Halloween Kid Crafts: Cardboard Tube Monsters, Paper Cutouts & Decorated Cookies

Three Halloween craft stations for kids — tube monsters, paper cutouts, and decorated cookies — with full supply lists and step-by-step instructions.

Halloween is the one holiday where the process of decorating is as much the point as the decoration itself. These three craft stations — cardboard tube creatures, paper ghost and pumpkin cutouts, and royal-icing decorated cookies — each produce something kids are genuinely proud of, and each one can run simultaneously as an activity rotation so multiple kids can work at once.

All three use materials that are either already in your house or available at the dollar store. The cardboard tube and paper stations require zero cooking. The cookie station needs about 30 minutes of baking prep from an adult before the activity starts.

Station One: Cardboard Tube Monsters

Cardboard tubes — toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, wrapping paper cores — become Halloween monsters with googly eyes, paper fangs, painted details, and gauze wrapping. A set of six different creatures takes about an hour and transforms into porch or windowsill decor immediately after.

Supply list: Empty cardboard tubes (toilet paper rolls for small creatures, paper towel rolls for tall ones), acrylic or tempera paint in Halloween colors (green, orange, black, purple, yellow), googly eyes in assorted sizes, black cardstock for bat wings and fangs, cheesecloth or gauze for mummy wrapping, scissors, craft glue or glue gun (adult-operated), and wooden skewers or toothpicks as optional structural supports.

The Frankenstein tube: Paint a paper towel roll green. Cut a jagged "hairline" from black cardstock and glue across the top. Attach two large googly eyes near the top third. Cut small rectangular bolts from gray cardstock and glue at the sides of the tube. Draw a stitched mouth with a black marker. Add a torn red paper scar across the cheek.

Contractor Tips

• Prep all supplies before kids arrive — sorted, organized, and ready to use. Halloween craft chaos comes from running to find supplies mid-activity, not from the craft itself.
• Tempera paint for cardboard tube crafts cleans up with water. Acrylic paint is more permanent but produces better coverage. Use tempera for young kids; acrylic for older kids who can work more carefully.
• Royal icing for cookie decoration must be the right consistency — too thin and it runs off the edge; too thick and it won't spread. The right flood consistency falls off a spoon in a ribbon and disappears into the bowl within 10 seconds.