Every October my kitchen table disappears under a drift of empty toilet paper rolls, because I refuse to throw them away once Halloween gets close. I started saving them years ago when my daughter came home from kindergarten with a lopsided paper bat she was enormously proud of. A roll costs nothing, takes paint beautifully, and turns into something charming in about twenty minutes. These are the ten Halloween roll crafts I have actually made at home in Munich, with the mistakes included, so you can skip straight to the ones that work.
1. The Spooky Flying Bat with Folded Ears
I always start with the bat because it is the fastest win and the one that taught me the folding trick that makes the whole craft work. You press the top of the roll flat and fold the two corners inward, and suddenly you have pointed ears without cutting anything, which means even a four-year-old can do it without me hovering with scissors. I paint the body jet black with acrylic paint, two thin coats with about fifteen minutes of drying time between them, because one thick coat stays tacky and peels off on little fingers. The wings are accordion-folded black paper glued to the sides, and I learned to attach them after the paint dries or the glue slides around and the wings end up crooked. A pair of googly eyes and a hole punched through the fold with black yarn threaded through it finishes the job, and I hung a whole swarm of them from our living room ceiling light last year. They fluttered every time someone walked past, and my daughter insisted on keeping three of them up until Christmas.
2. Glowing LED Mummy Tube
The mummy is the craft I reach for when I want something that looks impressive on a dark windowsill, because the little LED eyes do all the work. I paint the roll a dark brown first so no white cardboard shows through the gaps, then I wrap strips of gauze or torn toilet paper around it at slight angles, leaving a gap near the top for the eyes. A battery tea light or a pair of tiny LED lights tucked inside makes the eyes glow yellow through the wrapping, and the effect at dusk is genuinely eerie in the best way. I stain the gauze with cold black tea for an aged look and dab the strip ends with craft glue so they do not unravel. The first time I made one I used a real candle and melted the whole thing within minutes, so please use LEDs only. Ours now sits on the hallway shelf every October, and visitors always ask where I bought it.
3. The Friendly Green Frankenstein Monster
Frankenstein is the monster my kids ask for by name, and he is the easiest of the lot to get right because the details are so forgiving. I paint the roll a bright monster green and draw a jagged black hairline across the top with a thick marker once the paint is dry, then add two small cardboard bolts to the sides of the neck with a dot of hot glue. The stitched mouth is just a black line with little cross marks, and a pair of uneven googly eyes makes him look friendly rather than frightening, which matters when the audience is under six. I tried giving him purple paint one year and it looked muddy, so I stick to green now, and I keep a spare roll handy because someone always wants a Bride of Frankenstein too. For that version I paint a taller tube black, add white lightning streaks down the sides, and give her a bright pink face. The pair together on our mantelpiece makes me smile every time I walk past, and they cost less than two euros in materials.
4. The Mischievous Black Cat with Pipe Cleaner Tail
Our black cat is the one craft that has survived three Halloweens without falling apart, mostly because it is so simple there is nothing to break. I paint the roll black, fold the top corners into ears just like the bat, and paint a dab of pink inside each ear once everything is dry, which gives the silhouette a bit of warmth. The eyes are neon green paper circles with black pupils, and the whiskers are short lengths of white pipe cleaner poked through tiny holes on either side of the face. The tail is the part I love most: a black pipe cleaner curled around a pencil so it springs into a loose spiral, glued to the back of the roll. My mistake the first year was using a tail that was too long, and the cat kept toppling backwards off the shelf, so I keep it to about eight centimetres now. I put this one on the windowsill facing the street, and neighbours have knocked to ask about it, which is the highest compliment a toilet roll can receive.
5. The Pointy-Hatted Wicked Witch
The witch takes a little more patience than the others, but she is worth it because she has the most personality on the shelf. I paint the face green or purple depending on my mood, then glue on yarn hair, and here is my favourite shortcut: crinkled shredded paper from a parcel box works even better than yarn and gives her a properly wild, windswept look for free. The hat is a cone of black card with a wide brim, and I measure the brim against the roll before I glue anything, because my first hat was so small it looked like a party hat and the witch looked embarrassed. A tiny broomstick of a wooden skewer and straw-coloured paper leans against the roll rather than being glued, so it does not snap off. She stands on our bookshelf next to the cookbooks all October, and every year someone picks her up to look at the hair, which I take as proof the shredded paper idea works.
