If you’re like me and love the idea of crafting, but need it to be super simple and as un-messy as possible, here is my absolute favorite Halloween craft for kids!
Super Simple Halloween Watercolor Painting
My kids love to craft, and there’s just something special about Halloween that makes crafting feel extra fun! From painted pumpkins to creepy skeletons, there are so many ways to decorate and craft for Halloween (my kids are ALL about the creepy crafts!).
The thing is…crafting can be messy, time-consuming and frustrating as a parent. I mean, I love to see my kids create, and I love the joy it brings them, but sometimes I’m just not in the mood to bust out paint and glitter and set myself up for an extensive clean-up. I much prefer something that doesn’t have supplies that roll all over the place or leave lasting stains…and ideally something that doesn’t require a whole lotta hand-holding.
If you’re like me and love the idea of crafting, but need it to be super simple and as un-messy as possible, here is my absolute favorite Halloween craft for kids!
Watercolor Pumpkins with Salt Resist
- Watercolor paper
- Watercolors
- Painter’s Tape
- Oil Pastels
- Use painter’s tape to secure your watercolor paper to the table. I love the look of white edges, so I line the tape along each edge to create a “frame”.
- Sketch a pumpkin with pencil (kids may need your help with this step!).
- Trace the pumpkin with oil pastels (any color works!)
- Use watercolors to paint the pumpkin and background. The oil pastels will keep your design nicely outlined!
- Once you finish painting, sprinkle a small bit of salt on the design to create a cool design effect! (Pro tip: let an adult do the sprinkling)
- When the design is dry, gently shake excess salt into the trash
- Ta-Da! Super cute Pumpkin Painting!
My kids love this project so much we have adapted it for all the seasons – trees for Christmas, eggs for Easter and leaves for Fall! So much fun! I hope you enjoy this project as much as we do at our house!
Vincent van Gogh, Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette
Judging from his personal story you wouldn’t tell that Van Gogh had a sense of humor. But it seems that he did, this skeleton with a lit cigarette in its mouth is a juvenile joke. Van Gogh painted it in early 1886 while studying at the art academy in Antwerp. Drawing skeletons was a standard exercise at the academy–and something serious to the bone.
Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare
This painting’s dreamlike and haunting erotic evocation of infatuation and obsession was a hugely popular success. After its first exhibition at the 1782 Royal Academy of London, critics and patrons reacted with horrified fascination. The work became widely popular, to the extent that it was parodied in political satire and an engraved version was widely distributed. In response, Fuseli produced at least three other versions. As you can see it’s very Romantic–in terms of the subject, so typical for Romanticism.
If you want to learn more, check this out.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights
This masterpiece has so many scary details, that you must read the entire story on it. No one really knows why Bosch imagined the world in this particular way. It seems that he was sane. In the part with Hell, against a backdrop of blackness, prison-like city walls are etched in inky silhouettes against areas of flame. Meanwhile, everywhere human bodies huddle in groups, amass in armies or are subject to strange tortures at the hands of oddly-clad executioners and animal demons. A real nightmare. Don’t look at this masterpiece closely just before you go to sleep.
