Halloween home decor: December 2012

These spiders are easy to make and are a great addition to your Halloween Decor.

The supplies you will need are:

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Styrofoam eggs,
One-inch Styrofoam balls,
Black pipe cleaners,
Tacky glue,
Spackle or Joint Compound,
Gesso or a Primer of some sort to seal the Spackle,
Acrylic paints in black, red, orange and white,
Toothpicks

Great Halloween Spiders You Can Make Yourself

How many Styrofoam balls and eggs you will need depends on how many spiders you want to make. You can use bigger Styrofoam balls and eggs, if you want to have larger spiders. This guide will make spiders about the size of your hand. You can cut the balls and eggs in half to make spiders that can be attached to flat surfaces, such as your windows or refrigerator. If you glue a magnet to the bottom of your spider you could use them as refrigerator magnet. If you leave the Styrofoam ball and egg whole, you can create a spider that stands on it's own and it is much creepier looking than the spider with the flat bottom.

To get started you will need to attach your Styrofoam ball and egg together. You do this by putting glue on one end of a toothpick and sticking it in about half way into you Styrofoam ball. Put glue on the other end of the toothpick and insert it half way into the Styrofoam egg. You may want to experiment first on placement of the head in ratio to the egg before you glue it. Where you glue the head can really add some interest to the spider. Do not use a hot glue gun to glue the spider; hot glue will melt the Styrofoam. Let your glue setup completely, you do not want the spider body to fall apart during the next step.

Spread a thin layer of Spackle or joint compound all over the spider body. It can be smoothed out with your fingers. You can use rubber gloves for this step if you prefer. Let the Spackle dry completely, if you have applied a thin coat it won't take long for the Spackle to dry. As a matter of fact, you need to work quickly when applying the Spackle so it doesn't setup before you are ready. Apply a second coat of Spackle to the spider body. After the second coat of Spackle has dried, paint the spider body with one to two coats of gesso or some other primer. You need to prime the Spackle or the Spackle will suck up your paint and you won't have a nice finish on your spiders.

Once the primer has dried on your spider body it is time to paint your spider. Paint the spider body with black acrylic paint; making sure to completely cover the body so that the primer does not show through, you may need an additional coat of paint if it does not cover well.

Use a toothpick to make four holes evenly spaced on each side of the spider's body for the legs. Insert the toothpick about a quarter to a half an inch into the body to allow for a good glue hold for the spider's legs. Dip one end of your pipe cleaners into tacky glue and insert a pipe cleaner in each hole that you have just made with the toothpick. Let the glue on the legs setup before you try to move them. While you are waiting for the legs to dry you can add the finishing touches to your spider. Add some red eyes, small dots will do nicely. You can put a design on it's back, at this point it's up to you on how your finished spider will look. I like to paint a thin coat of watered down glue on the spider and sprinkle them with black glitter, it kind of makes the spider look a little hairy.

After the legs have completely setup, bend the legs up against the spider's body and then bend the pipe cleaner in half. At the end of the pipe cleaner, bend about one quarter to one half and inch of the pipe cleaner out away from the body to form a foot on the spider's leg.

Great Halloween Spiders You Can Make Yourself

And there you have it, a Great Halloween Spider! For more great holiday decorating and craft ideas, visit us at www.theimaginationworkshop.com.

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The first step- greet your guests with an eerie entryway

Halloween Decorations the Easy Way

You can start with the traditional carved pumpkin but with a little flare. After you carve the pumpkin, take it to the next level by stenciling designs around the pumpkin then use the pumpkin as a planter with fall branches and leaves from the top. Pumpkins are fun and easy and should be the first item on your list. Get the family involved and let everyone put a piece of his or her creative mind into the masterpiece. Hang black rubber bats on the porch and put cobwebs over everything. In one corner, you can setup a mad scientist lab with a big jar filled with green goo, eyeballs, bats, vampire teeth and whatever else you can dream up.

An easy and cheap thing to do is to find an old planter box, paint it black and use a stencil to paint Trick or Treat on the side. Fill the planter box with hay and pile on some pumpkins with a larger pumpkin on the bottom and then use smaller sizes on the next layers; sort of like topiary of pumpkins. For the topiary of pumpkins, I would paint the faces on them instead of carving them. You will want them to be sturdy and maybe even use a metal rod down the center to keep them together.

Another great idea you don't see very often; milk jugs painted with a ghost face filled with white Christmas lights. Milk jugs make perfect ghost & goblins and are extremely cheap and easy to make.

Interior Halloween Decor

One simple and very cheap idea; costume the people in the paintings and photos in your home. This is easily done with paper masks made out of construction paper, scissors, and low tack artist tape. You can use leaves and weeds for hair. It will add that extra flare for your Halloween party.

Wreaths are a great way to add fun to your home. You can make your own or buy them for fairly cheap. Some people aren't crafty and you can purchase ready made wreaths for cheap at craft and/or dollar stores. You u can buy plain wreaths and stick cheap Halloween decorations such as giant bugs, spiders, bats etc. By the way, wreaths are great indoors as well as outdoors.

Halloween Parties

If you plan on having a Halloween party you can make creepy ice cubes by freezing gummy worms into your ice trays. You can even freeze raisins into the ice cubes for a scary bug effect. Going that extra mile for the party will make it much more fun and enjoyable for your guests.

Conclusion

Halloween is a fun Holiday everyone enjoys. The many ways to decorate your home are enormous and endless. The only limitation is your imagination for Halloween decorations the easy way.

You don't need to hire an expensive interior designer. Find out how you can create your own designs to create the home of your dreams at http://www.divinedesignblog.com.