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75 Easy DIY Halloween Decorations That Are Wickedly Creative

Not to mention scary good.

Brian Woodcock

When you think of Halloween, easy Halloween costumes and the best Halloween candy you can't wait to scarf down are usually the first things that come to mind. But just like it's the one time of the year when you can dress up in your favorite funny DIY Halloween costume, why not also get creative with DIY Halloween decorations for your home? These creative ideas will ensure that every inch of your house will look unique and festive this season—not to mention scary! An added bonus - many of these ideas or cheap to make and some or seasonal enough that you can keep them around through Thanksgiving.

We've included ideas you can use for both inside and outside of your home. Dress up your porch with spooky Halloween wreaths, witch brooms on the door, or oversized spiders that will wow your party guests. Want to fill up every room of your house with wickedly creative Halloween crafts? We've got ideas for everything from Halloween Mason jars to larger, more challenging crafts, like wall hangings. If you don't feel like taking on the task alone, get your little ghouls and goblins involved in the crafting—there are plenty of simple Halloween crafts for kids here, too.

So prepare to become the ghostess with the mostess and treat your house to one, or more, of these DIY Halloween decorations this year. Just don't be surprised when you become the talk of the neighborhood.

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Leaf Motif Pumpkins

Great trick-treaters and well-wishers with a wheelbarrow stuffed full of leaf motif and undecorated pumpkins.

To make:

Decoupage Leaves: Cut out leaves and flowers from new or vintage wallpaper or wrapping paper. Decoupage to pumpkins using Modge Podge.

Outlined Painted Leaves: Use a leaf-shaped stencil to paint fall colored leaves on green, blue, or white pumpkins. Once dry, use a white paint pen to outline the leaves and add veining and other decorative details.

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Etched Vine Topiary Pumpkin

This trio is the perfect sophisticated decor for greeting guests to your front door. Place directly on the porch or layer on a vintage ladderback chair with different color plaid blankets.

To make: Purchase one large, one medium, and one small pumpkin (any color combo works) that stack nicely. Remove the stems from the large and medium pumpkin. Lightly sketch a vine pattern on a pumpkin with a pencil. Use a linoleum carving tool to etch out the pattern. Once complete, attach red berries or beads with hot glue.

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Bittersweet Wrapped Pumpkin

This simple craft, which is perfect for decorating your fall table, only takes three supplies and just a few minutes to make. If you can't find bittersweet vine, try using grapevine and attaching berries with hot glue.

To make: Wrap white pumpkins with bittersweet vine, holding it in place with t-pins and hot glue.

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Wine Bottle Candlesticks

An eerie flicker is a must at any Halloween gathering. Paint wine bottles with matte-black spray paint. Once dry, insert an orange taper candle in each opening.

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Bushels-of-Fun Halloween Party

Hang round wood cutting boards that have been transformed into pumpkins with the help of orange wood stain, paper leaves, and pipe cleaner tendrils at your family-friendly affair. A candy cane garland is fashioned from paper plates that have been painted with stripes of orange and yellow craft paint. Display a seasonal arrangement in a vintage metal container and add height to the buffet with mini hay bales and wood crates.

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Bubbling Cauldron

Easily add spooky fog by simply adding dry ice (available in grocery stores) and a little water to a cast-iron Dutch oven.

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Horror Novel Door

Long before scary Halloween movies were made, people were getting chills from frightening novels. So why not incorporate these spooky classics right onto your Halloween decor?

Make the Book Door : Cut long, thin rectangular pieces of differing colored kraft paper (we used red, gray, and black). Draw titles of books on the paper. Outline letters with gold paint pens. Fill in outline with paint pen or gold acrylic paint. Attach to door with double-sided tape. Add large bushel basket and buffalo-check doormat.

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Creepy Spiderweb Wall

Add layers of creepiness to a Halloween buffet with sticky looking spider webs and eerie black painted branches. Simply stretch fake spider web material across the buffet wall, wrapping it around and though branches that have been spray painted black.

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Silhouettes Party Buffet

Spooky silhouettes cut from black craft paper add creepy character to this Halloween buffet spread. Crows adorn an oversize mirror, owls stand watch over the food, and hands try and break free from a layer cake that is topped with crumbled cookie "dirt" and crawling with creepy plastic spiders.

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Spiderweb Cake

Adding an easy decoration to a store-bought cakes will make your guests think you put in a lot of effort. Simply transfer white frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small tip and pipe onto cake in a random pattern so that it resembles spiderwebs. Top with plastic spiders.

