Just in time for Halloween, kids can learn how to make a fun paper bobble head black cat craft. This easy DIY kitty craft includes a free pattern, making it perfect for home or school.
HOW TO MAKE A FUN BLACK CAT CRAFT FOR HALLOWEEN
Since the time of the Puritans, black cats have been a popular symbol of Halloween. Long ago, people believed that black cats could shift into human form to act as spies for witches. In many cultures, black cats are a symbol of good (and sometimes bad) luck.
Pair this easy family-friendly Halloween craft with Scary, Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting or Five Black Cats by Patricia Hegarty for an afternoon full of Halloween fun!
TO MAKE THIS BLACK CAT CRAFT YOU WILL NEED
Free printable cat template
White card stock
Black construction paper
Pink construction paper
Rotary paper cutter or scissors
Single hole punch
White colored pencil
Wiggly eyes or sticker eyes
White school glue or double sided tape
Crayons (optional)
DIRECTIONS FOR BLACK CAT CRAFT
1. Print the free template on card stock, cut out the shapes, then use a white colored pencil to lightly trace the shapes onto black construction paper.
The printable has 2 sets of cat patterns.
2. Fold the ends of the long, thick paper strip towards the middle as pictured below. Glue or tape the 2 flaps together to create a 3D half circle shape.
3. Trace the small petal shapes onto pink construction paper. Trace the larger petal shapes onto black construction paper. Glue the pink petals to the black petals to create ears for your cat.
4. Glue the ears to the back of the cat’s head (the heart-shaped piece). Use a single hole punch to create a circle for the cat’s nose, then glue it to head. Use a white colored pencil and sticker eyes to create a face for your cat.
6. Glue the cat’s tail (the short strip with the curved end) to the back of the cat’s body. Fold the last strip like an accordion. Snip off the excess, leaving about 4 folds.
7. Glue the cat’s head to the accordion fold paper strip, then glue the accordion fold to the front of the cat’s body.
Isn’t it cute? If you tap their little heads, they bobble up and down. Perfect for Halloween or for any child who loves cats!
KID-MADE BLACK CAT CRAFT SAMPLES
My kids chose to color their cat templates instead of tracing them onto construction paper. Both of them did a great job and enjoyed playing with their cats afterward.
If you do this craft with a group of kids, I recommend preparing the templates in advance. Tracing, cutting, and folding are great fine motor activities for kids!
This creepy glow in the dark hand is the perfect DIY addition to add to your Halloween decorations.
This project takes approximately 15-20 minutes. You can try wrapping your own hand, but it’s definitely easier to borrow a friend’s hand.
Materials
Glowstick (green or orange look great)
Masking Tape
Disposable drinking straw
Scissors
Step 1. WRAPPING THE HAND- Always start with the sticky side of the tape facing OUT, otherwise the tape will stick to your model and will be harder to remove. Place a straw against the wrist and palm of the hand as shown. This will keep the tape from getting too tight and help when removing the tape at the end. Hold the end of the tape in place with one hand, while wrapping the tape around the wrist with the other hand. Leave at least an inch of the straw exposed at the bottom. Overlap the tape, so that it sticks to itself. This will make it easier to wrap the rest of the hand.
Step 2. Continue wrapping the tape up the wrist, sticky side out. Remember, make sure not to wrap the tape too tight or your model will be uncomfortable.
Step 3. When you get to the hand, wrap the tape across the palm and around the thumb, similar to how you might wrap a hand with a bandage.
Step 4. Keep wrapping until the palm is covered.
Step 5. The back of the hand should be covered as well. You can add more tape in spots that are still uncovered, making sure to keep the sticky side facing out.
Step 6. Next, start wrapping the index finger. The fingers will be tricky, the tape is sticky and the fingers are close together. Use the scissors as you are wrapping to cut any tape that sticks to itself.
Step 7. Finish wrapping all the fingers until everything on the hand is covered with tape. It might appear messy at this point but that will be fixed in the next step.
Step 8. Repeat steps 2-8, this time with the sticky part of the tape facing in. You can cut the tape into smaller pieces to get into the areas around the fingers. When you are finished, the hand should no longer be sticky.
Step 9. REMOVING THE HAND FROM THE TAPE- If possible, you should let the model do this step. Insert the scissors into the end of the straw and cut carefully along the straw.
Step 10. Continue cutting the tapped hand apart, until the model can slide their hand out, you will use the tape to fix the cut seam.
