8 Fun, Easy DIY Halloween Decorations

Halloween is coming and coming fast! And that means Halloween decorations and not just any decorations but for some DIY decor. Some Halloween attire is so expensive and with the world being what it is right now, it may just be easier to make your own this year. But it is super fun!

Most materials you can get for cheap at the dollar store, or even places like Walmart and Superstores have good inexpensive materials. Making your own decorations can be so much fun, especially if you have kids who would want to do it with you. 

So here are some ideas for making Halloween decorations yourself.

Monster Jars

This one is very simple and great for getting kids involved.

Materials:

• Glass jars or milk cartons
  • Can be varying sizes or all the same
• Different colour of paints
  • Depends on what kind of monsters you want to paint
  • Making sure you have black
• Either candles or little turn on candles

Styrofoam Spiders

These spiders are very easy to make and very versatile. 

Materials:

• Black styrofoam balls
  • If you can’t find black you can always get white ones and paint them black, just adds an extra step
• Black pipe cleaners

Take the pipe cleaners and bend the last ⅓ or so downwards. Make 8 of those. Then take your styrofoam ball and stick your pipe cleaners in; 4 on each side with the bent parts pointing down.

For these spiders you can make them any colour you want, even the legs. You can put googly eyes on them and make the spiders themselves whatever size you prefer. 

String Light Ghosts

The string lights can be a little bit more expensive, but they make for great decoration and not just for the Halloween season.

Materials:

• At least one set of string lights, with just the little bulbs
  • Kind of like twinkle lights
• Some sort of white material
  • You can use tissue paper, cloth napkins, lightweight paper
  • You want something that will fall nice and not stick out pointy like
• Either black paint or a black marker
• Rubber bands
• Medium to small styrofoam balls

Get the white material and lay it out flat. If it isn’t already, make even squares no bigger than 25 cm by 25 cm. Make a whole in your styrofoam ball. I suggest making a whole at the top so the light fits in, then making a small channel so the light shines through. Wrap your material evenly on the styrofoam and poke a whole through your material, where the hole is in the styrofoam ball. Then tie them together just below the ball.

Next, slip your little ghost on the light and that’s it! If your material is a little more see through you can put two sheets instead of one together so it looks more ghosty. 

Let the material hang naturally. Draw or paint on eyes, and if you want, a mouth. If your ghosts keep slipping off you can either tape it to the light or use twist ties to tie it to the string lights. 

Paper Cutouts

Cutouts are a very creative tool that everyone goes to, strictly because you can make whatever you want. Plus, it’s really easy to make things and you don’t need to be artistic. 

Materials: 

• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Pencil or pen

Either draw or trace an image of whatever shape you want to make onto the construction paper. Then simply cut it out.

You can make whatever you want with this one, like bats, faces, even pumpkins. You can use different colours and tape things together to make a more in-depth image. The world is your oyster with this one.

Potion Bottles

This is such a fun one that will mesmerize your kids.

Materials:

• Glass or plastic bottles, even better with lids
  • Not to big or tall, but try to make sure you get a variety of sizes
• Water
• Food Colouring
• Added bonus- plastic spiders, bats, eyeballs

Take the glasses and fill them with water. Then add food colouring in and mix, so the colouring is dispersed. Lastly, add in your plastic friends, as much as you want. 

You can even make little potion labels and put them on the front of the bottle to make it even more legit.

Kids love watching the water change colour and once you add the plastic things it looks really cool. You can also make your own concoction and create a smoke look (I’ll link a tutorial for that here). Or use jello or gelatin to thicken up your ‘potion’. 

Candy Corn Vases

I love candy corn, and so this is like my favourite one. However, you can do more than just candy corn.

Materials:

• Vases or glass pop bottles of varying shape
• Spray paint
  • White, orange and yellow
• Optional- flowers to put in the vases

You can spray paint whatever pattern you like and use different colours too. Like instead of candy corn you can do purple, black and orange and just make it halloween themed.

Bloody Candles

Being the most spooky one on this list, it is also the messiest. But, it makes for a really cool decoration.

Materials:

• Red and white candles
• Lighter
• Patience!

Lay out a white candle. Light a red one and let the wax melt just a little bit. Once there’s enough wax, simply tip the red candle over the white, so the red wax drips onto the white candle. Move around the white candle as the red one is dripping to get all sides of the candle. Let dry.

That’s it! It can be frustrating waiting and sometimes it doesn’t drip how you want it, but it will still create a great pattern. Just careful not to burn yourself.

Monster Doors

This last decoration is completely based on what you want to do to your front door.

Materials:

• For faces: construction paper and scissors
• For mummies: string cloth or tule
  • There’s usually something in the halloween isle
  • If you can only find white colour. I’ll share a tip down below!
• For spider webs: you can get pull apart spider webbing in the Halloween isle

For faces on your door it is completely the same as the paper cutouts, it’s just a lot bigger. You can cover your door in poster paper to make it one colour or leave it how it is. Then cut out the faces you want. Next, simply just tape them to the door. 

For mummies, wrap your door in the cloth, then simply add eyes and if you want a mouth out of construction paper. If you were only able to get white colour and want it to be darker, steep tea in a bowl then place the cloth in the tea, and let sit for at least half an hour. Then ring out and let dry. 

For spider webs, stretch out your webbing and wrap it around your door however you want. Then, place the spiders along the door so that they hang on the webbing.

So there’s a few ideas for DIY Halloween decorations. Most are pretty easy and relatively inexpensive.

How are you decorating your house this Halloween season?