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Spooky Tattered Curtains

Dotted Swiss fabric turns eerie when transformed into a torn and tattered curtain. Serve sinister lychee eyeball punch in a vintage battery glass and scatter silhouettes of rats, made from black craft paper, around the display.

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Vintage Harvest-Inspired Door

Your decor doesn't have to be super scary. Pretty vintage pumpkin and harvest prints will still conjure up feelings of Halloween.

Make the Harvest Door: Download fall-themed vintage seed packets and print on 8 1/2- by 11-inch cream-colored paper. Adhere to door with double-sided tape. Add vintage crate planter and pumpkin doormat.

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Paper Silhouette Decor

Liven up a plain white mantel with layers of chilling Halloween-themed silhouettes made from black and red craft paper. The matron of the house dons an oversized paper witch hat, while extended family members carry pickaxes and show off bloody vampire teeth.

Bats fly around the scene and land on a garland made from black cording. Red flames lap from the fireplace while coiled snake andirons stand guard. Create a pumpkin cluster by cutting out silhouettes of family members. Attach them to a pumpkins with Mod Podge and trim with black cording or sewing trim.

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Giant Balloon Spiders

What's the opposite of curb appeal? That's what you'll get when you place an oversize arachnid on your front door.

Make the spider:

Make the body: Blow up one large black balloon for the body and
one smaller black balloon for the head. Tie the two balloon knots together to form the spider.

Make the legs: Wrap eight lengths of unfurled wire hanger or 12-gauge craft wire with black faux fur, holding in place with hot-glue. Twist ends of four lengths together, creating bundles of legs. Repeat with remaining four lengths.

Assemble the spider: Wrap a black pipe cleaner around twisted ends of leg bundles. Wrap pipe cleaner around "neck" of spider where balloons are tied together. Wrap fishing wire around leg to hang.

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Effortlessly Eerie Living Room

These decorating tricks are so easy, it's frightening. Take a page out of Miss Havisham's book and use sheet-draped chairs to give your room the look of ruin. Then, string a cheesecloth "cobweb" across a mirror and secure curly willow branches in candlesticks with museum wax.

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Set the (Crime) Scene

Time's a ticking! Take a cue from the first Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret of the Old Clock, and deck the walls with new, vintage, and DIY'd clocks and keys. (Psst: Can you spot the ones made of paper?) For another thematic touch, decoupage pumpkins with photocopied pages from the series.

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Paper Candy Corn Door

Can't figure out what to put on your door? Get inspired by your favorite Halloween sweets—like candy corn.

Make the Candy Corn Door: Create a candy corn-inspired "quilt." Paint wide stripes, using acrylic paint (we used orange, mustard, cranberry, and gray), on thick artist's paper. Once dry, cut into equal-size triangles. Cut a 2-inch paper trim in a corresponding color. Attach to door using double- sided tape. Add whitewashed woven planters and "Lobster Rope" doormat.

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Cameo Cookie Display

Give treats the scary treatment. Display Cameo cookies in a wood box filled with store-bought Spanish moss. Nail a tag made from torn paper and stamped with a spooky crow silhouette to the box. Stamp glassine bags with a spider so guests can take cookies to enjoy later. To make the cookies, use a Cameo silhouette-shaped cookie cutter to cut the Cameo outline from slice-and-bake sugar cookie dough; bake as directed. Once cool, apply white royal icing to the portrait and "frame," then coat with sparkling black sanding sugar, shaking off any excess.

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Morgue Drawer Door

Enter if you dare! This door decoration is perfect for anyone who's looking to send chills down their guests' spines.

Make the Door: Attach three precut 20- by 30-inch pieces of foam core together with spray adhesive. Attach a piece of black paper, cut to size, to the top piece of foam core using spray adhesive. Insert the rectangular piece of two 6-inch stainless steel T-hinges between the first and second pieces of foam core on one of the short sides; "screw" in place. Place a 6 1/2-inch handle on the opposite side; "screw" in place. Cover exposed edges of the foam core with silver duct tape, folding any excess to the back. Make two more doors.

Adhere to house door with heavy- duty self-adhesive Velcro. Cut five coffin shapes from black and gray kraft paper. Paint letters on gray coffins with red acrylic paint to spell "morgue" and attach to black coffins with double-sided tape. Hang a plastic chain above the door and attach coffin cutouts with hot-glue. Add plastic pedestal planter painted Titanium Silver by Rust-Oleum and "Swiss Cross" doormat.

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Spider Wreath

We get the creepy crawlies just looking at this spider web wreath. Isn't that the feeling you want all of your Halloween decorations to drum up?

