Fantastic DIY Halloween Decorations

Want to spook-a-fy your room on a budget? It’s not as difficult as one might think. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Ghost Ornaments

What you will need:

• White plastic bags (it’s okay if they have a store logo on them)

• Old newspaper or any kind of scrap paper you don’t need anymore

• Twist ties or rubber bands

• Paperclips

• A black sharpie

1. Flip the plastic bag inside out so the logo is on the inside. Now ball up your scrap paper into balls about the size of a small coconut. This will be the head of your ghost.

2. Put one ball inside each plastic bag. Pull the end of the bag tight against the ball. Position the logo to the back and make sure you smooth out the front head of the ghost as much as possible so you can draw on it later. Hold the bag in place at the base of the ball with a twist tie or rubber band.

3. Grab your sharpie and give your ghost some eyes and a mouth! Now hold the ghost from its head and pull on the part of the bag that hangs below so it straightens out. Optional: pull the ends tight and cut the handles off the bag so the ghost has an even bottom.

4. Grab a paper clip and poke one of the sharp ends into the head of ghost. Pull it through. Now you can hang it anywhere you want!

   Optional Additions: Cut a speech bubble out of posterboard and write “Boo!” on it. Then tape it to your ghost’s cheek! If you want the ghost to look more fluid, use white fabric instead of a plastic bag. In this case, you’d have to hot glue the speech bubble onto the ghost.

Pumpkin Lights

What you will need:

• Old Christmas lights: white works best, but you can use any color you want

• Posterboard

• Exacto knife or scissors

• Whatever you want to decorate your pumpkins with; orange marker, tissue paper, scrap paper, coloring pencil, glitter

• Pencil/pen

• Tape

• Twist ties or rubber bands

1. Draw pumpkins about the size of your palm or a little bigger on the posterboard. Take the exacto knife and cut out the pumpkins including the eyes and mouths. Alternatively, you can print out a picture of a jack o’lantern, tape it to the poster board, and then cut it out.

2. Decorate your pumpkin however you want: with colored pencils, markers, collage, glitter, etc. In my example photos, I used a black pen and colored pencils, collage, and paint.

3. Place one bulb in each eye and nose and tape those in place. Then rubber band or twist tie a group of at least three bulbs together for the mouth. Tape those in place.

Tips: Smaller eyes, noses, and mouths are easier to work with. Gather the lights for the mouth in between the lights for the eyes, otherwise the pumpkin will turn sideways. Check to make sure the bulbs you’re using all work!

Spider Buddies 

What you will need:

• Black paint

• Old newspaper or scrap paper

• Glue gun or tape

• Red, purple, green, or orange paint (alternatively, two beads)

1. Paint a sheet of paper black. Cut 6 thin strips off of one end.

2.  Ball up any scrap paper into the rough shape and size of spider you want. Hot glue it in the places that keep unfolding.

3. Take the sheet of black paper you painted and wrap it around the ball of scrap paper, hot gluing it in place. Be careful not to burn yourself!

4. Fold the 6 thin strips of paper you cut earlier in half both ways. These will be the legs. To help them keep in their shape, put a small drop of hot glue on each end (inside the crease) and in the middle crease. Then put another dab of hot glue on one end of the leg to stick it to the body. Make sure the crease is facing down.

5. Paint on whatever color eyes you want or glue in little beads for the eyes.

If you make any of these or come up with your own ideas, share them with us on Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook!

Thumbnail image credit.

• crafts
• diy
• diy decorations
• ghost
• halloween
• jack-o'-lanterns
• pumpkin
• recycling
• spider