We’ve talked a lot about our kids favourite Halloween monsters lately but, if we’re being fully honest, they love most spooky characters that you’ll find around this time of year. That doesn’t mean, however, that they don’t have a forerunner in their love for all things scary and creepy! Lately, they’ve been totally obsessed with vampires. They want to dress up like vampires, watch movies about vampires, and now, because they’ve got such DIY enthusiastic parents, they’ve started asking to do all kinds of vampire themed crafts too! That’s why we’ve been keeping a list of as many vampire ideas as we can possibly get our hands on. We like giving them lots of fun things to choose from all month long.
Our kids have always loved making puppets, ever since they were very little. Usually they don’t even mind what kind of puppet they’re making as long as they get to create a fun character of their own and make it come to life using their own crafting skills. Since it’s October, however, they’ve been pretty fixated on making vampire things, so here’s a vampire puppet tutorial from Sight and Sound Reading to get you started! If your kids are very little or don’t feel like cutting our shapes and using cut and paste techniques, you can have them draw some of vampire’s features on instead.
Perhaps your kids are the kind of little crafters who prefer making as much of a mess as they possibly can every time they get the DIY supplies out? Then maybe it’s time to dig into the paints rather than just the scissors and glue! In fact, we think that sometimes it’s fun to skip the brushes and paint with our hands and fingers instead, and we’re sure your kids will agree with that just as excitedly as ours do. Check out how Mommy Minutes made vampires paintings by using a handprint as the face and painting the rest of the features around it.
3. Construction paper and painted canvas vampire bats
Maybe you’d rather combine DIY and crafting techniques in one place rather than choosing between them? In that case, here’s one that lets your kids do both painting and cutting and pasting all in one place! We love the idea of painting a spooky night sky scene across the front of a canvas (or even just a piece of paper) and then gluing a construction paper bat into the middle of it like it’s flying through the air. Learn more about how it’s done on Mini Monets and Mommies!
Toilet roll crafts are a classic idea no matter the time of year, the season, or the theme you’re working with, so it makes sense that Halloween and your kids’ favourite vampires are no exception! We love the way Blooming Brilliant combined techniques once more by painting the vampire’s face and features right onto the emptied roll itself but also finished it off by gluing a big Dracula style collar to the back so it sticks our dramatically when you look at the spooky guy from the front.
Are you planning on throwing your kids an awesome Halloween party this month so you’re looking for spooky version of classic party games that will help them have the best time ever? Well, one of our favourite party games has always been “pin the tail on the donkey”, but that just won’t do at a scary Halloween party, will it? That’s why we loved this DIY “pin the teeth on the vampire” game from Handmade Happy Hour so much! Their tutorial shows you how to make the layered vampire character pieces from felt, as well as how to mount the vampire in an old frame so it looks like a spooky old painting that you’d find in an old haunted mansion.
Do your kids love carving pumpkins so much that you’ve been looking for ways that you can carve even more of them together besides your actual Jack O Lanterns, without actually having to empty our entire full sized pumpkins more than once? In that case, we have a feeling you’re going to absolutely love these funny little mini vampire pumpkins from Martha Stewart! This tutorial guides you through the process of cutting out a mouth from each pumpkin that’s the perfect size for a pair of plastic costume fangs so that each pumpkin looks like it might suck your blood at any second.
Maybe the DIY projects your kids love doing the most with you are usually done in the kitchen because they just love making themed snacks and cool drinks together? In that case, we’ve found the perfect Halloween kitchen creation for you! It’s perfect because it’s grossly vampire themed in that particular way that kids always find inexplicably delicious and totally awesome. Amy Locurto shows you how to make a vampire soda float that uses strawberry syrup to make it look like a vampire’s favourite treat.
If you and your kids have never crafted with flower pots before, then you’re about to discover a whole cool new world of crafting! After all, who doesn’t love making things out of unconventional tools that you wouldn’t normally craft with? We love the way they piled pots on top of each other, opening to opening, and glued them together before painting them to look like a vampire’s suit and face. Crafty Morning shows you how to do all of that and attach a piece of fabric cut at the bottom to look like a cape.
Are you still thinking about how much fun it would be to make vampire themed DIY things with your kids in the kitchen but you’re not sure soda floats that look like they’re mixed with blood will be quite the hit for your little ones as they might be for other kids? In that case, maybe some vampire themed food would be a better idea! We think these donuts that are decorated with chocolate and strawberry sauce to look like vampires are completely hilarious on top of being delicious! She Knows shows you how to fit some plastic costume fans into the donut holes without ripping the donuts.
Lollipops are one of our favourite things to work with in crafting around Halloween time because they’re a uniquely awesome opportunity to combine candy and DIY in a way that your kids can still eat! Thanks to the wrapper, you can decorate them nearly however you want. We love the way Dandelions and Dust Bunnies used plastic gift wrap, construction paper, googly eyes, and a twist tie to transform Tootsie Pops into spooky miniature Count Dracula’s.
Are you intrigued by the idea of vampire lollipops but you have a feeling that your kids would rather make snacks that a vampire itself might eat rather than a snack that just looks like an actual vampire? Then here’s another one of those slightly gross food concepts that kids go crazy for, especially around Halloween! Sure, this might just look like a homemade strawberry popsicle to some people, but to your little vampire lovers these look just like what a real vampire would eat when they need a cool snack! Find out how they’re made on Vampire Craftin’.
Are you in love with the idea of making vampire themed foods but you’d actually rather keep the snacks as healthy as possible, since you know they’ll be eating so much candy later on in the month? Well, here’s an awesomely vampire themed way to include at least a little bit of fruit in the equation! Martha Stewart suggests sticking little white marshmallows to apples using peanut butter so that they look like teeth, and then sticking almonds right where a vampire’s fangs would sit. It’s delicious and at least partially more nutritious than blood-sucking donuts!
These spooky looking candy apples might not be specifically vampire themed themselves, but since they are made to look like they’re covered in blood, they’re another option for helping your kids make things that look like a snack that a vampire would eat! 1 Fine Cookie guides you through the entire process of creating your own homemade white chocolate covered candy apples. This time, however, there’s a twist! These apples are smothered in strawberry sauce or cherry syrup to make them look a little spookier than your average sweet apple treat on a stick.
Perhaps you’re an avid sewing enthusiast and your kids love watching you sew, helping you with little details and learning how to do small things along the way as you work together? Well, you can practice sewing together any time, but October can be especially awesome, even if your kids really just want to make things that have just about anything to do with vampires. We’re crazy about this awesome felt Halloween pillow outlined on RbitencourtUSA! We love that they added real buttons and a rhinestone to really make the vampire look his best.
Are your kids at the in-between age where they still want to craft with you but they’d like to make things that are a little “cooler” than cut and pasted paper bag puppets? In that case, maybe you’d rather help them put together their own vampire hunting kit! Polish the Stars suggests doing a little bit of research into old folklore about vampires and vampire hunters, perhaps watching some old spooky movies together, and then mimicking the things that the heroes in the movies always use to defeat the blood-sucking demons terrorizing their town. We love the idea of putting the “tools” in a worn looking wooden box so it all really looks authentic.
Do you have a few little vampires in your home who just can’t wait until Halloween? Try bookmarking this list so you have lots of awesome vampire themed crafts to check out and try with them all month long!
