Arrange synthetic pumpkins on a tiered cake stand, and add gothic candlesticks and black candles shrouded in spider webs, for a haunting centerpiece.
Next: Mirror with Glowing Eyes
Dress up your house in the spirit of the season with our best creepy indoor decor, followed by our cutest.
Glow-in-the-dark glitter gives this Halloween decoration its one-of-a-kind look.
Fill old-style specimen jars with water, and add enough food coloring to produce a suitably supernatural tint. Arrange lotus pods, poppy pods, and coneflower heads within. No evil will darken your doorstep with these eerie elixirs on display.
Hair-raising party decorations don't need to be costly or fussy. You can make these frightening flourishes with some inexpensive craft supplies in just a few minutes.
Use this printing method for any paper item. Japanese rice paper picks up ink especially well and produces haunting prints that look aged.
Next: Black Cat Silhouettes
Use double-sided tape to place these cats where guests might least expect to find them -- whether they're ready to jump out of two framed prints or hiding in the window.
Next: Specimen Jars
Spook up your home for Halloween with easy-to-make specimen jars, a creepy decoration sure to bring out the mad scientist in you.
Next: Pumpkin Balloons
Draw simple features onto inflated balloons with permanent marker; choose an assortment of geometric shapes that are easy to create freehand.
Next: Black Spider
Next: Paper Shadows
Shadows are emblematic of Halloween: dark and fleeting, and always lurking a step behind you. But decorating with them is impossible -- at least without black magic -- so use some black paper and a little craftiness to make silhouettes, and you'll get the next best thing.
How do you expect spiders to swarm on those clean windowsills? You need to set bait: Place small votives inside larger ones. Then spin your spiders a glowing web.
Next: Shivering Bats Shade
Your visitors will shudder when they spot a bat-lined lampshade as part of your decor. Some of the paper cutouts are suspended from threads, while others are stuck inside the shade.
Next: Bat Garland
No need to bait your home with bugs to attract a scary swarm of bats like these; all that's required is tissue paper and a pair of scissors. Cutting the strings of shapes won't drive you batty, since the paper comes accordion-folded in its package. With black tissue paper you can craft bats, cats, rats, or witches; orange makes great pumpkins; and white is perfect for skulls and ghosts.
Next: Pumpkin Pie Potpourri
Use a pumpkin incense burner to suggest the cozy scent of pie just out of the oven.
Next: Tin-Can Jack-o'-Lanterns
Create a new Halloween tradition by punching robot-like faces into cans. Add votive candles, and the heads come to life.
Next: Chandelier Shades
Cast an eerie glow with these papier-mache chandelier shades.
Glittered plastic skeletal parts create a suitably dramatic -- an unexpectedly artful ambience when set off by an oversize glass cheese dome.
Next: Shimmering Pumpkins
The hallway table is laden with decorating tricks and Halloween treats. Bugs adorn whimsical, spray-painted pumpkins, which stand out against leaves handcrafted from green silk taffeta. Antique jars are filled with old-fashioned gum balls and stick candy, and a cake stand bears bags of jelly beans tied with silver ribbon.
Next: Pumpkin Sconces
These giant gothic lanterns will hang ominously over your buffet table.
Next: Papier-Mache Pumpkins
The stairway in an entry hall is an appropriate spot to display graduated sizes of handmade paper jack-o'-lanterns.
Next: Glitter Silhouettes
Create Halloween decorations that shimmer by adding glitter to our witch, jack-o'-lantern, skull, spider, or owl templates.
Next: Spooky Halloween Bouquet
This fall arrangement is at once spooky and glamorous, making it perfect to display at a haunted Halloween party or a sophisticated fall dinner.
No, the Easter Bunny is not confused -- these eggs are for Halloween. The frightfully festive designs were made with a Ukrainian dying technique similar to batik, in which wax and dye are applied to create colorful images.
Next: Pumpkin Light Catchers
These paper decorations are as much trick as treat. At first they seem to be traditional symbols of the season, but when they're placed in front of a light -- surprise! -- their happy (or scary) expressions shine through.
Next: Halloween Ornaments
Turn glittered stickers into shiny ornaments to hang from a dark, twisted Halloween tree for a creepy centerpiece that will last for years.
Next: Quick-Spun Cobwebs
If that spooky, hundred-year-old dusty look doesn't come naturally, fake it with hot-glue cobwebs; we "spun" them over realistic-looking stuffed birds.
Next: Head-Waiter Tray
Sometimes you need more than a hand serving guests -- you need a head. Create a helping head to entertain your captive dining companions.
Next: Costumed Candleholders
What better way to brighten Halloween's gloom than by dotting your windowsills with grinning -- or scowling -- hurricane lanterns?
Floating, spinning visages will draw extra attention to a table of goodies.
This Halloween party centerpiece -- made of tea-dyed eggs and fishing lures -- is sure to make guests scream.
Next: Shrunken Apple Heads
These shrunken heads, made from peeled, carved, and dried apples, are as spooky as the scariest Halloween masks -- and just as much fun to create.
Next: Glittered Pumpkins
All that glitters isn't gold...it's also orange, amber, pink; cast petite pumpkins in your favorite glittering fall hues for a magical Halloween display.
Next: Glowing Skull
A balloon gives shape to this eerie papier-mache skull; when lit from the bottom it creates quite a haunting display.
Adorn a painted branch with seasonal ornaments as well as tiny treat bags for guests to take home.
Next: Halloween Tablecloth
This festive tablecloth is made of layered crepe paper and polka dots cut from streamers.
Next: Jar-o'-Lanterns
Think twice before you toss those used jars; give them a second life as cute Halloween decorations. Just paint them in pumpkin colors and give them funny faces.
