Craft some last-minute Halloween spirit

Dress in slimming black and pin on a shimmering skull. Wear rich red and add a sparkling bat necklace, ring and hair clip. Pin a glittery ghost to your coat or, perhaps a jack-o-lantern brooch. In an evening you can make all kinds of spooky sparkling Halloween accessories.

This is a fun activity to do with children as well, whether you're hosting a party for young ghouls, planning a craft for your Scouts or Guides, or working in with kids in the classroom. Like most arts and crafts activities, this one promotes creativity, encourages fine motor skills and reduces stress.

What you need

Glittery Halloween accessories

Collecting your materials: You can find everything you need for these projects at the craft store and in your home. For the bats, pick up a sheet of black craft foam. The ghost and skull pins are made from white craft foam and the pumpkin uses orange craft foam. Glitter colours needed for the bat are black and green, while the ghost and skull use crystal and black glitter. The pumpkin is shined up with orange, black and green glitter. I used fine glitter on each. You'll need a pair of scissors (I like nail scissors for the detailed cuts), plus regular craft glue, a fine-tipped permanent black marker and a fine paintbrush. The jewellery findings you need depend on what you plan to make. For a hair clip, you'll want a barrette. To make a necklace, you'll need a jump ring and a length of black cord. For pins, you'll need bar pins and ring blanks for rings.

Step One: If you're not a natural artist, search the Internet for Halloween clipart for ideas to draw onto the foam. You can print these and trace directly onto the foam using transfer paper (black for light coloured foam and white for dark coloured foam) or draw freehand. Trace or draw at an appropriate size for what you're making. For example, you don't want massive ghost earrings or a tiny skull pin. Use your computer software to scale the clip art to size. Cut out the shapes.
 
Step Two: Spread a plastic tablecloth over your work surface and prepare to get glittery. Use a black fine-tipped permanent marker to draw details onto the foam shapes. For example, add the ghost's eyes and mouth and the pumpkin's face.

Step Three: It's time to glue and glitter. Basically you are going to 'paint' the details onto the foam shape using glue and then sprinkle on glitter. When you work with glitter, I strongly recommend that you start with the black (or dark) glitter first. For example, paint craft glue over the ghost's eyes and mouth. Set the ghost onto a foam tray and sprinkle black glitter onto the eyes and mouth. Shake off excess and allow this to dry before you paint glue on the rest of the ghost and sprinkle it with crystal glitter. The same goes for the skull and the pumpkin. For the bats, however, I painted on the eyes first and sprinkled them with green glitter before covering the rest of the bat with black glitter. With glitter, work in stages: spread glue; shake on glitter; shake off excess glitter; allow it to dry; repeat these steps with the next colour of glitter until finished.

Step Four: When the glue is dry, shake off excess glitter and then add the jewellery findings. Glue bar pins or barrettes to the back for brooches and hair clips. Make a hole through the foam with a needle and then add a jump ring and cord for a necklace. Glue a ring blank to the back for a funky Halloween ring ? If you're in a hurry, use hot-melt glue to attach the findings. As always, an adult should use the hot-glue gun. Tacky glue is another option for attaching the findings, but be sure to allow for plenty of drying time (overnight).