It’s a big day, everyone. We have a Friday the 13th in October, and I’d hate for anyone to waste it. It’s been 11 years since we’ve been able to celebrate one of these bad boys in the month of Halloween, and we won’t have another one until 2023. Let’s make the most of it.
So what should you do? Let me give you some options:
1. Carve a jack o’ lantern (or at least buy your pumpkin if you haven’t already).
2. Go to a haunted house. Yes, the lines might be long tonight, but they’re only going to get longer the closer you get to THE BIG DAY, so why not go on Friday the 13th.
3. Watch a scary movie. Happy Death Day is in theaters today, and it’s getting pretty good reviews, I might go tonight to see this one myself. Or if you don’t want to go out to watch a movie, just watch the original Friday the 13th in the comfort of your own home. You own it, right? Of course, you do.
It’s no secret that I love Dollar Tree, and one of the reasons I love it so, so much for my Halloween shopping is that you can make so many of their items look more expensive with only a little bit of work.
Of all the Halloween items they carry, their skulls are my favorite. I always pick up a few each year. This year, just to help you out, I bought a few more than usual to play around with. But with them being just a dollar, it was totally worth it.
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1. Use metallic spray paint to make your skulls look at home in any chic Halloween setup.
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2. Who doesn’t love a sugar skull? Spray paint a skull white and go to town with multicolored sharpies, paint pens, stickers, and jewels. It’ll look great at any Day of the Dead celebration.
3. Transform a skull into a mini jack-o-lantern by carving it with a craft knife. Insert a flameless tea light and – voila! – glowing skull! You can even spray paint it orange for a faux skull pumpkin or other colors to match your decor.
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4. Make your skull look gross and creepy – and much more like a high-end prop – by using the corpsing technique I outlined here.
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5. Grab a few items you probably already have on hand and make this cool hanging ghost. Read the tutorial here.
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SO. MUCH. FUN. I hope you try out a few of these projects because you’ll be missing out if you don’t. Let me know how your projects work out in the comments. Happy Haunting!
Nothing dresses up a yard at Halloween time more than a floating ghost. Stores carry these guys plus floating zombies, monsters, and clowns, but they can get pretty pricey for some reason. Luckily for you, these are crazy easy to make. Please follow along, class.
First, as with all projects, you need to gather your materials.
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For your floating ghost, you will need the following:
A plastic skull
Creepy cloth
String
A wire hanger
Foam pipe cover
Pliers
Box cutter (not pictured)
Outdoor duct tape (not pictured)
You can buy a skull and creepy cloth from Dollar Tree, so this project is not only easy; it’s insanely cheap. The foam pipe cover is pretty inexpensive, too. You can get a package at any hardware store for a couple of bucks. They actually sell white foam cover, too, but for this project I went with the dark gray.
After you’ve gathered your items, it’s time to start the assembly.
First, you need to make holes in the top and bottom of your skull. Cut a small hole in the top and one that’s a little larger in the bottom. You won’t be able to see them when you’re finished, so don’t worry about being exactly even.
Next up, it’s time to make the shoulders (yes, your ghost will have shoulders) and attach it to the head. My wire hanger was one with the cardboard middles, so I’d recommend using the same kind. If you only have a full wire hanger, you’ll need to untwist the hanger and shape it so you have a hook in the middle or just use a wire cutter to cut the middle of the bottom hanger bar.
Straighten out the sides of your hanger to make the shoulders of your ghost.
Add the foam pipe to the shoulders on each side and secure in the middle with duct tape. Use outdoor duct tape for the best results. That stuff works miracles.
Tie your string together to make a circle, and thread it through the bottom of your head up through the top hole or vice versa. Take the hook of the hanger and thread it through the string from the bottom hole.
After you hook the string, pull it through to secure your ghost. Add a few small pieces of duct tape to the top hole to keep the string from dropping through. When you’re finished, it will look like this:
Your last step is adding the creepy cloth. Just drape it over the ghost’s shoulders and head, threading the string through a hole in the cloth to secure it. You can add as much or as little as you want depending on how transparent you want your ghost to be.
Tada!!! Your ghost is finished!
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Doesn’t he look cool? It was so easy that I plan on making a few more.
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So there you go. You just made a cool decoration for your yard. And the beauty of this little project is that you can change it up quite easily. You can do all sorts of variations to make different kinds of ghosts or other types of monsters.
Paint the head with glow paint.
Use white foam cover and cheesecloth to create a classic ghost.
Use a foam head with a mask.
Add lights along the shoulders or draped down under the cloth.
Add hands with extra wire and duct tape.
Use longer, stronger wire to make a gigantic creature.
There are so many possibilities. Not to go self-help on you, but the only thing limiting yourself is you.
I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me a message through the contact page. Happy Haunting!
