Budget-Friendly Outdoor Halloween Decorations
Don't waste money on inflatable Halloween decorations for your front yard. Use our ideas and your crafty skills to make one-of-a-kind decorations. You'll be the envy of the neighborhood and save a lot of money.
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Flying Ghosts
Fill your trees or front porch with free-flying ghosts. Made inexpensively from balloons and gauze fabric, these little Caspers catch the wind to add movement to your outdoor decor.
Get the How-To: How to Make a Halloween Pumpkin Faux Bonfire
Pumpkin Bonfire
Don’t want to be bothered with a real bonfire because it's too dangerous for kids and too much of a pain to keep lit? Create a low-maintenance fire pit with faux pumpkins, battery-operated candles and a few logs.
Get the How-To: How to Make a Halloween Pumpkin Faux Bonfire
Eyeball Wreath
Add a little Cruella Deville style to your front door by wrapping a black feather boa around a wreath form then adorning it with some bloodshot eyeballs.
Get the How-To: How to Make a Wreath with Scary Googly Eyes
Haunted Hotel Sign
Keep away unexpected guests by making your home look like a haunted bed and breakfast. Go to a salvage yard to get an old post and corbel — they’ll already be aged and weathered. Then add your personal welcome sign.
Get the How-To: How to Make a Haunted Hotel Sign for Halloween
Spider Wreath
This fabric wreath is simple to make and can be used for many occasions by changing the embellishments. The mini black-glitter spider clips contrast perfectly with the bright white fabric. With just a few basic materials and tools from the craft store, you can dress up your front door for Halloween.
Get the How-To: DIY Halloween Wreath
Halloween Spell
Add a some elegance to your entry by creating a nature-inspired topiary.
Get the How-To: 6 Ways to Make a Pumpkin Topiary
Bloody Footprints
Halloween Tree + Teal Pumpkins
Be diiferent this year by decorating a Christmas tree for Halloween. Use black and orange ornaments or make little jack o'lantern faces from paper honeycomb balls. If you're giving trick-or-treaters non-food items, place a teal pumpkin on your doorstep. This signifies to kids with food allergies that your treats are safe for them.
Get the How-To: Decorate a Teal Pumpkin For an Allergy-Free Halloween
Window Silhouettes
This is more of an indoor/outdoor decoration. Cut out popular Halloween shapes in black paper and adhere them to your windows. When the indoor lights are lit, the shapes will come to life.
Get the How-To: How to Make Halloween Window Silhouettes
Punny Graveyard
Set up a fun and spooky graveyard. Get the instructions to make simple plywood tombstones below then download a template of one of our pun-filled names or epitaphs.
Get the Instructions: Halloween Decoration: How to Make a Wooden Tombstone
Lawn Skeleton
Build a few of these creepy skeletons to place in front of your tombstones.
Get the How-To: Halloween Decoration: How to Make a Lawn Skeleton
Glowing Eyes Hiding in the Bushes
These spooky eyes are reminiscent of every Scooby Doo episode ever made. They're extremely easy to make, simply cut the eye shapes out of paper towel rolls then place a plastic glow stick inside. Tuck a few sets of eyes in bushes around your front walkway to give the trick-or-treaters a little fright.
Get the How-To: How to Make Halloween Spooky Eyes To Hide in the Bushes
Welcome (Not) Mat
Bat Mat
This doormat project uses stencils to create the batty design. This project can be done any time of the year with any design. It’s an inexpensive way to customize your front entry.
Get the How-To: How to Make a Stenciled Halloween Doormat
For Decoration or for Fun
Make a bunch of these scary eyeballs and scatter them all over your front yard. Kids are sure to get a kick out of them.
Get the How-To: How to Make Giant Bloodshot-Eye Halloween Decor
Nature in Autumn Wreath
Gather fall favorites – acorns, pinecones and leaves – to make a decorative addition to your entry.
Get the How-To: Make Your Own Thanksgiving Door Wreath
Picture-Frame Lanterns
Guide your guests to the front door with illuminated picture lanterns. To make these, four inexpensive picture frames are nailed together to make a square. Halloween drawings are printed on vellum paper then inserted into the frames, then a candle is set inside the frames.
Get the How-To: How to Make Halloween Lanterns
Burlap + Leaf Garlands
Glowing Pods
This Halloween eve, greet trick-or-treaters with illuminated paper mache lights that you can hang from the trees or your porch.
Get the How-To: How to Make Glowing Halloween Light Pods