Halloween: that time of year when the inner child in all of us gets to come out and play. It’s technically only one night, but Halloween takes over all of October with fall festivities, excitement, and anticipation over what to dress as, and pumpkin everything.
Of course, all of these things start to add up, and while Halloween time is super fun, it’s important to make sure the spookiest part about Halloween isn’t our low bank account balance afterwards. A nice way to save some cash is by doing DIY projects. From decorations to costumes, DIY is a great way to add a personal touch to the festivities on a low budget. Here are some cute and easy DIY ideas for the upcoming fright fest!
Decorative leaf bags
I did this a lot at my house growing up, because it’s super simple and practical! You can buy a pack of plastic leaf bags that look like jack-o-lanterns, fill them with the leaves that are lying around in your front yard, and when you tie it up, it looks like a fun jack-o-lantern to leave outside!
Painted wine bottles
There are so many possibilities here! Just start out with an empty wine bottle (shouldn’t be too hard to find, right?) and decide on a design for it. Some ideas are to make it look like a ghost, pumpkin, Frankenstein or vampire. You can even paint an orange, yellow, and white ombre to make it look like candy corn. Make multiple designs and line them up on your windowsill, or use them as a fun centerpiece.
Ghosts
I have been making do it yourself ghost crafts since pre-k, and they have always been a simple, cute, fun way to decorate for Halloween. There are a few ways to go about this, so I’ll just leave a couple here:
Footprint ghosts: all you need is some black paper, white paint, and your feet! Step into some white paint, then make a neat footprint on the black paper. Once it dries, you can draw a face on it to add some personality to it.
Paper ghosts: super simple. Take a piece of packing paper or tissue paper, ball up some more paper and stick it in the middle. Twist the paper around the ball and tie it with a rubber band or string, so that the ball is the ghost’s head and the rest of the paper is the flowing ghost body.
Costumes
Costumes can put a huge dent in our Halloween budgets, especially the overpriced pre-made costumes sold at the Halloween stores. But most of the time, we have costumes lying in our closets already without even realizing it! Pinterest is a great place to find these costume ideas, but I’ll also put a few of my favorites here:
Beanie babies: very easy, just put on a basic dress that looks like an animal, and make a tag to hang around your neck. Add some animal ears and this is a great group costume!
This is another easy costume to put together, and a funny one at that. Take a simple dress (preferably wine colored), and make a skirt with the bag in a box of wine, complete with a bow in front and the little wine spout. You can then cut out the “Franzia” label and wear it on your dress!
Have a denim shirt? That’s basically all you will need to be a great Rosie the Riveter! Grab a red bandana to wear in your hair and roll up the sleeves on your denim shirt to get into the “We Can Do It” spirit.
Food
With all fun holidays come fun holiday parties, and Halloween is certainly no exception to that. So if you’re having company over, here are some cute and simple snacks to put together that will have all of your party guests goblin up all the treats!
A great thing about these is they’re alternatives to super sugary candy, but are still cute and completely in the Halloween spirit. All you need are some bananas, clementines, strawberries, or apples, with some chocolate and/or peanut butter (and marshmallows) to go with it, and just like that you have ghosts, pumpkins, and creepy grins!
So, we all love Halloween, and it brings so many opportunities to be festive, but that doesn’t mean we have to break the bank. If you just use what you already have and a few other basics, you can have an adorably crafty and original holiday this year!