Halloween is definitely one of our favorite holidays and since buying our first house this year, we've really been trying to find creative, inexpensive ways to decorate! Here are the 5 I'm going to try!
1. Pumpkin Succulent Planter
If you’re a plant lover, here’s a quick and easy way to incorporate succulents and cacti into your fall decor. Use a (faux is best) pumpkin as a planter! The photo is a Cinderella pumpkin because they’re usually wide enough to make a great shallow planter.
Directions - Cut off the top and hollow it out like you would when making a jack-o-lantern.
- Poke some small holes in the bottom for drainage.
Fill it with a variety of succulents and some extra soil or sand.
Pro Tip - Layer cacti and different types of succulents. Since the fuzzy cacti looks like a spider nest you can some plastic Halloween spiders. They can easily be removed to transition it into November.
2. Floating Hands
You can turn clear plastic gloves into severed hands, and then place them around your house, sneak them into a chip bowl, or even make a garland out of hands. Whenever possible, use a fake hand to shake hands with arriving guests, and then release the hand and feign dismay.
Directions
- Fill a plastic glove with tissue paper, popcorn, or small shredded paper waste. You can also open up the gloves and fill them with freshly mixed JELL-O, for jiggly, realistic-feeling hand.
- Tie the open end of the glove with a clear elastic band to secure its contents.
- If you want to hang your hands, slide a paperclip through one loop of the elastic band.
Pro Tip: You can fill the plastic glove with shredded red scrapbook paper to create a “bloody hand,” or tan or brown scrapbook paper to create a more realistic-looking hand. You can also fill these hands with candy corn to create Halloween-themed treat bags.
3. Giant Spiders
Spiders fit right into a spooky Halloween theme. You can transform a few black trash bags into a giant spider that fits on your front porch, or up in a tree. You can also make multiple giant spiders and cluster them across the front and sides of your home.
Directions
You need nine black trash bags and stuffing such as newspaper, left over packing materials, or even leaves.
- Fill one trash bag with stuffing and tie it closed to create the spider’s body.
- Hold the second trash bag on its side and fill the length with stuffing.
- Wrap the empty bag around the stuffing several times, so that it looks like a spider’s arm, and secure it with a tie.
- Repeat this for the other seven legs.
- Use a glue gun to secure the legs to the body.
Pro Tip: You can cut off the bottom of Styrofoam cups and glue them onto the body to make eyes.
4. Ghost-Lit Walkway
If you have a collection of milk jugs in your recycling bin, you can create a ghost-lit walkway that your trick-or-treaters will love. Look online to get inspirations for designing your ghosts’ faces. The Scream mask makes an instantly recognizable, scary ghost face that you can easily replicate on your milk jugs.
Directions
For this project, you need several milk jugs, some black construction paper, and enough artificial candles to fill the jugs.
- Wash and dry each milk jug.
- Once dry, use a knife to cut a small hole in the bottom of each jug.
- Make ghost faces for each jug by cutting out a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth from the black construction paper.
- Turn the jug so that the handle faces the back.
- Glue the faces onto the front of the jug and place an artificial candle inside.
- Line the jugs along your walkway and turn the candles on. The jugs light up, illuminating the faces.
Pro Tip: You can also use white Christmas lights to light up the ghosts. Line the ghosts along the pathway, and insert a handful of the string lights inside each jug.
5.Backyard Cemetery
This classic Halloween decoration idea turns your yard into a creepy cemetery. Use reclaimed materials to create a free graveyard. To create your haunted cemetery, cut different shapes out of cardboard and paint them to look like aging tombstones. Once they dry, you can arrange them on the lawn to look like a miniature graveyard.
You can also use the tombstones to denote a haunted pathway for trick-or-treaters. As they approach your front door, they have to pass by the tombstones, making for a thrilling Halloween nighttime walk.
Directions
- Flatten several shipping boxes.
- Use a Sharpie to draw tombstone shapes. You can make a few rectangular, cross, and oval tombstones to give my graveyard some variety.
- Cut the shapes out of with a pair of scissors.
- Paint the shapes a dark grey and allow the paint to dry.
- Once dry, add on sayings like “R.I.P” to the front of each tombstone.
- Glue a wood or plastic yard stake to the back of the tombstone and plant it into the ground.
By using real wood, you can partially waterproof the tombstones, so they last for more than one Halloween season. The project works best if you use thin pieces of composite wood, which you can buy at any home improvement store. The thin pieces are easier to cut and stand up better in the grass.
Pro Tip: You can blend white paint onto the edges of the tombstone, or glue on some artificial moss, found at craft stores, to make them look more aged and authentic.
Do you have a favorite creative DIY Halloween decoration? Leave it for me in the comments!
-Erica
コメント