Emma's Favorite Halloween Decor

I I love ghosts of all kinds when decorating inside and out. I especially love seeing those faces of all the kids in costume light up when they see the holiday decorations. The happy faces of those kids, especially the ones in children’s costumes makes all of that work worth it! There are many different versions of them based on their spookiness and whether or not you want them to be mobile. If you just want a cute little ring of ghosties to haunt your front lawn space, you are in luck and you can control how cute or how scary they are.

• Decide how many ghosts will be in your ring. An odd number is better than an even one. (This is a decorator “rule”) We will say you pick five.

• Get your hands on some of those electrical post lights that stand as tall as you need them to or drive stakes into the ground (like you would use for fencing) and place a form of some sort on the top as the head, like foam or a plastic ball cut open to fit over the stake. Right around 24” is a great height, but you can make them as tall as you want them. Toward the end of the summer, stores tend to be getting rid of items like Shepherd’s Hooks that work well, but you may find it easier to work with them without the hook on it so you can remove it. Even dollar stores have them sometimes.

• For the body of the ghost itself, you have several choices. 1. Use cheesecloth 2. Use curtains 3. Use sheets 4. Use tablecloths 5. For diversity, use a combination of them all. Most of these can be found in thrift stores very inexpensively. When cutting them up, you don’t necessarily need to make them into circles, but you do need to make them long enough to knot them together and have some dragging over the ground for effect. Take NOTE: Soaking any materials in Rit Whitener using your washer or sink will make these ghosts glow under a black light situation. For added atmosphere, or to use these as a nighttime attraction, do this.

• When you have whitened your materials, use paint or permanent marker to add their faces, if you so desire. Make some happy, some scary, some disgruntled.

• Drape your ghost bodies over the posts. If you put lights out there to be covered, put the black lights in them. If you put posts out, run black lights to them so they will glow. There are strings of black lights available on the market and all it takes is to run them around the bases of the forms to make them show up. Then knot the very edges of each to the one next to it so they look like they are holding hands.

• On Halloween night, play ghostly sounds outside as though they are the ones making the racket. Maybe have a separate player hosting some creepy lullaby or music box type of music that they are dancing to.

These adorable little guys are not hard to throw together to have by themselves or enhance a graveyard scene, even at the last minute. Branch out and take on a project this year, start now so they are done and waiting for the season to arrive!

Emma Rae Curtis is a costume/dressing up/makeup & accessories expert. She mainly writes about Halloween but also about all things costume and dress-up related. 

pics on Sodahead

There have been many other posts on this decoration idea and that idea, but this post is geared to help you take your entire yard and transform it into one huge haunted space for the Halloween holiday. Be the attraction of the neighborhood and deck out your yard this year!

The first thing you need to do is divide up your yard into sections and assign them all a theme. It reminds me of a home with an open concept floorplan. You have to break up those spaces to identify them as different living areas. 

Even small portions can have a huge impact! But what you put in them needs to stay consistent with that common theme. You can put witches in one section, a graveyard in another, and vampires or scarecrows in another. The list is neverending, really. The web is a great place to gain some inspiration.

Now, carefully plan what props you will fill those spaces with. Based on your budget, will you purchase your decorations or make them? As Halloween approaches, there are outlet stores that move into areas all over, making unique purchases an easier thing to do.

Maybe this year you won’t be able to do everything you want to, but you can add to it next year. And the option to make your props is not a bad one, it is simply a little time consuming. But if you are handy and enjoy making things yourself, take on some projects! Just remember, if you want your yard to look authentic and transformed, you need to make sure your props look realistic. When they look cheesy and fake, it will just make people laugh.

 

Lighting is very important in setting the mood. It has to be just right or it can be under lit and ruined or over exposed and ruined. Just the correct amount has to be applied for it to look right and have that creepy vibe. Take pictures, if you need to, of the before and after so you can study them before the big night and fine tune and changes you need to make before then. Use flood lights and fog for separate spaces. Different colors are better for different things.
Blue:

• Point blue flood lights into the fog from your fog machine.
• Use blue flood lights to light a graveyard scene.
• Blue flood lights are great to use in haunted houses.

Green:

• Green works for alien scenes.
• Great for swampy and marshy scenes.
• Use green for a mad scientist’s lab.

Red:

• Red works well for devilish, vampire, and witch themes.

Yellow:

• Yellow is as close to amber as you get in lighting.
• Use to highlight your pumpkin patch or corn field.
• Use for lighting at a Halloween party.

The use of black lights can be fun too, especially if you are incorporating ghosts into your design. play around with Rit whitener and black lighting projects! And don’t forget to light up your pumpkins! They count as lighting!
  

