By Marisa Morrison
As the month of October draws nearer to the end, the arrival of Halloween creeps closer and closer. This year, of course, celebrators will need to be more creative in their endeavors to show their holiday spirit while abiding to safety guidelines. Though thankfully, we can still enjoy the creative side of the season while remaining mindful of the times by coming up with and creating artistic and affordable DIY decorations and activities at home.
Jack-o-Lantern Basket
One of the most common and classic Halloween DIY decorations that pop up on the front doors of common households is the jack-o-lantern. Nothing says Halloween like the traditional scary and artistic carvings of the orange pumpkin, but how about a pumpkin candy basket? By carving into the center of a pumpkin and hollowing out the insides and complementing the hole with a rope tied around the opening, you can insert any candy of your choosing as a creative way to dispense candy and treats for your friends and family. It can also be used as a simple table centerpiece, filled with not just candy but green slime that oozes out or filled with decorative candles to make a mini light box.
Candy Dispenser
How about a candy dispenser wreath for those safe-distancing trick-or-treaters? By making a paper cut-out of the front of a pumpkin with a hollow opening or hole in the front, and by attaching the front of the cut-out to a chalkboard with a nail for hanging on walls, you can create a face-like pumpkin holder that can be filled with candy, similar to the pumpkin candy basket. You can even draw a face on the front by putting eyes on the top above the hole and any other creepy features.
Pumpkin Tower Topiary
Another idea regarding the use of pumpkins could be in the creation of a pumpkin tower topiary. By using four or more cheaply priced medium sized foam pumpkins, you can stack one on top of the other and keep them glued together using a sturdy thin stick that goes down the middle of all the pumpkins. Feel free to decorate the pumpkins with spooky stickers, spray paints, and for extra flair, find jack-o-lanterns with dim lights inside for a glow in the dark surprise.
Haunted Gingerbread House
As an adaptation from the traditional Christmas sugar-filled treat the Gingerbread house, you can build, create and decorate your own haunted eerie haunted house version. Typically, gingerbread house-making pieces can be bought at local groceries stores or mega-marts with decent prices like Wal-Mart, and can be constructed simply by using frosting like in a regular gingerbread house treat. With an extra twist, you can purchase multiple different shades of dark frosting to cover up the walls and roof of the house, and you can also buy halloween candies like sweets representing ghosts and ghouls, or neutral colored gummy drops and other sweet treats to spook-ify your house.
Eye Pops
Eye pops can easily be made from the frightfully decorated versions of cake pops. Once the cake has been baked, section out small individual squares of cake and roll them into a sphere shape. Once mounted on a straw or plastic thin stick, dip the cake into a bowl of melted white chocolate. Once the chocolate has melted on the cake, you can decorate the sphere with red and black edible markers to create the veins on an eye and the pupil itself. To get even more creative, you can also choose to use M&M’s for the pupil of the eyes.
The holidays can be a fun yet inexpensive way to get creative and inspired with easy to make and create DIY decorations, which add a fun and frightful flair to any Halloween party. These small tips can spawn the most intricate looking exteriors and interiors that can easily make your house represent your holiday spirit.