Step 11. Use the masking tape to put the hand back together and fix any places the might be coming undone, especially around the fingers.
Step 12. The hand is complete. You can use this wrapping technique on other parts of the body, like your feet. Add a glow stick inside the hand for a creepy effect. You can also create a zombie rising from it’s grave.
Congratulations! You made it through this DIY! If you’re still missing some components for the perfect Halloween, head over to the shop to browse through decorations and party supplies that will bring your haunted house back from the dead.
Use cheesecloth and other cheap items to make a life-size ghost for Halloween. Hang it on a tree or put it on your front porch so that passers-by will tremble in their boots.
Materials Needed:
6-8 packages of cheesecloth
large foam ball
2 small foam balls
paint roller extension pole
2 yardsticks
hammer
2 short large-headed nails
jug of Sta-Flo liquid starch
empty spray bottle
sheet of black felt
scissors
fabric glue
large sewing needle
spool of fishing line
Create Ghost’s Framework
Layer a paint roller extension pole and two yardsticks to create a “skeleton” for your ghost (Image 1). Use a short large-headed nail to attach both yardsticks to the paint roller extension pole, one on top of the other (Image 2).
Secure Extension Pole
Find a non-windy outdoor spot to temporarily drive the paint roller extension pole into the ground to make draping the ghost easier.
Attach Ghost’s Head
Push a large foam ball onto the top of the paint roller extension pole to create the ghost’s head.
Attach Ghost’s Hands
Attach a small foam ball to the end of each yardstick to act as the ghost’s hands.
Drape Cheesecloth
Begin draping large sheets of cheesecloth over the ghost framework (Image 1). Continue draping sheets of cheesecloth back and forth over the ghost until you’ve achieved the desired effect (Image 2).
Spray Starch
Use a spray bottle filled with liquid starch to saturate the ghost’s head, hands and arms, leaving the body starch-free so trailing layers of gauze will blow in the breeze. Allow starch to dry (harden) completely before moving on.
Create Eyes and Mouth
Cut two eyes and a mouth out of black felt (Image 1). Use fabric glue to attach felt eyes and mouth to the ghost’s head (Image 2).
Remove Small Foam Balls
Gently remove the two small foam balls from under cheesecloth.
Attach Fishing Line to Arms
Use a large sewing needle to thread a long length of fishing line through the fabric of each hand. Triple-knot the fishing line so the ghost can move freely in the breeze without the threat of blowing away.
Attach Fishing Line to Head
Use a large sewing needle to thread a long length of fishing line through the top of the ghost’s head. It’s a good idea to drive the needle straight through the foam ball if possible. Triple knot this length of fishing line (Image 1). Finally, tie the ghost to hooks on a porch ceiling or sturdy tree branches in the yard for a spooky Halloween-themed display (Image 2).
Maybe it’s a little cliché (OK, a lot cliché) to cut holes in a sheet and have your kiddo trick-or-treat as a ghost. But you know what they say, if it ain’t broke…OK, it’s easier said than done to keep the holes where they’re supposed to be and make a functional costume this way! Luckily, Super Mom Hacks has you covered. (Or more like your kid covered…in a sheet!)
When does your family start thinking about Halloween? Me, I start hounding my kids for costume ideas over the summer. I love DIY costumes; having them take forever to make, not so much. Hence I was thrilled this past August when Essie announced she’d be a ghost for Halloween. How hard can it be to make a ghost costume?
Then Kimmie decided she’d be a ghost, too. Bonus! Make a ghost costume times two. How lucky am I? Can’t get any simpler than that. Two white bedsheets, here we come.
1. Acquire white fabric
Our corner of Suburbia U.S.A. has not one, but two thrift stores within a mile of our house. My mission one September morning, after getting girls off to school: Find two white sheets.
Of course I found every color of sheet except plain white. I suspect a cartoon-character-printed ghost costume isn’t going to cut it.
But even better, I found an entire bolt of white fabric! Since it was Half-Off Day, $7.50 later (surely the $15 original price means there’s plenty of fabric for two ghost costumes, right?) I was on my way. That was almost too easy.
2. Consider logistical challenges
One reason I like lots of lead time for making costumes is so I can stick them on the mental back burner, until I figure out a good way to accomplish the desired effect.
But the more I pondered the bedsheet-with-two-eye-holes-cut-out scenario, the more I realized it was going to be harder to make a ghost costume than I’d imagined.