Gordman’s has never been a big draw for me for Halloween merchandise because it usually only has the cutesier items just for decoration. If you’re looking for just home decor items, you should check them out because they have a pretty good selection. I was pleasantly surprised that they had an actual prop this year – even if it was a little overpriced.
It seems like there was more of a limited selection this year than for previous Halloweens, but they still had a pretty good mix of items:
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They had some pretty cool pumpkins and jack o’ lanterns for general fall decorating. I especially liked the black/white and gold variety two pics below:
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A few items were less cute and more scary. Check out these zombie and ghoul stand ups in the pic below. They stood about 2 feet tall each, so they wouldn’t be considered a real prop, but they’re pretty cool.
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As always, skeleton and skull items get my attention faster than anything else, so you can imagine that I kinda fell in love with this little guy. I might catch him when I do my post-Halloween discount shopping.
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Although I don’t like cute Halloween items as a general rule, I do love me a good countdown clock. This one was pretty cool:
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And as I said before, they actually had a full-size prop this year. Check out this bad boy:
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I got up close and personal with him to get a good pic of his face. I really like the detail.
With the exception of the prop, everything was reasonably priced. I’d compare the prices to TJ Maxx and Home Goods. The prop itself was priced at a little over $200, which for a prop that only lights up and doesn’t move, is a little too much.
Home Goods always has a great Halloween selection, and they didn’t disappoint this year. If you’re not familiar with Home Goods, it’s basically a bigger, fancier home section of TJ Maxx. They even carry some of the same stuff, which makes sense because they have the same parent company. And like TJ Maxx, their prices are pretty sweet.
When I first walked in, I was greeted by this cool display:
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I especially loved this tall grim reaper figure. Most of their items are more decorative in nature, so they don’t have many things that could be used as props in a haunted house or yard. But this handsome guy here would look right at home in any cemetery scene.
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As you can see in the pic below, they had a wide variety of decorations, from the cool and creepy to the glam and cute.
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These skulls were also some of my favorites. Yeah. I know. Surprise, surprise. I liked the skulls.
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Of course, they had pumpkins of all types and colors for those that want to steer their decorating to the fall side of things.
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One thing I thought was really cool at Home Goods was the types of decorative skulls they had (again with the skulls!). Just look at some of the different kinds in the photos below:
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There was also one that was copper instead of silver and one that was completely jewel encrusted. I tried taking a picture of the jeweled skull, but my camera turned it into a sparkly blob.
And this little guy with his Burton-esque vibe had me almost getting out my debit card…but I stayed strong. I can’t go spending all my Halloween moneys this early in the game.
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I would definitely check out Home Goods for your Halloween decorating needs, especially if you’re looking for more decorative items instead of actual props. They had quite a few unique items that I truly liked.
Plus, if you’re throwing a Halloween party and want to stay away from paper goods, they have a ton of plates, cups, and food serving items to choose from. Just check out the selection in the pics below:
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I’m pretty sure I’ll end up with that cheese plate at some point.
Make sure to check out my other Halloween merchandise reviews to know exactly where to shop to fulfill your needs. Also, make sure to follow me on Facebook for blog updates and additional pictures of Halloween products.
As I’ve been saying, Halloween is approaching fast, and with the swift approach of our favorite holiday comes the arrival of Halloween merchandise.
As usual, TJ Maxx is one of the first to put out their Halloween products for the year, and since I went there this weekend, I thought I’d snap a few pics. Just look at all the goodies!
One thing I really like at TJ Maxx is their selection of metal jack o’lanterns. These always look classy, and I like that you can use them with whatever theme you want. Just dress them up with flowers for a cutesy Halloween (not my preference, but whatever) or just put them with your creepy stuff. They’ll fit right in.
They also had a few cute Day of the Dead skulls in the mix. They’re just so festive.
There was also a selection of orange and pumpkin-themed decorations found at another part of the store.
This was probably my favorite item. You can’t see from this pic, but the jack o’lantern’s head is actually a candleholder. I’ll probably be picking up this guy before all is said and done.
This was also one of my favorites. It’s two skeletons carrying a plate. I think it’s meant to be used as a candleholder, but I thought it would be cool to put a few treats on it for your Halloween party food spread. The large faux-stone skull to the right of it is pretty awesome, and I also love the skull and crossbones candleholder to the left.
I thought TJ Maxx had a pretty good selection this year. They always have a large amount of skull-themed items, so I enjoy looking at their stuff each Halloween. If you’re looking for actual props, they probably won’t fulfill your needs, but if you’re looking for purely decorative items, you should check TJ Maxx out.
One last thing I’ll talk about is this fun little phone I played around with for awhile. I’m worse than a kid with this stuff. (Sorry for the weird video format!)
