Homemade Halloween Decorations to use Indoors
From 3arf
Halloween is fun time of year when people can get creative with spooky decorations. Stores carry everything you need to create the perfect haunted house effect. Why spend all that money when you can createhomemade decorationsquickly and easily? There are many ways to use stuff you already have in your home:
- Haunted room. You can make any room in your home instantly haunted looking simply by covering some of the furniture with old sheets (white). You can place a large doll in a chair and then cover it with a sheet, creating the look of someone under the sheet (a large stuffed animal works well also). Leave the lights off in the haunted room and use candles to add to the spooky atmosphere. You can also place cobwebs (see below) in different places throughout the room.
- Cobwebs. Instead of buying spiderwebs at the store, make your own usingcheesecloth(available in most grocery stores). Stretch, rip and cut the cloth and then drape over furniture, window frames, plants, light fixtures and anything else you want to look old and dusty. Hang some up in the corners of rooms and put a fake spider in them for added creepiness.
- Witch's potions. All you need for this one is several small jars with cork tops, water and food coloring. If you want to use these as party favors, then use Kool-Aid and label the jars with spooky names like "Bat's Blood" or "Zombie". Hint: you can find perfect jars for this decoration in the craft section of most stores. Labels can be made with strips of masking tape and permanent marker.
- Specimens in jars. Take some old canning jars and fill them with water, then add some food coloring to create a yellowish green effect. Add various things to the water like flower pods to create the illusion of diseased body parts and other creepy things. Place these jars in dimly-lit areas of the room.
- Ghosts. These are easy to make simply by placing an old sheet (make sure the sheet is thin so it will not weigh the balloon down) over an inflated balloon. Please note that you may have to cut the sheet in half for smaller balloons. These "ghosts" are great for placing in a dimly lit hallway, the dark corners of rooms and even on the front porch! You can draw faces on the sheets with permanent marker, to add to the fun. You can also stretch out cheesecloth and use that to cover the balloons.
- Creepy sounds. This one is so easy; record yourself screaming, rattling objects like a chain, a creaky door opening and then closing, and various other sounds around your home. There are so many sounds that can scare the pants off people. Other examples include growling, door slamming and wind blowing (fan). Download the sounds to your computer and then copy them to a disc to give as a party gift.
Do not let scary prices spook you away from decorating your home for Halloween. Get creative and make your own creepy decor out of simple household items. Remember that they say real life can be scarier than fiction!