Next: Clothespin Bats
Spine-chilling as it sounds, a colony of bats hanging from the highest reaches of your house serve as the perfect welcome for guests -- if you're throwing a Halloween party. You can also clip these clothespin bats onto tree branches or bushes outdoors to greet trick-or-treaters.
Next: Specimen-Jar Candle
Here's a Good Thing that will add a spooky touch to your home for Halloween. The specimen-jar candle looks like it came straight from a mad scientist's laboratory, but it's really easy to make -- and little trick-or-treaters will love it.
Next: Ghoulish Lampshades
Light your home for Halloween with these darkly delightful ghoulish lampshades.
Next: Shocking Silhouettes
As day turns to night, call on candles to cast an eerie glow throughout your home. When fierce silhouettes are propped above them, spectacular shadows dance across the walls.
Next: Jack-o'-Clock
It's always just a few minutes till the witching hour on the face of this pumpkin.
Next: Homespun Pumpkins
Assembled from yarn, rope, and foam balls, these homespun pumpkin decorations are simple to make.
Next: Creepy Candles
Cast a sinister glow over any setting with a cluster of white tapers dripping with "blood" (actually red candle wax). Fill a cup or a small pail with sand, and plant white candles inside so they stand upright. Light a red candle and tip it over the white candles so the wax drips down the tops and sides, being careful not to burn yourself. Let wax cool completely before removing candles from sand.
Next: Spooky Paper Curtains
Replace fabric curtains with elegant, gothic-inspired ones made of paper.
Next: String Spiderweb
Use simple string to create a stunningly spooky web. For the non-squeamish only: Add a faux tarantula and flies to complete the scene.
Next: Pumpkin Baskets
A hollowed out-pumpkin makes the a perfect vessel for displaying fall flowers. Lopsided pumpkins work best, because their stems don't interfere with the basket's handle.
Next: Cobweb Candles
Plain candlesticks look positively creepy in critter-covered cobwebs. Cut a length of cheesecloth, and gently pull to make it look tattered. Drape cloth over candlesticks and mantel; add plastic spiders and leaves. Top candlesticks with bobeches -- collars that catch drips -- and insert tapers.
Next: Pumpkin Lantern
A lantern with a pumpkin base makes a great Halloween decoration that will remain festive throughout the fall season.
Next: Glow-in-the-Dark Funkins
Your carved pumpkin can last for years to come if you use a funkin, a carvable faux pumpkin; it can be coated with glow-in-the-dark powder and illuminated with a black light to add depth to your evening Halloween decor.
Next: Crepe-Paper Curtains
These creepy crepe-paper curtains are a simple and inexpensive way to "spook up" your decor for Halloween.
To decorate your holiday table, cluster several pumpkins as a centerpiece and embellish them with marbled-paper leaves and wire tendrils.
Next: Coffin Table
Turning a table into a coffin makes the room feel like a funeral parlor. Cover furniture with sheets to complete the ghostly look.
Next: Scary Specimens
Invite some great minds to your next gathering. Dried cockscomb looks like brains, making this ingenious display easy to create. Find dried blooms online, or dry fresh ones by hanging them upside down for 2 weeks. Plan to use 6 to 8 stems per brain. Cut blooms off stems. With hot glue, affix flowers together, creating half of a brain. Make 2 halves; hot-glue together. Print and cut out paper labels; skewer on hat pins, and insert. Display brains in jars or under glass cloches.
Next: Forbidding Flowers
A floral arrangement becomes positively frightening when covered in creepy cobwebs. To make the webs, cut a 5-inch section from inexpensive or damaged white panty hose, and pull apart until it becomes wispy and resembles cobwebs. Stretch the material over a cluster of dark blooms (we used crimson roses and dahlias, as well as some fiddlehead ferns). Set on a sideboard, or on a dining table as a centerpiece.
Next: Candy Jar Treats
A selection of sunny sweets is even more tempting when displayed in glass containers with cheerful labels.
Make this shadowy centerpiece, and friends and family will quickly discover they aren't the only guests at the table.
When the sun goes down, set a spooky scene with these dramatic lanterns made from simple supplies and our exclusive clip-art designs.
Next: Silhouette Curtains
Give guests (and neighbors) a scare with curtains that reveal a scary figure lurking indoors.
Next: Glittered Hurricanes
These glittered hurricanes couldn't be easier to make, and are great to decorate your dining room table, a mantle, or side table.
Next: Specimen Jars
The specimens in these jars are so realistic, guests will be afraid to ask what they're made of.
Next: Candy Wreath
This wreath might be too tempting to remain intact for long. To make it, you'll need 2 pounds of hard candy in twisted wrappers, an 8-foot length of embroidery thread, and a round wire wreath form that is 8 inches in diameter.
Next: Talking Pumpkin
Eeek -- it's alive! Make a jack-o'-lantern talk using an old baby monitor.
Next: Lantern-o'-Treats
Get double duty out of your jack-o'-lantern by using it as a glowing candy bowl.
Next: Mini Pumpkin Centerpiece
Take mini pumpkins to another level; anchor tapers inside them to make centerpieces.
Next: Pumpkin Vase
Pumpkins wear many hats this time of year, appearing in pies and soups as well as in centerpieces. Here's another use: Transform one into a colorful homemade vase.
Next: Pumpkin Votives
These tiny pumpkins are too small to carve faces in, but they're the the perfect size for holding votives to light a walkway or display on your holiday table.
Next: Paper Mice
These creepy, crawly paper mice are not so nice. Stick these unsavory critters on stair risers, baseboards, or any spot where they might give unsuspecting passersby a little jump.
Next: More Halloween Central
Come October, are you a seasonal celebrator or a creative costume whiz?
How well do you know the country's haunted past? Find out now!

Frightfully fun ideas for costumes, decorations, pumpkin carving, and sinister sweets.
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