Halloween Tin Can Bowling

We love writing for third parties… here is a post that we originally shared with the fabulous Party Delights: fun fun fun Halloween Tin Can bowling. A great halloween party game for kids, but these Halloween Tin Cans, also make FABULOUS desk tidies/ Halloween Pen Pots! Though we wrote this article years ago, we still have these in our house!

We had Great fun making this set of ghoulish (or maybe just a little bit cute?!?! Tin Can characters!). I love this project, as it takes your old “tin can”, that you were going to throw away and you get to upcycle it into a fun tin can craft and game (more fun Halloween Games here).

You can vary it by how you decorate your tin cans.. you can add numbers to the back of your halloween cans and get the kids to practice their adding up skills or, you can also use them as pen pots (I confess, we have done this with a couple of them). Simple to make, lots of possibilities of play and use!

Here is a little detail on the Mummy Tin Can that I shared on Instagram! (do pop over, would LOVE to see you there!)

Halloween Tin Cans  – Materials

• Empty & cleaned tin cans, with the labels peeled off
• Acrylic or enamel paints
• Brushes
• Optional – white fabric scraps or an old children’s muslin

NOTE: if you don’t have acrylic or enamel paints or do not wish to use these with kids.. you CAN first cover your tin cans in tissue paper and PVA glue to form a basis for other paints to be applied to. Of course this will also give your tin can a “new texture”, which could be quite a lovely additional effect! OR instead of painting, wrap the tin can in paper and make this a paper craft – a bit like our Penguin Tin Can pots!!

Halloween Tin Cans  How To

1) Begin by cleaning your tin cans and peeling all the paper off – don’t worry if there is some glue residue – usually this is only a “strip” at the back of the can and you can make sure that this is “into the back” of your final Halloween design.

2) Paint your Halloween tin cans in your base colour – we used white for the ghost and mummy, black for the cat, purple for the zombie, green for the Frankenstein and orange for the jack O’lantern.

If you don’t have that many colours – why not focus on a set of 3 different designs and make two of each? Or even just make one design – 6 times over! It will still provide you with lost of crafty satisfaction and Halloween party fun!!

3) Once Halloween tin cans are fully dry you can start with your more detail designs. We chose to work with “black next”, as we could do several details on the different cans one go – black eyes for the ghost and jack O’lanterns, black hair for the Frankenstein, etc.

TOP TIP: If working with kids or if you are nervous of painting details onto your tin directly (don’t worry we know how it feels to put brush to can!!), why not cut out the details from black card or felt and glue them on instead?

4) Once dried, we moved on to white – white acrylics usually are an “opaque” base colour and you should be able to paint over any other colour with this. If it helps… you can use white to paint the cats eyes and the zombie’s details first and then paint over it with the “weaker” greens and yellows. But really, you need to experiment with the paints you have see how well the different colours apply.

Add any other details (see our creations) – such as red or black scars.

Finally… this was our favourite can… if you have an old baby’s muslin or an old pillowcase or faded tea towel (we pinched some off our DIY Mummy Costume), cut thin strips… and wrap it around your mummy can. Then tie a not at the back to secure it. Too cute.

Stack them. Find a tennis ball and away you go!

If you want to expand on this easy Halloween Family Game – you can:

• Turn it into a maths game by adding numbers to the back of the tin cans – these can be added for extra maths practice or simply used a s a simmple numbers identification game
• You can have one Halloween Tin Can contain some “surprise” treats or a “boobie prize”
• The Tin Cans can contain forfeits that you have to complete if you knock them over
• As mentioned – they also make super cute Tin Can Halloween decorations or pen pots!

Feeling inspired? Want to do more Halloween Crafts? Why not check out our collection of fantastic Paper Halloween Crafts too?!

Or take a look at our fabulous Halloween Family Activities here: