You don’t need to buy plastic stuff to have fun on Halloween! Get lots of decorations ideas in this week’s podcast. For ideas on Halloween costumes from recycled materials, check out last year’s Trashmagination Halloween podcast.
Also to see photos of these projects and many more Halloween decorations from recycled materials, check out the Trashmagination Pinterest board.
Halloween Candy Bowls from Recycled Materials
Papier-mâché bowls – My favorite is by the blog The Long Thread. She makes an orange pumpkin one and an white ghost one. She uses an actual pumpkin as the base – the bottom where there is no stem.
Candy bowl from recycled candy wrappers – Finally you can justify eating some of the candy before the kids come trick-or-treating! This design is by Jodi Kahn. You can also glue candy wrappers to a recycled pail.
Frankenstein’s head bucket from a green 2-liter soda bottle
Frankenstein’s head where the kids take the candy from his open mouth – This is made from those rectangular plastic juice containers. It could be the head of Frankenstein, a robot or alien.
Ghost candy bowl by draping a white sheet over a bucket – by one of my favorites, Sadie Seasongoods
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A post shared by Sadie Seasongoods (@sadieseasongoods) on Oct 14, 2018 at 4:19pm PDT
Decorate your Yard with Halloween Decorations from Recycled Materials
Skeleton made from recycled plastic milk jugs – You use one jug for the head or skull, one for the rib-cage and then 2-3 more to make the legs, feet, arms and hands.
Ghosts from broken ceiling fan blades – a Sadie Seasongoods craft
Ghost windsocks from recycled cans – Paint the cans white, turn them upside-down and paint on black eyes and mouth. You add strips of white fabric hanging down from the can.
Giant rope spider web – I made my spider from the black plastic containers found in frozen meals. I made my web by attaching a lot of six-pack rings, but rope is much easier.
Skeleton Halloween decorations from recycled milk jugs
Front Porch Halloween Decorations from Recycled Materials
Milk jug ghost lights – You line up some plastic milk jugs, add ghost faces with black paint or markers, and then stringing white holiday lights inside. It looks like a line of ghosts. You can download a bunch of face templates.
Realistic skull from recycled milk jugs – It requires owning a resin dskull that you use as a base, and then you use a heat gun to melt the milk jugs over the base.
Ghost lights from K-cups – Take white K-cups and draw a ghost face, then attach one on each a string light.
Pumpkin from Tide Pods container
Halloween wreath from old socks
Nail-and-string skull art – My daughter made this inspired by the blog A Beautiful Mess.
Tin can luminaria
Zombie Barbies – from Crafts by Amanda
Glow-in-the-dark Monster Rocks – from Crafts by Amanda
Wooden pallet Halloween decorations – graveyards and fences
Halloween wreath made from recycled black socks designed by Trashmagination
Thread-and-nail skull decorations inspired by the blog A Beautiful Mess
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A post shared by Amanda Formaro (@amandaformaro) on Oct 15, 2017 at 5:43pm PDT
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A post shared by Amanda Formaro (@amandaformaro) on Oct 2, 2017 at 8:09am PDT
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A post shared by Thrifty Props (@thriftyprops) on Oct 1, 2018 at 2:42pm PDT
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A post shared by Melanie Billard (@melmo_27) on Oct 15, 2017 at 4:56pm PDT
Indoor Halloween Decorations from Recycled Materials This category of decorations is great if you are hosting a Halloween party. These could also be used to decorate your porch on Halloween night. A lot of these decoration ideas could also be good activity ideas for a Halloween party if you host a party with people who like to make crafts.
Haunted figurines – from Sadie Seasongood – She took old figurines and made them look haunted by painting them black and then giving them red eyes.
Spider’s web from a recycled doily – from Sadie Seasongoods – you stretch the doily on an embroidery hoop and add a little spider.
Ghosts from frosted glass light covers – from Sadie Seasongoods – If you go to a place like a Habitat for Humanity Restore, you can get them cheap. They look like ghosts when they are sitting on a shelf if you add eyes and a mouth. She puts glow sticks inside, but you could string reusable plug-in lights.
Graveyard terrarium – from the blog Just Crafty Enough – This is a variation on a popular craft which involves a recycled glass jar with a little scene inside, and usually some small plants. For this craft, you put a dried out branch that looks like a dead tree, a little gravestone made from Sculpey and dried hay along the bottom.
Bell Jar Spooky Display – the blog Craft Your Happiness shows how to make those old-timey looking jars – called cloches or bell jars – from recycled clear, two liter soda bottles. Inside the jars, they displayed pretend dragon eggs or bird models or other kind of creepy items.
Vitamin or Tylenol bottle to Potions bottle – It involves using a glue gun to add words like “Poison” or “Eye of Newt” and then you paint over that 3-dimensional stuff with layers of paint to make it look old.
Halloween silhouette lanterns – Paint a jar orange or cover it with tissue paper, then add a black silhouette. The blog called Le Coin de Mel shows silhouette designs that you could borrow.
Glow-in-the-dark Skeleton Cross-stitch – by Martha Stewart Living
Eye ball pom pom – By the Mr. P blog
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A post shared by Gretchen Byers (@insta_etsy) on Dec 17, 2015 at 5:03pm PST
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A post shared by Sadie Seasongoods (@sadieseasongoods) on Oct 26, 2017 at 4:13pm PDT
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A post shared by Sadie Seasongoods (@sadieseasongoods) on Oct 4, 2017 at 4:40pm PDT
Show Details I’m still looking for broken or unwanted tents if you’d like to give them to me!
Script for this podcast episode about Halloween decorations from recycled materials (not a transcript but gives the main ideas)
The Trashmagination podcast theme music is Kitchen from the Marian Circle Drum Brigade.