Halloween Window Silhouettes Cut from Black Paper

Few decorations do as much for as little as halloween window silhouettes. A sheet of black paper, a pair of scissors and the light already on in your living room are enough to turn an ordinary window into a small glowing scene that people notice from the sidewalk.

The shapes here are your own, built from simple outlines you can draw without any special skill. You design small, enlarge with a grid, cut, and stick the pieces to the inside of the glass.

What you need

• Black poster paper or lightweight poster board, two or three large sheets
• Scrap paper, a pencil, a ruler and a white pencil or chalk
• Sharp scissors, plus a craft knife and cutting mat for inside cuts (adult use)
• Clear tape or removable adhesive putty
• Optional: orange or yellow tissue paper to diffuse the light

Design your own shapes

A silhouette is read by its outline alone, so the edge has to do all the work. Start each figure from basic shapes, then join them and add the one or two details that make it recognizable.

• Cat on a sill: a tall teardrop for the body, a circle for the head, two triangle ears and a tail curling down in an S.
• Bare tree: a trunk that widens at the base, splitting into three main branches, each splitting again into thinner, slightly crooked twigs.
• Bats: a small oval body with two wings whose lower edges are scalloped. Cut several in two or three sizes.
• Picket fence: a row of narrow rectangles with pointed tops, joined by two horizontal rails. Let one or two pickets lean.
• Pumpkins: a squashed circle with a short stem. A cluster of three in different sizes looks better than a single one.
• Crooked house: a tall rectangle with a steep pointed top and a leaning chimney, with small window openings cut out so the light shines through.

Keep every part of a shape at least a finger’s width thick. Thin tails and twigs tear easily and vanish from across the street. For more on clean outlines and neat corners, the guide on how to cut Halloween shapes covers folding, scissors technique and inside cuts.

Scale up with a grid

Drawing a cat the size of your hand is easy. Drawing the same cat 18 inches (46 cm) tall is not, unless you use a grid to copy it one square at a time.

1. Sketch the shape on scrap paper inside a rectangle about 4 by 6 inches (10 by 15 cm).
2. Rule a grid of 1 inch (2.5 cm) squares over the sketch.
3. On the back of the black paper, use the white pencil to draw the same number of squares at the larger size. Squares of 3 inches (7.5 cm) make the shape three times as big.
4. Copy the outline square by square, noting where the line crosses each edge of a square.
5. Smooth the curves, then cut along the line.

Because you draw on the back, the finished piece is a mirror image of your sketch.

Cut the silhouettes

Cut the outside edge with scissors, turning the paper instead of the blades on tight curves. Inside openings, such as the windows of the house or the gap between a cat’s tail and body, are a job for a craft knife on a cutting mat, handled by an adult.

A tree taller than your sheet of paper can be cut as a trunk and a separate crown, overlapped slightly on the glass.

Plan the composition

One rule covers most of it: big shapes low, small shapes high. Heavy pieces along the bottom give the scene a ground to stand on, and small pieces in the upper panes look as if they are far away in the sky.

• Anchor one lower corner with the largest shape, usually the tree or the house, and let it reach up along the side of the frame.
• Sit the cat on the sill or on the fence, off center.
• Run pumpkins or the fence along the bottom edge to tie the scene together.
• Scatter bats in the upper panes at different angles and sizes, flying roughly in one direction.
• Leave at least a third of the glass empty. The glow needs room.

Before you stick anything down, lay the pieces on the floor inside a rectangle of string the size of the window and move them around. If you have leftover bats, they carry the scene onto the wall beside the window, in the manner of these paper bat wall decorations.

Attach the shapes to the glass

Clean and dry the inside of the glass first, since tape and putty do not hold on dust or condensation. Work on windows you can reach comfortably while standing on the floor.

• Tape loops: roll short pieces of clear tape into loops, sticky side out, and place one near each corner or tip of the shape.
• Removable adhesive putty: press pea-size pieces behind the shape. It is easy to reposition and useful for heavier pieces.

Press each piece flat from the center outward, with the fastening points behind the widest parts of the shape so they are hidden from outside.

Backlight the scene

Silhouettes only work with light behind them. In most rooms the ordinary ceiling light or a lamp set back from the window is enough; switch it on at dusk and look from outside.

For a warmer, more even glow, tape a sheet of orange or yellow tissue paper to the frame behind the silhouettes so it covers the pane. The tissue hides the room, softens the light and gives the whole window an autumn color. Keep tissue and paper shapes well away from hot bulbs and heaters, and never light them with a flame: if you want a flicker, a battery LED candle on the sill does it safely.

Take down and reuse

Peel the pieces off slowly and wipe any tape marks with a soft cloth. Stored flat between two sheets of cardboard, the shapes can go up again next year, though how well they survive depends on the paper and on window moisture.

The area around the front door can pick up the same shapes. The guide to Halloween entryway decor shows how to carry the look outside.