Halloween has all the makings of a really fun celebration--from ghosts and witches to gruesome monsters and frightening sounds, it's a great theme for decorating. Here are some creative ideas for this frightful time of year:

Enter the Haunted House

• An odd-shaped silhouette in the window might seem like a drapery but it's actually a ghost cut from white cotton fabric taped to the glass (figure A).
  

  Figure B

• If the ghost doesn't keep you from entering, perhaps an unusual black pine wreath will (figure B). Its eerie combination of fake leaves, giant spiders and webs may make you think twice.
  

• Just as you muster up the courage to ring the bell, notice something other than the wind rustling in your hair--those light touches are bats! Stuff black children's socks with fiberfill and hot-glue the end to the back to form the body. Cut the wings out of felt and glue pipe cleaners along the top back edge to allow maximum positioning. Cut felt ears and use pipe cleaners for legs (glue the wings, ears, pipe cleaners and two red sequins for eyes to the body and hang several indoors or out).

The Parlor of Horror

• The appearance of years of aging and decay are evident in the remains of drapery blowing woefully from the cold draft of broken (OK, slightly open) windows (figure C).

   

• Usually warm and inviting, the flickering flames of several candle groupings create quivering shadows. Position them far from any blowing draperies and on top of tin foil disguised with black stones and gravel. They shouldn't be left unattended and in a haunted house, that's never a problem!

   

• Furniture covered in a messy fashion with white sheets makes any house look as if it was abandoned years ago.
  

  Figure D

• Bats seeking refuge from the cold find nesting spots above (figure D). Cut them from craft foam and hang with thread or tack some to walls with pushpins.
  

  Figure E

• Create a haunted fireplace using spooky-looking branches full of moss with bats hanging from them, black and white portraits, loads of candles, a plastic skeleton head, draped pieces of ripped gauze and a creepy portion of a picket fence (figure E).

Dine (if You Dare)

• Display a witch's spell book (use a large old book and be sure it's not a first edition). Gently rip and char the edges of additional sheets of fiber or parchment paper using a charcoal-colored marker. Use a calligraphy pen to create a fabulously ghastly formula that will turn your guests' stomachs (Putrid Ditch Water, perhaps?). Use double-stick tape to secure the pages to the middle of the open book. Add a leather or velvet bookmark as a final accent and prop it up on a book or plate stand. Perch the witch's pet raven at the ready to pluck off a bit of flesh from one who gets too inquisitive (figure F).
  

  Figure G

• Arrange the necessary ingredients for the witch's brew next to the spell book--jars of creepy gunk, bloodshot eyeballs (formed from polymer clay with handpainted veins), spiders and a tiny dish of (fake) toenails (yum, yum) (figure G).
  

  Figure H

• The thin and broken points of branches tucked into a hanging light fixture reach out as if to pierce passersby (figure H)!
  

• A variety of canisters full of decaying items in the center of a Halloween table could send guests home hungry! For maximum effect, create murky or bloody preservative fluid for some by adding green or red food coloring plus a tablespoon or two of milk to water. Put plastic insects and body parts, witch or alien Halloween masks, floating eyeballs and tiny shrunken apple heads (peeled apples with carved faces that have dried up) in separate jars. Cap some of them with a piece of ragged gauze and waxed string for an eerie effect.
  

  Figure I

• Create candles jars by embellishing the outside of a large glass container with Halloween stamps. Arrange various pillar candles in the center and surround them with non-flammable materials like black fish tank gravel (figure I).

wreath materials, bugs, bat materials, modeling clay, witch's cauldron, coffin utensil box materials, gauze for curtains, black tablecloth material, floral materials, cobweb material, candles, stones (Jo-Ann Etc.)

black wreath (Bronner's Christmas Wonderland)

slate tombstones, gazing ball, glass jars (Target)