15 Halloween Decorating and Craft Templates

Paper Chain Garlands and Streamers

Jaunty jack-o'-lanterns and foreboding bats are Halloween versions of the classic paper-doll chain. Print our template onto card stock, fold paper to its width, trace, and cut out. Use scissors for the outline and a craft knife or hole punch for facial features and smaller details. Intersperse them with fringed garlands to add color.

• Get the Halloween Paper Chain Templates
• Get the Fringe Crepe Paper Streamers Templates

Colorful Leaf Decoupage Pumpkin

On a pumpkin, you can achieve one of two different looks: coated in colorful leaves, or paired with a pretty printable design. Print out one of the seasonal clip-art designs, snip them out, and glue them down, silhouette-style with decoupage medium, to set a not-so-spooky mood—just right for any gathering this fall.

• Get the Leaves Clip-Art
• Get the Black Cat, Mice, Flowers and Burst Clip-Art

Owl and Spider Paper Mobiles

Maybe you can't have a real owl or black widow drop in to sit for a spell, but you can craft dangling mobile versions. To make your own, follow our templates to cut the paper, then assemble them with string so the wings, eyes, legs, and abdomen flutter and spin as they dangle from the ceiling.

• Get the Owl and Spider Mobile Templates

Raven Treat Bags

Trick-or-treaters will be happy to receive their own candy bag in autumnal colors. Print our clip-art directly onto these glassine-lined paper bakery bags (preferably using a laser printer). Use a craft punch to make leaves and adhere with a glue stick.

• Get the Birds Template

Mice Party Pails

Pails in a pretty hue—and customized with clip-art designs—make a great tabletop idea for serving treats or sweets like candy. To make them, print clip-art on uncoated paper. Cut around perimeter; the "cutouts" within the designs are white or colored, so use the one that will blend with the background you'll be putting it on. (Glue the black-and-pink mouse to a pink bucket, for example.)

Tombstone Decorations

Set out a few tombstones in your yard and let them work the graveyard shift on Halloween. These are made by trimming gray paper bags. Paper luminarias are often weighted with sand; these are reinforced with cardboard and staked in place. The light seems to rise up from the ground. They bear an eerie resemblance to real gravestones when lit with LED tea lights.

• Get the Tombstone Template
• Get the Epitaph Template

Haunted Mirror with Ghost Hands

Any house guest who steps into the foyer will marvel at this wall-mounted haunted mirror you've made with your own two hands. To conjure a pair of these ghostly appendages, download our template—in one of two sizes: small (16" x 22") or large (24" x 36")—and print it to fit the size of your mirror.

• Get the Ghost Hands Template (Large)
• Get the Ghost Hands Template (Small)

Hanging Snake and Frog Vellum Lanterns

As any witch will tell you, A set of these giant gothic lanterns are assembled using nothing more than our instructions, clip-art designs, and simple supplies. To make them, trace your choice of template four times, side by side, on black paper (use two sheets if needed); with a bone folder, crease where sides meet. Cut out. Print four copies of a design onto vellum. Cut each piece just larger than frame "windows." Tape vellum into the frame. Form into a lamp shape, and tape edges. Next, cut a 26-inch length of wire. In the middle, twist a loop. Poke the wire ends through paper to make two holes at edge of lantern. Use pliers to roll ends of wire to secure. Use monofilament to hang two battery-operated votive candles, taped end to end, inside the lantern. Use twine and removable adhesive hangers to suspend them up high. This project is almost as easy as saying "abracadabra."

• Get the Snake 1 Clip-Art
• Get the Snake 2 Clip-Art
• Get the Frog Clip-Art

Vulture Decorations

Vultures in flight call to mind the imagery of both classic tattoos and macabre Halloween. Here, they're used as playful decorations, alighting (via monofilament) on a display of treat bags—an apt setup for a Halloween party or around the candy bowl on Halloween night.

• Get the Vultures Clip-Art

Halloween Candy Jars

Tempt your Halloween party guests with an array of candies, only made all the more enticing when displayed in glass containers. Give sunny sweets—swirly sticks, giant gum balls, squishy jelly pumpkins—cheerful, vintage-inspired clip-art labels. Choose licorice, candy sticks, and the like in black to match a party's dark theme, announced with dark, sinisterly named clip-art labels. Or fill large glass jars with sweets—berry candies, dark-chocolate-covered cherries, rock-candy crystals, and meringues—all masquerading as botanical or nautical artifacts.

• Get the "Fine Specimens" Jar Labels Clip-Art

Skull Mirror

For this decorative display, the foliated skull and looping border were printed at home on transfer paper and applied to a store-bought mirror. Since it peels off easily, the design can be a temporary adornment. For the skull, cut as close to the images as possible. For the medallion border, cut just inside the thin gray lines. And an added tip: Before peeling away backing, determine and align the correct position of the border (the design overlaps slightly); with the wax pencil, make small guide marks on the mirror.

• Get the Skull Mirror Clip-Art
• Get the Mirror Frame Clip-Art

Vellum Halloween Table Lanterns

When the sun goes down, set a spooky scene with these dramatic lanterns made from simple supplies and our clip-art designs. Trace your chosen template four times, side by side, on black paper (use two sheets if needed); with a bone folder, crease where sides meet. Cut out. Print four copies of a design onto vellum (a laser printer works best). Cut each piece just larger than frame "windows." Tape vellum into frame. Trim the bottoms straight; tape edges.

• Get the Cat 1 Template
• Get the Cat 2 Template
• Get the Moon Template

Flock of Crows

An aptly called murder of crows takes to the sky, overarching your doorway. Print crow templates, tile as needed, and cut out. Tracing the templates onto tar paper (which makes them weatherproof for the outdoors) with a pencil or china marker, then cut out with heavy-duty scissors. They can be secured to pumpkins, corn husks, or encircling your housefront with 20-gauge lengths of bent wire.

• Get the Crows Template

Owl Decoupage Hanging Lanterns

Owls appear to be perched on these swinging lanterns. To make them, start by printing our clip-art onto uncoated paper. Cut around the perimeter; the "cutouts" within the designs are white or colored, so use the one that will blend with the background you'll be putting it on. Print starburst templates for colored accents.

• Get the Owl Clip-Art

Ghost Window Shades

These easy, inexpensive window treatments are a spooky addition to windows for Halloween. Print and cut out the ghost templates; trace them onto thin white paper, such as white kraft paper, and cut them out. Stretch the shade flat; tape it to a work surface. Spray the back of a ghost with adhesive, then press it onto the shade. To get a scalloped lower edge, as shown, pinch a stack of pleats up from the bottom (we did eight), and diagonally snip off the ends (see diagram one in the template). Fold the bottom edge in half to fan the pleats, and secure with double-stick tape (see diagram one in the template).

• Get the Ghost Template