We took a black lawn and leaf bag, filled the bottom third with wadded newspaper, and used black yarn to section off a head and body. Now that we had a giant spider shape, we cut another bag into eight strips and made legs. Using our batting we draped a huge web on the side of the house, and then attached our spider. My daughter’s inspiration came in the shape of two construction set half rounds which created glow-in-the-dark eyes.

No haunting is complete without a ghost and a graveyard. We used an old white sheet to create the ghost. Already sporting the round eyes and booooo-shaped mouth from a previous life as a costume, we used more newspaper to fill out the head area. Tied off with fishing line around the neck of the piece, it was hung from a branch mid-way of one of our trees. Using clothespins we draped the tails over to other small branches and clipped it to them. Ourghost appeared to "fly", and was eerily real on windy evenings. Many neighbors reported getting a fright from our apparition!

The graveyard we formed in a corner of the yard. We acquired cardboard from large cartons from a homestore. We cut panels into a headstone shape, then painted with acrylic paints we had on hand. We used a mixture of white, grey, and black to create an aged look. We wrote in black paint on each headstone, R.I.P. , Gone but not Forgotten. We scored a line about five inches from the bottom on the back of the cardboard, and bent back that portion to serve as a stand. We placed a brick or large stone to help hold the pieces in place. The children further developed the graveyard by raking leaves(!), and piling them in long rows in front of each headstone. It looked much like real graves in the twilight.

But one lantern seems like too little light. Last year we created luminaries from tin cans punched with a nail. We followed a basic jack o’lantern face pattern, then painted the cans in the traditional orange and black. We added faint green stripes, and sponged in a little white as well. These were so cute, we were inspired to make ghosts (white paint and the traditional ghost boooo! face). We made enough of these to use inside, as well.

We look forward to a fun night in our home. Halloween means an early family supper of hotdogs, and lime sherbert witches (a scoop of lime sherbert topped with a sugar cone. Decorate the ‘face’ with licorice whip hair, candy corn nose, cinnamon candy eyes). Costumes are always homemade affairs from items we have around the house. An ancient witch hat, red and white striped stockings and a black cape and we have a witch. White sheet, and we are a ghost. Last year a beret, paint stained shirt and a cardboard pallet with dollops of dried paint and a glued on paintbrush made an artist. Then we trick or treat in a familiar and friendly neighborhood. Back home again, we enjoy warm mulled cider.

I love your costume ideas.

Wow..what wonderful ideas!!!

When my kids were little, we'd take a white kitchen trash bag, stuff it, draw eyes and hang it from the front porch - a ghost. They loved it and still talk about it years later. In fact my daughter wants to do it again.

Oh, your ideas are just to die for!

I'd also planned on doing ghosts from our tree and then some hanging from our eavestrough, made out of white plastic trash bags with leaves in the head and the ends of the bag shredded. I have this huge long patch of dirt beneath the front of my house's window, so I may have to snatch your idea of gravestones and then just pile some dirt in front of them.

Thanks a ton for sharing!

I made what my neighbors call the 'ghost of landfills past' :lol:

white trash bag
black sharpie
bottom of a 2 liter bottle
old hook to hang it from

I had the old man drill a starter hole for the hook. I folded the bag in to a triangle shape and cut away at the bottom to make a ragged-round body...slipped the bag over the bottle bottom and drew on eyes and mouth...

There is a ton of homemade ideas on things that are fun to make for Halloween here, and many are truly simple and easy enough for little kids to do.

http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfeature/halloween_ms_crafts/

These are really fun.

Made ghosts from 2 liter bottles, (round off the top by a ball of newspaper and secure with tape or string) then drape a piece of either cheesecloth or any white material, (cotton is best), when you see that its the right length, remove and soak in liquid fabric starch. Now put fabric back on bottle, after you've rung it out well. Drape it the way you want it, making sure it reaches the bottom. Now let dry in the sun, ghost will get hard, when dry, remove bottle. Now I was lucky enough to find these flickering lights at dollar tree last year, 2 in the pack. I sat those under the ghosts and that gave them an erry look. I made 2 liter and 1 liter ghosts, they looked great in my bay window. And very cheap to make, and your recycling as well. Oh, one more thing, when they were dry I gave them a light spray of white paint and then drew eyes and mouth with a black marker. I think if you wanted to keep them outside you would have to spray them with polythene. Have fun!