50-cent Goodwill pumpkin cut in back and put over porch light. Can also use a mask for the same effect.
I remember as a kid in the 70s, making my own costumes. It was such a thrill to go on the Halloween parade of costumes at school, where we went up and down the hallway showing off our creations. Being a thrifty and crafty person by nature, I learned to make Halloween decor for either absolutely free or extremely cheap. I'm going to share some of that with you here -
I took the amazon cardboard boxes we all have stored in the garage waiting for a packing need, and flattened them, cut them into a shape, painted them with black acrylic paint. I placed them against a big front picture window and put a lamp on the floor behind it, lamp shade off, and a blue light bulb in it. This is a great one for those who are worried someone will steal their front yard decor.
These ones above are free. As long as you have acrylic craft paints, they are free. I took more Amazon boxes and cut them out like wood planks. I painted them to look like wood with a redwood color paint and then some dry brush strokes of light gray. I criss crossed them over the windows and door to look like a condemned house. To add to the mood, I had grown corn that had dried out and stuck that in the planter.
I had a collection of doll heads I decorated with each Halloween as dolls do seem to unsettle folks. I put glow sticks inside vases and put the heads atop it with no eyes so the sockets would glow.
This one (above) is ideal for a hallway. Some battery-operated candlesticks, some fishing line, and push pins. Floating candles going down a hallway is a very creepy effect. You can justify this with the fact that push pins (in the ceiling) and fishing line (tied around the candlesticks and tied to the push pin) can be reused for countless projects and the candles, well, I like to put them in candleholders in the wintertime and use them as my lighting for the dark winter evenings or on the bathroom counter as I bathe.
The doll heads I decapitated from Goodwill dolls. I kept the arms and legs for other creepy decor by placing in a dish -
I kept my dolls outside in a garden area I called Doll Island. There, they sat through rain and dust storms, burned by the sunlight, and to amplify the look, I used crackle medium on their skin to make it look peeled.
During Halloween horror movie watching time, I placed the doll heads in front of the TV with battery-operated tea lights. It added a new depth of horror.
All this doll talk is making me think of a cool song by Hole, "Doll Parts" -
This one (above) was a simple display along the walkway to the front door. There, scattered among leaves are cheap basic masks from the drugstore painted white. They seem semi-buried in the leaves. Chalk was used to make giant footprints with 6-foot strides using a few chalks, one atop the other color and then a wet brush to make them melt into the sidewalk and have more staying power.
With the cost of a bag of fake blackbirds, you can make a cool "The Birds" theme by grouping together en masse.
The doll heads - a hole atop the skull and a candlestick Let them melt for hours before displaying - looks so creepy, even creepier with a red candle!
Shrunken apple heads are a blast to make. Do them now so they can age by Halloween. I did a grouping and used them like ornaments on a dead branch. Peel the apple and carve face making very deep cuts because as it dries it will pull in and be less pronounced. Soak in lemon juice and salt for up to an hour. Then, pat dry and put on a baking sheet in oven at 200 for an hour to dry more rapidly.
Some things to keep at home for your DIY Halloween projects - Plenty of variety of acrylic craft paints, especially black, and even fluorescent ones for black light use. Colored light bulbs They also make candle light bulbs that flicker). Fishing line. Elmer's glue (for decoupage - 3 parts glue and 1 part water mix). This is ideal for gluing things down like the ghost mirrors below or for stiffening fabric like cheesecloth for Halloween ghosts made with cheesecloth dipped in the medium and then draped over a vase with a balloon atop it to make a ghost shape. Cardboard. Twine.
Perhaps one of my favorite ideas of all time came at the cost of a can of spray paint that was looking glass spray and a cheap glass picture frame from Goodwill - Haunted Mirrors -
This one (above) was my pride and joy. In fact, if you google search black-eyed kids, you'll likely find these images. I took three Victorian-era kid photos and photoshop stamped black in their eyes. I set them for life-size heads and printed them out.
I went to Goodwill and found a huge 2-1/2 foot x 4 foot glass-framed ugly picture for $2. I removed the picture and took it apart so I could paint the frame black and then let it dry, put on crackle medium, and then ivory paint so it cracked and showed the black beneath.
Then, I took the Elmers/water mix (3 parts Elmers glue and 1 part water) and glued the faces at the bottom of the glass, ink toward the glass. I let them dry for 24 hours.
Now, I took my fingers, dipped them in water, shook it off and then began to rub at the backside of the paper faces, rolling off some of the paper content, leaving the ink on the glass. I let it dry a few hours.
Now, I took the looking glass spray and began to make sweeping coverage on the glass (all these things are done on the backside of the figures, the front of the glass they are looking through remains untouched. Every now and then, I used a spray bottle of water to give light droplets on the looking glass spray and then sprayed over them to give a bubbled old look to the mirror. It may take many coats to get a true mirror.
Let it dry and hang the mirror where the kids heads look like they are peeking through a window at the height the children would stand. I hung this in my dining room so that guests looked over at the end seat to see these kids at 4-foot height level staring back.
This one (above), I had in the bathroom during Halloween and it faced the toilet so if someone sat down, the peek-a-boo guy was watching! First, I glued the cutout of the sliver of face and finger and let dry. Then, I sprayed the glass with looking glass spray paint and cut into the mirror spray surface with straight lines to make slats of a blind.
I suggest something like this - have someone stand in doorway. Line the open doorway with a plastic tarp or shower curtain. Place a bright light behind the person. Stand on the other side of the plastic and take shots of them in various poses to get the one you want to use for your ghost mirror.
During a post apocalyptic graveyard-themed Halloween party, I set up the back porch for food spread and drinks. I hung tattered sheets like curtains around the patio and a wheelbarrel filled with ice and beers. I also put a green light in the pool, giant spiders climbing the walls around the pool (black lawn bags filled with wadded paper and black pool noodle legs) and on the surface of the pool, I had 1-gallon empty water jugs floating with fluorescent green paint dripped inside and a toxic waste symbol on them.
I even took some old lattices from the yard that vines ad grown over and died off. I took them apart and nailed the pieces into crosses, covered with fluorescent paint and made a graveyard that was lit up with a black light.
Be resourceful - look around you. It's autumn. You can surely find dead leaves and dead branches to work with. Here's some other creepies I made very simply with nature items-
Twine and branches for a blair-witch symbol.
Make it a challenge to look around you for decor ideas and remember - if it's rusted or worn, faded or chipped, it's even better to use for DIY decor!