How to Make Decorations Cheaply for Halloween Parties

Decorating for Halloween can be fun and quite inexpensive by using things you already have around the house or items you can find cheaply at yard sales and thrift stores or on sale right after the Halloween season.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Hot glue gun
• Scissors
• Tape
• Tacks
• Old Clothing
• Scrap Wood
• Hammer
• Nails
• Staple Gun
• Scrap cloth
• Newspaper
• Old Costumes

1. 
    
   Set up a cemetery scene

   Create a graveyard or cemetery scene with a few old scraps of wood, some silver and black spray paint, a skeleton head, fake spider web, a shovel, a pair of gloves, a tree branch and little time to put it all together. This project takes about a couple of hours which includes taking the time to paint the headstones.

2. 
    
   Floating eerie head

   Create a floating head with a Styrofoam head, some gauze and some acrylic paint, fishing line and a cup hook to hang from the ceiling. This head can be used indoors or outdoors as long as it doesn't get wet as the paint is water based.

3. 
    
   Skeleton Grim Reaper

   Make yourself a "Skeleton Date". This guy was created using a pair of old overalls, a long sleeve shirt, a full face mask, a foam scythe, and basic thin wood frame and a little rope attached in places to the skeleton and to a door. When the door was opened his head would bob and his arm would wield his trusty scythe.

4. 
    
   A witch adorns a wall next to a standing Skeleton Dummy

   Use plastic or cardboard cutouts to dress up walls and to help give an eerie effect when lit with colored lights.

5. 
    
   Sleeping Deadly Beauty!

   A girl dummy was stuffed and laid on a sofa and lit with an eerie green light. When stretched out on the sofa she appeared to be sleeping and gave a very scary effect in the dimly lit room. Her head was made with a flocked Styrofoam head, I used makeup to paint on her face and then it was hot glued to a stuffed black turtle neck. A pair of stuffed black corduroy overalls were used as her body and gloves were stuffed and attached by safety pins to her long sleeved shirt. I used balled up newspaper to stuff her to make her light weight and easy to move around.

6. 
    
   Farmer John Stalks The Woods

   This eerie farmer was put together by using safety pins to pin together his plaid shirt to a pair of old overalls. His ghastly head was pinned to the shirt and the shirt and overalls were stuffed with balled up newspaper for a light-weight effect. His neck was ensconced with a noose and he was hung from a tree so that his feet (complete with work boots attached with pins to his pants) just touched the ground. As the wind moved his body, his feet scraped on the ground and gave him an eerie moving effect as his arms, (complete with work gloves stuffed and attached to his long sleeve plaid shirt with safety pins) swung free in the breeze.
   
   He could give you the "shivers" from a distance as he moved with the slightest of breeze.

7. 
    
   Decorating a wall

   This wall and table scene was simple to do using cardboard cutouts, decor items from other Halloween parties and a plastic wall torso that glows eerily in any black light (wall torso was purchased at a local Spencer Gift store and has been used for many parties).
   
   The wall was lit from above with a few different colors of lights including a black light used to light the wall torso.

8. 
    
   Setting up a table scene.

   This table scene, complete with a woman's head and a vicious rat in a cage, was set up on an old dresser, covered with some vintage gold velvet cloth, lit with colored lamps and a bowl of candy was placed amid the weirdness for the guests to choose from as they dared.

9. 
    
   Setting up a wall scene.

   This is the beginning of a wall scene. The skeleton is a cardboard cut out completed with a plastic and foam scythe attached to the wall. The wall torso was set into an old frame and the inside of the frame was covered with black velvet (around the wall torso) so that it helped to set the wall torso apart from the frame when its glowing eeriness was lit with a black light.

10. 
     
    A Hapless Minion Goes for a Ride through the Cemetery.

    A minion or demon has been run over and tied to a rope to be pulled around the cemetery by the Devil on his lawn mower. His bottom have (feet and legs, are lodged under the lawn mower as the top half is pulled around on a rope). This macabre scene was created by stuffing a long sleeve shirt lightly with balled up newspaper and attaching a full face mask with safety pins to the collar of the shirt. The bottom was tied off by a rope and attached to the back of the Devil riding lawn mower and lit from above with red and green lights.

11. 
     
    The Devil Did It!

    The bottom half of the Minion can be seen haplessly stuck under the lawn mower as the Devil happily rides through his cemetery on his defunct lawn mower.

12. 
     
    Cage of Despair and the Wheel of Death

    This hapless Skeleton has been attached to a Wheel of Death as he is spun at will by the guests who happen by his Cage of Despair!

13. 
     
    Cemetery of Despair

    A little bit of imagination and a few hours of time created this Cemetery of Despair for a Pre-teen Halloween Party. When it was lit with eerie green, yellow, red, orange and blue lighting the Cemetery came alive with ghostly ghouls (friends dressed in costume)and when added with the eerie sound effects from a hidden stereo system, if provided for a Scary Good Time for this party to remember!

Tips & Warnings

• Add lots of people dressed in costume to scare the guests at your party as they explore the cemetery, (if they dare).
• Add up and down lighting to highlight scenes throughout for added spookiness.
• Add spooky sounds from a hidden stereo source to add creepiness to an otherwise spooky cemetery.
• Add some dry ice or a fog machine to create an extra special eeriness to your cemetery.
• Make sure you use lots of safety pins and hide them as well as you can under the clothing you are pining for you dummies especially if they will be placed outside in the wind to be sure that don't fall apart before your party is over with!
• Using newspaper in dummies outside for light weight floating is a good idea, but if they will be outside in the rain or damp weather you may want to consider stuffing them with something more substantial like pillow stuffing so that they don't mat down with water and ruin the look of your dummy.
• If using dry ice for special effects in a bubbling cauldron or spooky cemetery, be sure to wear protective clothing and keep it well away from your party guests!