Make the Wreath: Tie six pieces of white string across a 14-inch foam wreath form, making sure to loop each one at the midway point of the first piece attached to create a central point. (This is the base of the web and should have 12 "spokes.") Tie a long piece of string to the center point; weave and loop from the center out to create the web. If you run out of string, tie another piece to the end and continue weaving. When you reach the wreath form, tie off at your ending point. Move the twine up and down to create uneven gaps in the web. Wrap the wreath form with white burlap ribbon and attach faux spiders with hot-glue. Loop a piece of white burlap ribbon around the form to hang.

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Broomstick Door Décor

Welcome fellow witches with this coven-inspired broomstick door idea. It's really simple to pull off if you're looking for a last-minute Halloween design.

Make the Door: Drill a small hole in the handle of two large outdoor brooms. Hammer five small nails in front door. Hang two brooms, right sides up, through holes. Hang a third large broom and two small "witches brooms" by threading the bristles over the remaining three nails. Add black plastic Grecian urn planters and "Spirit Board" doormat.

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Candy Wrapper Pumpkins

Show off your favorite candy by displaying it on your pumpkins. You can even go for a rustic look and select vintage candy wrappers.

Make the Pumpkins: Print copies of candy labels from Pinterest; cut into 1-inch strips. Attach to pumpkins using Mod Podge, working to line up the design as best as possible.

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Witch Wreath

This wreath would definitely scare Dorothy away! We love the way this witch looks, but you can swap in a spooky symbol of your choice.

Make the Wreath: Cut 150 6-inch-long strips of 2-inch-wide black grosgrain ribbon. Fold the strips in half and attach them to a 16-inch foam wreath form with straight pins, layering them on top of each other to create a ruffle effect. Cut out a silhouette of a witch from black kraft paper. Attach it to the center of a 16-inch round clear piece of acrylic (amazon.com) with double-sided tape. Hot-glue the edges of the acrylic round to the back of the wreath form. Finish with a bow with long tails.

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Halloween Candy Scale

"Weigh" your Halloween candy haul with this creative scale. Although it doesn't actually work, it's another unique way to display your sweets.

Make the Scale: Cut a large hole in back of a medium pumpkin; scoop out pulp and seeds. Remove all flesh so it's light enough to hang. Trace scale template on pumpkin, sizing up or down as needed. Etch out where indicated. Paint over remaining design with black oil pen. Attach peel-and-stick numbers. Drill holes in two sides of large ice scoop. Attach two equal lengths of chain with small S hooks. Attach third length to handle; attach to bottom of pumpkin with T-pins. Drill small hole in top of pumpkin. Cut a 1" dowel the width of inside top of pumpkin. Tie rope around dowel, insert dowel in pumpkin, and feed rope through hole; hang.

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Mask Wreath

Spook your guests with this fun wreath made of vintage masks. It's really too easy to make!

Make the Wreath: Source colorful vintage paper masks from websites like Etsy and eBay—you will need 10 to 15 total. Attach to an 18-inch craft ring with a dab of hot-glue, layering and overlapping them as you go.

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Halloween Candy Wreath

This decoration is good enough to eat—seriously! Turn your candy into a delectable wreath that will delight your guests.

Make the Wreath: Gather an assortment of old-fashioned candies in autumnal shades such as yellow, orange, and magenta. Wrap a 14-inch foam wreath form in white ribbon. Attach candy with hot-glue, layering and overlapping as you go. Finish with a yellow burlap bow.

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Pumpkin Candy Dispenser

We love when décor is both seasonal and functional. So put your pumpkin to good use by turning it into a unique candy dispenser.

Make the Dispenser: Trace the bottom of a glass bowl or storage container onto the front of a medium pumpkin. Cut out around tracing then scoop out pulp and seeds. Insert bowl, making the hole slightly bigger if necessary. Attach a piece of thick rope around the edge of the bowl with hot-glue. Fill bowl with candy.

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Witch's Broom Chandelier

Add texture and ambience to your dining room with this wicked piece. Start with a plain broom, then fill mason jars with black sand and battery-operated black candles, and attach them to one side of the broom with black twine. Balance it out by adding a watchful faux feline on top of the other side with black wire.

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Jack-O'-Lanterns in a Jiffy

Turn orange tissue-paper balls into proper Halloween pumpkins that can line your front porch. Simply cut facial features and stems from construction paper and apply to the balls with glue dots.

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Scary Crow Wreath

Give your guests the creeps from the moment they walk in with this black ensemble. Get the look by spraying a grapevine wreath with flat black paint, attaching cardboard crows all over, and then displaying your eerie masterpiece with patterned ribbon.

Charlyne Mattox Food and Crafts Director Charlyne Mattox is Food and Crafts Director for Country Living.

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