Eco Friendly Halloween Crafts

Audra Lowe: So as you know Halloween is this weekend. So if you have it already, it is time to grab a little ghouls and goblins and get them in the Halloween spirit with some spooky creative decorations. And why not get them green at the same time?

Sarah Smith is here. She’s the editorial director of KIWI Magazine with some great ideas. They're all eco-friendly. Good to have you here.

Sarah Smith: Thanks for having me here.

Audra Lowe: These are all fun ideas. And like you said, it is just one step at a time.

Sarah Smith: That’s right. At KIWI we want going green to be doable and fun.

Audra Lowe: Right so —

Sarah Smith: So we have our cats are made with things that you have already have or you might not have there in a way otherwise.

Audra Lowe: Okay. So the first one, you have over here called Halloween tubes. What makes these out?

Sarah Smith: Right. You know you’ve seen this probably for other holidays, these popper crackers. You can do them for Halloween. Put some healthy treats or trinkets inside.

Audra Lowe: Okay.

Sarah Smith: — a toilet paper roll. And I love this one at KIWI because if you use something like small steps to just make from recycled materials already, then you’re sort of doing this double recycling which is really great.

Audra Lowe: Exactly. You're getting excited. I can see it in your eyes. And they're cute because kids don’t know what's inside as a little treat for them.

Sarah Smith: Right and then pull on them and then — you know, happy Halloween!

Audra Lowe: Okay. And then the next one is called pumpkin garland so these are fun.

Sarah Smith: Right. Out of material boxes, you create a pumpkin template cut out as many as you like. And here you can see on the back it’s —

Audra Lowe: Right.

Sarah Smith: — material box so you paint them even draw on or cut out the faces. You have every kid that — if you have a party, all your kids can do their own little faces.

Audra Lowe: Exactly. And then you can use these afterwards.

Sarah Smith: That’s right. Exactly.

Audra Lowe: You don’t have to throw them out.

The memory pale is my favorite. I love this one. And all the materials that you made this out are all recycled, right?

Sarah Smith: Right. You can use an old paint can. This one is actually made out of one of those tubs that pretzels come in.

Audra Lowe: Okay.

Sarah Smith: And — so you decorate it with paper that you have cut out is shapes and things. And our friends at KIWI work a lot with greenhalloween.org and they have wonderful ideas. And they suggest that you use the same one every year and write a little note on the back that says — 2010, put the costumes scare crow. Who you trick or treated with.

Audra Lowe: Right.

Sarah Smith: And then it turns into not just the recycled green craft but something that you put some memory every year.

Audra Lowe: And then you can see how many years you used it over and over again. That’s good.

Now the spiders over here, I'm not going to touch. I don’t like spiders to much but these are friendly spiders. What do you make this out of?

Sarah Smith: These are made out of bicycle inner tube tires.

Audra Lowe: Wow.

Sarah Smith: So if you go to a local bike shop, they tend to have a lot of them lying around because they puncture easily and people come in and get tire change.

So I'm asking for a few extras and you just snip them up until you know eight strands, tie them in a knot — and who doesn’t love some Googly eyes? Stick those on and you’ve got your little eco friendly spiders.

Audra Lowe: I like that. And it could be big and small so you get different sized spiders.

Sarah Smith: And they get addicted to making. You starts making knot to make sure you got 10 of them.

Audra Lowe: You can keep going.

And now, you’ve also done the same thing. We’re making bats over here and this is with a toilet paper roll.

Sarah Smith: Toilet paper roll. Again we’re doing the double green if you're using that mark out and you can cut out the wings and the eyes and everything from the old paper you have around, from magazine paper, from newspaper and paint it black.

You know, we did this actually survey with Marcal at KIWI and we found that 97% of families like reusing things. So you know, if you are reusing to make these fun things, it is a best way to go green.

Audra Lowe: But see, that’s the thing. If you have to have creativity because most people would see this around and — what I am going to do with it, right? That’s why you're around.

Sarah Smith: Well thanks.

Audra Lowe: Thank you very much Sarah. Good to have you here.

And to see more of the Halloween craft ideas that you just saw and more, you can pick up KIWI Magazine. And for other Halloween decorations, treats and party ideas go to our website bettertv.com.