If you’re looking to make your home the place to trick-or-treat Halloween night, decorations can be expensive.
We have some budget friendly ways to do it yourself from one local home owner. Ashley Curtis, an executive producer at the station, created a Halloween wonderland in her front yard. She didn’t buy anything online.
“I got everything at Dollar Tree and the foam and spray paint at Lowe’s. The tulle fabric was bought at JoAnn Fabrics, and some stuff I already had,” said Ashley.
If you’re on the crafty side of TikTok, you’ve probably seen all the Halloween DIY projects. Ashley decided to give some a try to create a witchy cemetery.
“If you look at decoration prices, even stores offering 50% off, things can cost 50 to hundreds of dollars and I’m cheap, so why not make them myself?”
She started with a trip to Goodwill for her statues.
“I was looking for anything with angels and something to stand them up on. I glued the plates to the vases and the angels on top. Then I spray-painted them white with an added layer of gray stone accent paint. I finished them up by gluing some fake moss in random places.”
Ashley spent $20 on glassware. She splurged by spending on the $15 gray stone paint but says that’s optional if you want to just use regular gray. She spent a dollar on fake moss for a total of $36 or $12 per statue. Prices varied for these online, but most are made of plastic or foam. Next, she made a stop at Dollar Tree and Lowe’s to collect the rest of her supplies.
“You can’t beat $1.25 craft supplies and decorations. The Dollar Tree has a really good Halloween selection. Plus getting creative in combining things together for an overall creation,” said Ashley.
Take the haunted bird cage, for example. Ashley created the cage with a small basket and a setting plate. She painted it black, glued it all together and topped it off with a big fake chain. She already had the paint, but each remaining item for this project cost a dollar apiece for a total cost of just $4. Now it was time to work on the centerpiece: the witches and cauldron pit.
“The cauldron fire pit was my favorite part to make. It was also the first time I’ve used insulation foam. I got the cauldron at Five Below and spot-painted it with some silver to age it. I used a wire wreath frame to hold the foam around the top and painted it green. In order to get the two-tone look.. start with a light layer of black on the top.”
The fire pit was a similar process. Ashley laid out two strands of lights and sprayed the foam on top. Before it dries completely, add your bones if you’re going for a really creepy look. To finish, spray it black with hints of red.
Overall, she used plastic bones from last year but spent $5 on a cauldron, $6 on two strands of lights, $7 on two cans of insulation foam, $10 on spray paint and $1 apiece for a fake chain and wreath wire. It made the total project $30 compared to the $50 or $100 she could have spent.
Finally, it was time to make the witches.
“I was most nervous about this project, but they were actually really easy. I saw a lot of people using the plastic trick-or-treat pumpkins as heads, but I got these foam heads at Michaels. From here it’s just shaping your cages and draping your trash bags and any other fabrics to get the look you want. For more color I added some tulle scarves. I also used pool noodles for the arms and lots of tape,” said Ashley.
For the witchy project, Ashley needed to buy three foam heads for $15, and $12 for 6 yards of tulle. She also needed $18 for witch hats. Ashley admits you can find cheaper options.
Also needed: a roll of black tape, three pool noodles and three creepy nets for a dollar each.
That makes the total cost for the witches $52 or just over $17 each. Similar style witches we found online were priced anywhere from $60 to $117 for a set of three.
Overall, Ashley spent $122 on her setup. We want to note, Ashley did have some of these things already on-hand like old decorations, black spray paint, trash bags, yard hooks and the tomato cages. It’s a reminder that using things you already have in new ways can save you some cash.
Don’t forget, you’ll need something to keep everything in place. Ashley got a box of 50 yard staples on Amazon for an additional $12.
