Halloween Decorating Ideas

Happy October! Since it's only a month until Halloween, I thought I would share some home and/or party decorating ideas that I found.  It's not that easy to find Halloween items in Switzerland, since it's not a highly celebrated holiday here.  However, it seems to have gotten more popular in the last couple of years, with more stores offering Halloween items, but the selection is often limited.  One thing you can always find at this time of year are pumpkins.  I love going to the roadside stands or to the local farmer in my town to get them. And of course, they are in all of the grocery stores too. They make great decorations not just for Halloween but for Fall as well. And pumpkin soup is good too!

Since it's not always so easy to find things here, I found some simple DIY decorating ideas that are possible to make with supplies that are easily found.  Check out the ideas and links to tutorials below:

1. Spray paint pumpkins.  This is one that I made last year.  I took pumpkins and spray painted them black and silver and stacked them on top of each other.  I also found some plastic spiders and spray painted a few of them silver.  I then glued them onto the pumpkins. So easy!  You can view the pumpkins and the rest of the decorations from that party here.

2. I love this idea and have actually done it before.  Cut out mice silhouettes from black construction paper and tape them onto your steps.  Download the mice templates and see the full tutorial here.

3.  Make spooky pinwheels.  These would make a fun centerpiece on your dining room table. Make a few and put them in a vase and you have a fun decoration. I'm sure the kids will enjoy making these with you.  See the full tutorial here. And if you need striped straws, you can find them in our shop :-).

4. I love these ghostly dresses made out of chicken wire. I wish I had a yard so that I could try this out (I live in an apartment).  I think these are great! Follow the link to see the ghost that was also made out of chicken wire and placed in a forest setting. I know I would be very spooked if I saw that while walking in the forest!

5. Wrap your front door with streamers (or maybe even toilet paper would work) and cut out some eyes with regular paper to make a mummy.  This would be fun for the trick-or-treaters that come to your door.

6. Make pumpkin and ghost decorations out of balloons. This is an easy one for the kids to make.  It would be fun to make a few of these to hang around the house.  And as a bonus, they last a lot longer than real pumpkins. You can make these now and they will still be around for Halloween.  Here is the tutorial with downloadable printables for the face.

7. These are such cute painted jars.  I have lots of spaghetti sauce jars that I could use to make these. It's one of those decorations that are not spooky and I wouldn't mind having around the house for a month. At night, you could put candles inside them.  Check out how to make them here.

8. This rat and spider wreath is so creepy, but it's also pretty stylish.  Go here to find out how it's done.

I hope you enjoy making some of these projects.  I know I'm going to give a few of them a try!

Picture sources: 1. Paper & Party Love | 2. MarthaStewart | 3. Smart School House | 4. Be Different, Act Normal | 5. Honey & Fitz | 6. Catch My Party Blog | 7. Eighteen25 | 8. Catch My Party Blog