Embracing a Healthy Family: home made halloween decorations

All You has this great instructional on making many Halloween decorations without having to spend big bucks. Take a look:

Ginormous Spiders look really easy YET very spooky!

You’ll need:

Krylon H2O spray paint in black (go to krylon.com for retailers)
Styrofoam ball, 8" or 10" diameter
Scissors
3 6' lengths of foam pipe insulation
Black telephone or stereo wires, or black twine
Glue gun
Scissors

1. Spray paint Styrofoam ball black. (Tip: Poke a stick into the ground and push the Styrofoam sphere onto it so you can paint entire ball. When you’re assembling spider, cover hole with an eye or leg.) Let dry.

2. Cut two 6' pieces of pipe insulation into 2' lengths for a total of six 2’ pieces.

Now take a 2' piece of pipe insulation and bend it about 10" from one end. Tie folded pieces together with wire to make a knee. Measure another 10” down from knee, fold insulation and tie folded pieces together with black wire to make ankle. Trim excess wire. Repeat on five remaining 2' lengths of pipe insulation.

3. Cut two 10" lengths from remaining 6' length of pipe insulation. To make front legs, bend each piece in half and tie folded pieces together with black wire. Trim excess wire.

4. Working on “thigh” (long part) of each leg, snip end on diagonal so it fits snugly into a ball. Starting with front legs, glue each leg to ball. (Refer to photo for positioning.) Tip: Hold each leg in place longer than you typically would―you're melting foam, so allow it to cool before letting go. Attach remaining six legs, three on each side.

5. Cut two half-circles, about 3" long, out of white paper, cardboard or craft foam. Cut a thin “slice” of leftover pipe insulation. Cut that piece in half to make two “C”-shaped pieces. Glue a “C” onto each half-circle. Position each eye on ball, and glue.

To display: Tie filament around legs, and hang from porch or tie to spider web.

You can't have the spiders without the web:

You’ll Need:

Tape measure
6 dowels, about 18" long
Flexible, plastic-coated coated wire (12 to 14 gauge; 150’ long)
Wire cutters
Tape (electrical, duct or masking will work)
Needle nose pliers
Nails (optional)

Click here for our spider web diagram.

Each web consists of three parts: A) the hub, B) the frame wires that extend out from the center and C) the weft wires that weave frame wires together.

1. Choose location for web where it can be attached at top and one side; measure height and width.

2. Using these measurements, insert dowels into lawn to make a frame for weaving web (fig.1). Insert another dowel halfway between upper and lower corner nails on right side; repeat on left (fig. 2).

3. Twist wire around hub dowel; extend it to upper right nail to create frame wire (fig. 3). Twist to secure. Cut, leaving several inches excess. Wrap tape around wire end. Repeat, connecting each remaining dowel to hub with wire (fig. 4).

4. Cut a 3' to 5' length of wire (anything longer is unwieldy ―if at any time you come to the end of a wire, twist it to a frame wire, tape it, and start a new piece). Twist one end around left frame wire, about 6" from hub. Bend wire in a curved shape, and loop it around next frame wire to right. Crimp it around the frame wire with needle nose pliers. Repeat for the remaining 3 frame wires. At final frame wire, wrap to secure, then trim weft wire.

5. Repeat, spacing weft wires about 6" apart. Keep adding wires until you reach end of frame wires. Cover exposed wire ends with tape.

6. Slip web off of dowels. Hang web using nails or duct tape.

PumpkinHead Monster:

You’ll need:

10-12 magazines
Newspaper
Masking or duct tape
Clothing: long-sleeve shirt, overalls or jeans, boots or high-top sneakers, hat
Chair
Monster gloves (available at costume stores)
Carved pumpkin
Mophead

1. To create monster’s skeleton, open a magazine to the middle and wrap it around rolled up newspaper so it’s the diameter of an arm. Wrap in tape to secure. Make four arm-size pieces, and four leg-size pieces.

2. For torso, open a magazine to middle and lay flat. Place wadded newspaper on top. Place a second open magazine on top of newspaper and tape together.

3. Wad newspaper into four balls, to make "knees" and "elbows." These joints make it easy to pose monster.

4. Layer clothes as desired. For instance, pull overalls over shirt(s). Insert body parts into clothes. Arrange body in chair, and fill in with wadded newspaper as desired.

5. Tuck “monster hands” into shirtsleeves. Tuck pant legs into boots.

6. Place carved pumpkin on monster’s torso. If it feels unstable, insert a dowel through bottom of the pumpkin and down through torso. Add mophead for hair and top with a hat.