Make Halloween Haunted Houses Out of Toilet Paper Rolls

This haunted house craft might be one of my favorite Halloween crafts on this site. I especially like it because it involves glitter WITHOUT ACTUALLY INVOLVING GLITTER! I do love glitter, I just can’t stand working with it. I’ve gotten around it by using glitter scrapbook paper, and it’s like a whole new glittery world of possibilities has just opened up for us. I need a glitter emoji right about now! Too bad one doesn’t exist. 🙁

Anyway, these little toilet paper haunted houses would make a lovely little haunted village display, or you could put a string through the top and make a ornaments for a haunted “Christmas” tree!

Craft Materials to Make These Mini Halloween Haunted Houses

• Empty toilet paper rolls
• Glitter scrapbook paper
• Regular glue or a hot glue gun
• Gold glitter rick rack
• Halloween confetti for embellishments on the roof, or cut out small Halloween shapes from the paper to glue in place.
• Press on rhinestones (optional)

How to Make This Cute Halloween Haunted House Craft

Here’s another one of our weekly kids craft videos from our Woo! Jr. Kids Activities YouTube channel!

Here are the written instructions:

Cut pieces of glitter paper: I was going to make a template for you to cut the pieces of paper, but then I realized that there’s a bit of variation in sizes of toilet paper rolls. Like, even in rolls coming from the same package. So you’ll have to measure the circumference and width of your empty toilet paper roll, and cut a piece of black glitter paper the same width and about 3/4″ inch longer than the circumference. Then you’ll need a half circle of colored glitter paper. Either use a compass or trace around a plate – the diameter of the circle should be around 6″ or 7″ inches. Mine are 6 1/2 inches in diameter. Then cut up some small circles of yellow or gold glitter paper for the windows. These are about 3/4 inch in diameter. Finally, cut the circle “windows” in half, then half again so that you have four quarters.

Assemble the bottom of the haunted house: Wrap the black glitter paper around the toilet paper tube and glue into place. Hot glue dries fastest, but carries the most risk for burning little hands. If you need to use regular glue, wrap a rubber band or even a hair elastic around the paper to hold it in place around the tube while the glue dries (about 20-30 minutes). Cut a doorway out of the bottom of the tube with paper one it after it dries. You can add a stick on rhinestone doorknob, or alternatively use a hole punch to glue a small circle of paper there for the doorknob instead. Now, glue one window (four quarters of one gold circle) onto the side, leaving a little space between the pieces to give a look of window panes. You can add more windows if you want!

Assemble the roof of the haunted house: Curl the roof into a cone shape and either glue or staple it together, overlapping about 2 inches in the back. Glue the gold rick rack around the bottom edge of the roof. Glue another gold glitter window onto the roof if desired. Decorate as desired with other Halloween confetti pieces or paper embellishments. I found very inexpensive black star confetti and tiny plastic spiders in the Halloween party section of Walmart. The Dollar Store would also probably have some good options! Or you can cut out some stars, bats or other shapes from scraps of the glitter paper and glue those on. Get creative!

Put it all together: Lastly, simply glue the roof to the bottom of the house. This really is best achieved by using a hot glue gun, so you might want to have an adult help with this part. If you don’t have hot glue, use a generous amount of school glue and let it dry for at least an hour before handling.