This salt painted Halloween craft is inexpensive and so fun! My kids love the process of creating 3-dimensional works of art! We tried this craft for the first time earlier this year when we made salt painted easter eggs that turned out AMAZING. We wanted to try it again but with a spooky Halloween twist.

One of the best things about salt painting is that you can draw ANY shape – it doesn’t have to be holiday themed! Not to mention, you probably have most of the supplies at home already. With a little bit of white glue, table salt and liquid water colour paint (don’t worry, watered down food colouring will also work), you can make some really cool art work!

It’s like puffy paint except it has a really neat crystal-like texture. You can paint them when the glue is wet or dry, but remember: a little colour goes a long way so try not to over do it! You can watch our video below to see the magic first hand!

RELATED: Printable Pumpkin Templates

These are super cute and make for some great homemade fall decorations. You can hang them on the fridge, make Halloween cards or you could even cut them out and make a garland with just a hole-punch and some string!

Just make sure you’re using watercolour paper if you plan to hang them up… the salt and glue tend to quickly crumble off of regular printer paper, but the designs are pretty solid on watercolour paper.

The shapes are simple to sketch out, but if you need a little help, feel free to print out the templates from the links below:

Grab the free Halloween templates here:

>>> Salt Painted Pumpkin Template <<<

>>> Salt Painted Spiderweb Template <<<

Choosing a thicker paper such as watercolour paper is key, and I definitely recommend using Elmer’s White Glue for the best results. I attempted to use basic white glue from the dollar store the first time I tried this craft and sadly it just made a sloppy wet mess.

Regular table salt works great and you can use watered down food coloring or liquid watercolor paints to add the colorful pop!

Check out our video for how to make this Salt Painted Halloween Craft:

Need more craft inspiration? Here are a few other fun things we’ve tried:

Salt Painted Easter Eggs

Yarn Pumpkins using Balloons

Lolly Pop Spiders

Coffee Filter Bats

Salt Painted Halloween Pumpkins + Spiderwebs:

Here’s a list of what you’ll need. The affiliate links below will take you to products on Amazon that are similar to the supplies we used to make this craft:

• Thick Paper: watercolour paper,  card stock or poster board
• White Elmer’s Glue (it works the best!)
• Table Salt
• Watered down food coloring or liquid watercolor paints
• Paint Brushes

I covered a baking sheet with aluminum foil to keep everything as low mess as possible (you know I love Low Mess Crafts for Kids!). Sometimes the glue soaks through the paper, so it’s best to protect your baking sheet with the tin foil.

The baking sheet also helps keep the salt and paint contained so the clean up super easy! We used Elmer’s School Glue in the 4 ounce bottle. Try to get the 4 ounce bottle if you can – it has a nice small tip so the glue comes out at the perfect width for this craft.

Helpful Tip: I recommend using a window on a bright day to help you trace your shapes onto the watercolour paper. Place the template on the window, then place the watercolour paper over top. The light from outside will shine through both papers and you can easily trace out the shapes!

Grab the free Halloween templates here:

Salt Painted Pumpkin Template

Salt Painted Spiderweb Template

Now you can outline your shapes with glue.

Once you’ve traced your design, you can add your salt! Pour a generous amount of salt and be sure to cover every last bit of white glue.

Once everything is covered, gently turn the paper sideways, then upside down to pour off the excess salt to reveal your salty outline. Try not to shake or tap the paper as you pour. For the best results, you want as much salt to stick to the glue as possible.

Now for the fun part! Grab your paint and a paint brush. Dip it into the color you want and lightly tap it onto the salt covered glue.

The colour has a really cool way of spreading out once it hits the salt! You can really see it in the video above. Isn’t it mesmerizing?!

Watch as your little pumpkin friends come to life!

We used liquid watercolour paints (see the link to the exact type we used in the supplies list above). We diluted them to be 1 part watercolour paint to 3 parts water. Remember, the colours really lighten up when they dry, so nice bright colours work the best.

Aren’t they cute!? You can stick with traditional colours or get really creative and try mixing some of your own!

After making our pumpkins we also made spiderwebs too! We used the exact same process as before, only this time we traced out some spiderwebs.

The colours will look a little more vibrant when the glue is wet. It takes a good day or two for the glue to completely dry.

This is what it looked like after a couple of days. The colours blended even more which gave it a super cool tie-die effect!

Your imagination can really run wild with this craft! You don’t need to be super artsy to pull these off.  I really love how our Halloween designs turned out!

Grab the free Halloween templates here:

Salt Painted Pumpkin Template

Salt Painted Spiderweb Template

We also tried salt painting on black paper – which ended up looking super-amazing-fun-cool-and-awesome!!!! Except that black construction paper absorbed too much wetness and the salt stuck to the black paper (in addition to the glue) so it didn’t look “clean” (more like it had snowed all over the paper).

It’s still a super fun process if you make them on black paper, but unless you can find thick, black watercolour paper, don’t expect to hang the black ones on the fridge.

This salt painted Halloween craft is SO MUCH FUN! This is such a cool Halloween craft for kids! The shapes puff off the paper and end up looking 3D with a really cool crystal-like texture. You can make any shapes you like! There’s even free pumpkin and spiderweb templates you can print off so you can easily make some spooky Halloween art!

For MORE fun craft ideas check out:

Salt Painted Easter Eggs

Wooden Spoon Bats

Yarn Pumpkins using Balloons

Lolly Pop Spiders

Coffee Filter Bats