Make It: Glowing ghoulies and ghosts

You've seen the gargantuan blow-up Halloween decorations, the webs, and the spiders. There really is no limit to what many people will do to their front yards leading up to this haunted holiday. And I am one of them.

Make It: Ghastly ghosts and ghoulies!

However, instead of heading to your local big box store, try some DIY decorations using recycled materials from around your house, thrift stores and a small trip to the dollar store. This has helped me save more than a penny or two this year.

I’m a big fan of spooky lighting. Instead of using candles, I'm opting for glow sticks. The dollar stores and even Goodwill have these for cheap – usually about $1 – and some specifically for pumpkins and other creepy décor.

The glow sticks create a eerie ambience when placed within a white balloon, and although they don't last more than four or five hours, it's a perfect idea for Halloween night.

This activity is great for the kids to personalize their own creepy characters, and can easily be done after school, and before they start getting their own costumes on.

Recycle old tin cans, medium, large to be the base of your spooky dudes.

Check out all the steps in photos: Make It: Ghastly ghosts and ghoulies!

Yard Ghoul

What you’ll need:

• Recycled cans – however many you want to use or have available
• White balloons (one for each can)
• Black permanent marker
• Glow sticks (2-3 for each ghoul)
• Scotch tape

Break open your glow sticks and shake to glow. 

Stretch your balloons and begin blowing up. Insert two or three glow sticks inside the balloons and tie off.

Place a piece of Scotch tape in the sides of the balloon to attach to cans.

Draw on your funny faces and place outside around your yard among the grass or bushes and watch these ghoulies

Ghosts!

Another great bone-chilling addition to the yard is simply made with a few garbage bags, coat hangers and balloons. Add a glow stick and you’ve got a gruesome ghoul flying through the trees.

Ghoulish yard ghosts

What you’ll need:

Make It: Ghastly ghosts and ghoulies!

• Black large garbage bags, leaf or yard size
• White balloons
• Glow sticks
• Coat hangers
• Scissors
• String

Cut your garbage bags up both seams. Use your scissors to cut the edges in a little jagged. Stretch the plastic to make it a bit uneven.

Blow up balloons until they are about the size of a soccer ball.

Get your glow sticks glowing and place them inside the balloons and tie off.

Tie a piece of string to the balloon end and then tie the balloon close to the hook on the coat hanger.

Drape the garbage bags over the balloons and tie some of the string around where the coat hangar meets the balloon to make a “neck.”

Tie a longer piece of string or ribbon around the the little point on the top of the bag, tightening the loose garbage bag around the balloon and also for attaching your "ghosts" into the trees, or inside the house. I placed mine on the chandelier in the dining room.

Cut small slits in the face of the garbage bags for eyes, and so the glow sticks shine through.

Secure your new ghosts into some lower hanging tree branches and wait for a breeze or around your house in the windows. These are sure to give a scare to your trick-or-treaters and neighbors this spooky season.

Make It: Ghastly ghosts and ghoulies!

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Twinkle VanWinkle was born in a small town in Mississippi. A life-long lover of music, media and food, she grew up following those three things along her path. She has almost 20 years of professional cooking under her apron strings, feeding thousands of friends, family and other folks while working in restaurants and bakeries in Oxford, Miss. She baked 300 apple pies for the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared on “The Best Of...” in the same year. Along with producing dynamic entertainment content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.

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