Thanks to cardboard, these Halloween crafts are eco-friendly!
Cardboard is SUCH an eco-friendly sewing supply! Even when it’s sourced new it’s a natural material (yay, trees!), but when you source your cardboard from the recycling bin, you’re doing a double solid for the environment by detouring it from the waste stream instead of starting some brand-new material along that inevitable path towards garbage.
I especially like using recycled materials like cardboard (and newspaper, junk mail, bottles, and cans) for holiday decorations, because after the celebration is over, if I don’t want to store something for 11 months, I can just pop it right back into the recycling bin that it came from.
Below, check out some of my favorite Halloween crafts that you can make from cardboard. All of these projects work great with corrugated cardboard, but for some, you can use substitute the thin food packaging type of cardboard. Pick a favorite, have a little dig through the recycling bin, and start making some holiday magic!
3D Cardboard Pumpkins
Once you understand the technique for making these cardboard pumpkins 3D and stand-up, you’ll be able apply it to all kinds of other holiday decorations, like Christmas trees and Easter eggs. For a more durable project (but a more labor-intense process), use plywood or other thin scrap wood instead of cardboard. For tiny versions, you can get away with using thin cereal box-type cardboard.
Cardboard Costumes
Here’s your reminder that although it might seem non-intuitive since, you know, it’s not fabric, cardboard is an EXCELLENT material to use for Halloween costumes! Its structure lets you do things with it that would be a lot harder to do with fabric, like creating wings and crowns, scales and ears, and painting lets you add detail that would take a lot of painstaking cutting and sewing to create with fabric. If you’re making a kid costume from cardboard, I like to let the kid do as much as possible–sure, that paint job might not look as polished, but the kid will be SOOO proud of their work!
Check out Minecraft creepers, owls, witches with cauldrons, dolls in boxes, and sea monsters, all from cardboard boxes!
Corrugated Cardboard Decor
The cleverest part of these decorations is that the top layer of cardboard is peeled back, so that the corrugation can give lots of texture! This is especially noticeable when you paint to emphasize shading.
Door Decor
Cardboard is the perfect material to use for door decor, since it’s light and won’t break your heart to toss out if it gets damaged. I really love this cardboard Keep Out decoration, since you don’t even have to paint the faux boards–cardboard is naturally wood colored!
Ghost Family Portrait
The photos on your wall aren’t spooky enough! This craft is a fun way to substitute only the spookiest of family portraits for those boring, non-terrifying vacation pics and school photos. With a little double-sided tape, you could even pop these portraits right over your boring wall frames.
Ghostly Toss Game
If you’re throwing a Halloween party this year, then you’ve got to have a game! If nothing else, it gives everyone a chance to run off a little of that sugar. This smaller toss game would work well with Halloween candy, but to make a larger toss game that would be perfect for bean bags, just find yourself a big corrugated cardboard box.
Haunted House Luminaries
These luminaries are easiest to make from corrugated cardboard packing/shipping boxes, which hold their shape well and take paint like a dream. Just remember that unlike traditional luminaries, these luminaries can only be used with electric candles!
Haunted Playhouse
Blessed with a giant appliance box? Turn it into the haunted playhouse of an imaginative little kid’s dreams! My kids always liked to paint their own giant box playhouses, but this would also be such a cool surprise to present ready-made to a kid… and bonus, playing in it will keep them VERY busy!
Spooky Decorative Weaving
This is a fun, kid-friendly craft that also makes a creative Halloween display! I think it would be fun to use a cardboard Jack-o-lantern as a base for this loom, as well–the weaving could make the Jack-o-lantern’s face and how cool would that be?!?
Tombstones
Putty and paint are the secret ingredients to adding a realistic texture and detailed embellishments to these cardboard tombstones. When weighted, they work well as outdoor decorations in nice weather.
P.S. Prefer Halloween crafts that you can sew? I’ve got plenty of those for you, too!
