From slimy to sublime, eerie to elegant, tricky to tasteful, there is a wicked wealth of ways to decorate your home for the creepiest holiday of the year: Halloween. Whether you’re having crafty fun with the kids or staging a ghoulish party for children or grown-ups, we have some great ideas to share.
FREAKY KID-FRIENDLY FUN
Kids love to dive into projects that stir their creativity. Here are some amusing options.
A great project for children to sink their teeth into, these little vampires are the perfect ending for family pumpkin carving. Gather some small pumpkins, vampire fangs and sewing pins (black ones work best) and you’re ready to go. Carve out the pumpkin through a slot made just large enough to accommodate a set of fangs and remove the fleshy insides. Put the teeth in place and add the pins above to make beady little eyes. Simple and sweet with a touch of scary.
Egg Carton Bats & Leafy Ghosts
Put those empty egg carts and a few artificial maple leaves to work with this fun kids’ crafting project. You’ll need an egg carton, scissors, black paint, a paintbrush, googly eyes, glue and orange ribbon. The leaves require white paint, a paintbrush, black marker, glue and black ribbon. Cut out 3 egg carton cups for the bats, cutting the bottoms out of the 2 outside ones to create the wings. Paint them black, add the eyes to the middle cups and glue enough ribbon to hang them from a light fixture or the ceiling. Paint the leaves white on both sides (you’ll probably want to apply 2 coats of paint), draw on ghost eyes and mouths, glue on a piece of ribbon on top of each and hang the ghoulish ghosts and bats together.
Trust us on this one. Sure, it sounds yucky, and admittedly it looks pretty gross, but kids love creating these brainy cupcakes worthy of Dr. Frankenstein himself—and they do taste yummy. Use some small jars with lids, seedless raspberry jam, strawberry cake (or white batter died pink), butter cream frosting with a few drops of pink and a teeny tiny drop of black added, and a no. 5 piping bag. You can see the tutorial and the deliciously disturbing results here.
SOPHISTICATED HALLOWEEN-THEMED DECORATIONS
If you’re planning a Halloween party or just want to decorate your home with more refined trimmings, here are just a couple of the possibilities.
Leave it to Martha Stewart to come up with a way to make bats look beautifully elegant. You’ll need thick black paper, a bone folder, painters’ tape or removable hooks and a half-bat template. You can make the template using Martha’s template instructions. Print out the template then fold a piece of the black paper down the middle; place the template on the fold, and trace. Cut it out and unfold. Using a bone folder, crease the wings and fold in the opposite direction of the body fold. Poke holes in the bat’s wings and head and hang from the ceiling.
Harrowing Halloween Candle Holders
These skull-themed candle holders can each be decorated uniquely and staggered by height. The other supplies you’ll need are candle sticks, Gorilla Glue, an assortment of felt skull coasters, and materials like feathers, baubles, and sparkly trimming and tulle. Have fun with these! You’ll find full instructions, suggestions for where to purchase the items required, and images of the wonderful results here.
