6 Ghoulish and Ghastly DIY Halloween Decorations

Are you looking for easy ways to creepify your house, dress your family in DIY Halloween costumes for under $10 or maybe even get inspired by some spookalicious party food ideas? We got you covered!

Instead of unloading your hard earned dollars at a big-box or craft store, make these six easy Halloween decorations at home:

Baby Mummy

Gather a doll, a roll of toilet paper, and a wagon or small chair. Wrap the baby doll in tissue paper so that only a little of the face shows through. Set the baby mummy in a wagon or a small chair near the path to your front door.

If you have extra toilet paper and more dolls, you can make more than one.

Ghost Party

Grab a box of tissues, light-colored rubber bands or white twist ties, a black pen, string, and thumbtacks.

For each ghost, ball up one tissue, then place the ball in the center of a new tissue. Twist the new tissue around the ball to form a head and secure with a rubber band or twist tie. Draw two black dots for eyes and a ghoulish mouth with the pen.

String up each ghost to your ceiling or porch with a thumb tack, which should leave a minimal mark. Hang a dozen or so ghosts at different lengths. When a breeze strikes up, the ghosts dance!

Jumping Spider

You’ll need black pipe cleaners, newspaper, a black plastic bag, duct tape, a rubber band, white paper, string, and a screw with a loop at the end to make this surprising Halloween decoration.

Start by making the spider body. Stuff your black plastic bag with newspaper and tie it firmly closed with a rubber band. Cut out white circles for eyes and glue them onto the bag.

Attach four pipe cleaners on either side of the body for legs. Poke each leg through the black plastic bag and then tape down the leg on the inside of the bag with duct tape. Bend the legs so they appear as if they are crawling.

Grab your string and tie one end to the rubber band, which should be wrapped tightly enough so tugging on the string will not undo the spider body. Screw the looped screw into your porch ceiling above your doorway.

If you don’t want to make a mark, pass the string (now attached to your spider) over a light or other fixture that looms above. Then thread the string through a nearby window, so when you loosen the string, the spider pounces down in front of your doorway. You can also rig the spider from inside your house if your front door has a window.

Tombstones

Make scary tombstones with cardboard, scrap wood, duct tape, gray paint, and a black marker.

Cut your tombstones out of a large cardboard box and secure a piece of scrap wood to the back side with duct tape so that about 6 inches of wood sticks out past the bottom edge. The wood will keep the tombstones flat and firm in case it gets windy.

Later, you can use the 6-inch stakes to secure the tombstones into your lawn. Paint the tombstones grey and let dry. Grab the marker and write R.I.P. or whatever you wish on your tombstones.

There are many scary poems you can write on your tombstones and Halloween jokes that are appropriate, too.

Scary Man

A chair and a sheet is all you need for this super scary Halloween decoration. Set a chair on your front porch or along the path that trick-or-treaters will take to get to your front door. Have someone sit on the chair underneath a large white sheet so only the feet stick out.

Is it a dummy? Is it a real person?

Do not let any skin show. Sit as still as humanly possible. When trick-or-treaters get close, make a sudden gesture — cross your legs or move an arm across your body. Anyone who thought the body was a dummy will freak out.

Flying Bats

Pull together black and yellow construction paper, scissors, scrap paper, a pen, string, and thumb tacks.

On a scrap piece of paper, draw an outline of a bat until you are satisfied with your pattern. Cut out the pattern and trace it onto your black construction paper. Cut two small yellow triangles for eyes and glue them onto your bat.

Poke a hole in the bat with the thumb tack and then thread the string through the hole. Secure to your ceiling or porch with a thumb tack. Hang at various heights for the best effect.

You can also attach all the bats to a cross made out of scrap wood and then secure the cross to the ceiling to minimize holes.

Julia Scott founded BargainBabe.com, a coupon and savings blog.