DIY Halloween Wedding Crafts Ideas

For those who prefer to do it themselves

If you are blessed with a creative and artistic brain, you may want to design your very own Halloween wedding decoration. For one thing, you will save tons of money; for another thing, you can add your personal touch and craft the wedding of your dreams. So here are some halloween decoration ideas to get your creative juice flowing:

Indoor Decoration

Egg Carton Bat

For this craft, you will need a clean egg carton. You can use either a Styrofoam or a cardboard one, but if you want to hang your bats outside from the trees, the Styrofoam ones will be better. Cut out three of the egg cups keeping them attached together. Cut out the front and back of the two outside cups. This will form your bat’s wings. Paint your bat black with craft paint. Again, if you want to hang them outside, you will want to use waterproof paint. Once the paint is dry, you can paint on a scary face with white paint or glue on googly eyes.

Use a pair of scissors to poke a hole in the top of the middle cup. Take a piece of string and make a knot large enough that it won’t pull through the hole and put the string in the hole. Now you have your egg carton bat ready to be hung from wherever you want. Make several of these for maximum spookiness!

Egg Carton Spider

You can also use an egg carton to make a spider. For this craft, you just need to cut out one of the egg cups from the carton. Paint your spider black and wait for it to dry. Paint on eyes or glue googly eyes on him.
Use the tip of pointed scissors to make four small holes on each side of the egg cup. Insert a pipe cleaner in each of the holes and twist the pipe cleaners from the inside to form a knot of sorts so the pipe cleaners do not come out of the holes. Then bend the legs so your spider will stand on his own.

Spooky Balloon Ghosts

For this easy craft, you need two plastic grocery bags, a white balloon, and some tape (we prefer black duct tape because it holds better!) First, take and blow up the balloon tying a knot in the end of it.

Cut off the handles of the grocery bags and any writing on the bag. Starting at the open end of the bag, cut into one inch strip up to about an inch away from the bottom of the bag where the seam is.

With the knot of the balloon at the top, tape one of the bags to the front of the ghost and one to the back. Draw a spooky face on your ghost. Use a length of string to tie around the knot for hanging. You can also use a rubber band that is cut in half for hanging as well.

Garbage Bag Ghosts

Use balloons, white garbage bags (rectangle or square shaped), duct tape, and fishing line or thread. Blow up the balloon to about 6 inches. Figure out where you want your ghost to hang and cut 3 appropriate lengths of fishing line (leave yourself a little extra to play with).

Attach a piece of fishing line or thread to the top, rounded part of the balloon using plenty of duct tape. Make sure it is secure. Open the garbage bag and roll down the sides so the inside, bottom is exposed. Make a hole in the center of the bottom of the garbage bag just big enough for the fishing line or thread to fit through.

Grab the end of the fishing line that is attached to your balloon, and thread it through the hole. Pull it all the way through the hole so the bottom of the garbage bag rests against the balloon. Roll the sides back down so the balloon is in your garbage bag. Cut a smaller piece of fishing line or thread and loosely tie it around the bag where the balloon is to hold it in place. Don't pull it tight! Use a magic marker to make a face on the bag where the balloon is. I have also cut eye and mouth shapes out of construction paper and glued them in place. Tie or tape the other pieces of fishing line to the bottom corners of your garbage bag. These will be the ghost's arms. Hang your ghost by tying up the loose ends of the 3 pieces of fishing line

Skeleton Crafts

The easiest skeleton craft can be made with black construction paper and dry noodles. This is a very creative skeleton craft and can be crafted by even the youngest member of the family, provided he or she can handle glue. The material required will be black construction paper, lima beans, glue and dry noodles like shell macaroni, elbow macaroni, spiral noodles and spaghetti. Use the glue to stick the noodles and lima beans on the construction paper to form a skeleton. You can use the elbow macaroni to make the ribs, spiral noodles to make arms and legs and the skull can be made up of the lima beans. The lima beans can also be used to make the hips and the thorax region of the skeleton. You can make a pattern of a skeleton on the paper first and then ask your kids to glue on the various noodles and beans to form the skeleton.

Here is a complicated skeleton craft. You will need brown paper lunch bags, Styrofoam trays, a craft stick, sand, black paint and candles in glass containers. Begin by drawing a skeleton pattern with the craft stick on the Styrofoam trays, and cut it out. You can also use a knife for the purpose. Roll up the pattern in black paint and press it firmly on the inside of the paper lunch bag. Fill some sand at the bottom of the bag and place the glass containers with candles inside the bag. Light up the candles and you have a skeleton luminary. You can place a number of these skeleton luminaries along your driveway for a spooky effect. These luminaries can also be used to lead the trick-or-treaters to the treats you have in store for them.

Outdoor Decoration

Tombstones

These can be made in a couple of ways. You could get some wood and use a jigsaw to cut them into the shape of a rounded tombstone. Then get some black and gray paint to paint them. Use white or black paint – depending on which you used to paint: white for black background and black for gray background – and write funny sayings about your family.

You can also just put your family’s individual names and R.I.P. (rest in peace) or something like that. Use your imagination and be creative. To insert them in the ground, all you need to do is get long screws and screw them into the bottom of the tombstone leaving a large part of it sticking out. Then they can go into the ground and not fall over.

You can also do the same thing with heavy duty cardboard and make them the same way. If you use heavy duty cardboard, make sure you spray them with a sealant to keep them from collapsing in wet weather.

To put in the ground, all you need to do is cut a wire hanger into pieces and insert into the cardboard leaving a portion of the wire sticking out. Then push them into the ground to secure.

You can also experiment around with other materials like Styrofoam, moldable plastic, and anything else you think might work. It’s all up to you since these are easy and fun to have in the yard.

Some ways to make your tombstones look like they are in a graveyard are easily made with things you can find around the yard. Of course, you could make a small mound of dirt in front of the tombstone. You can also use some mulch spread out over a large black trash bag which will provide a nice, musty smell to go along with the Halloween sights and sounds. Lighting of your tombstones can make a big difference. You want passers-by to see your graveyard, so put out a few lights to highlight your creativity. Insert a directional light fixture (with a blue light) 8 -12 inches in front of the tombstone. Cover the back of the light fixture with aluminum foil so that it won't reflect back on the viewers. The aluminum foil is spray painted brown and covered with mulch to hide the fixture.

Adorn the grave with dead flowers, fake hands, spiders, monster masks on wig heads or other spooky items. Be sure to have some spider webs around the tombstones. You can buy these in spray form at many discount stores. In fact, dead flowers can really make your "graveyard" special, so be on the lookout in your own yard as well as others for flowers that have withered and died.

Make sure you get permission to take the flowers. You can also check with local florists to see if they have any dying flowers they want to get rid of.

If you are really brave, you can dumpster dive for these flowers, but don’t get caught. This is illegal, so we don’t condone this. But, on the down low, it’s a great way to get some really great dying flowers to really give your graveyard the authenticity it deserves!