This summer, four of my grandkids came to our house for a week for Grammy’s Camp and we did this salt art activity.  The kids especially loved watching the paint colors bleed into the salt!  So it is kind of a science experiment/art activity and your kids will love it too.

Here is what you will need:

Construction Paper, pencil or a white pen, Elmer’s Glue, regular table salt, a soft brush and watercolor paints. 

We used black paper for this project but we have also done it on white.  Both will work but I think the black really makes the colors stand out.

Instructions:

Draw a dot with the pencil or pen to make the the center of the spider web. 

Then draw lines through that dot making them go all the way to the edge of the paper.   A ruler helps to make real straight lines, but you can also just draw these on your own. Space your lines farther apart rather than closer so there is room for the upcoming glue.

Next draw curved lines between the straight lines, connecting them to look like a web. Again, spacing the lines farther out from each other will help later when you use the glue.

With your glue, trace along all of the lines of the spider web being pretty liberal with your glue. 

While the glue is still wet, sprinkle your table salt on all of the spider web lines.  If your glue starts to dry, you can work in sections.  Glue a section, then sprinkle the salt.  Then repeat on another section.

Cover the glue lines generously!

Let the glue dry overnight then carefully remove the excess salt by lightly shaking the paper on it’s side. It should end up looking like this:

With your watercolor paints, dip your brush into the water and then the paints and then drop some color onto the salt. Do not brush the paint down a line of salt.  Just drop colored drops of water onto the salt. This is the part that my kids loved the best!  Watch how the color bleeds and moves down the line of salt. So fun!

Kids will want to make this Salt Art Halloween Web Craft over and over again! The good news is that you can make this with all sorts of designs.  I found a ton of lined designs on Pinterest for free that I just downloaded on white paper and then let the kids go.  This was a super great activity that I know your grandkids will love too!

Here are two more great Halloween ideas to make with your kids!

Coffee Filter Halloween Bats

Halloween Snack Mix

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Maybe it’s because I am a fan of Charlotte’s Web, but I don’t hate spiders. I don’t love them either. This summer I volunteered at a camp for girls. The tents were huge military type tents on wooden platforms. In order to get the girls to even THINK about going to sleep, each night we did a spider check in the tents. We came along with our fearsome broom and swept those spiders away. We were brave. You should be so proud of me.

Even though I don’t want a spider on me, or near me, I appreciate spiders. They eat the other yucky bugs. But really, it is their webs that are so fascinating. Fragile, strong and no one like the other. These Kirigami Spider Webs for Halloween are so easy and fun to make. I didn’t know what Kirigami was until I saw this pin from Omiyage Blogs. Kirigami is like Origami in that it requires folding of paper, but Kiri means cut picture. Remember making paper snowflakes? Did you know you were doing Kirigami? I didn’t!

You can make your Kirigami Spider Webs for Halloween this year from any paper and in any size. The paper just needs to be perfectly square. I used origami paper that was 7″ X 7″.

To begin, fold your square into a triangle, matching tips, and creasing the fold well. Now take the two ends and match them to each other to create a smaller triangle. With the tip pointing down, take the two points on the sides and fold the triangle into thirds. This takes a little practice, but don’t worry! It doesn’t have to be EXACTLY perfect, close enough will do. You will have a long triangle tip with two triangles poking out at the top. Cut off those two triangles. Next cut the top into an inverted curve. Following that cut, continue cutting the triangle into strips, stopping just short of the fold. Don’t cut all the way through! Continue cutting until you reach a small triangle at the bottom. Do not snip off the triangle yet! Beginning at the top, fold back every other strip of the triangle. Once you are sure you have the right amount of strips, then you can either cut another strip if you need one, or cut of off the bottom tip of the triangle if you have the right number. Cut the strips as close to their base as possible. Then the magic! Unfold your spider web! To get mine to lay flat, I put them in between two large, heavy binders for about an hour. You could also iron them on low very lightly.

These Kirigami Spider Webs for Halloween are great to sting into garland, decorate a table, or tape to the wall with some plastic spiders! Get creative and tell us what you do with yours!

Here are a few other Halloween ideas to try:

Bloody Shirley Temples

Halloween Mason Jar Lid WreathDIY Paper Pumpkins 
This awesome post has been shared with: Home Stories from A to Z

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