I really enjoy decorating for fall and Halloween, but it can get pricey to buy extra decorations for one more holiday in the last few months of the year. To save money, we’ve made our own Halloween and fall decorations over the years. Because the kids want to help, it’s a great way to spend time together as a family and saves money over buying something ready-made.
As we’ve made fall decorations for our home over the years, I’ve learned that our recycle bin has a lot of great craft supplies.
Here are five of our favorite easy, cheap crafts that you can make with old things this October:
Halloween luminaries
You might already have everything you need for this easy craft! Also, these are a great way for trick-or-treaters to see at night as they go from door to door.
What you need:
- An empty and cleaned plastic milk container (Ours are gallon size, but this can definitely work with the half gallon sizes too!)
- Scissors or a knife
- Black sharpie or black acrylic paint
- Battery-powered votive or glow stick
Directions:
- A grown-up should cut a hole in the side of the jug with scissors or a knife. Most of the time, I just cut out the label. It’s not worth the time to try to remove them because they are very sticky. You can use this to get to your creation and light it up.
- To make a face, use a black Sharpie or black acrylic or tempera paint. Kids in my family like to make ghost faces, but you can do anything you can think of! You could use ghosts, pumpkins, witches, zombies, cats, or bats.
- When it gets dark, light up your luminaries with a votive or glow stick that runs on batteries.
Tip: If you want an orange pumpkin, green witch, etc – then a glow stick is an easy way to make that happen. If you want to light your luminaries up on multiple evenings with a votive, then you can paint the inside of your milk jug. To do this, after washing it out, add a little paint and water, replace the lid and gently shake the container. Shake and move the jug around to spread the paint, then remove the lid and set the jug upside down on a plate or paper towels to dry and drain.
Fall leaf vase
Our daughter likes to gather things. In fact, we call her “The Squirrel” because she keeps all kinds of “treasures” in a special little drawer and box that we find. She likes to gather things like rocks, leaves, and pinecones. One time I found 50 acorns in her treasure chest, which proved that The Squirrel was a good name for her. I try to get her to use her collection of nature things for art as often as she can. It was fun working on this project, which is changing as the season goes on!
What you need:
- A bag or bucket
- Empty and cleaned jar or can
- Mod Podge (or white glue) and a paintbrush
Directions:
- Put on your shoes and go for a walk! Bring a bag or bucket to collect rocks, pinecones, leaves, and other things. You can even print out this fun Scavenger Hunt to bring with you! Just don’t forget to leave any rabbits or squirrels behind!
- At home, find a clean, empty jar or can that you can use to make your vase. We found an empty peanut butter jar that was going to the trash for our project.
- Spread out all the leaves and other plants that you picked up on your walk. A paintbrush and Mod Podge are also needed. You can make your own Mod Podge with white glue and a little water if you don’t have any, though.
- Stick your leaves to the container’s side. The glue mixture was used to paint the inside of my jar. Then little hands helped me press the leaves into place. You can definitely attach them to the outside of an opaque can or jar, though! Over time, you’ll be able to see that the white glue has dried clear. At first, it may look like a mess.
Tip: We currently use our jar to contain “treasures” found on our walks and a small battery-powered votive to light it up, but in November it will transition into something special for our Thanksgiving table! What will you use your creation for this season?
Painting nature
This one is pretty easy to understand! Get rocks, acorns, and pinecones out of the bucket you filled up on your scavenger hunt and clean them up. A damp cloth will work just fine most of the time. Next, paint them with acrylic paints to make them look however you want.
We made jack-o-lantern rocks and put them in different places around our neighborhood so other kids could find them. You could get really creative and see what you can make by putting things together. Maybe fairy garden pieces? Or a pinecone person? What kinds of creative things can your kids make?
Tips: Another fun thing to do is to use the found objects as stamps or paintbrushes to create some great textured art!
Periodical pumpkins and apples
Are there a bunch of magazines lying around? I really enjoy reading magazines, but I hate getting rid of them. On the other hand, I don’t like it when magazines pile up either. This is a fun way to give an old magazine a new use while making a one-of-a-kind fall decoration.
What you need:
- An old magazine
- Pen or marker
- Scissors
- Twig, pipe cleaner, or construction paper
Directions:
- To create a pumpkin or apple, begin by making a template to the desired size, but keep in mind the size of your magazine.
- Fold template in half, matching the fold of the template to the spine of the magazine. Use a pen or marker to trace the design.
- Using scissors cut out your design and use a twig, pipe cleaner, construction paper or even a tightly rolled scrap of magazine, to create a stem. Place it along the spine and glue the front and back covers together to hold it in place.
- Take care to fold the individual pages back to fan them out evenly.
- You can leave as is, or you can add paint to the edges to give your pumpkin a hint of orange, or apple a splash of red and green.
- Depending on the size of your pumpkins and apples, you can often get more than one from a magazine.
Tip: We love practicing our scissor skills with magazines and catalogs. Save your scraps to cut out pieces to make a collage later.
Canned pumpkins and ghosts
To make this project, you can use paint, construction paper, magazines, or just about anything else you can find. So far this fall, our jack-o-lantern collection has been pretty simple. But as we get more empty cans, we’ll be sure to add to it!
What you need:
- A clean empty can
- Acrylic or tempera paint
- A Sharpie
Directions:
- You can paint the outside of your can any color you want.
- After it’s dry, draw a scary face! Are you going to make a pumpkin? A tomb? Dr. Frankenstein? With these kinds of open-ended projects, you can do anything you want. (Don’t have paint? Building paper or an old magazine page can be used instead to wrap the can.
Tips: The finished products make for great containers for anything from utensils to candy you don’t want your sibling to mistake for their own.
You can make fun carnival-style games out of a set of six or ten of them. Put them on top of each other and use a rolled-up sock or bean bag to try to knock them down. You can also set them up like bowling pins and try to hit them with candy corn or small rocks from a few feet away. We love competing to see who can do it from the farthest away!
