Tis’ the season for vampires, witches, Frankenstein, and jack-o’-lanterns. This time of year, my children love to make spooky crafts, and this paper plate activity will keep you busy for a long time.

It has a lot of different opportunities to customize and be creative. This can be a simple 10-minute project (pre-painted orange plate and adding pumpkin faces) or an elaborate multi-day project.

If you are crafting at home, I recommend turning on your favorite spooky movie to craft to.

One of the best things about making paper plate crafts is that you usually have all the supplies you need right at home! They’re convenient, affordable, simple to make, but still a lot of fun.

Not only will this help your child to get creative, it will work on their fine motor and developmental skills as well. This can be done with a younger child or is perfect for a preschooler.

Looking for more Halloween projects? Try these!

paper plates painted to look like monsters.

Why We Love Paper Plate Crafts:

Easy to find supplies are everything! When we started to plan what we wanted to share on this site, we made a commitment to hone in on *easy*. Easy to find, easy to make, easy on parents and easy for kids. Our biggest goal is to share projects that you will do.

The best kind of kids projects are things you already have in your home, or can easily grab on your next grocery store trip. I always keep small and large paper plates stocked in my art room and now I hope you will too.

paper plate painted purple and black next to glue stick, marker and scissors.

Supplies:

Acrylic paint (in green, purple, orange, black, and white)
Paintbrushes
Paper plates
Construction paper (in white, black, and brown)
Black yarn (optional, for hair)
Scissors
Glue stick
Black marker

paper plates painted to look like dracula.

Dracula Paper Plate Instructions:

Start by painting your paper plate black and purple. Give your vampire a nice spiky hairline with the black paint—it’s his signature look. I like to use the underside of a paper plate when making characters.
Pre-cut the eyes, eyebrows, mouth and fangs of your character. Secure pieces with glue and allow to dry.
Add pupils to the eyes and a nose with a black marker.
The blood on the fangs is optional. I forgot to add mine, but it’s a nice spooky touch!

scissors, gluestick, marker and paper plate painted green to look like frankenstein.

paper plates painted to look like frankenstein next to paper bats.

How to Make Frankenstein:

Start by painting your paper plate light green and black. Give him a jagged hairline. Allow dry time.
Cut the eyes, tooth and mouth pieces from black and white paper. Use glue to secure.
Use a black marker to add pupils to the eyes and a scar with stitches to his forehead.

paper plates painted green and decorated to look like witches.

Witch Paper Plate Instructions:

Prep by painting a plate light green.
Cut white, black and green paper to create shapes for eyes, noses and mouths. Cut hats from black paper.
Secure black yarn with glue to create hair. If you don’t want to mess with yarn, replace with paper hair. As you can see on the small witch above, it’s super cute as well.

Paper plates painted orange with faces added to make jack-o-lanterns.

Jack-o’-Lantern Paper Plate Instructions:

Start by painting your paper plate orange (bonus points for including multiple shades of orange for different pumpkins).
Cut brown paper to make a stem. Cut black paper to create jack-o’-lantern faces.
Secure with glue.

paper plates painted and decorated to look like monsters.

Looking for more Halloween crafts? Follow along on Pinterest!

paper plates painted green, orange and purple for Halloween.

Monster Paper Plate Craft

Make these fun and spooky or silly monsters with paper plates for your Halloween-themed craft!

Prep Time10 mins

Active Time20 mins

Drying Time (for Paint)40 mins

Keyword: halloween crafts, paper plate crafts

Yield: paper plate

Equipment

1 pair of scissors
paintbrush for each color of paint

Materials

3-4 paper plates or as many monsters as you want to make!
acrylic paint in green, purple, orange, black and white.
construction paper in white, black and brown.
black yarn optional for witches' hair.
1 glue stick or school glue.

Instructions

Dracula Paper Plate

Start by painting your paper plate black and purple, using the underside of the paper plate. Give your vampire a nice spiky hairline—it's his signature look.
Pre-cut the eyes, eyebrows, mouth and fangs of your character.
Secure pieces with glue and allow to dry.
Add pupils to the eyes and a nose with black marker.

Frankenstein Paper Plate

Start by painting your paper plate light green and black.
Give him a jagged hairline. Allow dry time.
Cut the eyes, tooth and mouth pieces from black and white paper. Use glue to secure the pieces to the plate.
Make sure the paint has dried, then use black marker to add pupils to the eyes and a scar with stitches to his forehead.

Witch Paper Plate

Prep by painting a plate light green.
Cut white, black and green paper to create shapes for eyes, noses and mouths. Cut hats from black paper.
Secure black yarn with glue to create hair. If you don't want to mess with yarn, replace with paper hair.

Jack-o'-Lantern Paper Plate

Start by painting your paper plate orange (bonus points for including multiple shades of orange for different pumpkins).
Cut brown paper to make a stem.
Cut black paper to create jack-o'-lantern faces. Secure with glue.