Halloween is around the corner, which means it’s time to decorate your home! But you don’t have to go all out and break the bank with over-the-top decorations. The List teamed up with decorating pro Kyla Federowicz and hit the dollar store to conjure up a spooky DIY Halloween decorations for your porch! Read on for four creations that will scare the trick-or-treaters without frightening your bank account.

 

1. Gather the Goods

 

Before making your DIY Halloween decorations, you’ll need to know what supplies to grab at the dollar store, with a little help from decorating pro Kyla Federowicz. We’ll know you how to creep out your porch with a bone wreath, scary specimen jars, and shrunken apple heads. When you’re out making your supply run, pick up some wall decor, a bag of apples, plastic bones, and scary critters. Then make sure to get some LED lights and a Bluetooth speaker, complete with a Halloween-themed lava lamp, which you’ll use for some “special effects.”

 

2. Putting it All Together

 

Our second step is to put it all together, starting with the bone wreath.

 

Graveyard Bone Wreath 

 

Wreaths aren’t just for Christmas – you can also incorporate them into your DIY Halloween decorations!

 

Supplies

 

3 bags of bones and body parts

1 skull

Flowers

Twine or string

Webs and spiders

Hot glue gun

Hot glue sticks

 

Instructions

 

Arrange Bones in the pattern that you want

Glue them together and let dry

Add string to back for hanging

Glue skull to wreath

Add flowers and webs

Hang on front door

 

Shrunken Heads

Next are the shrunken apple heads, which are the kind of DIY Halloween decorations that have a fun, old school vibe.

 

Supplies

 

10 apples

Box cutter or knife

Wig or hair

Earrings

Pumpkin seeds

Glue gun and sticks

Twine

 

Directions

 

Carve faces into apples

Place in oven on lowest temp for five hours to dry out

Glue on hair and add knot at top

Add jewelry and accessories as wanted

Hang from hooks or nails by knot in hair

 

DIY Halloween Decorations: Specimen Jars

Here’s how to make some spooky specimen jars – one of the most macabre DIY Halloween decorations you can make!

 

Supplies

 

5-6 spooky specimen (rats, a brain, big bugs, bones)

5-6 large jars or containers

Highlighters

Candle wax

Blacklight

Labels

Webs

 

Instructions

 

Place labels on jars

Add wax to rim of jars

Arrange specimens in jars

Pour water into jars

Squeeze highlighter into water

Cover with webs and bugs

Shine with black light for glowing effect

Add dry ice if wanted

 

3. Special Effects

 

Our last step is to decorate your porch with your new DIY Halloween decorations, and add ad in some haunting special effects, which will only cost about $25. We have smoking dry ice cauldrons lit with led lights. You can pick these items up at any grocery store. Just make sure to an oven mitt to handle the ice, as it can be scary. But you know know what isn’t scary? We found $10 Bluetooth speakers! Yes, and these are going to give you the most ghoulish sounds, guaranteed to scare the kids right off your porch. You can stream some Halloween-themed background music for free off YouTube. Learn how to make the smoking cauldron below.

 

Smoking Dry Ice Cauldrons  

Supplies

 

Plastic caldrons

Water

Gloves

Dry ice

 

Directions

 

Fill plastic “cauldrons” with water about halfway.

Using gloves, add a chunk of dry ice

You will need to add more water every hour or so, depending on outside temperature.

 

If you’re looking for DIY Halloween decorations, now you’ve got four ways to keep it scary while saving some cash!

 

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