If you’re planning to add a spooky twist to your haunted dollhouse this Halloween, there are plenty of ways to do it without purchasing expensive supplies. Many of the items needed to create a haunted dollhouse scene can be found around the house or repurposed from everyday materials.
Here are not just 11, not 20, but 27 extra creative ideas to help you turn your dollhouse into a Halloween masterpiece and keep you busy for a long time!
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1. Miniature Heart with Blood Letter
Sculpt a heart from fimoclay, add fake blood using red paint or food coloring, and place a writing plum in a vase beside it.
Beneath the scene, a letter appears to be written in blood, giving a gruesome but imaginative touch.
=> The fake blood dripping from the heart, is created by using this red paint:
TAMIYA Acrylic Mini X27 Clear Red Plastics Paint Acrylic
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And it looks like in this video:
2. Tombstones from Foam or Cardboard
Cut small tombstones from old foam packaging or thick cardboard. Paint them in shades of gray, adding cracks and moss for a weathered look.
3. Create Spider Webs using dryer sheets.
For a simple and affordable way to make spiderwebs for your Halloween dollhouse, consider using dryer sheets.
These sheets already have a “webby” appearance and can easily be stretched and teased out to create a thin, realistic-looking web.
Don’t worry if they rip during the process—this only adds to the authenticity. Once the webbing is formed, you can glue it down with clear PVA glue.
The glue helps adhere the webs to surfaces, and as a bonus, the glue itself can be pulled to form stringy, web-like strands.
This technique is a quick and inexpensive way to transform your dollhouse into a spider’s lair.
4. Tiny Witch’s Cauldron from everyday materials
Here’s an idea that I found on Pinterest on how to create a tiny witch’s cauldron from a bead, a thumbtack, some small beads, a tiny metal ring, and some black paint!
5. Tiny Bats from Paper with the quilling method
To create tiny quilled Halloween bats, start by rolling three strips of black quilling paper tightly to form the bat’s head.
Push the center of the coil slightly to make it dome-shaped. For the ears, roll short strips of black paper into teardrop shapes and attach them.
For the wings, roll loose coils, pinch them into triangles, and slightly curve one side. Attach the triangular shapes together, wrap the edges with black paper, and glue the wings to the bat’s head.
Finally, add small white paper triangles for fangs to complete the look.
The process is very clear in the next video!
6. Tissue Ghosts
Create simple ghosts by draping tissue over a small ball of paper tissue. You can design faces on them. Use string to hang them around your dollhouse. That’s it!
7. Creepy Doll Revamp
Take an old doll and paint it with pale skin tones and dark shadows under the eyes to create a haunted doll for your Halloween scene.
You can even learn how to turn your sweetest Barbie doll into a creepy Zombie!
8. Spider Egg Sacs
Make spider eggs sacs by wrapping small beads in cotton. You can cover the sacs up with little spiders. Hang them around your dollhouse to give a creepy crawly feel.
9. Create miniature Spell Books
Here’s a tutorial that I found on how to create an intriguing miniature spell book!
- Print and Prepare Pages: Purchase potion and herb printouts (like those from ArtfullyMusing on Etsy), crumple and burn the edges to give them an aged look.
(you can also find other sources for Halloween dollhouse printables for free)
- Assemble the Pages: Sew the pages together, even without prior bookbinding experience.
- Make the Cover: Cut a piece of cardboard for the cover. Initially, leather was used but was too thick, so wax paper was chosen for a better result.
- Add Details: Embellish the cover with some decorations and tie a string around the book to keep it closed.
10. Create a haunted mirror
Create a picture frame, add aluminum foil as a mirror, and glue in a spooky printable that fits in the mirror.
11. Haunted Tree from Twigs
Collect twigs from the garden, (spray)paint them black, and place them in your dollhouse garden for a haunted tree effect. That’s all!
You could make things more complicated if you want with paper and so, but one day you’ll find the perfect twigs lol!
12. DIY Mini Coffins from Cardboard
Create tiny coffins using thick cardstock or cardboard. Paint them black and distress the edges.
There are plenty of DIY tutorials to find on Pinterest, like this one:
13. Small Wire Spiders
Create spiders using small wire for legs and beads for the body. You can paint them black for added effect.
