Unicorns are so perfect all year, except maybe at Halloween when they are just a little bit naughty. This year, our trunk or treat ideas are all about BAD UNICORNS. They’ve got a little bit of a punk rock style, some mischievous grins and some tricks up their sleeves, making them perfect for the teenage crowd. Almost all of these bad unicorn trunk or treat ideas were made on my Cricut Maker for a handmade Halloween–so they were also quick projects!
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My kids are getting older, so at least one of them insists that we do things that are a little less “embarrassing.” No more Mine Craft, Mario Brothers or Mad Scientist trunk or treat. We have to be cool because we’re teenagers now, you know.
While there was a little bit of exaggerated sighing when I said we were going to do unicorns this year for our trunk, I know by the time the DIY Halloween costumes were on the tweenagers and teenagers, they were really excited. I think they’ll even hand out the candy this year at the church’s trunk or treat!
Making a handmade halloween-bad unicorn trunk or treat
With the exception of the wigs, skirts and leggings, everything in this trunk was handmade, so there are tons of DIY Halloween ideas to pass on to you.
If you’ve spent any time wandering around my blog, you already know how much love I have for my Cricut Maker. And with these projects, I gave the adaptive tool system quite the workout. I used the fine point blade for vinyl and paper, the knife blade for leather and chipboard, the rotary tool for felt and the scoring tool for making fans. All of which equals a lot less work for me, and professional looking precision cuts for all my craft projects.
I’ll be stepping out individual projects throughout the week from this post, but here’s the top level round up:
- Bad unicorn lanterns
- Wicked chipboard sign for trunk or treat
- Plastic Tablecloth Backdrop
- dabbing unicorn giant cut out
- bad unicorn horn headband
- Unicorn t-shirt designs
- leather cuffs for bad unicorns
- Custom trick or treat buckets
Bad unicorn lanterns diy
This little DIY Halloween craft could just as easily be for an every day birthday party. Just buy white lanterns instead of green!
I made mine on the Cricut Maker, but you could just as easily use a Cricut Explore Air for this project; it’s all done with the fine point blade. Cricut glitter cardstock and sparkle paper were used in the construction of these bad little unicorns.
See the unicorn lantern tutorial here.
Wicked chipboard sign for trunk or treat
In my first official use of Cricut chipboard, I can say that I was extremely impressed. All the banners that I make from paper end up being fairly disposable. I loved being able to make a banner that was going to hold up to some banging around; it’s inevitable that trunk or treat items get a bit mistreated.
The Cricut Maker knife blade cut out every letter of this Wicked sign from chipboard, then again from Cricut glitter cardstock. I just glued the two together and mounted them on a painted yardstick. It made for a really structured piece!
What you really can’t see in these pictures is the backlighting–I used strings of battery operated lights from the dollar store to create some sparkle around the sign.
Plastic Tablecloth Backdrop
As far as cheap and easy go, this backdrop is the gold standard! I folded a purple and black tablecloth in half together and cut the bottom into strips, then tied knots in bunches of 4 strips. Peeks of purple come through and give the back of the car a great texture. No Cricut machine required for this one–just scissors!
Trunk or treat hack:
Why the funny looking picture here? I wanted to show you how I hung the tablecloths in my car. I bought a pack of the bullet super strong magnets (buy them here). They were used to stick the tablecloth to the metal part of my car and hang down. No tape (and potential damage to the car paint) required!
dabbing unicorn giant cut out
My tween was more impressed with my unicorn than the Ramones-inspired jewelry I made for her. I drew this bad unicorn out in green to match our Halloween trunk, printed to a wide format printer, then mounted it to a piece of foam core.
The most surprising part of this was what I used to cut it out. Cricut has a new craft knife called the TrueControl Knife Kit. Uh-MAZE-ing craft knife. Cut like butter through the foam core. Comfortable to grip, and changing the blade is easy and safe.
You can make your very own dabbing unicorn your teens will get down with!
bad unicorn horn headband project for the cricut maker
There are literally a bajillion unicorn horn tutorials out there, I know. I am partial to this one, though, because I just threw it all on my Cricut Maker to cut out. The rotary blade cut the felt pieces, and the rest was taken care of with the fine point blade. The Maker is one machine to rule them all, I swear! And a really handy tool to have for DIY Halloween costumes.
This headband is just part of the unicorn costume you see here–scroll down for the rest of the deets. You can find the Unicorn headband project pieces here until the tutorial is posted.
Unicorn t-shirt designs
Every Bad Unicorn needs a bad unicorn t-shirt to make their costume pop! Cricut’s glitter iron-on vinyl and this “Bad Unicorn Squad” design helped make this teen the happiest unicorn ever was. And if you’re a unicorn feeling “Bad to the Horn,” I have you covered there, too.
After I did the iron-ons onto $2 craft store t-shirts, I artfully cut them with scissors and added a few safety pins for a punk rock look.
leather cuffs for bad unicorns
Cutting leather with the Cricut Maker for a handmade Halloween costume was another first for me. There are quite a few patterns loaded into Cricut Design Space for leather cuffs, and they only require the knife tool to make. You simply put the leather on the mat, and let the Maker do the rest. I REALLY love the one that made the multiple bands in one bracelet. To the simple strap of leather, I added “Hey Ho Let’s Go” and “I heart Johnny” in gold foil. Because, y’all, with that EasyPress, you can put foil vinyl on ANYTHING.
Including some lovely chokers that you can also customize with you own wording!
This bad unicorn’s cuff said “Rotten.” But not to worry, she’s actually pretty sweet, too. She just enjoyed acting the part for these pictures a bit too much!
Custom trick or treat buckets
It figures that bad unicorns don’t give out any treats, right? So with a few dollar store cauldrons, I made up some buckets of tricks for trick or treaters. I added a band of ribbon gems to the top (also found at the dollar store) and some Cricut holographic vinyl to the front. You can find the custom trick or treat bucket project here.
They’ll make whatever comes out of them a nice surprise!!
My teens loved this trunk or treat–hope it gives you a little inspiration for yours!!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
Juds
Monday 18th of October 2021
This is perfect for the theme my sons teacher picked out for our trunk or treat. Can you please elaborate on how I can reproduce the wicked dabbing unicorn? Where do you fond file to have it printed in wide format?
Dee
Friday 19th of October 2018
Adorable idea!!! Love all of it!
Paula Biggs
Monday 22nd of October 2018
Thanks so much!!
Kim~madeinaday
Monday 15th of October 2018
This is so awesome! I love the lanterns and the girls look great! Pinned & sharing! Thank you for sharing on Merry Monday! Hope to see ya next week! Kim
Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled
Sunday 14th of October 2018
So fun! We are doing a trunk for our school's Trunk or Treat so you've given me some great ideas, like the battery lights and the magnets. Visiting from Inspiration Monday party.
Paula Biggs
Monday 15th of October 2018
The battery lights are an amazing thing!! Glad you could get inspired! :)
susan foster
Thursday 4th of October 2018
Absolutely awesome!