Big scary list of Halloween crafts, recipes and tips

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Halloween is almost upon us, so I’ve updated our collection of Halloween holiday-themed crafts and entertainment tips for 2010! This article is full of classics and new ideas: we’ve got crafting tips and suggestions, Jack o’ Lantern carving tips and some recipes and tips for entertaining guests at your coolest Halloween party ever. And they’re here in plenty of time for you to get your supplies together and get cracking. Enjoy!

Crafts

• Mr. & Mrs. Pumkin head – Zakkalife takes a Mr. Potato Head set and applies it to pumpkins.
• Halloween Paper Bag Bowls – serve your Halloween treats in papier-mâché recycled bag jack o’ lantern bowls.
• Make your own dry ice fog pumpkin – Why rent a dry ice machine for your party, when you can make this yourself on the cheap?
• Bat Leaf Prints – The Long Thread makes watercolor bat images by painting dried leaves and pressing them onto paper. Follow the link for details.
• Fishbowl Jack O’ Lantern Tutorial - Bella Dia shows you sstep by step how to turn a fishbowl into a convincing Jack O’ Lantern
• Decorate your home with scrim – Also from Bella Dia, a cheap, easy way to make your home look spooky. Excellent if you’re planning a party!
• Make a plush black cat
• Turn egg cartons into spiders, make your own ghostly popup greeting cards or let a balloon ghost hang around your home with these tutorials from Enchanted Learning.
• Egg cartons also make little ghost graveyards
• Ghost cozies – cute ghosts to cover up stuff on your kitchen counter
• Make a Frankenstein out of the cardboard from a roll of toilet paper
• Want decor that’s even easier to make? Fire up your printer! (These make great door hangings)
• Last year, Real Simple published some great Halloween ideas, almost too late to be of any use – so here they are in plenty of time for this year.
• Light the way to your front door with luminaries made out of used tin cans
• Or maybe you’re hungry for some pumpkin mochi
• For kids who like bats and spiders, this page of crafts will keep them busy.
• Don’t forget to check TipNut’s Halloween section – she adds new stuff every year!
• Easy paper masks kids can make with a little help
• Halloween wallpapers for your computer desktop
• Milk jug stormtrooper helmet for DIYers
• Knit yourself a witch’s hat.

Jack o’ lantern carving tips:

• Pumpkin Carving 101 is just what it sounds like. It takes you through choosing a pumpkin, collecting the tools you need, and then a number of different ways to create your design and get it carved just right.
• Ever-reliable Ehow has your basic instructions and safety tips.
• Carve a virtual pumpkin for practice (it actually almost feels like the real thing)
• Fanged pumpkins from Martha Stewart
• Choose from lots of carving patterns
• If you’ve mastered the pumpkins and are bored now, try apples – Witch Apple Dolls

Recipes & Entertainment Tips

For the kids:

• Spider Hot Dogs – weiners with noodles cooked through them to look like spiders.
• Edible Mini Jack o’ Lanterns – made out of clementines
• Meringue Ghosts – meringue piped into a ghost shape, with candy eyes attached
• Roast your pumpkin seeds – it’s easy to do, and they’re so yummy and relatively healthy!
• Pumpkin Spice Truffles – yummy and not-so-healthy
• Crawly Cakes – they’ve got legs
• A brain gelatin mold for making Jello Brains
• Pumpkin Spider Pancake – orange pancakes with cinnamon syrup that’s colored black
• The Meat Hand – delicious meatloaf shaped like a lopped-off hand, complete with a grizzly (onion) wristbone
• Tentacle Pot Pie – chicken pot pie with doughy tentacles overflowing the pot

For the (supposed) grown-ups:

• Spooky Skittles Vodka. Serve the Skittles Vodka from our sister site, Mix That Drink.
• Garlic Martinis keep the vampires away.
• Or get gummi candies in the shape of worms or anything gross or spooky and follow the Vodka Gummi Bears tutorial. Works great with rum, too!
• Spooky red and black candy apples.
• Delicious gourmet eyeballs that taste oddly Italian.

Can you tell I like Halloween?