Think about it: How do you know where to cut the eye holes? And once you’ve got them cut, how do you get them to stay in place on the kiddo’s head while the kid is walking around?
3. Do some research
So I began hunting online for instructions on how to make a ghost costume. This site has the best step-by-step directions I found for Ye Olde Basic Sheet-Based Ghost Costume That Won’t Fall Off. (The secret is attaching a light-colored hat inside the head part of the sheet; the hat is what holds the costume in place and keeps the holes where they belong.)
By now it was mid-September. Figuring I had this problem solved, I stashed the bolt of fabric in a closet.
But I still needed to find white hats. I briefly contemplated crocheting some with bulky white yarn while waiting in school drop-off and pick-up lines. Instead, I found a couple of pastel plaid fleece caps at the tail end of this fall’s Baby Consignment Sale event. Cost: about 25 cents each. Score again!
I also stumbled across some black cheesecloth at Secondhand Crafting Supply Store. One of the websites I’d consulted on how to make a ghost costume suggested sewing black mesh behind the eye holes, so that the costume gives the appearance of black holes without having to paint big black circles around one’s eyes.
To me, sewing on black mesh sounds way easier than trying to apply (and then remove) eye-area black grease paint on a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old. Even though the bundle contained lots more fabric than I needed, at $2.25 it was still a bargain.
1. Make time, collect goods
With three weekends remaining until October 31, I decided I’d better make the costumes already. So Sunday afternoon I cleared off the dining-room table and gathered my supplies, including some narrow white elastic; I figured I’d add some wrist straps to help hold the fabric in place. Then I cut the tape off the bolt of fabric, and unrolled it to see how much fabric I had.
My 54-inch-wide bolt of fabric contained approximately two yards (72 inches). That’s it.
Enough to make a ghost costume, but not enough to make two ghost costumes.
2. Make first attempt anyway
But this was my Chunk Of Time To Make A Ghost Costume x2, darn it! So I folded the hunk of fabric in quarters, marked the center, and hunted down Essie, who was playing in the living room.
First attempt: too much fabric for Essie’s costume
Turns out, the optimal fabric size for a 40-inch-tall child’s ghost costume is less than [54 inches x 72 inches]. At its current size, the fabric would definitely drag on the ground at the corners. Yes, I could just trim off the corners – but in theory, good uber-thrifty type that I am, I’m going to repurpose each costume into linings for baskets or tote bags or something. So the less I cut the fabric, the better.
Next I hunted down Kimmie, who was in the basement indulging in Screen Hypnosis. She was not happy to have her Mulan/Mulan II binge-watching marathon interrupted by being asked to stand up and having a piece of opaque white fabric draped over her eyes.
But good news: the rectangle in question works much better on a 48-inch-tall child than a 40-inch-tall one.
Given the girls’ level of engrossment in their various activities and my own inertia, I decided that investing the rest of the afternoon in a trip to the nearest fabric store was not the best choice. So I packed everything away and got out a piece of paper.
3. Do some math
Next thing I know, I’m sketching out rectangles of fabric and trying to remember the Pythagorean Theorem (you know, the formula used to figure out the long side of a right triangle) so I can figure out how much fabric I need to make Essie’s costume.
Several calculations later, I had a rough sense of what to aim for. (In case you’re curious: for a 40-inch-tall child, I figured I’d need either 1.75 yards of 45-inch-wide fabric, or 1.25 yards of 54-inch-wide fabric.)
1. Acquire more fabric
First stop after preschool drop-off on Monday: the thrift store a half-mile from home. They had several bundles of white fabric for a few dollars each. But the bundles were all taped up, the store doesn’t allow returns, and they also don’t generally allow you to un-tape bundled items before you buy them.
Second attempt: too long in front and back, too short on the sides.
I convinced a salesperson to make an exception under the circumstances. After opening several bundles, I found one that looked workable. It even came with already-somewhat-uneven edges.
Brought the piece home to find it’s actually about 40 inches x 80 inches – not really wide enough, and too long. Cutting off some of the length and adding it onto the sides seems a better bet than having a big seam right down the middle of the thing, but still…
Guess I’ll be hauling out the sewing machine after all. I actually love to sew; I find it soothing and relaxing. But finding the unencumbered time in which to do it, without staying up half the night, is the challenging part.
2. Success, at long last
So much for this being a fast-and-easy process. I eventually got Kimmie’s costume done in an afternoon, and Essie’s done the following afternoon.