6. The Candy-Filled Jack-O’-Lantern Treat Popper
This one is a party favour disguised as a craft, and it is the only project on this list that disappears by the end of the evening, which I count as a success. I paint the roll bright orange and wrap it in a square of orange tissue paper, twisting one end closed and filling the tube with a few small sweets before twisting the other end, so the whole thing pops open when you pull it apart. The face is cut from black paper and glued on, and a green paper leaf on top hides the twisted end nicely. I learned to keep the sweets small and light, because the first batch I filled with chocolate coins and the poppers were too heavy to stand upright on the table. We line them up as place cards at our Halloween dinner with each guest’s name written on the leaf, and the kids treat opening them like a treasure hunt. It takes about ten minutes per popper once you get the rhythm, and a roll of tissue paper from the euro shop covers a whole class of them.
7. The Creepy Eight-Legged Spider
The spider looks harder than it is, and the secret is entirely in the legs. I paint the roll dark brown or black and glue on several googly eyes in a cluster, which instantly makes it look more spider-like than any amount of careful painting. The legs are eight black pipe cleaners, four on each side, pushed through small holes and bent at the middle so the spider stands up on its legs with its body lifted off the table. The detail that matters is bending the very tips of the feet outward, because without that little foot the whole spider tips over at the slightest nudge, and I lost two spiders to the floor before I worked that out. I like to hang one from a thread in the doorway so it dangles at forehead height, which startles exactly the right people. My daughter is terrified of real spiders but adores this one, and she has named it Boris, which I think is fair enough for a creature made of pipe cleaners.
8. The Count Dracula Vampire with Paper Cape
Dracula is the most elegant member of the collection, and I say that with a straight face about a toilet roll. I paint the face pale grey-white and draw a neat black widow’s peak hairline across the forehead, then add two tiny pointed white fangs cut from paper, which are fiddly but worth the effort. The cape is the star: a piece of black paper with a red lining, cut into a curve and glued around the shoulders, and it needs to be wider than the roll or it disappears behind the body. A small red gem on his bow tie stands in for a vintage medallion. The cape was my undoing the first time, because I glued it while the face paint was still wet and the whole thing slid sideways, so I always let the paint dry fully now. He guards the drinks table at our Halloween evening, and I have to admit he looks rather distinguished next to the wine glasses.
9. The Friendly White Ghost Hanging Mobile
The ghost is the gentlest craft here and the one I recommend for the youngest children, because there is no way to get it wrong. I paint the roll stark white, add two big black oval eyes and a small round mouth, and then glue strips of white tissue paper to the bottom so they flutter whenever a door opens. A touch of pink chalk on the cheeks turns it from spooky to sweet, and I always do that version now because it makes toddlers giggle instead of hiding behind their parents. The trick to hanging it is threading white yarn through a hole at the top and tying it at different lengths, so a few ghosts at different heights make a proper mobile over the dining table. We hung a family of them from a bare branch in a vase one rainy Sunday afternoon, and they stayed up until November.
10. The Single-Eyed Little Green Monster
I saved the monster for last because it is the silliest, and the one where children should be allowed to go completely overboard. I paint the roll bright green or purple, glue on one enormous googly eye right in the centre, and then let the hair happen however it wants to happen, usually with pom-poms or scraps of yarn stuck on in every direction. The beauty of this one is that there are no rules: cut some rolls in half for a baby monster, add three or five eyes for a monster family, and let each one have its own crooked mouth. I keep a box of odd buttons and felt scraps next to the craft table for this project alone, because the monster is where they all finally get used. My favourite is still the first one my daughter made, with one eye looking up and one tiny arm made from a pipe cleaner, and it lives on my desk all year round. If you make only one craft from this list, make this one, because a child who designs their own monster remembers it.
Conclusion
Ten rolls, one rainy afternoon, and a shelf full of characters that cost almost nothing — that is the whole appeal for me. I keep a basket of empty rolls in the laundry cupboard all year, so I am ready the moment October arrives. Pick the one that makes you smile, make it badly the first time if you have to, and let the kids take it from there.