fast, last-minute halloween decorations

Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of the year to celebrate, but lately it seems to be so scary!  With my kids being such sponges about the world, I kind of want  to keep the decorations this year a little more simple and inviting for the neighborhood littles, because after all, they are really the costumes I want to see…and homemade, because…well, I'm feeling pretty cheap this year (although there are SO many sparkly skull heads I want to buy!).  We have a pretty good trick-or-treating neighborhood, so I definitely wanted to make it friendly and fun!!

 I found this fantastic and creative idea for kid's masks, but since my kids are small and won't keep anything on their faces or heads, I opted to modify it to make a decoration for my door instead.  I kinda love it.  And it was super fun. I used the templates from the other faces to make my own ghost and owl too.  Yes, that's supposed to be an owl. 

I also wanted to do something with spiderwebs that was fun but not scary, so I found some leftover embroidery hoops from projects I never did (geez, how many of those do I have…) and wrapped dollar store spider web-y stuff around them and stuck a few plastic spiders on them.  I used the removable hooks for outdoor use on my porch ceiling and hung them from those.  So simple and easy but I like the whimsy it creates!

Pumpkins.  Let's talk about pumpkins, or "punkys" as Miss P calls them.  So many years in the past I have totally forgotten about them on my porch and they leave a yucky rotten spot.  So this year, instead of carving (which I love but am not feeling this year), I got a few of the fake ones on sale and used a sharpie to "paint" a decoration on them.  I was inspired by some lace ideas I had seen around the interwebs and thought they had a great vintage-y vibe. 

Also with the one real pumpkin we did buy, I made some little cardboard bats to stick all around the top of it.  This was also super easy to do.  Just make a little template out of card stock and trace it onto scrap cardboard, then use a sharpie to color it in!  I had some leftover gold sticks from a previous project, so I just glued those onto the cardboard and then stuck them in the pumpkin.  You could use those bamboo skewers from the grocery store or even toothpicks if you fancy.  

You can always add tea or string lights couple days before and I still might make a couple friendly ghosts to add to our trees.  We will see…I still have to get working on those costumes.  
I can't wait to see all the little ones' costumes this year!!!