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Copyright © 2012 tom. Visit the original article at http://leftoverlovers.com/2008/10/26/budget-friendly-ideas-for-halloween/.

Halloween is right around the corner and I wanted to start out our budget ideas page with some inexpensive crafts, recipes, etc. that are great for Halloween. And that’s exactly why we put this guide together for you.

Halloween is such a great Holiday for kids. When else do they get to dress up in fun costumes, pretend to be a princess or a superhero and then walk around town collecting candy?

Halloween Was Made For Kids!

We hope you and your kids will enjoy the crafts, recipes, games and decorating ideas we’ve included! Have a great Halloween!

Halloween Crafts

“Is it time to go trick-or-treating yet?”

Waiting for sunset on October 31st can be tough for a child. Make the wait easier (and more fun) by making some Halloween crafts together. Of course you can start making these crafts a few weeks earlier and use them to decorate the house for Halloween.

Ghost Hand Puppet

Kids love playing with puppets and there’s hardly an easier puppet to make than a ghost. All you need is a white paper towel, or a white handkerchief, a rubber band and a black marker.

Ask your child to spread out her thumb and pinky, but keep the 3 other fingers together. Drape the paper towel over her hand and secure the rubber band around the three fingers. This will be the ghost’s head; the thumb and pinkie form the arms. Draw eyes and a mouth on the paper towel and the little ghost puppet is finished.

Spider Webs

What would Halloween be without spiders and spider webs? Make these cute little spider webs with the kids and hang them in the window. All you need are 3 craft or clean Popsicle sticks and some white or black yarn.

Take two of the craft sticks and glue them together to form a cross. Glue the 3rd one right in the middle, forming a star shape. Tie one end of the yarn around one of the craft sticks in the center. Start weaving it over one craft stick and under the other. Keep going around, forming your spider web. Make sure you leave at least 1/4th inch of the craft sticks sticking out and secure the loose end by tying it to one of the craft sticks. Glue a small plastic spider in the center and hang your spider web up.

Witch Broom Pencil

Witch broom pencils make a cute Halloween gift that doesn’t involve candy. You can turn any pencil into a witch’s broom with a handful of household items. All you need is a regular pencil, some small twigs out of the yard, some string and a little glue.

Break the twigs into equal lengths pieces and line them up around the un-sharpened end of a pencil. Make it look like an old fashioned broom. Secure the wigs with string, and then apply a thick layer of glue to keep it all in place.

Cauldron Candy Dish

To make this cute cauldron candy dish, start with an empty round plastic container (like a cool-whip container). Clean it, dry it, and then paint it black. Paint three small wooden balls black as well. After the paint is dry, glue the balls to the bottom of your plastic container. Add a handle made out of wire if you’d like and your candy dish cauldron is done. Just add some of your favorite Halloween candy.

Pumpkin Painting

Carving funny or scary faces into a pumpkin is a lot of fun, but it also gets quite messy and small kids can’t really do much since there’s a knife involved. Buy a few small pumpkins instead, or in addition to the big carving pumpkin. Use permanent pens or acrylic paint to draw funny faces on your mini-pumpkins.

Ghost Lollipops

Dress up the lollipops you are giving away for Halloween by wrapping a white tissue or small piece of fabric over them. Secure it with a piece of string or a rubber band. Take a black marker and draw eyes and a round mouth on the ghost’s face.

Halloween Recipes

Bloody Popcorn

• Popped Popcorn

• Melted Butter

• Red Food Coloring

Prepare your popcorn and melt your butter to go over the popcorn. Add some red food coloring to the melted butter. Pour the mixture over the popcorn and serve.

Bat Cookies

Make a batch of your favorite sugar cookie dough, or use a pack of refrigerated dough from your grocery store. Roll out the dough and cut out bat shapes. Use a bat-shaped cookie cutter, or cut them freehand.

Melt some dark chocolate and brush it on the bat cookies. Of course you could also dip one side of the cookie in the melted chocolate. Set the cookies on some wax paper until the chocolate has a chance to harden. After that they are ready to eat or store in an airtight container.

Pumpkin Pizza

Start with your favorite pizza dough or a ready-made crust. Top it with pizza sauce and your favorite toppings. Add a layer of cheddar cheese on top. Then use slices of green pepper to make the ridges of the pumpkin – you’ll arrange them in ( ) shapes around the pizza pan. Use pepperoni slices or red and yellow peppers cut to shape to form the pumpkin’s face. Bake as usual.

Halloween Games

Are you hosting a Halloween party for the kids this year? Here are some great Halloween games the kids will love playing.

Mummy Wrap

Grab a few rolls of toilet paper and match the kids up in pairs. Of course you could also have them choose partners. Ask each pair to pick, which one of them will be, the mummy and who will do the wrapping. Then – you guessed it – have one of the wrap the toilet paper around the other, creating a mummy.

You can either make it a contest of speed or one of creativity. For the first, the team that has a completely wrapped mummy first wins. For the second contest, the kids take as long as they need to and you get to play judge and pick the best looking mummy.

Musical Tombstones

Musical Tombstones works exactly like musical chairs. Turn your chairs into tombstones by covering the backrest of each chair with a paper grocery bag. Use a maker to draw RIP on it.

Set up one less chair than you have kids playing the game. Have them walk around the chairs while playing Halloween music. When you stop the music, each child will try to sit down on a chair. The child without a chair is out of the game. Remove one chair and repeat. Continue playing until only one child and one chair are let.

Build a Spider Web

All you need for this fun game is a ball of black yarn and a few kids. Have everyone stand around in a circle. Ask one child to hold one end of the string and then toss the ball to another kid. Each child holds on the string and then tosses it to someone else. Before you know it you’ll have a great spider web.

Halloween Decorations

Decorating the house for Halloween has always been one of our favorite family activities this time of the year. Here are simple ideas you and your kids can try.

Little Ghosts

Cut square pieces of white fabric. Make a ball out of batting, some old pantyhose or some tissue paper. Put it in the center of the fabric square and wrap the fabric around. Secure with a piece of string. This will be your little ghost. Use a black marker to draw the ghost’s mouth and eyes on. Thread some string or fishing line through a needle and run a stick through the top of your ghost’s head. Tie it off and use the string or fishing line to hang it up.

These little ghosts look cute hanging in bushes and trees outside, hanging in a window, or you can make a ghost mobile out of a few of them.

Paint the Windows

Get some window paint and let the kids decorate. Have them draw ghost and pumpkins and write “boo” on the windows. If actual paint sounds too messy, go to your local craft store and pick out a few sheets of Halloween window stickers and use them to decorate the windows. There are quite a few static stickers available now that you can use for years to come