Paper plate spider web (and smiley spider!)

This spider web craft is made from a paper plate and is a fun (if not terribly spooky!) craft for Halloween.

As we head towards October and, yes, Halloween, today’s craft is a paper plate spider web. And not only that, it includes a rather friendly-looking spider. Who says spiders need to be scary?!

This kids’ spider craft involves a bit of everything, with painting, paper folding, cutting and gluing for your child to get stuck into. Great for those fine motor skills!

Once we finished making our spider webs at home, my kids immediately asked to put these up on the wall as a decoration for Halloween. They really do look sweet.

So, if you fancy making this Halloween craft at home with your kids, read on for the step by step instructions.

What you will need

• paper plate

• black paint

• 1 sheet of white paper and 1 small piece of black paper

• 2 x pipe cleaners or wiki stix

• 2 x googly eyes

• white wool

• tape, glue and scissors

As far as supplies go, you’ll likely have many of these in your craft box or cupboard already.

If there are some things missing, don’t hesitate to substitute! For example, if you don’t have any googly eyes, you can just cut small circles out of white paper and draw on black pupils.

For the spider’s legs, we used wiki stix, but pipe cleaners would work, as well as plastic straws. Another option, if you don’t have anything for the legs, is to just draw a spider on a circle of card and attach this to end of the the wool instead.

How to make this paper plate spider web and spider craft

Step 1

First, paint your paper plate black.

For this we used acrylic black paint as it covers really well. However, use whatever paint you have and make sure your paint is child-friendly and non toxic.

Set the plate aside to dry.

Step 2

Using something circular that is a little bit smaller than your paper plate, draw a circle.

We used a side plate.

Cut out the circle.

Step 3

Fold the paper circle in half three times.

Snip a little piece off the pointy end and a curved bit from the widest end.

Next, working from one end to the other, snip long thin strips out of the folded paper circle.

Open out the paper circle.

Step 4

Glue the spider web onto the black paper plate.

Step 5

Next, the spider!

Cut out a small rectangle of black paper and fold it in half.

Keeping the fold along the top, cut the paper into a circle shape.

Cut the two pipe cleaners or wikki stix in half so that you have four pieces altogether. Hold all four pieces in the centre and then twist.

Open the folded circle and tape the legs inside. Put glue along the bottom edge of the spider body and press the two parts of the spider closed.

Glue on two googly eyes and a mouth.

Step 5

Finally, you’ll want to attache your spider to the web.

Make a small hole in the centre of the paper plate with a pencil or pair of scissors (young children will need an adult to do this part – adult supervision required!).

Thread a piece of wool through the hole in the plate and tape the end of the wool onto the back.

Cut the wool to length and then attach the spider to the other end with tape.

And with that, you should have your finished spider web plus spider!

I hope this has given you some good ideas for some spider webs of your own. Happy creating!

If you want to save this spiders web craft for later, why not pin it?

Looking for more Halloween crafts?

Why not check out our toilet roll bat or our paper plate owl?