Outdoor Halloween Decorations - Simple, Easy & Cheap

I can't wait for Halloween. I usually spend the days leading up to it decorating the outside of the house to be the most anticipated house on the street. How do you know if you did a superb job decking out the house? You run out of candy. Here are some of my favorite simple DIY ideas with step by step instructions. Enjoy. 

Create a spooky entrance by cutting up black trash bags into thin pieces. You can use a tension rod (used for hanging drapery) for the base. Or use your shower rod and attach the bag around the rod to create a curtain effect. Make sure the strips are uneven and long. Gather some brooms to lean around the door and use a softer porch light.

 Create window silhouettes by cutting out figures from cardboard. Find boxes and piece them together to make a person sized rectangle. Have someone lay on the cardboard and trace them. Using a box cutter, cut out the outline. Place the outline inside the window and adhere either to the window or the wall so it won't move. Attach yellow tissue paper to cover the entire window (taping onto the wall and not the window so you don't see the edges). Light from behind using a lamp minus the shade. 

Get the glowing scary effect on the front porch or steps by breaking apart glow sticks. Do this relatively close to dark. Use these mummie candles to line the stairway. Simply buy cheesecloth (in the kitchen supply section at grocery stores) and a case of mason jars (either at grocery store, goodwill or Target/Wal Mart). Find googly eyes from a craft store and a box of votive or ti light candles. Wrap the jars with cheese cloth and hot glue to glass (glue rubs off glass so you can reuse). Add some water to the base of the jar so overflow wax won't get on the jar and create a mess for cleaning. Glue eyes on and scatter around entrance. 

Make these giant eyes for a tree using beach balls covered in white fabric. Use a cheap white sheet from a thrift store and paint large black circles directly on to it. Use some rope to tie around the back side of the knotted fabric and then tie to the branch. 

This is a fun effect to hang from trees. Using women's stocking, place a water balloon with a glow stick inside the stocking and hang from trees. Hot glue black spiders to create a spider's nest. 

Hot glue spiders or paper bats to front door by gluing magnets on them. 

You could also use snakes and worms.

Make a monster door with construction paper cut outs.

Fill a wheel barrel with skeleton bones and dirt. Place near the front door and illuminate with candle light or lit pumpkins. 

Light the pathway to the door with brown lunch bags cut out with eyes and mouth. Be sure to contain the candle inside a glass that is taller than the flame so the bag can not catch fire. Be sure to extinguish them at end of the night and not go inside and have a neighbor tell you the driveway is on fire. 

Yep, that was our Halloween 07. Have some fun. Get the kids involved and remember that even though this takes a little work and time, you only get so many Halloweens with the kids. Make it special.