halloween tissue paper suncatchers

Make some Halloween tissue paper suncatchers in either bat or pumpkin design. This is a colourful and non-scary Halloween paper craft for your kiddos.

Get the printable template here

Australia is a confusing country at Halloween time. Some people love it (namely the kids and young people), while others loathe it and don’t want to celebrate it at all. Some people are ‘ho-hum I don’t really care’, and forget to go out and buy treats so they have nothing to hand out to door knockers. These people might hide behind the sofa and pretend they aren’t home when trick or treaters approach (seriously!).

You can imagine then, it’s not easy being one of the door knockers. Our strategy is to trick or treat at the houses which are visibly decorated for Halloween, and not at the others because we don’t want to embarrass people who have no treats to hand out, nor do we want to annoy the Halloween grinches. We also take some treats with us so we can do reverse trick or treating along the way.

I like to hang some colourful decorations in the window so other trick-or-treaters know they can knock on our door. These pretty tissue paper bat and pumpkin suncatchers are the ones we created last year.

Most tissue paper suncatchers use sticky-back plastic, but I’m not a fan of making extra plastic rubbish so I’ve used white freezer paper. When you hang it against the window you can still see the colours through the white side, but obviously not as brightly as with sticky back plastic. You can use that instead if you prefer.

How to make Halloween tissue paper suncatchers

You will need:

Construction paper in assorted colors – 2 sheets per suncatcher
Tissue paper in assorted colors, cut into strips
Freezer paper (or tracing paper)
Glue stick
Scissors
Blu-tack for hanging in window
The printable template

How to:

Print the template directly to colored construction paper. You need two copies for each suncatcher.

Fold one copy of the template in half and cut out either the bat or pumpkin outline.

Unfold and remove the center shape. You will now have a bat or pumpkin shaped window in the center of your construction paper.

If making the pumpkin, unfold the center pumpkin shape and cut out the eyes, nose and mouth. Keep these aside to glue on later.

Cut out a piece of sandwich paper to be roughly a bit bigger than the window in the center of your page. Glue it over the window.

Glue strips of tissue paper over the top of the sandwich paper, overlapping each piece and completely covering the window.

Fold the second copy of the template in half and cut out the window, repeating step 2.

Unfold and glue on top of the shape window decorated with tissue paper strips.

Use a lead pencil to sketch a line around the outside of the pumpkin or bat shape to make the frame, approx 3/4” from the edge. For the pumpkin you can optionally add a stalk shape at the top.

Cut along the line you’ve drawn in lead pencil to trim the excess paper from around your suncatcher.

For the pumpkin, glue the eyes, nose and mouth onto the front before hanging up on the window with small pieces of blu-tack. For the bat, hang on window as is!