DIY Halloween Cards

Making DIY Halloween cards is not only fun, but then you get to teach your kids about how to think of others when they give it to someone as a special treat (not trick). And this craft project leaves so much room for creativity. I promise you that no two cards will look alike. I love crafts like this! It lets kids really use their imaginations.

If you like this Halloween craft, you’re going to love this flying bat, this black cat and these Halloween decorations (that can also be hats).

Nourish Your Relationship with Your Kids as You Craft Together all Year Long…

Fun Facts about Halloween

• People originally carved turnips instead of pumpkins.
• Americans used to celebrate the holiday by sending Halloween cards. (Let’s bring that back.)
• Orange signals harvest.
• Pumpkins are classified as a fruit, not a vegetable.
• Jack-o-lanterns were inspired by an Irish folktale about a guy named Stingy Jack who fooled the devil.
• Trick or treating has been around since medieval times.

To learn more things you probably didn’t know about Halloween, check out this article by Pioneer Woman.

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Combine Reading with Crafting

The best way to elevate the crafting process is to combine it with ready a good book. Here are some of our favorite Halloween books for kids.

SUPPLIES FROM THE BAG

• Construction paper
• Paints
• Scotch tape
• Scissors
• Markers
• Paper plate
• Things to paint with (ie-pompoms, q-tips, newspaper, etc.)
• Halloween Card Printable

Making crafts with your kids is supposed to be fun…but sometimes it just becomes one more thing on the every growing “to do” list that we don’t get around to. It’s not your fault…life sometimes happens to us. But it’s time to take control.

Because making things with your kids is about so much more than just having a finished craft to put on the fridge. The benefits of crafting together are immeasuarble! To make it actually possible, we’ve come up with a brilliant (if I do say so myself) approach. Instead of searching Pinterest for just the right craft, then gathering all of the supplies from the far corners of the Earth, and then spend about 30 seconds actually doing the craft with your kids (if you get around to it at all) because they lose interest.

Instead…try our approach. Fill you bag using our master list of craft supplies. We stick to this list for every craft that we make here and in our shop. Then, when the opportunity arises where you have a spare 15 minutes or so (because you just never know), you’ll be ready to make a craft together. Just pick one quickly from the hundreds you see here and get right to it. No waiting, no extra prep…and reduced mess too.

Save this Halloween craft for kids for later. Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board…

How to make DIY Halloween Cards

Step 1

• Choose a piece of construction paper for your card and fold it in half.
• Download and print the Halloween card printables.
• Choose a symbol to use and cut it out from the printable. You can choose from a bat, ghost, haunted house, black cat or pumpkin.
• Then tape the cut out Halloween symbol in the center of the front of your card using a couple of donuts of scotch tape on the back of the cut out.

Step 2

• Choose some paint colors and squeeze them out on a paper plate. We chose traditional halloween colors, like black, white, orange, purple and green.
• Pick something from your craft bag to use as a “paint brush”.
• Paint the the front of the card, painting both on the cutout and around it.
• Gently remove the paper design and tape pieces from the front of the card to reveal your design. *You can do this before or after the paint has dried. You’re less likely to make a mess AFTER the paint has dried if you can handle the wait.

A Little About Resist Painting…

First of all, you might be asking, what is resist painting? It’s a technique where you use layers to define a design in a negative space. In this instance, we will use paper to obscure a section of the card which will then be painted over. When the paper design is removed, it leaves behind a negative space in the shape of that Halloween design.

Here are some of our favorite resist painting techniques for these Halloween cards.

• Tap paint with large or small (or a combination) pompoms to form dots
• Cluster together q-tips and tap paint
• Create stamps from pipe cleaners and stamp all over the card
• Crumple up newspaper into a ball and tap paint
• Put paint in the center and pull it out in streaks using a large pompom

Here’s a video to show you some of the techniques in action.

Step 3 (Optional)

• As a finishing touch for your cards (once the paint has dried), use markers or crayons to add some details where your design has been left. For example, draw eyes on for your ghost.
• This step is completely optional. You can just leave the card as is.

Step 4

• Of course you wil need to open your card and write a message inside.
• If you’ve used a darker color of paper for your card, cut another rectangle of construction paper (white works best) and glue it to the inside so that your writing can be seen.

And now that you know the techniques behind making these adorable Halloween cards, make lots of them. They are so fun that you won’t want to stop at just one. And think of all the smiles on the faces of the recipients. You can even make your own template instead of using one of our printables if you want to get really imaginative.

Save this Paper Craft for Kids for later. Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board…