3 Halloween DIYs Using Dollar Tree Baby Dolls That You'll Either Find Funny & Cute Or Super Creepy

 Today we're dismembering baby dolls, my friends, but it's all in the name of creepy/cute Halloween crafts. John tells me this time of year brings out my "weird and morbid" side, so let me apologize now for just HOW amusing I find these DIYs. I'll try to keep my shrill cackling to a minimum.
 

NOW. Let me show you how to take these Dollar Tree baby dolls:

... and turn them into THREE different Halloween crafts, using 3 different parts of the same dolls, in 3 varying degrees of "oh no you DID NOT" creepitude. Whether you like cutesy, creepy, or white-knuckled terror, I promise this post has something for everyone!

To ease you in, let's start with the cutest craft:

My pumpkin head babies!

When I was working on these I did a Very Scientific Poll and discovered *most* of you agree they're more cute than creepy - but I do like that they have that edge, to keep things interesting:

You can blame Over The Garden Wall for this inspiration, or more accurately, Rachel Maksy and her Over The Garden Wall-inspired pumpkin lady, which John just now walked in, saw on my screen, and demanded I remove, bahaha.

Here, I'll make the photo small, John, maybe that will help:

Rachel Maksy

::squints:: Orrrrrr not.


Anyhoo, my Pumpkin Babies are easy-peasy and fun to make. Everything you need is at Dollar Tree: the doll itself, a foam pumpkin, 2 or 3 silk flowers, and a little decorative ribbon for the waistband:

That's about $3 per baby, a frighteningly good deal.

First, pop off the baby's head. This is best done in front of friend during casual conversation for maximum impact. (Sorry, Arielle.)

Be sure to set the baby head aside... for later. ::eyebrow waggle::

Now use a craft blade to cut off the neck stump.

Take apart a silk flower and fold the petals in half, like so:

Hot glue the folded petals around the waist to form a skirt. I started with one over each hip:

Then one in the front and back:

I trimmed the top section into a half circle to fit the waist better.

This doll has a fluorescent yellow torso, so I covered it with a sheer orange ribbon to tone the color down. For another doll I painted the torso, which you might find easier.

Next glue a scrap of ribbon around the waist to make a belt, and add one more flower piece over the neck stump to make a cute collar:

Isn't she sweet?

At this point you COULD add another flower like a hat to the original baby head, and you'd have a little flower fairy:

... but that's boring. 

::chanting:: THIS IS HALLOWEEN THIS IS HALLOWEEN HALLOWEEN HALLOWEEEEEN!

So instead, draw a cute face on your foam pumpkin with a Sharpie, and hot glue THAT on:

I experimented quite a bit with the face design, because this thing can get alarming pretty fast. I wasn't aiming for scary, though, so I made all my eyes smiley and Kawaii.

Some of Dollar Tree's foam pumpkins have flowers already glued on top, which look like hats:

(The frogs are also DT, they came in a pack of bath toys, I think?)

I tried a more traditional pumpkin face with my final baby, and you can see how quickly that starts to look a bit... stabby:

Then one of you made this suggestion in my Story, and, HOO BOY:

I like it.

Why does this make me laugh like Yzma kitty clutching a potion bottle? What is wrong with me? (And is that... MY voice?)

Which brings me to Craft #2, where we'll be using the baby doll's eyes. Yes, just the eyes. So you're gonna need to pop those suckers out, which is no easy feat. At least, not if you want to salvage the eye sockets & head. Which we do.

The best eye-removing tool I've found is a seam ripper. Also sometimes you have to pause mid-sentence to really cherish a moment of blog-writing, so hang on a sec. Mmmmm.

Ok. Moment cherished.

As I was saying, the seam ripper is ideal because it's both pointy AND can flex around the eyeball to cut through the soft plastic housing inside the head. Full disclosure, though: after fishing out 4 sets of eyes my seam ripper snapped in two, perhaps as a form of protest.

(You're weak, seam ripper. WEAK!)

I'm not showing you a process picture of my gouging out any eyes, mostly because I forgot to take one, but also because that might be questionable without context.

("Questionable Without Context" is my new favorite band name.)

Once you have a shiny new set of eyeballs at your disposal, glue those baby blues on a mini pumpkin!

Add a face with a Sharpie, and that's it, that's the craft. But OH SO CUTE, right?

Dollar Tree sells these bright freckly pumpkins as a three pack, so you get all three for a dollar. You can use a dry-erase marker to test out your face first (it wipes right off), then a Sharpie to make it permanent.

Here's what I did with my first pumpkin three-pack:

 

In fact there's a bonus craft for you: Turkey Pumpkin!

I used DT leaves for the tail and a cut up flower for the neck feathers. So easy, yet so ridiculous. I want to make a bunch to use as place card holders on the off chance we ever host a holiday meal again. Maybe with a skewer in the back holding up the name card?

If you want to make your eyeballs go further, you could always make a few cyclops pumpkins:

Pro Tip: It's easiest to draw the black circle outline BEFORE you glue the eye on.

Here's a peek at my buffet with all three of these cuties:

And the rest of the display:

I've never decorated for Fall before, but I'm seeing the appeal. More of my favorite color everywhere? YES PLEASE.

Audrey 2 is a sneak peek, you'll be getting her tutorial later!


I've saved the creepiest - and arguably the funniest/coolest - craft for last, so if creepy dolls keep you awake at night, CLICK AWAY WHILE YOU STILL CAN.


::looks around::

Y'all still here? You good?

Sweet.


BEHOLD!!



Baby Clown Night Light!

Keep scrolling to see this funny bunny in action.

This craft couldn't be easier: cut a few slits around the doll head opening & pop it over an LED nightlight, the kind that looks like this:

(I can't remember if I got this at Dollar Tree or Walmart, but they're not expensive.)

Do NOT use a nightlight with an actual lightbulb. That could overheat, and burn down your house, and then the baby head will somehow mysteriously survive and BOOM, you just created a cursed object.  

 

Nobody wants that.

Pop the head on the nightlight, and each night you'll be greeted by this warm and cheery visage:

I do like the classic simplicity of this, but naturally I had to add MORE.

So I grabbed this pack of Dollar Tree witch hats:


... removed all the felt and pipe cleaners, clipped the stick, and painted on some stripes.

Not gonna lie, painting this plastic hat was the hardest part of ANY of today's crafts, and nearly broke me. I finally used Mod Podge as a primer to get the craft paint to stick, then added many many coats of orange and white chalk paint. Finally I glued the pipe cleaner back on the edge for trim & at the tip of the hat for a pom pom.

Posting this in my Story - and then being buried in the avalanche of alternating "NOPE" gifs and laughing heart eyes - made my whole week. I haven't laughed so much in ages, y'all.



Then this happened:

... and many of you DEMANDED a neck ruff.

So I found some white flowers in my stash to take apart, and voila! A neck ruff that doesn't block the sensor:

While photographing this I discovered my shadow was enough to trigger the light sensor, AND LOOK HOW COOL:

Eeeee! Love it love it love it.

Amazingly John *also* thinks this is cool, despite always being freaked out by creepy dolls in the past. Maybe because this one doesn't have legs to get to him? That or my gleefully "weird and morbid side" is finally rubbing off.

There you have it, gang, one baby doll, three crafts. I can only hope this sparks a whole host of new doll dismemberment out there. As always tag me in your pics if you try these, I wanna see!

And now, your moment of Zen:

******

Want MORE crafts? Then click over to my Tutorials Page, where I have over 150 projects like these for you to browse: