When I was little, my mom and I would cut out a bazillion little paper ghosts and then we would decorate each one to look like a person in our family. A plaid shirt with a pencil in the pocket for Papa, a hot pink fancy dance recital costume for Aunt Becky, a firefighter coat for Uncle Gary...you get the idea 😀
Looking back it seems kind of creepy 😜 but it was one of our favorite Halloween traditions and all of those cute smiley ghosts hanging everywhere reminding us of our faraway family members made us so happy!
I was thinking about this one the other day and trying to figure out a way to make it work for Kinley and I. She's still too little to find tracing, cutting out and decorating tons and tons of ghosts enjoyable, ya know? And then it came to me -- paper dolls!
I traced and cut them out and Kin and I used our Crayola color sticks (basically the insides of colored pencils, but thick and shaped like a crayons to decorate ours, but you could use anything you wanted! We actually had so much fun with the ghosts that I ended up making us mummy, black cat and Frankenstein paper dollies, too!
Wanna give these little critters a try? You'll need:
- free printable paper doll template (you might wanna print it on cardstock so it's easier to trace, especially if little ones will be doing the tracing)
- paper, 8.5 inches x 11 inches in any color
- pencil
- scissors
- decorating stuff (color sticks, markers, crayons, googly eyes, glue sticks, etc.)
Directions:
1. Fold your paper in half length-wise.
2. Cut on the fold to make two long and skinny papers.
3. Fold on long and skinny piece of paper width-wise, crease and open it back up.
4. Fold each end of your now creased long & skinny piece of paper to meet the crease in the middle. Crease and then open both flaps back up.
5. Fold your paper back up on the creases, but accordion style this time.
6. Lay the Halloween critter template of your choice on top of your folded paper, trace it and cut it out. Make sure each side of the template is at least meeting each edge your paper when you trace. I like to make sure one side is just right up to the not-on-the-fold edge to give the two critters on the ends of your doll chains full arms (or tails in the kitties' case 😉)
7. Open up your dollies and get to decorating!
If you give any of these cute little Halloween critter paper dolls a try, be sure to tag me @raising.kinley on social media. Kinley and I would totally love to see them!
Need some more Halloween art ideas? Try one of our favorites:
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