2a. The actual steps to make a ghost costume
The basic steps go like this:
Mark center of fabric. (I did this by folding it into quarters and ironing in creases.)
Put hat on child, center fabric on child’s head, and secure center of fabric to top of child’s head with safety pins. Use additional pins to secure fabric around the edges of the hat.
With hat on child, locate and trace where you want the eye holes and mouth hole to go, using kiddo’s eye sockets and mouth as a guide.
Cut out said holes.
Cut mesh (black cheesecloth) to go behind the holes, and secure to the inside of the fabric.
Sew elastic wrist-straps at the side creases to help keep the costume in place.
2b. Final tips and tricks
Putting hat on child/safety-pinning fabric to hat is easier said than done. After that step, tracing and cutting the face holes was easy-peasy.
Since I had the sewing machine out anyway, I did a quick zigzag stitch around the edge of the fabric, and a basic satin stitch around the cutouts, to avoid fraying.
Easy as it sounds, the satin-stitching around the holes actually proved tricky for Kimmie’s costume. So before I cut the holes in Essie’s, I fused some scraps of stabilizer to the inside of the fabric.
I also cut a single piece of cheesecloth, large enough to cover all three holes, and then folded up one corner before folding and stitching a basic hem around the edges. Hemming kept loose threads from tickling the girls’ faces; doubling up one corner made the mouth hole extra-dark, while still maximizing visibility through the eye holes.
I used fusible interfacing to attach the cheesecloth to the inside of the ghost costume, rather than trying to sew it on. This both avoided visible stitches on the costume face, and minimized the amount of sewing through hard-to-manage cheesecloth.
The girls agreed that adding elastic wrist-straps inside was a useful addition.
Are you making costumes for your kiddos this year? What was your most challenging DIY costume to date (especially if you didn’t peg it as such at the outset)? Let us know in the comments!
For more information on how https://www.savvynana.com can help you with How To Make A Ghost Costume (It’s Harder Than You’d Think!), please contact us at +1 808-372-7734, or visit us here:
Strawberry orange smoothie in orange jack 0’lantern, spider web toast and a ghostly hard-boiled egg. Happy Halloween!
The madness of Halloween took over my house. My children struggled for weeks about which outfit to choose, but they went back to their original choice two days ago. Then the crazy size competition began. This morning I walked through the attic to find their favorite trick-or-treating bags, and then I will go to Target at the last minute to distribute candies. Cross your fingers and they still have our favorites, or think about it again, maybe they are no better.
Of course, I vowed to be better prepared every year and every holiday. Halloween dress up in September! Menu and shopping list written a few weeks before Thanksgiving! Finish Christmas shopping before December! But…not so much. Of course, there are millions of distractions; children’s sports and activities, daily work, fun trips, the Bravo channel, or just procrastination.
Ah, but the salvation of Halloween this morning! Today, my children had a terrifying Halloween breakfast before going to school… toast and cream cheese spider webs, ghostly hard-boiled eggs and strawberry orange smoothie, placed in an orange pumpkin lantern. This breakfast is child-friendly, nutritious, and a healthy start to a sugar-fueled weekend. So, although we might stuff licorice and raisins in candy bowls, and their clothing is a bit tight, after breakfast, I knew I could win at least once in Holiday Bank. Happy Halloween!
Instructions
Strawberry Orange Smoothie
1. Cut off the top of the oranges and cut around the inner edges of the peel. Scrape out the orange segments with a spoon (don’t worry about keeping them intact as they will be blended).
2. Place the orange segments, frozen strawberries, and yogurt in a blender and blend until smooth.
3. Carve the scooped out orange into a jack o’lantern if desired and pour the smoothie into the orange cup (you will have extra smoothie)
Ghostly Hardboiled Egg
1. Place eggs in a saucepan with enough cool water to cover.
2. Cover with lid and bring to a rolling boil, then turn off heat. Let eggs stand in water for 10 mins.
3. Remove eggs and place in an ice bath until cooled. Pat eggs dry and color a ghost face on each with the marker.
Spiderweb Toast
1. Cut bread into shapes with a spider web shaped cookie cutter (a large round cutter will work just fine) and toast them in a toaster.
2. Mix cream cheese with cream until smooth and place in a piping bag or plastic bag. You can use a small round pastry tip or just cut the end of the bag to pipe cream cheese onto the the toast in a spiderweb pattern.
