How to Make Halloween Wall Decorations

Even if you can resist it during the rest of the year, something about Halloween says make your own decorations. Follow the steps below to turn your rec room into a haunted house or party room. If you're not having a party, you can still use these techniques to turn your front hall into a spooky reception-spot for neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Since Halloween passes quickly, these steps will give you easy-up-easy-down wall decorations, as big or as small as you want.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Kraft or butcher paper on a roll Tempera paint (orange and black; if your paper is brown, get white tempera paint, too) Big and small brushes Stapler Masking tape Scissors Pencil Metal clothes hangers Picture hangers or removable wall hooks (like 3M brand) Old sheets or shower curtains or disposable white paper or plastic party tablecloths from the dollar store String or ribbon Glitter, glow-in-the-dark, or fluorescent tempera paint (optional) Pre-cut decorative shapes from the craft store (if you lose your artistic nerve!)

Making Murals

1. Decide how much space you want to cover, and choose a workspace. You may decide that dining room table size murals fit your scheme just fine. If you would like to decorate whole walls, space like the basement or garage floor lets you work fast without making a huge mess.

2. Cut sheets of paper the size of your murals. Test-mount a sheet of paper on a wall with masking tape. That way, you'll know how much tape you need to put your decorations up quickly.

3. Choose the painting strategy you prefer. You can paint decorations right on your big mural sheets using your big and small brushes. Or you can paint some extra sheets of paper with orange, black or white paint, cut them in Halloween shapes and staple them onto your mural sheets. For example, paint a sheet of paper orange with a big brush. Let it dry and cut out a dozen pumpkins of different sizes. Dab in eyes, noses, mouths, and stem ends with black paint on a small brush. Slap white paint on a big sheet of paper with a big brush. Let it dry and cut out a big ghost. Add big, scary black eyes and a howling mouth with black paint.

4. Locate patterns for Halloween shapes via free online clip art websites if you're not completely confident of your artistic abilities. Remember, though, that big decorations don't have to be perfect. You can tune up details with a scissor snip or two, and it's a rare trick-or-treater--or party guest--who will comment that your witch's broom doesn't look aerodynamically sound.

5. Use precut shapes from the craft store if you want a little more precision. Staple them to your large mural sheets, and you're ready to go. Get several murals out of one set of shapes by going negative: trace your shapes in random or orderly patterns on several mural sheets and fill in the outlines with your paints and small brushes. Add some glitter, glow-in-the-dark or fluorescent features, and let your murals sparkle or glow in low light.

Going 3-D on Your Walls

1. Make a ghost family to decorate your walls. Bend your metal hangers in circle-shapes (ghost heads). Cut a small hole in the center of each old sheet or shower curtain. Put the hanger-hook through the hole. Gather sheet(s) at the bottom of the hanger-circle and tie with string or ribbon--old neckties or scarves can add even more personality to your ghost necks.

2. Use your black paint on a small brush to add eyes and mouths to your ghost faces. You can add a winking eye, kissy-mouth lips or a pirate patch and mustache for a silly ghost--the possibilities are endless.

3. Provide wall hangers for your ghosts. One "no marks" strategy is to retire pictures you have already hung to another room for the holiday. Use the remaining picture-hangers as ghost hangers. You can also check the hardware store for removable "no mark" hooks. These are usually plastic, with a stretchy tape to pull when you want to take the hook down. Store hooks with your other decorating supplies--they can be re-used with new stretchy tape strips and are very convenient if you decorate frequently for holidays.