DIY Halloween Window Silhouettes

My talented friend Meredith Weis was one of the first people to introduce me to a blog. She is super creative and always making something super cool for her kids or with kids. Check out her blog, The Crafty Canine, to see some of her amazing crafty work. Anyway, I am so happy to have her share with you a DIY Halloween decor project today- window silhouettes.

Halloween Window Decor Silhouettes Tutorial

By Meredith Weis

I am so excited now that the days are getting shorter and we are finally receiving a break from the summer heat. My thoughts immediately turn to my very favorite holiday, Halloween! As avid Halloween enthusiasts, our family loves to bust out the decorations early and let the spooky fun begin!

Every year, we have some sort of haunted porch or garage which becomes the right balance of spooky but fun. I think the reason my daughters enjoy Halloween so much is because after years of making decor for the trick or treaters, they are never afraid of all the creepy store displays or other “haunted houses” on Halloween. They know that this stuff is created and is not real. During the last three years, we have purchased window silhouettes from Halloween shops and taped them up on our windows. While these have been lots of fun, I have been yearning for something more unique and creative.

How To Make Halloween Window Silhouettes

This year, I was inspired by photos on Pinterest of DIY Halloween silhouettes. I went out and got black poster board, black foam board, and a variety pack of colored tissue paper. My older two girls, ages 9 and 8 were excited to decide on a design of a silhouette. The 9 year old decided to make her own silhouettes. She would draw the outline of a creature on the poster board, cut it out, and have me cut out the eyes with an Exacto-Knife. Then she would give it to me to lightly tape to the window before taping the eye pupils made out of poster board, the area around the pupil with various colored tissue paper so the light could come through, and a background color of tissue paper to cover the rest of the window panel.

My eight year old preferred to use an already made template that she found on the computer after googling “Halloween silhouette templates.” We printed it out, cut it out, and traced it onto the poster board.

Since we have many small window panels on the sides of our front door, the girls got to make several small silhouettes each. With the addition of the tissue paper, they ended up very colorful. We have several cats, an owl, aliens, and a spider.

I decided to tackle the large windows in the front of the house. After looking at lots of monster silhouettes online, I free-handed a monster that looks like the creepy bad guy from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Then I made a dragon-type creature and an alien with lots of eyes. For these creatures, I tried to use the foam board which has its’ pros and cons. The pros are that it is much more sturdy than poster board and should hold up for years to come if that is desired. The con is that I found it very tricky to cut evenly with an Exacto-Knife, and it simply cannot be cut well with scissors. I chose creatures where it would not seem too obvious that lines were not perfectly straight.

Halloween Window Decor Theme Ideas

Our family is now enjoying the final look of the windows and I am happy that it ended up being a family creative project. The silhouettes on the windows still let in enough light and actually let in more light than the store bought silhouettes due to the light colored tissue paper that I chose for background colors.

My mind is now racing with possibilities for future Halloween fun. Your house could have a theme like ghosts, zombies, giant rats or birds. For teenagers who love the scary movies, you could create silhouettes of classic nightmare characters. For example, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, or the villain from “Scream”. Just print a photo or silhouette from the Internet and trace it into the poster board or foam board. Then you just figure out what areas you want to light up. Cut those areas out and replace them with tissue paper. Lastly, you could take photos of your own children posing as zombies and the use their silhouette to make your masterpiece. The possibilities are endless! Actually, now that I am thinking about it, I may need to rally the girls together for “DIY Silhouette Making Part Two” .. AKA, Christmas!

Supplies Needed For Halloween Decor Window Silhouettes:

1. Black or darker colored poster board or foam board
2. Scissors and Exacto-Knife
3. A variety of colored tissue paper
4. Tape: Packing tape is clear on glass but may require so “Goo Be Gone” after the holidays. You could also use contact paper for ease of removing. If edges cannot be seen from the outside of the window, you can use painters tape which easily comes off most of the time.
5. Optional: printed templates or ideas from the Internet

I would love to hear your ideas or comments if you do this. Let’s make Halloween creative!

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