75 Easy Halloween Crafts for Adults Who Love All Things Spooky and Spidery
Pumpkin carving is only the start when it comes to DIY decorating for your favorite holiday.
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It's time to turn your home into Halloweentown with easy and fun DIYs that will impress every trick-or-treater and party guest that comes to your door. Our list of Halloween crafts for adults includes plenty of decorations, including indoor and outdoor ideas featuring pumpkins, goblins, monsters and more. Wreaths, wall decor and dinner table designs are just the beginning. We have modern color schemes (hello, pastels!) and classic orange and black options, as well as scary and cute projects, so no matter what your Halloween aesthetic is for 2021, there's something for you.
A lot of what you see here will require common household items you probably already have in stock, but even if you don't, all the crafts are inexpensive to create and Amazon has almost everything you need, so a last-minute Halloween party is totally doable thanks to these ideas (now what's left to do is figure out the snacks ...).
Want to get your little monsters involved? Try one (or all) of these kid-friendly Halloween crafts geared toward children. And don't miss our favorite DIY costume ideas if you want to win your Halloween costume contest.
Crescent Flower Wreath
Hang on your front door or inside your house, either way this easy DIY wreath will be an instant hit. To create, start with long skinny grass on the two ends of the crescent shape you are forming to mark the end. Hot glue them into place. Fill in the middle with a mix of all the dried flowers you have collected, making sure to mix in more grass and long skinny shapes between the flowers to keep it balanced. Hot glue each thing you add to ensure it is secure. Finish the wreath off by attaching a ribbon around the top.
Macrame Ghosts
Take your macrama skills to the next level with these adorable little spirits. Begin by painting embroidery hoops with black paint and let dry. Cut equal lengths of macrame cord about 50” long (you will need 12 - 14 pieces of cord per hoop). Then, begin to form your knots (we used the Lark's Head knot). To create that, hold 2 pieces of cord together and fold in half. Wrap the folded half around the embroidery hoop and pull all 4 tails through the loop. Pull tight to secure. Repeat around the top of the hoop.
Tombstone Chair Covers
Your guests will be afraid to sit down at their seat once they see these creepy chair covers. To make, print out the tombstone templates and cut out designs with scissors or a craft knife so you can use them as stencils. Place your template centered on your pillow case in the position that feels right and tape or pin the corners down to keep in place. Dip a foam craft brush in a small amount of black fabric paint and dab it gently onto the fabric where you have placed the stencils (less is more!). Let dry completely. Optional: Add some extra dabs of gray fabric paint on top of the dried black designs to give it a distressed look. Slip pillowcases over the back of your dining chairs.
Blood Drip Candles
Fill your hot glue gun with a red glue stick and carefully run it around the edges of your candlesticks to create dripping "blood." You can do this with any non-porous surfaces, like metal serving utensils.
Painted Baby’s Breath
Forget expensive flowers! Grab bunches of dried baby's breath or other small flowers, and paint them with 2 coats of black spray paint, allowing each coat to thoroughly dry and rotating the branches as you go. Once dry, cut into smaller branches and arrange in various sized vases and bottles for a long-lasting spooky centerpiece! Just make sure your space is well ventilated!
Skeleton Face Candy Packaging
Each guest can go home with one of these boxes. Fill 'em with candy or another treat to create decor as well as a party favor. To make, spray paint all of the egg boxes white inside and out and let dry completely. Cut out the skeleton face templates out of black craft paper with scissors or a craft knife or make your own! Glue on the paper face pieces using a light layer of tacky glue and make sure you securely press down the pieces since the egg is round.
Spider String Lights
These little spiders help create the ultimate photo-op. You'll need plastic shot glasses to make 'em, so be sure to add a few more to party cart.
Skeleton Hand Wall Decor
We're obsessed with these hands, which can hold flowers, coats and more. They are so cute and super easy to make.
3D Pumpkins
Allow these pumpkins to sit together on a table or tie a string around them and hang around the house, either way, they will look great.
Petrified Portraits
Replace a collection of family photos with a creepy crawly gallery wall. Print out bugs and bats clip art onto card stock, then cut them out with scissors or a craft knife and display in shadow box frames.
Black Magic Wall Display
Spray-paint a vintage frame black, and let dry. Print out butterfly clip art images and "Beware!" calligraphy on card stock then cut out and attached to empty frame. Use hot glue to secure ribbon to the back to hang.
Eerie Halloween Lanterns
Hang a display of crafty DIY paper lanterns on your covered front porch to light up the night.
Dark Arts Wreath
Take a simple feather wreath to the dark side by attaching a black artificial bird and sprinkling with glitter.
Spider Web Drink Umbrellas
Use a Cricut machine and 12x12 black craft paper to cut out a spider web umbrella template. Using a bone folder, score the straight lines that lead to the center to make it easier for you to fold them to make the web more 3-D. Lightly fold the straight lines to make an umbrella shape. Hot glue the center of the web to a skewer stick. Cheers!
Crepe Paper Garlands
Brush a light layer of dark RIT liquid dye on the edges of an orange party streamer roll. After it's dry, cut off a piece of thread about one yard long, thread a needle, double it up and knot it off. Sew a basic running stitch down the center of the streamer. Before you run out of thread, stitch through the top of the paper a few times and knot it off. To continue the garland, get a length of thread ready and stitch through a few layers of the paper. Keep going until you have enough length to drape over your mantel.
Spider Web Placemats
You can make your own fun placemats using nothing but puff paint and parchment paper. Just make a web shape onto the paper with the puff paint, then let it set overnight so you can peel the paper off the back. Place underneath a clear plate to show off the design!
RELATED: 60+ Easy Halloween Decor Ideas to Give Your Home a Spooky Makeover
Witch's Brew Drinks
Turn regular bottles into festive drinks for a Halloween get-together with this simple idea. Just download and print the label template PDF, then cut out the labels and tape them onto beer or soda bottles. To create the straws, cut two 3" circles out of black paper and punch a hole in the center of one. Slide a straw through the hole. Cut the other circle in half and roll to create a cone around the straw, gluing or taping in place. Glue or tape the cone to the paper circle to create a witch hat.
Paper Bat Garland
To make this garland, download this bat stencil, then trace the shape onto a piece of black craft paper. Cut out the shape with scissors to create as many bats as you want. Then, place the stencil back on top of each bat and use a bone folder to make creases along the dotted lines on the stencil. Fold the creases opposite ways on each wing to make the wings 3D. Attach each bat to a long piece of string with tiny black clothespins.
RELATED: Spooky Window Decorations for the Best Halloween Ever
Puff Paint Spider Web Glasses
Dress up a simple set of dollar store glasses with puff paint. Draw a decorative web, starting from the bottom of the glass.
Mini Lawn Flamingo Pumpkins
Who knew plastic lawn decorations could look so chic (and seasonal)? Greet trick-or-treaters with Halloween-inspired lawn flamingos by sticking these into your front yard or porch planters.
Caroline is a writer and editor with almost a decade of experience. From 2015 to 2019, she held various editorial positions at Good Housekeeping, including as health editor, covering nutrition, fitness, wellness, and other lifestyle news. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism and dreams of the day Northwestern will go back to the Rose Bowl.
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