Halloween is becoming more popular each year and people are going all out when decorating for this spooky holiday. There are many ways to make great Halloween decorations yourself, whether you prefer a frightening or fun approach to Halloween.
Fun Decorations
These fun decorations are great for involving kids in the Halloween festivities. With these few Halloween craft ideas, your house will be envy of the neighborhood:
To make silhouettes for your windows, use white chalk to draw on black construction or butcher paper. Some fun, easy shapes to draw and cut out could include ghosts, bats, cats (or a cat on a picket fence), jack-o-lanterns, owls, or a witch flying on a broomstick. Stick them to the inside of your windows with double sided tape. When the lights are on in your house, the silhouettes will stand out at night.
Try a new spin on the jack-o-lantern – use white pumpkins, use the stem as a nose, paint pumpkins (ghostly light blue pumpkins are fun), stack pumpkins like a snowman (either making a tall, jack-o-lantern man, or three heads on top of each other), or using turnips and gourds. When you mix these with the classic jack-o-lantern, your porch will definitely stand out.
To make your porch even more decked out, try the classic cheesecloth ghost. This is a fun project to do with kids and you can make a variety of sizes and shapes. To make each ghost, you’ll need cheesecloth, a balloon, an empty 2-liter plastic bottle filled with some rice (or anything else that will weight it down), masking tape, a wire hanger, ½ cup of liquid starch, black markers, and fishing line. Cut the cheesecloth into a three-foot square. Blow the balloon up to about 5-7 inches in diameter, knot, and place on top of the bottle. Use the masking tape to secure it to the bottom. If you’re using the wire, twist it to extend it from the sides of the bottle. Pour the starch into a large bowl and completely dip the cheesecloth in the starch, squeezing out the excess once it is drenched. Open the cheesecloth and drape it over the balloon. Let the cheesecloth completely dry. Once it has dried, use the markers to draw eyes and a mouth on the ghost, while it is still on the balloon. Remove the ghost from the balloon carefully. To hang the ghost, thread the fishing line through a hole in the top of the head and hang around the porch (or inside).
Frightening Decorations
When it comes to decorating for Halloween, some prefer to make decorations that belong in a haunted house. These creepy crafts are especially great when decorating for a party. If scary Halloween decorations are your taste, here are a couple ideas to try:
For this craft, you’ll need to purchase some tall candles or tapers, in white or off-white (off-white gives it more of an antique look), some candleholders (shop at a thrift store – tarnished brass candleholders also have an antique, haunted house look), and a red candle (this can be any size – a small votive candle would even work). The goal of this craft is make the candles appear to have blood dripping down them. To do this, put the tapers in the candlestick and place on a paper plate. Light the red candle and let it burn until some of the wax puddles around the flame. Drizzle the wax down the tapers as much or as little as you like. Once the red wax is dry, remove from the plate and put the candles wherever you want. To give an extra spooky effect, you can use fake spiderwebs around the candleholders.
To make your home look like the laboratory of a mad scientist, you can make creepy specimen jars out of produce from your local supermarket. You’ll need some interesting glass jars or vases to start with. Next, you’ll need some fruit and vegetables – you can use a fennel bulb, cabbage, cauliflower, or grapes. Place the each vegetable or fruit in the container and fill the container with water, tinted with food coloring. The fennel bulb (a heart) could have red tinted water, the head of cabbage or cauliflower (brains) in yellow water, and peeled grapes (eyes) in green tinted water. To make the jars extra creepy, make antique looking labels for each "organ".
With these ideas, you’ll be on your way to making great Halloween decorations for your home and for Halloween parties. Not only will your family and friends enjoy your decorations, but also the little ghosts and goblins who come trick-or-treating to your haunted house.