Need some quick Halloween decorations, that even the kids can help
with? Here are three great Halloween decorating ideas using easy to
find, inexpensive materials.

Craft Foam Creepies

Craft foam is sold in sheets at the craft store in a whole array of
colors. It is similar to construction paper, but made of thin, durable
foam you can easily cut with scissors. Trace simple Halloween shapes
onto the backside of the foam sheets and cut out. Use contrasting
colors and a glue stick to add details such as a jack o lantern face,
red eyes on a bat, or the face of a silly ghost. You can make these
cutouts as large or as small as you want. Hang them in windows or hang
them with clear thread form curtain rods, doorways, or in your front
entry. (This works really well with bats, hang them from the tips of
each wing, and one place on the body to make them appear to be flying)
These can even be used on protected porches as the foam is water
resistant.

Graveyard

A graveyard near your front walk is a creepy and creative touch to the
Halloween spirit. We used scrap pieces of plywood and siding and cut
them into rectangles with the tops rounded, like a gravestone. We
first painted them gray, then washed over them with a watery white
paint for age and spook factor. We used black paint to add amusing
names and epitaphs, such as “I.M. Gone” or “Ben Dismembered”. Screw a
wooded stake to the back and pound into the ground. I like to group
them together on an area of grass, then rope them off with chains, add
a few pumpkins (and in my neck of the woods, tumbleweeds are a nice
touch) and line the edge of your “graveyard” with lighted
jackolanterns for Hallows Eve. My kids have the lost fun with this!

Giant spiders and webs

First of all, set the stage for your spiders by picking up some
webbing…it is really cheap, and stretches a LONG way! Corners of rooms
or porches, or stretched over a door are great effects. To make the
spiders, pick up large black pom poms and large black chenille stems
from the craft store. Take 4 chenille stems and twist them together in
the middle. This creates the eight legs. Bend the stems downward about
halfway down each leg. Now use tacky glue or a glue gun (glue gun is
my choice as it sets almost instantly, but the adult must handle
this!) to secure a large pom pom in the center of the legs at the
twist to form the body. You can add google eyes as some do, but I
prefer to cut scary red eyes from felt or craft foam and glue on. Set
your spiders in their webs, and you can bend the leg tips to attach
them to a picture frame or a lamp chain. Remember, with this project,
the bigger, the better, so buy the bargest legs and pom poms you can find!

Three great projects for Halloween, make enough of any of these and
you can turn your home into a haunted house without the huge price
tag. (Don’t forget to pack them away for next year!)

Kathy Wilson is an author, columnist, and editor of The Budget
Decorator and Decorating Your Small Space. You can find thousands of
budget home decorating ideas at her website at
http://www.TheBudgetDecorator.com. Don't forget to sign up for her
free home and garden newsletter while you're there!