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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Columbia Barnard chapter.

For the crafty among us, Halloween is more than just an opportunity to blow your monthly budget at American Apparel. Here at HerCampus, we encourage both Michael’s frequent flyers and DIY novices to cover their rooms in bats, spiderwebs, and all things autumnal. Happy craftin’!

Floating witch hats:

Just order a couple of witch hats from Amazon Prime (R.I.P. Ricky’s UWS) and suspend them from the ceiling with tape and twine. Very enchanted Hogwarts feast meets Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Huge ass wall spider web:

All you need to transform your single into am arachnid love nest is some yarn and double-sided tape. Drape your best approximation of a web and stick it up for an easy Halloween makeover. Fake spiders not required, but certainly recommend. 

Silhouette lamp shades:

Cut out a spooky black paper silhouette (bats, spiders, ghosts, etc.) and tack it on to your lamp shade for an old school lightshow. 

Glass jar lights:

If you’re like me and don’t have a lamp in your dorm room (shouts out Woodbridge’s lovely windows), just pop your spooky silhouettes, tissue paper designs or ghoulish decoupage on a glass jar, and then spark a tea candle inside. These glowing Halloween decorations are perfect mood lighting for a seance, dinner party, or Halloweekend pregame.

Illuminated ghost garland:

For the truly dedicated and or/deeply procrastinating–buy a strand of white lantern lights, and cover each lantern with white fabric tied under the “head”. Draw on eyes and a nose socket with black Sharpie for a host of light up insta-ghosts. Forget Halloween–your garland will put all the basic christmas lights in your dorm to shame all year round. 

Franzia pumpkin: 

“Slapping the pumpkin” is a time honored October tradition, like apple picking or frantically emailing your adviser for an add/drop form. For a craft that’s a little more Animal House than Martha Stewart, if you are over 21, try filling a carved out pumpkin with a bag of franzia and inserting a plastic spigot in the side for maximum flow. 

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