If you’re looking for some craft ideas to create a spooky atmosphere for your front door this Halloween, or you want to get creative and make a DIY table centre piece for your Halloween feast, then look no further – we’ve got some great craft project ideas to suit all ages.

Decorating your front door, porch or window display for each season or occasion is becoming more popular each year, whether it’s an Autumn wreath, Christmas lights, spring flower wreath or pumpkins. Carved pumpkins are a great choice for Halloween night, especially if you’re hoping to encourage trick-or-treaters, but for the rest of the spooky season you need decorations that are durable.

Alternative Pumpkins

A great alternative to a real pumpkin, is a wicker one. We picked ours up from Hobbycraft and glued on some vintage Preciosa and Swarovski rhinestones using a hot melt glue gun. These chunky crystals in Autumnal colours work really well, and we’ve even threaded some bicone beads onto jewellery wire to create pretty sparkly leaves. With a finishing touch of battery powered fairy lights in the centre, our pumpkin really shines.

Another popular way to decorate a faux pumpkin using rhinestones, is to glue on some flatback gems with Gem Tac glue to form a pattern. Our range of pumpkin bling kits are great for a fun and creative project to do for yourself or with kids. You can choose your colour – there are 10 fabulous options! Then get creative and try out different patterns and effects. Read our full How To Guide for tips and techniques on how to bling a plush pumpkin.

They look glorious when out on display.

Potion Bottles

We picked up some plain glass bottles in different colours from Hobbycraft, and thought they needed a Crystal Parade makeover! So using Zodiac flatback rhinestones and some Gem Tac glue, we added a touch of Halloween sparkle. For the skull and pumpkin design we found an image online to copy from – the Violet Blue rhinestones were perfect for the purple skull, and Orange AB gave a spectacular shimmer to the pumpkin.

To create a spiders web and dripping blood design, we did this by eye rather than using a template. Clear rhinestones are a great choice for a silky spiders web and Light Siam is the perfect blood red colour.

Spider Decoration

We bought this black velvet spider from Hobbycraft and blinged it up by gluing on some Zodiac Jet rhinestones for the body, and Hematite for the legs. Again gem tac glue was great for this project, the glue dries completely clear so you don’t need to worry about any seepage.

We found the sparkly spider can be used for a number of things: add a brooch pin to the back to make a Halloween themed brooch or piece of jewellery. Or add some thread and turn it into a handbag charm.

Other ways to show off your crystallised spider could be to attach it to a pair of black boots, hat or wig if you’re going to a fancy dress party. Or you could create lots of spiders and hang them up as decorations. The possibilities are endless!

Wooden Hanging Decorations

If you’re hosting a Halloween party, or you want to dress up your front door ready for trick-or-treaters, why not make some rhinestone hanging decorations? Our rhinestone decoration kits come with 3 wooden shapes plus all the rhinestones you need to embellish them, and would make a great craft project to do with children over the half term week. Choose from skulls, cats, bats, ghosts, haunted houses, pumpkins and more!

Halloween Showstopper

Take a look at this showstopping embellished skull, what a fantastic entrance piece to display in your front garden this Halloween. We’ve used the Caramel Latte bumper mixed pack of crystals to decorate this fabulous piece. When gluing 3D crystals, we recommend using a hot melt glue gun as this will give you more security and a long lasting hold.

We hope you have fun getting creative this October, as always, we’d love to see your sparkly projects. For more inspiration and craft ideas using rhinestones, check out our blog, where you will also find handy tips for crystallising.

Craft & diy