DIY Halloween Paper Dolls

Create these fun DIY Halloween Paper Dolls for my printable Weather Bunnies! The bunnies come with lots of fun costumes to make, including everything from robots and unicorns to firefighters to superheroes! Grab 3 free costumes and find the entire collection in my shop!

My DIY Children’s Calendar comes with what I call my Weather Bunnies. These bunnies are paper dolls kids can dress for the weather each day. They can wear raincoats when it’s raining or snow boots when it’s snowing and now they can also wear adorable costumes! My popular bunny dolls are now available as DIY Halloween Paper Dolls!

When I realized my daughter wanted to play with my weather bunnies even after calendar time, I started making more and more clothing for them. I added a huge packet of clothing with everything from aprons and chef hats to cute overalls and tutus! They have been such a fun quiet activity I decided to make a bunch of Halloween costumes for the bunnies to celebrate Halloween. The fun thing about these costumes is that most of them are not specific to the Halloween holiday. They can be played with all year-round and are perfect for fueling imaginative play.

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My bunny paper dolls are not “traditional” paper dolls. They do not have paper tabs on them like the ones I played with as a child. Instead, these dolls can be used with Velcro fasteners or they can be turned into magnets using magnetic sheets. I show you how to make them both ways below in the tutorial. Both ways are really fun for kids to play with the dolls without getting frustrated by the small paper tabs that can easily break and tear.

We love our bunny dolls so much I often pack them as a quiet activity! My daughter has even taken them with her in the car on long car rides. We have a small 10″ square magnet board I found in the Target Dollar Spot and we put all the bunnies and their clothes in a small crayon case.

The weather bunny dolls (bunny paper dolls) are part of my DIY Children’s Calendar. They come in four different fur colors and you can download bunnies standing or bunnies using wheelchairs. They are also available as coloring pages where you can color your own bunnies and clothing! They come with lots of fun clothing options!

You can download four free costumes – a unicorn, Dalmatian puppy, astronaut and a pumpkin, by filling out the purple form at the bottom of this post. The entire collection of costumes, with 21 different costumes, is available in my Etsy shop.

How to Make the Halloween Paper Dolls

Supplies Needed

Printable bunny dolls – located in my Resource Library
Printable costumes – 3 free costumes located in my Resource Library – all 21 costumes in my Etsy shop.
White cardstock to print on – I used 110lb paper but use whatever works with your printer!
Method One – Fasteners
- VELCRO Brand 3/8″ Thin Clear Fasteners
- Thermal Laminator and Laminating Pouches – optional but will extend the life of your dolls
- Small paper scissors
Method Two – Magnetic
- Magnetic Adhesive Sheets
- Clear Laminating Sheets
- Small paper scissors

Tutorial – Making the Paper Dolls with Fasteners

To create the bunny dolls using fasteners, start by printing and laminating the dolls and costumes you want to use. If you choose the color-your-own bunnies, color them prior to laminating!

*Some costumes, like the astronaut and knight, have face openings. You can choose to cut those out before or after laminating them, or leave the costumes as is without cutting the opening.

Next, cut out each bunny and costume. I find a small, sharp paper scissors works best.

Place about three to five thin clear fasteners onto the doll using the rough side of the Velcro. The rough side will be clear and less visible on the dolls. I like to put one on their forehead for hats, and one their feet for shoes (there aren’t any separate shoes in the Halloween packets, but there are in the weather and extra clothing packets). If you are using a bunny that is using a wheelchair, place a fastener on the center of the wheel to help hold the costumes like the that incorporate the wheelchair, like the mermaid and astronaut.

After the rough side of the fasteners are in place, cover them with the soft sides. Place a costume on top of the bunny lining it up so it matches and press down. Lift up, and the soft fasteners should stay adhered the back of the costumes. Repeat for each piece of clothing!

The dolls are ready! You can adhere the dolls to a board, like I do for my calendar boards, or keep them loose so kids can move them around and play with them.

Tutorial – Making the Paper Dolls with Magnetic Sheets

If you’d like to make the bunny dolls magnetic, start out the same way by printing the dolls and costumes you want onto white cardstock. If you chose the color-your-own pages, color them in.

Next, laminate just the top of the pages! I recommend only laminating the top side because the bottom of the paper will be applied to the magnetic sheets. I found that when I laminated the pages with my thermal laminator, the clothing was not as magnetic because there were two thick layers of lamination in-between the magnets. Use a sheet of self-laminating paper and cover the top of the bunnies.

Next, “bubble-cut” around the dolls and costumes. Bubble-cutting just means not cutting directly on the actual cut line, but instead, leaving a margin around each piece. You may want to read through this section and do a test to find what way works best for you before doing all of them.

Arrange the bubble-cut dolls and costumes onto the magnetic sheets, trying to fit as many as possible. Save any large pieces of magnet scrap as they can be used for smaller pieces or saved for a different project.

Cut around the dolls and costumes, cutting along the actual cut lines this time and going through both the paper and magnetic sheet. This does require a small sharp scissors. If you find it is too hard to go through both layers at once, cut out the costumes along the line and then apply them to the magnetic sheets. Then cut them out again, just cutting through the magnet.

Some of the costumes have face openings, you can cut leave them as is or cut them out to show the bunnies face. Carefully cut them out using an X-Acto knife after they are adhered to the magnetic sheets. I colored around the opening with a black Sharpie to help the paper blend into the black magnetic sheet.

The magnetic bunnies are all set and ready to be played with. They will work on a magnetic dry erase board, the refrigerator, any thing magnetic!

Below are some of the ones I colored in before turning them into magnets!

These dolls are so fun and can be played with so many different ways! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

How to Download the Bunnies and their Costumes

These files are for personal use only. You are not permitted to sell the files or sell physical products made from the files. I hope you enjoy crafting something special. Please let me know if you have any questions :)

Download – Halloween Costumes – 4 free costumes for both Bunny Dolls and Bunny Dolls who use Wheelchairs.
Download – Bunny Paper Dolls – Bunny dolls plus clothes for the weather and fun extras like pajamas.
Download – Bunnies Who Use Wheelchairs Paper Dolls – Bunny dolls plus clothes for the weather and fun extra clothes!

If you would like the bunny paper dolls that are coloring pages, please visit this post Bunny Paper Doll Coloring Pages.

The entire collection of bunny Halloween costumes, all 21 costumes, is available in my Etsy shop. Thank you for supporting my small business!