Foam for Halloween: Costumes, Decorations and Crafts
Foam is a fantastic material for creating creepy costumes and props, party decorations and crafts for Halloween. If you need inspiration for truly horrifying costumes, crafts and decorations you can make yourself, we've got you covered.
Halloween costume ideas using foam
From frightening face masks to complete creepy costumes, foam can be cut and shaped into something truly terrifying for trick-or-treating or a Halloween party – and if there's a best-costume competition, a fearsome foam creation is sure to win. Foam is easy to manipulate into all kinds of shapes, making it great for witches' hats, helmets, skulls, werewolf costumes and more, and there are plenty of video tutorials on YouTube to help. For detailed costume work, see our guide to cosplay foam.
Halloween party decoration ideas using foam
It wouldn't be a Halloween party without creepy crawlies or bats hanging from the ceiling, or goodie bags of terrifying toys. Foam is an extremely low-cost material for creating hundreds of decorations and party-bag toys. It comes in an assortment of colours, including blood-red LD33 Plastazote foam for severed-tongue decorations, black for bats, cats and spiders, yellow for eerie moons and white for bowls of eyeballs. It's great for party crafts too – kids and adults can have hours of fun making creepy creations.
Foam pumpkin lightbox
A family favourite is carving pumpkins, but it's tiring and cumbersome, especially with children, and real pumpkins soon look old and rotten when you'd like to display a lantern for a week or two. There are also concerns about real candles around children. Using upholstery foam, an alternative jack-o-lantern lightbox is a fantastic solution: foam is soft, flexible, and easy to carve, cut and glue, even for children and those new to crafts.
We'll focus on an easy lightbox. First decide on the size – for one similar to a large pumpkin, order foam as below. Foam can come in a range of colours, but as it can be painted, this needn't matter; for guidance, see our guide to painting foam.
- Using our foam cut to size tool, order two 25cm x 25cm sheets and two 19cm x 25cm sheets, all about 3cm thick, plus a top piece 25cm x 25cm and 1cm thick.
- Stencil your design onto a 25cm x 25cm piece as you would a pumpkin, then cut it out with a craft knife or scissors, making the cut-outs big enough for the inner light to glow through.
- Using strong adhesive, hold the pieces in a cube with the 25cm pieces opposite each other and the 19cm pieces opposite each other, sealing the edges, and leave to dry.
- Apply adhesive to the top edge, attach the top piece, and leave to dry for three to four hours, keeping the bottom open for a freestanding cube.
- Decorate with paint, pom-poms and other items using clear adhesive, then place a light inside and watch it glow.
Foam tombstones
The Halloween season is perfect for getting creative with foam, from detailed costumes and spooky props to indoor and outdoor decorations. Intricate costume elements and standalone items such as skulls and witches' hats can be made from cut-to-size foam, and numerous props – pumpkins, lanterns, axes and faux weapons – from closed-cell rigid polyethylene foam. Foam props like these are even used in professional TV and film, as our guide to film and TV props shows.
Outdoor decorations get less attention than costumes, but as Halloween grows in popularity in the UK, more of us are decorating our homes' exteriors. Rather than a cheap plastic item, foam is a fantastic alternative that can be decorated with spray paints for realistic textures. Using large polyurethane foam sheets, or a cut-to-size piece, you can make a realistic tombstone for the front garden:
- Use a piece of foam about 50cm tall, 25cm wide and 10cm deep – for a larger or sturdier tombstone, glue two slightly thinner pieces of denser foam together with all-purpose adhesive spray.
- Mark your design with a pencil, then slice and carve into the foam with a sharp small craft knife for a weathered epitaph look.
- Apply a foam coat solution and leave to dry thoroughly.
- Coat in a water-based paint of your choice, layering as needed, keeping as little paint on the brush as possible to give a rough stone or wood effect.
- Once dry, add detail – darker grey traced into the inscriptions, cracks and surface textures, and spray-paint effects like moss and dirt – then prop it up in the garden.
eFoam stocks all kinds of foam for Halloween. With a huge range of foam types and grades at low prices, contact us about the right foam for you, with fast, free delivery and cut-to-size service. You can also visit our purpose-built foam-converting facility in the heart of the Midlands to talk to a specialist in person. For more party ideas, see our guide to foam party decorations.
Frequently asked questions
What foam is best for Halloween costumes and props?
Foam is easy to manipulate into shapes like witches' hats, helmets, skulls and werewolf costumes. For props such as pumpkins, lanterns and faux weapons, closed-cell rigid polyethylene foam works well – the same kind of foam props used in professional TV and film.
How do you make a foam pumpkin lightbox?
Build a cube from foam sheets, stencil and cut your design into one face so light glows through, glue the cube together with an open bottom, then place a light inside. It's a safe, reusable alternative to a real pumpkin and candle, ideal for children.
How do you make a foam tombstone?
Carve a weathered design into a piece of foam around 50cm tall, 25cm wide and 10cm deep, apply a foam coat, then layer water-based grey or brown paint sparingly for a stone effect, adding darker inscriptions, cracks and moss with spray paint.