14. Skeleton Cutouts from paper
Did you know that you can cut out skeletons from paper? I didn’t know either, until I saw this video, wow what a job!
15. Create Moss from Cotton
To be honest, I always purchase fake moss straight from Amazon, as they have it readily available in all kinds of shapes and colors, but you could simply simulate moss using green-dyed cotton or sponge scraps. Place it around tombstones or fences for a spooky effect!
16. Broken Windows from a screen protector.
Get yourself to the dollar store and get a tempered glass screen protector to create a broken glass window, whether it be for a car diorama, as in the video below or for a broken glass for your dollhouse 🙂
This is how you do it, step by step:
- Materials: So thhe main material used is a tempered glass screen protector, which can be purchased from a dollar store (around $1.25). You’ll also need paper for a template, a cloth, a hard object to shatter the glass, and scissors for cutting. That’s it.
- Create a Template: Trace the shape of the window you need on a piece of paper, then cut it out slightly larger than the required size to allow for any chipping or breakage during the process.
- Shatter the Glass: Wrap the tempered glass in a cloth and hit it with a hard object until you achieve the desired shattered effect. Be cautious as the glass will be sharp.
- Cut and Fit: Carefully cut the shattered glass to fit the window template. Remove the plastic protective layer before placing it into your dollhouse window frame.
- Glue in Place: Once you’re satisfied with the fit, use super glue or Elmer’s glue to secure the shattered glass in place. Press down the edges to ensure it holds.
17. Distressed Popsicle Stick Fences
Popsicle sticks can be painted and assembled into fences, which you can distress for a haunted look.
18. Zombie Hands
Mold tiny zombie hands from clay and place them, emerging from the ground, in front of the tombstones that you build 🙂
19. Crosses made from twigs.
Just regular twigs make perfect mini-crosses for a graveyard scene.
20. Witch’s Hat with origami
You can create a witch’s hat by using origami! I found this lady on Pinterest and it looks so cute! 🙂
21. Haunted Windows from Cardboard
So besides the broken window glass from the tutorial above, you can also make the window itself look haunted for your dollhouse.
There are tons of tutorials out there for this, but I just love this particular one:
22. Bottle Cap Miniature Lanterns
Repurpose bottle caps into miniature lanterns!
I would imagine you could make an even smaller lantern by using a smaller bottle cap:
23. Tattered Curtains from Fabric Scraps
Use old fabric scraps, cutting and fraying them to make tattered curtains.
24. Potion Shelf from Popsicle Sticks
Create a small shelf using popsicle sticks to display your potion bottles
You can use one of my popsicle stick tutorials if you like and then distress them or give them that Halloween look!
25. Fake Blood Drips
Get that paint bottle that I talked about in the first tip and just cover the walls with fake blood or you can even write a spooky text on your dollhouse walls!
TAMIYA Acrylic Mini X27 Clear Red Plastics Paint Acrylic
Buy Now →Check out more details and prices in the link above
26. Haunted Furniture from Cardboard
Create a dollhouse couch from cardboard and decorate it with a black net or veil, like this chair being sold on Etsy.
=> Miniature haunted dollhouse couch by TheMinniDollshop
Find out how you can make the actual dollhouse couch with cardboard on my YouTube channel!
27. Scary Face Pumpkins
Use aluminum foil, wires, and clay to create the scariest Halloween mini pumpkins I’ve ever seen 🙂
My Final Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed these sometimes peculiar ideas to create miniatures for haunted dollhouses. Remember to leave a question or comment down below in the comment section 😉
I wish you happy crafting and a spooky Halloween!
Kind regards,
Lizzy
Hi everyone!
My name is Lizzy, and I am an amateur miniaturist obsessed with everything in the dollhouse and miniature world, ever since I was a teenager.
So far, I have created 2 dollhouse projects, a backyard shed and a miniature treehouse, tons of DIY dollhouse kits, and “hacked” some.
I also created a fairy garden, and lots of small and simple miniature projects on my YouTube channel. (mostly made from trash or everyday items).
I love to write as well about all things happening in the miniature world, hence the reason why I created this blog!
I wish you happy reading and crafting!
Lizzy