Easy Halloween Craft Ideas from Social Media

One of my favorite parts of fall is crafting! As a creative person, I do random DIY projects all year round but in September/October I love trying out simple Halloween crafts to create my own decor or costumes. Previously, most of my craft ideas came from Pinterest or my own imagination, but now I get a lot of inspiration for DIY crafts from social media! Tiktok is full of Halloween enthusiasts like me, who post step-by-step ideas of their crafts. I really love watching these videos so I chose a few of these to try out this year. 

In this post, I will give you a step-by-step and also some tips to make your crafts a success! Make sure you read through the tips before trying these out on your own! There is only so much that can (or will) be included in social media posts, so improvisation might be required. Lucky for you, I have done the leg work so I can tell you about all of the problems I encountered while trying these crafts 

Most of the supplies I used for these crafts can be found at Dollar Tree! 

DIY Bleeding Skull Candle

This DIY skull is one of the coolest Halloween crafts I’ve seen on Tiktok. I would have never thought to make this on my own. If you aren’t crafty, or if your project doesn’t work out, you can purchase these from other stores. But the fun of crafting is doing it yourself! Everything you need for this project is from Dollar Tree!  

Supplies Needed 

• Hollow, plastic skull (in stores only but here it is) 
• 3-4 White candles (8” in glass jars)
• 1 Red candle (8” in glass jar)

Here are the basic steps you’ll need to follow: 

1. Remove plastic covers and place all candles in a large pot of boiling water. Leave in the pot until completely liquified. 
2. While the candles are boiling, use a box cutter or sharp knife to cut a small hole at the top of the skull. 
3. There is usually a small hole at the chin of this skull. Cover it with lots of tape before the next step!
4. When the candles have liquified, remove one candle wick and place it inside of the plastic skull. You can use glue to secure it, I used a small amount of E6000 craft glue. Secure the wick with tape so that it doesn’t move or fall into the wax later.
5. Pour in white wax into the skull until it is mostly full. Leave the skull to cool or place inside of the fridge until the wax has solidified. 
6. Now top off the candle with wax from the red candle and allow to sit for a few hours or overnight. 
7. Using a box cutter or sharp knife, carefully cut the plastic mold off to reveal your skull candle! 

Tips for Next Time

This process was really fun and simple, but I did learn a few things that I would change for next year. 

Step 2: I would make the hole closer to the front of the skull so that when the candle burns, the red wax drips her first. I would also consider using two wicks instead of one so that the candle burns evenly. With one wick, only a small portion of the candle actually burns. It looks nice, but it doesn’t burn evenly and it is harder for the wax to drip over the whole skull. 

Step 3: before pouring the wax into the mold, you can add essential oil to add a scent. They sell candle scents at Dollar tree but you can get essential oils at any major retailer. 

Take this craft to the next level by adding a plate underneath to catch the wax. I bought a glass saucer from the candle section of Dollar Tree and spray-painted it white. I added some ‘blood splatter’ by flinging a bit of red acrylic paint. This extra step was also an idea from TikTok! I was really pleased with how this turned out. The total for this project will be $6-$8 depending on what extras you add.

DIY Spooky Candles 

I’ve seen this Halloween craft so much that I couldn’t resist trying. I love the final look and how this looks like something I could buy in a store. Placing these around your home will really punch up the spooky witchy vibes in your house. 

Supplies Needed 

• 3-4 Pool noodles
• Faux tea light candles ( 8-12, depending on how many candles you want)
• Hot glue gun and extra glue sticks 
• Spray paint 

Here are the basic steps you’ll follow:

1. Using a pen or marker, draw lines on the pool noodle where you want to cut. You can use a ruler to measure out your section if you have a specific candle height in mind. 
2. With a box cutter or knife, cut up the pool noodle into 3-4 sections. This looks best when each candle height is different, it will add to the ‘melted effect’ the hot glue gives. 
3. Because the center holes in the pool noodles are too small, you will need to make them larger. Use one of the tea light candles as a guide to trace a circle at the top of each noodle. Then, with a box cutter, cut out the hole. You can push down or pull out the access noodle material. Check that the candle fits snugly. 
4.  Next, use painters tape to cover the flames of the candles to prepare for painting. 
5. Before you paint, use your hot glue gun to glue the noodle pillars together. Remember to stagger the heights for the best results.
6. To make the candles look like they are melting, use your hot glue gun to add streams of glue down the sides and around the rim of each candle.
7. In a ventilated area, spray both the candles and noodle clusters. This will take 2-3 coats depending on the noodle color. Allow to dry overnight 
8. Remove the tape from the candle wicks, turn on and place inside of their holes to complete the look.

Tips for next time: 

Step 5: I would recommend buying the darkest color pool noodles you can find. Sometimes Dollar Tree usually has purple, orange, and black around Halloween. Purple and black will require the least amount of coats of paint. I used an entire can of spray paint to cover all of the noodles. Also, be sure to add the ‘candle wax’ glue before painting. I did not do this and it resulted in me having to add extra paint.

Step 8: Don’t put the candles inside of the pool noodles before both are dry, this will cause them to stick together and the paint to rub off. You also don’t want to clue the tealights into the pool noodles. This will prevent you from turning them on and off, which preserves the battery life. Dollar Tree does have replacement batteries, but if you’re smart, one battery could last you all season or at least all Halloween night! 

Because this craft requires a few things you can’t find at dollar tree, it was a bit more expensive to create but still worth it. I spent about $8 at dollar tree on supplies and an additional $6 on spray paint. If you don’t have a glue gun or glue sticks this will bring your total up slightly higher. In total, expect to spend between $14-$20 on this Halloween craft.

DIY Haunted DollHouse 

This is the most simple of projects I tried but I really like the results. These make great shelf Halloween decor pieces. This is also a craft your kids can join you in! 

Supplies Needed 

• Dollar Tree Dollhouse 
• Spray paint or acrylic paint 
• Other craft props 

Here are the basic steps you’ll follow:

1. Search online or in scary movies for haunted house inspiration. A lot of these have boarded up windows, are darkly colored and have a lot of wear and tear 
2. These houses come apart for easy painting, so use this to make things easier, especially when spray painting 
3. Using paint, add things like bloody hand prints and signs of wear and tear on the house. 
4. Paint the dolls and furniture that come in the house and add those with hot glue. 
5. To make it more spooky, add a faux candle inside to cast shadows in the windows 

Tips for next time: 

Step 2: Try lightly sanding the houses to help the paint stick better. This step was not in any of the TikTok videos so I thought I could skip it. I was wrong! The acrylic paint stayed pretty well but the spray paint started to peel. I covered it with more acrylic paint so hopefully, these still look great next year! I will be handling these with care, but I expect they will need touch-ups after coming out of storage.

Step 3: I used my easy cutter to chop up a few popsicles to create boards on the windows. I painted them with brown and black paint, then secured them to the house with my hot glue gun. 

Step 6: If you have moss or greenery from other projects (they also sell this at dollar tree), gluing this to the base of the house will make the house look very neglected and overgrown.  

This ended up being the least time-consuming and least expensive TikTok DIY I tried. I only spent $2 on supplies and gathered the rest of the material from things I already had at home.

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