Halloween is upon us! Each year I tell myself I am going to decorate and each year Halloween rolls around and I don’t get a chance to do much. I promised myself I would come up with something this year, so I took to Pinterest. Of course, there are a ton of ideas on there. I found a couple I chose to copy with some slight variations.

The use of real pumpkins is very festive, but they are not very cheap! Plus, they go bad eventually and I was looking for something to use next year as well. The fake pumpkins aren’t really any cheaper so I decided I was going to use the empty plastic trick or treat pumpkins. They are light weight and versatile, and the best part is, they were only a dollar at Target. *Note- most of these I painted over the whole thing and flip it around so the plain surface is the front.

The first project I undertook was the white pumpkin with handprints of all family members. Idea came from The Melrose Family site.

1. I painted the pumpkin with acrylic paint and waited for it to dry. I used “cream” for the overall color. I recommend cream over white because it has a warmer tone.
2. Then I had each family member pick a color of paint and each of us put our handprint on. The toddler and baby’s handprints were a bit smudgy, but it is the idea that matters!!  (You can buy paint online or at any craft store.  I am a crafty person so I had a bunch on hand, but you can buy the little tubes of it at Michaels for about $1 per tube of color.)
3. I painted the words “Give Thanks” on with black paint (But you can write it with a sharpie).
4. I had some fake fall flowers lying around from another project, so I decided this one would make a good centerpiece for our table. I bought the fake flowers from the Dollar Tree, so this whole craft would probably not cost you more than $6 or $7 dollars depending on how much paint you buy.

The next idea was “sugar skull” owls.  Idea from LilBlueBoo. They remind me of Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which I think has some amazing art and decorations. When I saw this I just had to try it! She uses sharpie, but since I had the black paint around, I used that instead. The sharpie probably works better and you come out with thinner lines, but I don’t hate how mine turned out. 🙂

1. Again, paint the pumpkin with the cream paint and wait for it to dry.
2. Paint or draw with sharpie any design you choose. I did one very similar to LilBlueBoo and then made another one using google searches for inspiration.

Lastly, a super easy one that you can do with your kids- Buy a black plastic trick or treat pumpkin or paint one black and then paint the ears, nose, and mouth with glow in the dark paint! It looks cool and will hopefully look awesome at night!

I want to stick some of these out on my front porch, but because they are hollow I am afraid they will fly away if it gets windy. You can fill them with something like rocks, but I didn’t have any readily available, so I decided I would put a little concrete on the bottom of each. I bought some that is meant for patching online, but I am sure any home improvement store would have some as well.

**UPDATE:

Since I was going to place some of the pumpkins outside I decided to make sure they were protected in case of rain, so I painted over them with a layer of mod podge. It goes on white but dries clear, similar to Elmer’s glue.

The concrete idea worked really well! I used it in 3 of the pumpkins and it is just the right weight, so that they aren’t terribly heavy, but are weighed down well.

And lastly, the glow in the dark paint I had, didn’t really accomplish what I was hoping it would(At night, you couldn’t see the black pumpkin), so I decided to take that same pumpkin and cut the face out so it looked like a jack-o-lantern.  I even filled it with some flameless tealights!

I have already received several compliments about them! So happy with how they turned out!

What homemade Halloween decorations have you made? Let me know in the comments below!