I seriously love the fruit trend right now. It’s been all the rage this summer, but why not let it spill over into Fall in the costume arena?
It would be a crime not to. Don’t you think?
I whipped up a couple of fruit-a-licious costumes for my daughter and get this…they are NO SEW!
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Well…the hat is mostly. Let me show you what I mean.
MATERIALS
1- 1 1/2 yards of felt (depending on the side of your recipient this range will fit most sizes children to adult)
scissors
ruler
existing t-shirt
optional: craft paint and brush
MEASURING
-Grab a T-shirt that fits the recipient.
-Measure how long the shirt is from shoulder to hem.
– Add a couple of inches. This is your radius.
-Fold your felt into fourths. Starting from the folded corner, measure out a circle using your radius measurement and cut it out.
CUTTING
– Open up your felt circle so it is now just folded in half. Mark the center.
– Lay your T-shirt on top of your felt centering it as best as you can.
– Use the T-shirt to measure how wide to cut the neck whole.
– Cut the neck hole just slightly wider than what you marked. Cut it out in a shallow leaf shape.
– Then cut a slit down the front about 2 inches.
OPTIONAL
Paint on details to match the fruit.
I did this for the pineapple but not the apple.
I started out trying to be orderly but found after a few rows that random eye-balling was better.
Let it dry and then try it on!
ARM SLITS
You can leave the cape as is or cut arm slits. I wasn’t sure how it would play out with Natalie. I wondered if she would even use the arm slits, but it turns out that they came in handy!
The placement of arm slits is personal preference and can be a little tricky. I kept them centered/ a little low so that she could hold her trick or treat bag and such. As I found in this photo shoot though, is that she constantly held candy in her mouth, which kept shifting the cape backwards…not a problem, but I might have cut the slits higher had I known she would do that.
Ready for the hat?
It’s actually kind of a big fascinator. If you are a long time reader, you’ll recognize it as a hat-ette which I made .
The process is almost completely the same. The only difference is that I did a bit of hand sewing for these hats. For the complete no sew version.
MATERIALS
Scraps or two page size pieces of felt for each color needed
(depending on how big you are making your hat)
scissors
ruler
hot glue
tapestry or yarn needle
thread
yarn
handful of polyester batting
ribbon or fold over elastic
CUTTING
– Decide how big you want your hat and cut a circle of cardboard out that size. I made my hat six inches wide, but a cute mini hat would be a.dor.able.
– Cut a piece of felt about twice the size of your cardboard piece.
GATHERING
– Thread your needle with a pretty long piece of thread, double up the thread, and knot off the end. Sew a running stitch around the perimeter of the felt circle.
– When you get to the end of the circle, lay down your handful of batting, and then the piece of cardboard on top.
– Pull your thread tight, gathering and closing the felt circle around the cardboard and batting.
-Sew back and forth between the gathered edges until it feels secure. Knot off your thread and remove the needle.
NO-SEW variation – pleat the edges of the felt in place and hot glue it together. See a step by step how to.
TUFTING
– To tuft the middle of the hat, thread your needle with a piece of yarn.
– Insert it into the middle of the cardboard and sew a small stitch in the center. Keep sewing back and forth until the stitched spot is nice and secure. Knot it off and remove the needle.
ASSEMBLING HAT
– Cut another circle of felt just smaller than your hat, and cut a piece of ribbon or elastic .
– Lay the elastic in place with the raw ends on top of the underside of the hat. If using ribbon assemble it in the same way.
– Hot glue the felt circle on the underside of the hat, encasing the raw edges of the elastic and the messy gathered part.
LEAVES
For pineapple leaves,
– Cut a page size piece of felt into two triangles.
– Cut leaf like triangles out of those pieces.
– Save any scraps that look leafy. Lay both shredded triangle pieces on top of each other, along with the extra leafy scraps.
-Starting from the longer side, roll the leafy triangles up, hot gluing them in place as you go.
– Give the leaves a final trim as needed.
-Glue to the tufted part of the hat, and you’re done!
For the apple hat, the leaf and stem were made the same way THIS pumpkin hat was made.
Q: When is an apple not an apple?
A: When it’s a pineapple!
Q: What do you get when you an apple crosses a Christmas tree?
A. A pineapple!
Naturally.
I made this for my daughter but I think this would make a super cute idea for any age. If I were a teacher I would totally be an apple!
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