Fun Halloween Decorating ideas and tutorials for the perfect DIY

At Halloween -- the one time of year when the grotesque, gruesome, and horrifying are worth aspiring to -- take the opportunity to express your holiday spirit with just the sort of drink Dr. Frankenstein might have enjoyed during cocktail hour. With medium-size radishes and olives, you can create creepy ice cubes that appear to contain eyeballs -- ideal for a macabre martini on the rocks or in a ghastly glass of flavored seltzer for your young ghouls-in-training.

Trim the stem and root ends of a radish (make sure it's small enough to fit the individual section of an ice-cube tray), and use a paring knife to scrape off most of the red skin. Leave just enough red to give the radish a veined appearance. Rinse the radish off, and use a small melon baller to cut 1/2-inch-diameter hole into the radish. Fit an olive, cut side out, into the hole, and place the radish in the ice-cube tray. Repeat this process until the tray is full, then pour water over the eyeballs, and freeze.



Fill this vessel with dry ice for a smoldering display, or use it to serve punch (omitting the dry ice).

1. You'll need: a ruler, two pumpkins (one about 2/3 the size of the other), a grease pencil, a keyhole saw, a fleshing tool, tape, templates (enlarge as needed), an awl, a short length of square brass tubing (bent in on the flat sides to form a 4-pointed star), a wood screw, a screwdriver, a glass bowl, dry ice.

2. Use ruler to measure the halfway point on each pumpkin, and draw a horizontal line around circumferences with grease pencil. Cut pumpkins in half; discard tops. Lightly scrape insides clean. Tape templates to pumpkins (starting at the backs, since templates won't meet up exactly). Poke holes with awl along outline of the patterns; continue around pumpkins, moving template as you go.

3. Use keyhole saw to cut out shapes along dotted lines and tubing to cut tiny holes.

4. Place larger pumpkin on top of inverted smaller one. Use a 2-inch wood screw to fasten pumpkins to each other. Insert glass bowl, and fill with water and dry ice. Note: Wear gloves when handling dry ice; use in well-ventilated areas.



I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE that orange and purple together.


This glow-in-the-dark craft is a perfect way to decorate your house, porch, and windows with glowing pumpkins for Halloween.

Tools and Materials
Funkin (foam pumpkin)
2-inch-wide vinyl tape
Pencil
Scissors
Spray adhesive
Box (large enough to fit funkin)
Mask
Glow-in-the-dark powder
Cookie sheet
Krylon
Fluorescent black light

Glow-in-the-Dark Funkins How-To
1. Cut strips of 2-inch-wide vinyl tape; place strips of tape down on a nonstick surface. Draw face on tape and cut out to create a face sticker. Stick face on pumpkin.

2. Place pumpkin in box; coat with spray adhesive. Remove pumpkin from box and place on cookie sheet. Put glow-in-the-dark powder all over pumpkin. Let dry for about 10 minutes. Repeat the process once more.

3. Spray clear coat of krylon on pumpkin. Let dry for 20 minutes. Peel off sticker face. Add fluorescent black light next to pumpkin to intensify the glow.

Resources
Glow-in-the-dark powder can be found at stevespanglerscience.com. Funkins may be purchased at funkins.com.