We love Halloween at our house. It’s that holiday when anything goes! You can be as crazy and creative as you like, and it’s kind of expected, which makes it even more fun.
Even though we don’t get trick-or-treaters (that happens when you’re off the beaten path), I still enjoy decorating, or at least seeing how other people decorate. I’m always inspired by the things people dream up and bring to life.
It also helps keep me from getting into a decorating rut where I’m doing the same decor year after year. Thanks to a lot of time on Pinterest, I’m determined to pull off a witch theme or a haunted bed and breakfast next year – we’ll see!
For now, we’re sharing 13 bewitching Halloween DIY ideas for the outdoors. You’re velcome!
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1. Eerie Portrait Luminaries
Paper bag luminaries have been used for decades at holiday time. This version features creepy black and white portraits. Affixed to white paper bags and lit from within, they’re guaranteed to send shivers down the spines of visitors to your home!
All you need are white paper bags, a printer, some glue stick, and tea lights. Get the tutorial and link to creepy photos here.
2. Skeleton Hand Wreath
Add just the right amount of spook factor to your front door with this mossy wreath featuring a skeleton hand. Add a black ribbon for hanging and you’ve set the tone for the evening.
To make the wreath, apply moss to a wreath form with craft glue or a hot glue gun. Using a piece of craft wire, hang a plastic skeleton hand from the top of the wreath so it hangs down in the open center part. Tie on a black ribbon and hang.
3. Headstone Pumpkin
This feels so New England! An old-timey headstone carved into a bluish pumpkin that looks like old granite. Illuminate it with battery-operated fairy lights for an eerie glow. Grab a pumpkin carving kit and this template from Good Housekeeping and start creating!
4. Crow Pumpkin
Our other favorite pumpkin carving is this crow. Imagine it as part of an Edgar Allen Poe Raven-themed display. It would look amazing.
Download this template and trace it onto your pumpkin, then carve. (Good Housekeeping recommends tracing the image with washable chalk markers.) Add some battery-operated string lights or a tea light for a spooky glow.
5. Decorated Tree Branches
Bare branches make the perfect stage for Halloween accents. Hang LED lanterns and position ravens and jack-o-lanterns in them for a frightful greeting.
To avoid issues with heavy pumpkins that may fall out of branches or even break them, consider using faux carvable versions available at craft stores.
6. Crow Entry
Keep the crow theme going by perching them on branches around your front door.
Secure the branches by inserting them into pumpkins, as shown, or insert them into galvanized buckets filled with sand or pebbles (then cover the fill with dried leaves). Add some pumpkins for color.
7. Witch Brooms
A perennial favorite of mine, easy-to-make witch brooms are a fun project and they just look so perfectly Halloween!
To make them, scout your yard for fallen or dead tree branches about the width and length of a standard broom handle: 4-5 feet long and about an inch in diameter. Try to find dry branches. If you get one that is still green, it may shrink or warp (which would be cool for a witch broom) as it dries out, so just keep that in mind.
Then gather a bunch of thin dried twigs or stiff, dried grasses about 18 inches long. Trim the twigs or grasses to generally the same length, then assemble them around the base of your branch and secure with wire or twine. Voila – your witch broom is ready for flight!
8. Witches’ Coven
What’s a witch broom without a witch, or five? Covens of DIY witches appear on lawns throughout Maine and other New England states during October. They’re eerily charming, especially when they hold hands and circle a bubbling cauldron.
This tutorial from Studio 5 will show you how to bring a coven to life for your yard.
9. Floating Witch Hats
Create a spooky scene with witch hats that seem to float in mid-air. All you need are some Command hooks, fishing line, lights, and witch hats, of course! Get the tutorial from Polkadot Chair.
10. Cheesecloth Ghosts
Leave it to Martha Stewart to think beyond the standard white sheet and use cheesecloth to make ghosts. The texture of the cheesecloth creates an aged appearance that makes your ghostly apparitions look like they’ve been haunting for a very long time.
A foam head, cheesecloth, and fabric stiffener combine for this ghastly creation. Get the full tutorial here.
11. Cemetery
Whether you decide to make it humorous or scary, simple or elaborate, a cemetery is a fantastic Halloween DIY project.
Foam or cardboard headstones (you can make or buy) placed next to mounds of fresh dirt create the foundation. Add skeletons, plastic bones, crows, fencing, and more to – pardon the pun – flesh things out.
12. Jack-o-Lantern Display
Set a frightful or welcoming mood with a big arrangement of lighted jack-o-lanterns.
One of my personal favorite DIY ideas is spelling out a greeting across a bunch of pumpkins. After removing the bottom and hollowing out the pumpkin, use a half-inch bit and drill holes in the shape of each letter of your message – one letter per pumpkin. Stack them on a sturdy shelving unit or porch steps.
Or create a theme with your carvings, like scary faces, witches, headstones, cats, or crows. When finished, add battery operated lights in each for a safe glow.
13. Traditional Luminaries
Light up the path to your front door with simple but eye catching luminaries.
All you need are paper bags, sand, and tea lights. Cut a design into a brown paper bag, then place a white bag inside of it to act as a liner. Fill it with some sand to anchor it and keep it from blowing away, then add a tea light.