters. You can use felt-tipped pens to do the colouring, then it’s just down to you to provide the voices and motivation.
The puppets are a decent size too, at 11cm.

But if you’ve had enough of all the Halloween crafts stuff, why not opt for the ready made, glow in the dark finger puppets?
There are three cute characters to choose from and they would all look great in the dark, or even better, under a UV light. You could even go all out with some glow in the dark paint to create an especially spooky stage for them, but I’ll leave the rest of the creative thinking to you. That’s the point of Halloween crafts after all isn’t it?

The hard way to do this is to use make-up, which can be both expensive and difficult.
But the easy way would be to follow a few tutorials on how to achieve the effect using the photo editing software – Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshop Zombie Tutorials

If you haven’t used it before, it can be daunting. Photoshop looks complicated.
But thankfully there is a bunch of easy to follow tutorials out there for you to use.
Here are some good ones:

Create a Freakish zombie in 11 steps

This is a decent tutorial that gives great results in a reasonably short space of time. Things do get a little complicated with the number of layers and also a lack of explanation as to exactly how to carry out some of the steps (the eyes for example) but with a bit more research and some improvisation, you can use the tricks in this tutorial to create a good zombie photo. Check out the before and after shots:

You can find this zombie Photoshop tutorial here:
http://www.imarc.net/blog/42-freakish_zombie_in_11_steps

Learn how to Zombify people

On the surface of it, this Photoshop tutorial looks shorter and simpler, but in actual fact, it takes for granted that you do already have a bit of Photoshop experience. Therefore, you may need to do a bit of additional research to get good results.
Talking of results, the final image looks pretty scary (if that’s what you’re after). Definitely worth checking out.

You can find this zombie Photoshop tutorial here:
http://www.asksabre.com/photo-manipulation/learn-how-to-zombify-people

Decay tutorial in Photoshop

If you want to get a bit more arty with your zombie picture, then this is one for you. Not the most realistic zombie in the world, but a creepy one nonetheless, this tutorial is also easier to follow.
Written for use on an early version of Photoshop, I found this one to be well explained and probably easier for a novice to have a go at. Plus the results are pretty good.

You can find this zombie Photoshop tutorial here:
http://www.idigitalemotion.com/tutorials/guest/decay/decay.html

Zombie Face tutorial

This tutorial has a lot of steps and need a bit of expertise with the lasso tool (used for cutting out shapes). But, as it’s so well explained, this tutorial is easy to follow and gives some really good results. It also gives you a lot of freedom allowing you to choose exactly the sort of nasty open wounds you want your zombie to have.

You can find this zombie Photoshop tutorial here:
http://csscreme.com/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/zombie_face_photoshop_tutorial

Halloween Photoshop Tutorial: Creating Zombie

Don’t get me wrong, this tutorial has a great end result, and the instructions are clear and especially helpful (the guy writing it gives links to any external resources that he uses). But, I personally think that he goes a bit too far with the final image. You could achieve something cool, yet not quite as nasty by following these tips and being a little more restrained with the bone bits. Down to your personal taste though.

You can find this zombie Photoshop tutorial here:
http://www.dphotojournal.com/photoshop-tutorial-creating-a-zombie/

So there you have it. A nice selection of some effective photoshop tutorials. The good news is that this is just a small sample of what’s out there. Plus, there are tutorials on all other kinds of horrible Halloween creatures for you to apply your new found Photoshop skills to!

All you need is some PVA, borax and some dye (preferably glow in the dark stuff).

The instructions are simple and the stuff looks great fun! Plus, the site that made the video are keen to get us all to appreciate the ‘science’ side of it too, so it’s slime that teaches you stuff!



Check it out:

Well, before you go out and spend more money on big expensive decorations, have a think about painting yourself some Critters.

Don’t worry, this doesn’t have anything to do with that bad 80′s movie about the fluffy aliens with sharp teeth. This is all about getting yourself some paint, some wood, and doing a bit of creative decorating.

This guy will show you how:

I bought a brain-shaped jelly mould a couple of years back and it’s always great to use for a bit of Halloween desert, although it can be a little off-putting at times.
I found a video on Youtube where a guy has used the same type of mould to do something a little more creative.

I don’t personally think that the result are amazing, but with a little more time and care, you could probably use the same technique to good effect.

As an alternative, you could skip the DIY, and go for something like this:

I have only been able to find it being sold in the US, but if you live there, it would probably even work out cheaper!