How To Create Cheap Halloween Props For The Scariest House On The Block

This fun and spooky celebration can cost you oodles if you are not careful.

Stores have a vast selection of costumes, props and decorations all for sale but at a hefty price.

Why not have some fun and save some cash by creating your own?

You can really save some money by making your own cheap Halloween props!

The kids will love to help out with these fun projects.

You will be able to transform your house and yard in no time!

Here’s how you can create your own cheap Halloween props!

Spooky Eyes in Trees

These fun cheap Halloween props reuses your toilet paper rolls!

Supplies:

• Empty toilet paper rolls
• X-acto knife
• Tape
• Glow sticks (found at the Dollar Store)
• Tape
• Twine (to tie to branches)

Have your kids design the spooky eye shapes on empty toilet paper rolls, [you] use the X-acto knife to cut out the spooky eyes.

It can’t get any easier than that!

Milk Jug Ghosts

Super fun and ridiculously easy, create some homemade ghosts from your gallon plastic milk jugs.

Supplies:

• empty milk or juice jug
• Scissors or X-acto knife
• LED white or colored Christmas lights
• Black Sharpie/Black paint & paint brush

Simply rinse out the empty container and draw or paint on a ghost face.

Cut a hole in the bottom of the milk jug and insert some LED white or colored Christmas lights.

Arrange down your stairs or driveway or staple gun to your banister to provide an extra eerie glow.

If you don’t have any exterior lights handy, use a glow stick or battery operated tea light for these cheap Halloween props.

Here you can find about 75 easy FREE templates to use as guides with the kids.

A multitude of stencils and ideas are available for free online.

Popular shapes include: bats, gravestones, ghosts, pumpkins, Witches’ hats and black cats.

Be creative and have fun!

Homemade Salt Dough

Salt dough is a great way to keep the kids busy during a rainy fall day. Just break out the ingredients and let them create!

Supplies:

• 2 cups Flour
• 1 cup Salt
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1 tsp. Cream of Tartar (optional)
• 6 Tbsp. Cinnamon (optional for extra fall smells)
• Rolling pin
• Assorted Halloween cookie cutters (or butter knife for cutting shapes)
• Parchment paper/wax paper
• String
• Drinking straw (to make the hole for hanging)

Make your own salt dough by combining 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt and approximately half a cup of water.

Some recipes call for a teaspoon of Cream of Tartar, but this is optional. (If you have it on hand, great; if not, don’t worry about running out to the store to buy it.)

The kids will love mixing the ingredients together and trying out their skills with the rolling pin for these cheap Halloween props.

Flatten the dough out to approximately 1/2″ thick.

Use your Halloween cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Freehand your creations if you don’t have any cookie cutters on hand.

If you are going to hang up these decorations, be sure to poke a little hole in the top while the dough is raw with the straw.

Set on wax paper or parchment paper and let it air dry for a few days (flipping it over) or place on a cookie sheet and bake at 150* until golden brown.

Have fun painting your salt dough creations and hang them up when you are finished.

Tissue Paper and Garbage Bag Ghosts

This is so easy and oh-so affordable!

Supplies:

• White tissue paper
• White trash bags/white grocery bags
• Newspaper
• Ribbon/twine/elastic band/twist tie
• Markers/paint & paint brushes
• Fishing line
• Scissors

For these cheap Halloween props, raid your wrapping station and look for some left over white tissue paper, or even those air pillows stuffed inside your Amazon packages.

Alternatively, you can use Kleenex for baby ghosts or white kitchen garbage bags to hang outside.

Draw or paint some creative expressions on your ghosts.

Cut up the bottoms of the plastic bags so the ends float freely in the wind which will give it a more ghostly appearance.

Use fishing line or thread to hang them up from the tree branches.

Homemade Scarecrow or Witch

For these cheap Halloween props, go through your closet and find an old pair of jeans and plaid shirt.

You may also have a black “Witchy” dress on hand.

Simply stuff your clothes with old towels, sheets or other clothing.

Prop your character up in a spooky position and have fun scaring and entertaining your trick-or-treaters.

Accessorize with straw, corn husks from the garden, straw hats, brooms, scarves, bananas and whatever you have on hand!

Window Art

Supplies:

• Craft paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Glitter
• String
• Tape

Our windows are essentially blank canvasses on our homes.

Have fun cutting out simple spooky shapes and hanging them up with the kids.

You can choose a simple silhouette design or go with a big theme filing all your windows!

A multitude of stencils and ideas are available for free online.

Popular shapes include: bats, gravestones, ghosts, pumpkins, Witches’ hats and black cats.

Be creative and have fun!

You can simply do most of these things within a day and you probably already have most of these items!

Just have fun!

Your Turn: Have you made any of these items before? What was your favorite Halloween decoration you’ve made that your friends loved? Let us know below!

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