Halloween Spiders Easy DIY Project

Create your own adorable spider family with this super-easy tutorial. They’re so cute you might want to keep them on display all year ’round. Then again, maybe not 🙂 It’s an easy enough project for the kids to do, though you might want to help them with the hot glue (if you’re using it).

We hope you enjoy making them. Please share your photos with us!

Instructions

Materials

Foam balls in various sizes
You’ll need a larger ball for the body, small one for the head. We used a really large one for the ‘Momma’ spider’s body. The babies’ bodies are the same size as Momma spider’s head.

Black pipe cleaners
We used the thick chenille ones but you can use any you desire. We’d like to make more with sparkly metallic legs and also some stripes.

Toothpicks
The pointy tipped ones, for attaching spider heads to bodies.

Black acrylic paint

PVA glue (optional)
We mixed my black paint with PVA glue to make sure it adhered to the foam balls. We’re not creating heirlooms, so just use black paint if you don’t have PVA glue.

Paintbrush and container for mixing paint

Faces for decorating
Download our sheets of eyes and mouths, print and cut out when ready to decorate.

Hot glue gun and glue stick
We attached my spiders’ legs with hot glue but you can use sticky tape or black-headed pins if you don’t have hot glue (or don’t want the kids to use it)

Foam block or cardboard box for drying paint (optional)
You’ll need somewhere safe to dry your painted foam balls. We were lucky enough to have a block of foam leftover from a recent appliance purchase.

Directions

1. Attach a toothpick to each foam ball you’ll be using, about halfway the length of the toothpick. This makes it easier to hold the balls while you’re painting. We’ll also be using the toothpicks to attach the head and body balls to each other.
2. Mix some black paint with PVA glue (ratio of 3 parts paint to 1 part glue) to ensure paint will adhere to balls. Or you can just use black paint on its own.
3. Paint each ball, starting from the base where the toothpick is secured. Work quickly and without too much pressure on the brush to avoid detaching the ball from the toothpick (Eek!). Once completely covered in paint, place each ball on your foam block or box to dry. If you don’t have a block or box, just rest the ball on a non-stick surface (like a plastic bag) and let it dry – you can paint over the smudge on the second coat.
4. Place the balls somewhere safe where they won’t get knocked over by pets or kids and let them dry. We left ours 24 hours between coats.
5. Paint the second coat. You won’t need to add PVA glue this time.
6. Let the balls dry for another 24 hours.
7. Now it’s time to turn the balls into creepy spiders! Choose your head and body and remove the toothpick from the body ball. Attach the body to the head by inserting the head’s toothpick into the body where the previous toothpick was inserted.
8. Cut pipe cleaners into approx 15cm (6″) lengths, or half the length of your pipe cleaners. Spiders have eight legs so you’ll need four lengths for each spider. Fold each one in half and attach two to the body on each side with hot glue, a black-headed pin or sticky tape. Let glue set completely (if using) before moving onto the next step.
9. Download and print our spider faces and then cut around the eyes and mouths you want to use. There are six different faces for the large and small sizes.
10. Glue the eyes and mouths in place with PVA glue and a brush or cotton bud. Let dry.
11. Bend the ends of the pipe cleaners so they look like little feet and give the spiders a knee-bend so they sit up.
12. Now say hello to your scary little spider family!!! You can go over their eyes and mouths with coloured pencils or markers to make their faces really bright.

Face decorations

Download and print our face decorations for your spiders. There are two sizes – large and small – and two paper sizes. Mix and match to make your own unique spiders! You might notice one of our spiders has an upside down mouth – he’s actually our favourite!

Large spider faces
Download A4 size
Download Letter size

Small spider faces
Download A4 size
Download Letter size