Haunted House Silhouette Art for Kids - Taming Little Monsters

Are you looking for a fun and easy Halloween art project to do with your kids? Try this Haunted House Silhouette Art.

Perfect for making both at home or in the classroom. Kids of all ages will have so much fun making their own spooky houses.

If you want to make your Halloween themed lessons a breeze, then check out the Halloween Activity Pack. For only $10 you get 86 pages of hands-on activities and craft templates that are perfect for math and literacy centers, fine motor skills and more. Check it out today.

Disclosure: Adult supervision is required for all activities at all times. Some of the links provided in this blog are affiliate links. I will be paid a commission if you use this link to make a purchase.

More Halloween Themed Kids Art Ideas to Try

Halloween crafts are a great way to get into the spooky season with little learners. It exposes them to all the frightening characters without being scary. Here are some of my favorite Halloween kids craft ideas to help inspire you.

For more ideas, take a look at these 27 Halloween Crafts for Kids.

Materials Needed

Cardboard
Pen
Scissors
Black Paper
Red, blue and white paint
Paint brushes
Cookie sheet (optional)
Orange paper
Glue
Black Paint pen

How to Make a Haunted House Silhouette Art

1. Take a piece of cardboard and draw a haunted house on it.

Cardboard from an old cereal box is perfect for this. I also drew the windows and doors on my cardboard, just to give myself an idea of what the house would look like. But of course, this is optional, because any details you draw will end up being painted over.

2. Cut out your house silhouette.

You can make your house as complex or as simple as you like. If you are doing this activity with younger kids, then I recommend encouraging a more simple house design, because then it will be easier for them to cut out.

3. Place your cardboard house onto a sheet of black paper.

I also ended up cutting a small arch out of cardboard too, which I then placed it at the bottom of the page so that it looked like the house was standing on top of a hill.

I used a piece of sticky tape to stick the cardboard down to my paper, but this is optional. Older kids will most likely be fine with just holding their cardboard house shapes in place with their hands.

4. Place your picture on a cookie sheet and dot the black paper with red, blue and white paint.

I like to use a cookie sheet to help keep the mess contained. I personally find it so much easier to wash a cookie sheet than an entire counter. Since you can also just pick up the entire cookie sheet, it’s also a lot easier to move the picture to another spot to dry.

I used red, glue and white paint, because I wanted to do a bit of color mixing with my kids. However you can choose any color you want for your background. Maybe you want two different shades of purple, or even a spooky green background instead.

5. Use a paint brush to spread and mix the paint over the entire sheet of black paper.

If you end up with a purple paint that is too red, or too blue, don’t worry. You can always add a bit more paint to correct the color until you are happy with it.

6. Peel the cardboard off of the picture, while the paint is still wet.

I made the mistake of leaving my cardboard in place too long. Even though the paint was only semi-dry when I did this step, the cardboard still stuck to the dried paint. Making some of the paint peel off along with the cardboard.

7. Leave your picture to dry.

8. Define the outline of your house with a black paint pen.

The outlines of this silhouette weren’t as clear as I would have liked. I clearly wasn’t as careful when painting over the cardboard as I should have been.

So I used a black paint marker to go over the outlines of the house, giving it more definition.

9. Draw a door and windows on your piece of orange paper.

How many windows, and what shape you use are up to you. This is a great opportunity to let your kids use their imagination and create something unique.

10. Cut out the doors and windows and glue them onto your haunted house picture.

11. Draw some bats, jack-o-lanterns and other details.

I drew some bats flying around the house, as well as a jack-o-lantern sitting by the front door.

I used a black paint pen for this, which I can’t recommend enough. Although you can use regular sharpies, I find that drawing on acrylic paint with sharpies makes the sharpie stop working. However you don’t have this problem with paint pens since they are paint based and not ink based.

12. Let your glue dry.

What You’re Learning

Creativity

Arts and crafts are a great way to use your imagination and then have the freedom to create that idea with your hands. Creativity is important not only for artistic pursuits, like painting or music, but also for problem solving. Which is an essential life skill that everyone needs to develop.

There are a variety of ways where your children can express their unique ideas. They may want to:

Pick a different color for the background.
Draw a house with a different shape or a different number of turrets or windows.
Draw different details around the house. Like a black cat or a spooky looking tree in the background.

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills refer to the small muscles in the hand and fingers. Developing these skills are important in being able to write when the kids go to school, as well as being able to complete tasks independently. (For example, dressing and feeding themselves).

Holding and using paint brushes, pens and scissors are all going to help young kids develop:

Tripod grip
Palmar grasp
Hand-eye coordination
Dexterity
Hand Strength

Planning and Organization

This haunted house silhouette art has several steps that need to be done in a specific order for this picture to work. For example, you need to cut out the cardboard silhouette before you can paint your background.

Organizing the required materials beforehand, as well as planning out each step before you do it, is a great way for kids to strengthen their executive functioning skills.

Are you going to make this Haunted House Silhouette Art with your kids?
Don’t forget to pin the idea for later.