These Halloween pom poms are such a cute way to transform simple yarn into a whole set of spooky little friends. Use googly eyes and add adorable details with pipe cleaners and felt to complete your pom pom Halloween characters. With just a few basic craft supplies, you can make a fluffy spider, friendly ghost, jack-o-lantern pumpkin, and fuzzy bat.
Teens and adults will have fun making this easy Halloween pom pom craft, but it’s easy enough for kids to make too. And they look adorable on display as finished Halloween decorations. Set them on a shelf, add them to a trick-or-treat table, or use them as festive little touches for a party or classroom. Once you learn how to make the pom poms, it’s fun to mix and match colours and details to make your own Halloween creations!
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How to Make Halloween Pom Poms
Materials:
- Acrylic yarn
- Pipe cleaners (to match yarn colour)
- Googly eyes (10mm or other size)
Equipment:
- Pom Pom maker (2-1/2 inches)
See the craft in action:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Make a pom pom
- Fill one side of a 2-1/2 inch pom pom maker with blue yarn.
- Close this side and cut the yarn from the ball.You can also secure the end of the yarn with the tips of your scissors or a latch hook tool.
- Repeat, filling the other side of the pom pom maker with the same colour of yarn.
- Slide your scissors into the gap between the 2 sides of the maker and cut through.
- Cut a 16 inch piece of yarn.
- Place the yarn into the gap between the sides of the maker (where you cut through) and tie it around. Pull it tight and make a double knot to secure it.
- Remove the pom pom from the maker.
- Give the pom pom a “haircut”, trimming down the excess yarn.
- Repeat until you have a nice round pom pom.
Step 3: Add the legs
- To make the spider’s legs you’ll need 2 pipe cleaners that match the yarn colour. Cut each of the pipe cleaners in half.
- Fold one of the pipe cleaner pieces in half. Separate the halves again and bend about 1/3 of the pipe cleaner down (from the folded end).This gives you 2 legs with a bend.
- Repeat with the other 3 pipe cleaner pieces and then figure out where they’ll fit on the pom pom.The fold of the legs is what’ll connect to the body.
- Use your fingers to make little “trenches” in the yarn where the legs will sit.
- Add a dot of glue into one trench.
- Place the leg into the glue, pressing it in and bringing the yarn back around it.
- Repeat with the other 3 legs.
Step 4: Give the spider eyes
- Gather googly eyes for your spider. Most spiders have 8 eyes, so you could use 8 small eyes, or whatever number you think looks good.
- Glue the eyes to the side of the spider.
- Your Halloween pom pom spider is complete!
- Then read below for details on how to make the rest of these Halloween pom pom characters!
Helpful Tips:
- No pom pom maker? No problem! You can also make a pom pom using your hand or a piece of cardboard. Check out our step-by-step pom pom guide for several easy methods.
- Use sharp scissors for trimming. Fabric scissors or detail scissors work best for cutting through the thick layers of yarn and shaping the pom poms into smooth, even shapes.
- Use hot glue for the decorations. Hot glue is the easiest way to securely attach googly eyes, felt wings, and pipe cleaners to the yarn. An adult should handle the glue gun for younger kids. You can also use tacky glue, but you’ll need to give it time to dry.
What Halloween pom pom characters can I make?
We made four different Halloween pom poms:
- Spider
- Ghost
- Pumpkin
- Bat
But there are lots of other Halloween characters you can make too! Try a pom pom monster, Frankenstein, witch, zombie, or black cat.
Simply make the base pom pom in a colour that suits your character — black for a cat, green for a witch or Frankenstein, and so on — and add a few recognizable details. Try felt ears for a cat, a pointed cardstock hat and scraggly yarn hair for a witch, or little felt bolts for Frankenstein.
How do I make the different Halloween pom poms?
Bat:
Use one of our bat outlines as a guide for cutting the felt wings. Make small trenches in the sides of the pom pom, just like you do for the spider legs, so the wings can sit securely in the yarn.
Pumpkin:
Trim the pom pom so it’s slightly wider through the middle and narrower at the top and bottom, giving it more of a pumpkin shape. Wrap a green pipe cleaner around a pencil to create the curly vine.
Ghost:
Trim the bottom of the white pom pom flat so the ghost can stand upright, giving it a classic ghost shape.
What craft supplies do I need to make Halloween pom poms?
You’ll need yarn, a pom pom maker (optional, but recommended), googly eyes, scissors, and glue for the basic pom poms.
The rest of the supplies will depend on which Halloween character you’re making. We used pipe cleaners and felt, but you can also decorate your pom poms with craft foam, mini pom poms, ribbon, fabric, or cardstock.
These Halloween pom poms are such a fun way to turn ordinary yarn into cute little spooky characters! The spider, ghost, pumpkin, and bat are easy to customize with different colours, googly eyes, felt, and pipe cleaners, so kids can have fun giving each one its own personality.
Make a whole collection to display for Halloween, use them for a classroom craft, or add them to your seasonal decor. They’re soft, silly, and surprisingly easy to make!
Here’s even more Halloween craft ideas:
Now available
Low-Mess Crafts for Kids Book
72 cute and fun crafts that kids and parents alike can enjoy. All with as little mess as possible!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon Canada
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