How to Make Spider Web Halloween Decorations

You can purchase spider web decorations, but they're usually the angel hair-type that are loose and drape. These kinds of spider webs are great for covering windows and such but if you need something a little stiffer, and more substantial, try making your own spider webs from pipe cleaners.

Make the web white, black, green - or the color of your choice. Pipe cleaners are available in many different types and colors. I find that the black spiders stand out the most if you use white chenille pipe cleaners, but the spiders also look very eerie if you use green metallic pipe cleaners, too.

Make the spider webs as large or as small as you wish. Start with a basic spider web, then add more layers, if desired. To make a basic, smallish web, start with three of the pipe cleaners. Use one pipe cleaner in its original size. Take a second pipe cleaner and cut two inches from the end. Take a third one and cut four inches from the end.

Beginning with the largest pipe cleaner, fold it in half. Be sure that you have a sharp bend in the pipe cleaner. Now fold each end into the center bend, and crease the bends well. Open these back up and bend each visible section in the middle. You should now have eight sections.

Use hot glue to hold the two open ends together. When the glue is cool, shape the pipe cleaner arrangement into an octagon, keeping each bend intact. This will form the outside of the spider web. Now you'll take the other two pipe cleaners and bend them, just as you did the first one, to form two more octagons, each one smaller than the previous.

Lay the largest octagon on a flat surface, place the next largest one inside of that one, then place the smallest of the octagons in the center. If you want to add larger and larger octagons to the outside of the existing arrangement, twist two pipe cleaners together, to form an even larger octagon. With each new section of the web, you'll cut a small amount off of the twisted pipe cleaners, so that it will be only slightly larger than the last one. Continue to do this until the web is as large as you'd like it to be.