Stores are filled with mass-produced Halloween decorations that cost a fortune and may not even survive the season. Why spend a lot of money on plastic junk when you can use stuff you have lying around the house to make your own creepy concoctions? Go green this Halloween by skipping the shopping spree; have a fun-filled weekend craftactular instead.
Raid the garbage and recycling bins. What did you find? Tin cans, glass jars, plastic containers and toilet-paper rolls? Perfect. Now let’s see what Halloween goodies you can create out of these items.
Turn the tin cans into luminaries (a fancy word for candle holders) with a little paint and a hammer and nail. Use the hammer and nail to punch holes in the can. They can be random or in spooky Halloween designs like pumpkins, ghosts and cats. If that’s too hard, just punch holes around the top and bottom in a row all the way around the can, and then a few in the middle. This helps the candlelight shine through. Paint fun Halloween colors and designs on the cans with acrylic paint. Add some candles or flameless LED lights.
Halloween decorations are typically fun and just a little scary. You will see jack-o-lanterns, witches and ghosts displayed throughout neighborhoods. An alternative to these characters and their haunted settings is is to create arrangements with natural materials. Beautiful Halloween displays can be crafted from seasonal potted plants, gourds, pumpkins, berries and colorful leaves, making the entrance to your home feel warm and inviting.
An old-fashioned wheelbarrow can provide you with a wonderful setting for your Halloween display. Place boxes inside the wheelbarrow to boost the arrangement you will place on top of them. Cover the boxes with sheet moss and brightly colored leaves. Arrange pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn in a pleasing design on top of the leaves. Add branches of bittersweet vines to create trailing lines from the wheelbarrow.
Your birdbath is a charming decorative element in your garden during the warm months. For other seasons, it can be used to display beautiful arrangements. To create a natural decoration for Halloween, line the top with sheet moss and fill it with miniature gourds of various colors and shapes. You could also choose to arrange ears of Indian corn in the birdbath and tuck the dried husks among them. Another option is to place a pot of mums in the center and surround it with a mixture of gourds, seed pods and autumn leaves.
For the crafter with the green thumb who shuns everything plastic and artificial, Halloween can present a fun challenge. It’s a time when decorations turn scary and even the natural is made to look unnatural. Start collecting nature’s bounty to make Halloween crafts that are satisfying and fun. Your creations will make unusual and delightful contributions to the holiday’s ambiance.
Pumpkins and gourds are a favorite Halloween item. Whether making the traditional jack-o-lantern or a pumpkin topiary, crafters will find these items almost a must-have when decorating for Halloween. Consider painting designs onto pumpkins and stacking them up to make a centerpiece. Gourds come in many different sizes and can be adapted to a variety of characters by carving or adding such embellishments as twigs for arms or leaves for clothing. Take an especially large pumpkin, and carve it into a haunted house filled with ghosts and ghouls made from smaller gourds.
Harvest the last of your fall flowers, along with cattails, colorful autumn leaves and wildflower sprays. Dry them so they will last, and then turn them into Halloween centerpieces for your table. You can also take a hurricane lamp, put an orange or black candle in the middle and then surround it with Indian corn, cranberries or cattails.
