If you are looking for some inexpensive, easy crafts for your kids this Halloween, head out to your backyard to start the fun. Have the kids hunt around for different shaped rocks. Long, slender rocks for ghosts, oval shapes for spiders, and just about any stout rock will make a great pumpkin!

Pumpkin

stout, roundish rock
orange tempura paint
black marker
small amount of raffia
3-4 silk leaves
tacky or hot glue
3/4" piece of green chenille stick
bits of Kleenex tissue

You’ve found one! To enter the Awesome Autumn Scavenger Hunt, click here! The texture of the rock for the pumpkin can be smooth, bumpy, or even jagged, as was in our case. Before you begin, stand the rock up in the position you would like it to be when your craft is complete. Ours was a little tricky, we just leveled him off using the raffia and tissue.

Paint the rock orange and let it dry. Using a black marker, draw on pumpkin’s face. Glue silk leaves to the bottom of your pumpkin. Using bits of Kleenex for leveling and bunches of raffia, glue rock onto "straw bed". Top off your pumpkin rock with green chenille for the stem by folding in half and gluing on top of pumpkin’s head.

Ghost

long, slender rock
white tempura paint
black marker
handful of cotton batting
tacky or hot glue
white glitter glue

Paint rock white and let dry. Draw face onto ghost with black marker. Glue cotton batting to the bottom of the rock to give the appearance of a ghostly trail following him. Smear white glitter glue down the sides of the ghost.

Spider

oval rock
black tempura paint
pair of wiggle eyes
6-8 12"-long black chenille sticks
red glitter glue
small piece of paper plate or white paper
scissors
tacky or hot glue

Paint rock black and let dry. Wrap chenille sticks around body to secure legs in place. Bend sticks to form legs. Glue chenille sticks in place on the bottom of the rock. Glue on two wiggle eyes. Cut little fangs from paper plate or paper and, using red glitter glue, glue onto rock-face, underneath wiggle eyes. use red glitter glue to create a few drops of blood on fangs and paint around mouth to finish up.

Editor’s Note: Be sure to keep these cute crafts out of the reach of small children under the age of 3 years. Wiggle eyes can be easily removed and swallowed, or worse yet, choked upon.

Amanda Formaro is the entrepreneurial mother of four children. She is also the owner of FamilyCorner.com Magazine where you will find recipes, crafts, family activities, parenting advice, home & garden, and plenty more. Be sure to visit the bustling message board community to make some new friends