Halloween crafts for kids: costume, decorations and pumpkin stencils

Free printable Halloween crafts for kids

Halloween is the one night of the year when a child gets to be someone else — and the best costumes are often the ones made at the kitchen table the evening before. On this page you can print free Halloween crafts for kids: a paper costume headband with a name badge (black cat, little wizard, bat or friendly ghost), a Halloween garland, window silhouettes, place cards for a party and pumpkin carving stencils in true size. Everything comes in bright color or as coloring pages, on A4 or US Letter. No sign-up, no download, no glitter required.

The pictures are friendly handmade-looking clay characters: a smiling jack-o'-lantern, a ghost with a purple bow tie, a cheerful bat, a black cat with a bell on its collar, a witch hat with gold stars and a plump spider. Cute rather than scary — made for preschool and elementary kids, not for haunted houses.

Three kits: costume, decorations, pumpkins

1. Costume — three sheets that turn a plain T-shirt into a costume: big pieces for a headband, four headband strips, a chest piece and a name badge.
2. Decorations — a garland with hanging tabs, silhouettes for windows and walls, or fold-over place cards with each guest's name.
3. Pumpkin stencils — one, four or six different jack-o'-lantern faces, each on its own sheet, in 10, 14 or 18 cm width.

Costumes and decorations print in bright color or as a coloring page — clean outlines on white for kids to color, which also saves colored ink. Every sheet you see in the preview goes to the printer.

A last-minute paper costume

The paper costume solves the “we need a costume for school tomorrow” problem in twenty minutes. Pick a character:

• Black cat — two big cat ears, 8 × 15 cm each, with tabs that fold and glue onto the headband. Wear a dark T-shirt and you are done.
• Little wizard — a flat purple wizard hat for the front of the headband and a golden star with a moon for the chest. A scarf finishes the look; no cape needed.
• Bat — a big bat with spread wings on the headband and a second one on the chest. The paper wings sit on the T-shirt, so arms stay free.
• Friendly ghost — a cute ghost for the headband and the chest, worn with a white T-shirt. No sheet over the head, nothing in front of the eyes.

The head picture fills a 16 × 16 cm area (about 6.3 inches), big enough to read from across a classroom. The face always stays uncovered.

Headband strips that fit any head

The second sheet has four strips, each 180 × 18 mm (7.1 × 0.7 inches), with overlap zones at both ends. Join them end to end with at least 15 mm of overlap, wrap the band around the child's head, mark the size and glue. Trim any extra length after trying it on.

Name badge for school parties

The third sheet has a large chest piece and a 9 × 3.5 cm name badge with the character's name on top. Type the child's name (up to 30 characters) and it is printed on the badge in large letters; long names shrink to fit. Leave the field empty, and there is a line to write the name by hand. Handy at a Halloween class party or a trunk-or-treat, where twenty little bats look very much alike.

Attach the chest piece and the badge with removable tape or a safety pin through the paper, with a grown-up. Or skip them — the headband alone is already a costume.

Halloween garland, window silhouettes and place cards

For decorations, pick any of six shapes — pumpkins, ghosts, bats, cats, witch hats and spiders — and how many you need, from 1 to 24. The shapes take turns in the order you chose, so a garland of pumpkin, ghost, pumpkin, ghost comes out by itself.

• Garland: every shape has its own little hanging strip, 30 × 12 mm. Fold it around the string and glue both ends to the back of the shape.
• Window and wall silhouettes: pictures in a 6, 8 or 12 cm frame — six, four or one per sheet.
• Place cards: fold-over cards 140 × 90 mm, two per sheet, with a picture and a name on each half. One half is printed upside down on purpose: once folded into a tent, the name reads the right way from both sides of the table. Type one name per line — up to 24 guests — and the generator makes one card per name.

Pumpkin carving stencils in true size

Pumpkin faces are the one part of the generator that is random: each click on “New faces” gives a fresh set. Choose a friendly and funny face or a slightly spooky one, big shapes for a first pumpkin or small extra details for older kids, and the stencil width — 10 cm (4 in) for a small pumpkin, 14 cm (5.5 in) for a medium one or 18 cm (7 in) for a big one. Print one, four or six different faces; every face gets its own sheet and no two are the same.

Black areas are cut out; the dashed oval shows the outline of the pumpkin and helps you center the face. Below each face there is a 5 cm check line: measure it with a ruler. If it is shorter, the printer has scaled the page — print again at 100% or “Actual size”.

How to use a pumpkin carving template: tape the sheet to the pumpkin, poke along the outlines with a pin or a toothpick every few millimeters, remove the paper and connect the dots with a carving saw. Carving is a job for a grown-up; children can scoop the seeds and draw the face on paper first. Use an LED tea light instead of a candle.

Tips for a smooth Halloween craft session

• Print at 100% scale (“Actual size”), without “fit to page” — the sizes on the sheets are real.
• Use regular paper for coloring and cardstock for headbands and place cards.
• Little children cut along the big outlines; leave the small inside corners to a grown-up.
• Make the costume a day ahead: glue dries overnight and the morning stays calm.

For teachers: a whole-class Halloween party

For a classroom party, print one costume kit per child in coloring mode — the class colors and assembles headbands during the art block, then parades in them. Place cards with every child's name turn a lunch table into a party table, and a garland of 24 shapes made by the whole class decorates the classroom door. A treasure hunt with clues fills the rest of the afternoon. Names are typed in your browser and never leave it.

More Halloween and party printables

For a quiet Halloween activity, try spot the difference with a Halloween theme, printable mazes or mandala coloring pages. Planning the party itself? Make printable invitations, pick some party games for kids or set up a scavenger hunt. For more cutting and gluing, see templates to cut out and how to draw step by step.

Frequently asked questions

Pick a kit, choose your character or shapes, and print your Halloween crafts.