Quick & Fun Halloween Decorating

Put the ‘Boo’ Back in your Yard this Halloween: Quick, Fun and Cheap Decorating Projects

Thinking of going all out in decorating your yard for Halloween this year? There’s certainly no reason not to—Halloween decorations are inexpensive and fun to make, and the effects on others, especially young children in your neighborhood, can be fun to watch as well.

Go through the family closets and find the oldest, rattiest clothes to use for dressing scarecrows. That pair of jeans you reserve for really messy tasks like painting the garage door or hauling trash to the dump will be perfect. Then gather up some white trash bags with pull closures, some small rags and an old broom an get started building your scarecrow. Stuff a small trash bag with rags for the head. When the bag is big enough and fairly round, tie it off and draw a face on it using permanent ink markers. Attach the head to the bottom of a small broom, secure a piece of wooden doweling crosswise under the neck, then dress your scarecrow, pulling a long-sleeved shirt over the dowel “arms” and a pair of jeans or trousers over the broom handle body. You can use the same process to make ghost heads and complete their ghostly look by tying old white sheets around the base of the “neck.”

String fake cobwebs from every branch you can reach in your yard. Buy the biggest, ugliest rubber spiders you can find and hag them with clear plastic fishing line so it looks as if they are just waiting to drop on the next unfortunate person who happens to walk by.

You can also make a really scary spider: Just stuff a black plastic garbage bag with old newspapers and seal the end to make the body. Use a smaller stuffed black plastic bag for the head and old black pantyhose stuffed slightly with paper and attached to the body of the spider with tape or staples as legs. Draw a couple of eyes with bright red or green permanent markers and hang your big spider from a tall tree limb or your porch ceiling.

Turn your front yard into a graveyard by cutting cardboard or Styrofoam headstones. Paint with Fleck stone spray paint, and then inscribe them with birth and death dates and funny sayings. Cut a rectangle from the back of a jack-o-lantern, place a lighted candle inside and place the jack-o-lantern in front of the tombstone, where the candle will cast a nice eerie, flickering glow over the tombstone.

Finally, as the perfect finishing touch, place crime scene tape around the perimeter of your yard and porch. If you cannot find the tape locally, you can purchase 50 feet on eBay for under $3.00.

With just a little imagination, some home supplies and very little money you can turn your front yard into an eerie delight—and have a truly scary Halloween!

©2007, Kathy Burns-Millyard. All Rights Reserved.