With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about the fun decorations that come along with the holiday. While a trip to Party City or a local decor store is always an option, DIY Halloween decor creates a much more unique holiday vibe. It may seem daunting to tackle homemade projects, but it doesn’t need to be scary. You don’t need an art degree or the soul of an artist to create festive holiday decorations. On the contrary, literally anyone can get in the holiday spirit and design Halloween decor.
Not only can DIY projects be fun and cathartic, they are also a great way to include the entire family in an activity. Between the various aspects of the project, there can be something for everyone to do, no matter their age. So get ready to have fun and get spooky.
The Halloween Colors
When tackling any DIY project, the first decision should always be about the desired color scheme. What colors immediately pop to your mind when thinking about Halloween? The two most obvious colors are black and orange. Black and orange have become synonymous with Halloween, however it is interesting to note that brown and yellow were originally the two colors associated with the holiday. Brown was for hay and yellow was for corn. Both together celebrated the holiday that took place during the fall harvest season.
In the early 1900s, the infamous jack-o-lantern made its way into Halloween culture and the color orange has become a signature Halloween color ever since. Black quickly overtook the color brown due to its association to the long cold winter and black cats and bats. In fact, orange pumpkins and black cats are perhaps two of the most common images associated with Halloween.
While black and orange may be the two colors most commonly associated with the holiday, green has also become a popular Halloween color. Green signifies witches and goblins and helps lend itself to the eerie and spooky vibes that people love to highlight during Halloween season.
Easy DIY Halloween Decorations
If you have stairs in your home, this is an easy yet fun DIY Halloween decor project that will bring your banister to the next level, quite literally. To begin, you will need an 11” x 17” colored cardstock paper. Make sure to choose the cosmic orange color. Lay the paper in front of you vertically. Fold up from the bottom three times so that when the paper is opened back up, you see three equidistant folds creating 4 panels. Use a scoring tool or the back of a kitchen knife to create deep folds.
Stand the paper on its side horizontally and bring both ends together to create a tall three dimensional standing cube. This will be your pumpkin cube. Use a pencil to draw triangular shaped eyes, a triangular shaped nose, and a jagged smiling mouth. With a pair of scissors, carefully cut out the facial features you have just drawn. Place a slim panel of black colored paper behind your cutouts and tape it in place. You now have the face of your pumpkin ready to go.
Next, take the orange cardstock paper and wrap it around one of your banister railings. Make sure that the face of the pumpkin is pointing in the direction you want it to be seen. Use scotch tape to secure each end of the paper to the other so that the rectangular shape stays intact. To create the stem, wrap a piece of brown burlap around the part of the railing right above the pumpkin. Just like that, you have created a unique Halloween pumpkin without the traditional mess that pumpkin carving tends to bring.
However, one pumpkin cube wrapped around one railing is hardly enough to make an impactful impression. Simply repeat the process until every single railing boasts its own pumpkin. Make sure to either trim down your 11” x 17” sized cardstock paper or use various sizes of cardstock paper to create more visual appeal by having alternating pumpkins in varying heights. It will add more visual interest and prevent your railing from looking too uniform, which can sometimes tend to be boring. In the same vein, get creative with the cutouts for the eyes, nose, and mouth. Create different shapes and have fun.
Another fun DIY Halloween decor project can be orange and black paper garlands. Strung around the home, they will add to the holiday vibe and put everyone in the holiday spirit. To begin, you will need 8.5” x 11” colored paper in both orange and black colors. Start cutting strips of paper lengthwise across the paper. There is no right or wrong size when cutting the strips of paper. It’s up to your individual preference how big or small you want each individual link in the garland chain to be.
Once you have cut all of your strips, take one strip and tape the ends together to create a circle. Then, take the next strip, weave it through the first circle and tape the ends together. Continue this process until the paper garland has enough links and is long enough to drape across the room.
DIY Outdoor Halloween Decorations
If the above mentioned decor ideas are not spooky enough for you, have no fear. Here are other scary Halloween decorations for outside to spice things up even more. Begin with an 8.5” x 14” cardstock paper in the color stardust white. Place the paper in front of you horizontally and bring the right and left side together to create a circle. Use scotch tape to secure the ends together. Next, take an 8.5” x 11” black colored cardstock paper and cut out two small circles for the eyes and one larger oval for the mouth. Paste them onto your white ghost to create a spooky face.
Then, tape strips of toilet paper underneath so that they tangle down from below the ghost’s face. Staple the ends of one strand of black yarn onto each side of the ghost’s face so that you can hang it up on a tree branch. As the wind blows, the ghost will eerily float in the breeze. Create as many as you would like to fill up your front yard with supremely ghostly Halloween vibes. These creative yard decorations will make your home the talk of the block.
Last, but certainly not least, use black colored cardstock paper to cut out shapes of cats and bats. Use green colored cardstock paper to cut out handprint shapes. Make sure to use a pencil to trace the designs before cutting to ensure a neat end product. Tape the cutouts along the exterior of your home to maximize the spooky Halloween spirit.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to DIY Halloween decor. It can be as simple or as intricate as you would like. The key is to have fun and get in the holiday spirit. If you can do that, you’ve already won at Halloween.