Don’t forget your door and porch. They tend to get lost in the process, but make it a part of the fun. Stack skulls around the door and get a freaky doorknocker, or order one of those faux stone archways. Even a wreath form wrapped in a black feather boa with crows perched over your porch makes it a little more festive. Just make it fun!

 

There is a yard that has been scaring people for years and they don’t display all the same props every year. They rotate them based on the theme they are going for. One year may be a zombie theme with all sections based on zombie things. The next may be ghosts and gouls. Then scarecrows and the pumpkin patch. They have different elements to display, but they stick to that certain theme. They are a great source of inspiration!

Now, go sit down and start planning your next yard haunt! Now is the perfect time to begin some of those spooky projects! Happy haunting!

Emma Rae Curtis is a costume/dressing up/makeup & accessories expert. She mainly writes about Halloween but also about all things costume and dress-up related.

No matter what the government says, it’s obvious that the economy is still suffering and money just doesn’t get you as far as it used to. As we all know, everything costs money and fall is one of the biggest times of the year to spend money. With the kids going back to school and having to spend a small fortune for their new supplies, the last thing you have spare money for is a Halloween costume.

The good news is that you can make some great Halloween costumes with the supplies you have in your home, meaning it will cost you nothing to get your kids dressed up for the 31st of October. Plus it can be a fun project to do with your kids.

A Roman or Greek citizen is a fun, easy project to do with the kids. To make your Greek Halloween costume, any size of white bed sheet will work well for this do-it-yourself project (though the bigger the kid, the bigger the sheet that is recommended). With some safety pins and any kind of sandal, it’s an easy task to dress them in a toga like the real Romans used to wear. Add some rope around the waist and cut up a decorative garland for a laurel wreath for their head and you’ve got yourself a free, easy Halloween costume. 

For those who are the fans of “The Office”, a popular costume taken from the comedy television show is “Three Hole Punch Jim (or insert your child’s name here)”. There isn’t a costume that gets simpler or freer than this one: dress your kids up in normal clothes, then cut three big circles out of printer paper and tape them on one side of your child. Voila! Three Hole Punch (insert your child’s name here)!

If you need more ideas, a simple internet search will yield more ideas and suggestions for making free, great costumes for your kids’ next Halloween.

Emma Rae Curtis is a blogger, researcher and Halloween enthusiast! She writes all about Halloween parties, costumes and of course, decor.

When looking to spruce up the interior of your home with some holiday glamour, if you don’t have a ready arsenal of decorations, things can get expensive. Unless, of course, you are creative with the use of the items you already have around your house. 

For instance, the blogger who created the Halloween style living room pictured above simply threw a blanket over a chair, added a pumpkin here, a few candles, and accented the room with dye-cut owls, cheesecloth and some leaves. With such simple additions, any of us could add a little holiday pizzazz to any room, for a small amount of money. In fact, you could decorate your living room for the holiday for under $20.

Here’s How

1.    Pumpkins. You can add them to a mantle, a doorstep or a window for that instant fall look. For added flair, paint the pumpkins to match your existing décor, or add ribbons and lace to for a more pulled together look. They aren’t expensive and can be used later in the season to carve into jack-o-lanterns, saving you money. If you have pumpkins from your garden, that’s even better since there’s very little out of pocket expense.

2.    Black silhouettes. Cut or print out large Halloween shapes such as witch hats, jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, or werewolf silhouettes. You can frame these in black picture frames, attach them to a window or mirror or use them as stencils to paint a temporary scene onto a wall. You can pick up large pieces of paper for very little money.

3.    Drape fabric. Add black throw pillows, blankets, sheets, cobwebs or cheesecloth to any place in your room that needs a little extra holiday something. Most of us already have fabric and pillows around, and cheesecloth and cobwebs only cost a few dollars.

4.    Candles. Fill a bowl with candles, cover a fireplace mantle with groupings of candles, or place a large black candelabrum on the table. These everyday pieces easily transition from Halloween and then back after the holiday. Candles are very inexpensive, especially if you make your own or purchase the unscented kind.

5.    Books. Many of us have children’s books, encyclopedias or other books lying around taking up space that we no longer use. Why not cut out a few images of spiders, coffins, witches or candy for framing for instant holiday artwork?

If you are light on funds this fall, that does not mean you can’t create a beautifully decorated holiday ambiance at your house. Being creative and adapting things that you have on hand work well for saving you money at the holidays, and this also works for costumes for children. With a few simple tweaks, you can use readily available, inexpensive items to get the Halloween vibe you are after.  

Emma Rae Curtis is a blogger, researcher and Halloween enthusiast! She writes all about Halloween parties, costumes and of course, decor.