The best part of Halloween DIY is that paper is the item your home never runs out of: printer scrap paper, shipping boxes, old magazines, and half-used origami sets are all materials
In 2026, search volume for paper art DIY on TikTok and Pinterest grew sharply, videos under the Paper Ghost Craft topic on Snapchat easily reached tens of thousands of views, and origami ghost, paper bat, and paper pumpkin tutorials popped up one after another — people are slowly realizing that making Halloween decorations out of paper is cheaper than buying plastic, better looking than buying plastic, and something kids can join in from start to finish
Below it splits into three sections: paper art decorations, origami, and window clings
Paper art decorations: bats are the most striking paper art of all
Paper bats are the basic item of Halloween paper art: simple in shape, highly recognizable, and cheap to make a whole batch of
The simplest method: fold a sheet of black cardstock in half, draw half a bat silhouette, cut it out, and unfold to reveal a complete bat; the curves of the wings don't need to be perfect, and a slight asymmetry actually looks more alive — cut out about a dozen bats in different sizes, stick them to the wall with removable adhesive putty, and arrange them in a trail flying from the doorway up to the ceiling, with the smallest at the top and the largest at the bottom to mimic the motion of a bat swarm flying toward you
For a more textured look, there is a trick that gets shared over and over: make a bat garland from old book pages — take an old book or printed scrap paper, cut out bat shapes, punch two holes in the middle of each bat's body, and string them together with twine; the yellowed texture of old paper paired with the rough twine creates a dark academia style with an extra layer of storytelling compared with plain black cardstock
Another one worth trying is the tissue ghost: crumple a white tissue or coffee filter into a ball, tie a head at the top with a string, and let the bottom hang down naturally to form the ghost's body; draw two black dots for eyes, hang it from the ceiling with clear thread, and it will sway gently with every puff from the air conditioner — this tutorial has over 16,000 views on Snapchat because the cost is zero but the effect feels very real, with the folds of the tissue looking like a ghost's robe in dim light
Origami: ghosts and bats are the top picks for beginners
Origami and paper cutting work on completely different logic: paper cutting is about cutting out a shape, while origami is about folding in volume — origami results have a three-dimensional feel and have much more presence than flat paper cutouts whether placed on a table or hung from a string
The origami ghost is the most beginner-friendly of all: take a square sheet of white paper, fold diagonal creases into an X, fold two adjacent edges toward the centerline to form a kite shape, then fold the top down to shape a head, pull the two side corners outward to form arms, and finally draw the eyes and mouth; the entire process requires no scissors and no glue, and if a kid gets a fold wrong, they can just unfold and start over — in the comments on Lemon8 under the origami ghost tutorial by a Japanese DIY blogger, the most common line is that the kid folded it all by themselves and was incredibly proud
The origami bat is a bit harder, but Lemon8 and YouTube are full of step-by-step videos: the core is folding a square sheet of black paper into a bat body, with the two wings creating a three-dimensional shape through valley folds; the key is to use thin, lightweight origami paper because thick cardstock cracks at the folds — once folded, hang it with clear fishing line, and from below it looks like a real bat hovering in the air
If you want one that can hold things, the origami ghost candy box is a repeatedly recommended choice. Its structure is a hexagonal box with a lid shaped like a ghost, and you can tuck a few candies inside. Place it on the dining table as party decoration, and guests can take one when they leave
Window clings: glue ghosts, the most no-cost window cling solution
Window clings are the only paper craft DIY category that does not directly use paper, but they follow the same logic as paper crafts: use what you already have at home to create a store-bought effect
The most popular option is the glue ghost window cling. You only need white glue (the Elmer's kind), plastic zip-top bags, googly eyes, and a printed ghost outline template
Put the template inside a zip-top bag, squeeze white glue along the outline, then use a popsicle stick to spread the glue over the whole ghost shape. While the glue is still wet, press in the googly eyes and sprinkle a little glitter. Wait 24 to 48 hours for it to dry completely, peel it off the plastic bag, and you have a flexible, semi-transparent ghost window cling. Stick it on the window, and when light shines through from outside, the ghost looks like it is glowing
One detail to note is that the googly eyes need to be pressed in deeply. A blogger shared a failed attempt: the eyes floated on the glue surface and fell off after drying, and the ghost became a strange thing with eyes dropping down to the chin
Another variation is to add a drop of dish soap. The trick House Digest shared is this: three spoonfuls of white glue plus a few drops of dish soap, mixed together and spread onto plastic. The dish soap makes the glue more flexible after drying, easier to peel off the plastic, and more transparent
If you do not want to wait 24 hours, just use window cling paint or puffy paint directly. Paint it onto a plastic folder or parchment paper, peel it off after it dries, and stick it on the window. This option has more color choices, and you can use glow-in-the-dark paint for the eyes and mouth so that after turning off the lights at night, they give off a faint green glow
One-sentence summary
Cut a bunch of bats from cardstock, crumple a wad of tissue for ghosts, start origami with white and black squares, and use white glue plus googly eyes for window clings. The core of paper craft DIY is not making it look right, but making it fast, making lots, and getting kids involved. A wall full of crooked paper bats feels more like Halloween than one perfect paper bat
