We just love making seasonal things, especially when that season includes Halloween. It practically invites the making of weird and wonderful things. To get things off to a flying start, let's take a look at some of the things we've made for previous years. If there's anything you fancy making, there's plenty of time to get it done!
The Kitronik Halloween Makes Archive:
As we've built up quite a roster of Halloween projects, especially in recent years, we're going to keep it as simple as possible and summarise by year. Each summary will have all of the appropriate links. We'll start with the newest and travel back in time as we go. Let's blow the cobwebs of our arts and craft skills and find something spooky to make!
If you make any of these, or variations on the themes, don't forget to tag us on social media so we can share them.
The Kitronik Halloween Makes Archive 2022:
Emma delivered big this year with three different makes of varying difficulties! Combined, they had it all. There was simple and colourful, edge lit, and a polite servo-powered hat-tipping skeleton!
First we had some simple yet effective printed coloutful bunting. Not only easy to make, but easy to personalise too.
The second make delivered a couple of illustrative Halloween edge lit signs using an RGB LED Strip with Pattern Selector kit that would look good anywhere with low lighting.
The third and final make offered a great way to learn the basics of using Servos! Just one Servo, a Simple Servo Board, and a little bit of code is all you need to get your own skeleton to greet all your visitors this October!
The Kitronik Halloween Makes Archive 2021:
Emma delivered two cool Halloween makes in 2021, though we were a little late getting one of them out! The first was an awesome nightlight and was on time, the second make was a modified pair of cyberpunk glasses and maybe just a smidge late.
The edge lit sign used our new at the time USB RGB LED Strip! If you have a laser cutter it's a fairly quick win and you can spook it up with some customisation.
In the second make, Emma shows you how to bring a futuristic glow back into your life with these fun Cyber Goggles! This is a more involved make, including soldering, deconstructing cables and some fun laser cutting.
The Kitronik Halloween Makes Archive 2020:
As Halloween was a more subdued affair in 2020, we went full LED in an attempt to brighten the place up. We did two makes, a seasonally themed edge lit sign and a light up visor for your Cyberpunk 2077 costume!
The edge lit sign is a simple a quick make and made use of the base we designed for this edge-lit sign. Why re-invent the wheel? It looks pretty good in the dark and would look great on a windowsill.
The Laser Cut Perspex Cyber Visor is a great accessory for a suitable costume. A bit of a tricky make this one, but the results make it worth while.
The Kitronik Halloween Makes Archive 2019:
In 2019 we went for a light and sound based approach, with two contrasting projects that could both be worn. There was a portable music box that plays a suitably spooky tune and an illuminated pumpkin badge.
To create our spooky tune player, we used a MI:Sound Speaker Board for micro:bit and Microsoft MakeCode to take advantage of its simple block code which is easy to use and is also accessible to even the youngest of coders! The make has detailed instruction on how to code the tune.
Laser Cut Glittered Acrylic ZIP Tile Halloween Pumpkin badge, features Glittered Acrylic, but you can use any 3mm Perspex/Acrylic. Full instructions on the make and the coding ensure that once you've laser cut all the parts, getting it finished off isn't a huge chore.
The Kitronik Halloween Makes Archive 2018:
In 2018 we had a theme, movement! Firstly, there was a moving prop, and there was also a device that detects movement to scare those that venture too close! One of the makes required a laser cutter and the other a 3D printer. At the same time, both of these projects can be handmade. For example, the spider project could be made with craft foam or Papier-mâché, and the SpookO’Matic can be hand tooled from Perspex, Plywood, or MDF.
The moving spider make features a 360 degree servo that drives a pulley that raises and lowers the spider. The blog features detailed instructions, free downloads, and the end result would look great running up and down a window..
The Spook o' matic is a great example of how different project kits can be combined to make a custom control circuit. It uses our light activated switch kit to sense the shadow of someone moving past, and also our record playback kit to scare them with a spooky noise! We decided to laser cut a Perspex case for it, however, you can also design your own from our range of materials.
The Kitronik Halloween Makes Archive 2017:
2017 featured some over achieving on the Halloween makes front! We did try to create a balanced mix of projects though. They also cover a lot of the different facets of design and technology. We've had projects requiring coding, soldering, laser cutting, 3D printing, modifying garments, and creating add-ons for your fancy dress outfits. Hopefully, spooky arts and crafts for everyone.
The Halo-ween fancy dress is an activity that the whole family can get involved in and that can be used to create more interesting costumes for parties and/or trick or treat. Kitronik Director, Kevin used a Kitronik ZIP Halo, a microbit, and some flexible ZIP LED strips to add some very effective lighting to two outfits.
Halo-ween Ironman Arc reactor. We designed not one but two very authentic looking Arc Reactors! The first Arc Reactor is modeled on the Reactor that featured in the first Ironman movie, in the second movie the Reactor got upgraded and James modeled and made one of those too! Both designs were 3D printed and both used a ZIP Halo for the BBC microbit and a ZIP Circle to provide the lighting.
The :MOVE mini (MK1) Ghost & pumpkin shells are a great mobile or lit up ornament. Note, this design will need to be tweaked to fit the newer version of :MOVE mini.
Theses fiendish add-ons for :MOVE mini comprise 5 ghastly weapons which you can cut from Perspex sheets that will transform :MOVE mini into an evil Halloween killbot. They can be used for all sorts of competitive fun or you can code them to be the centerpiece of a Halloween display.
The Kitronik Halloween Makes Archive 2016:
2016 was another good year for options with 4 fantastic makes to choose from. All of the makes were gathered together in a single article that also featured some extras at the end, there are suggestions for additional makes and a table of links to articles on creating timelapse videos!
The Halloween flicker boxes were designed in 2D and then cut with the laser cutter from shiny black card. You should be able to source suitable card from any stationers or craft shop. They can be put on a windowsill or suspended in air by attaching thin string or fishing line. The flickering came from these flicker effect LEDs.
The bat with flapping wings is one of my favourite designs from any year. We cut our bat from polypropylene and the flapping mechanism is quite simple and consisted of a battery cage, a BBC micro:bit, a servo, some crocodile leads and a length of wire.
Last but not least is our servo assisted waving skeleton, this design would look great hanging in a window. The skeleton was cut in two pieces from a perspex sheet. movement was provided courtesy of sevo.
The Kitronik Halloween Makes Archive 2015:
2015 was a good year for wearable's, we had a spooky e-textile LED badge and a very pretty and sparkly masquerade mask, also featuring LEDs. Both require some sewing skills but I think if you can put a button on a coat, you should walk the badge. The mask is definitely much more tricky however.
The sewable Halloween LED badge features two designs, a ghost and witch. This is a great project to do with the kids, providing they are old enough to not do themselves a mischief with the business end of the needle that is!
The masquerade with bright white LEDs shows you how you can give your masks a little more sparkle for Halloween? Theater design graduate and D&T teacher in training Olivia Morton shows you how to make a more striking and very intriguing Masquerade mask using white Sewable PCB LEDs and conductive thread.
If you make any of these, or variations on the themes, don't forget to tag us on social media so we can share them.
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