DIY Halloween Lighting Ideas

I like to set the mood at Halloween with home made or customised lighting.


I make paper Pumpkins to work as wall and window decorations, lighting and masks.

• Fairy lights, which are a year round feature, get a Halloween twist with orange paper chain and shreds of orange crepe paper (only on led lights that don't get hot).

• Tealight holders and glass jars get wrapped in orange paper chopped with jaggy tops and grouped to look like little fires.

• Rather than doing scary faces on pumpkins I prefer something more decorative or abstract so that I can keep using them past Halloween.

• Paper pumpkins ensure I still have a spooky vibe on the night. Made from orange paper and drawn on with marker pen then cut out. They look great in the window with tealights behind them (safely in jars) and if you attach two lengths of wool either side they double as pumpkin masks if you have guests who don't have the time or interest to make anything. The one in the photo above is in front of a small table lamp with a 4w energy saving bulb to give a gentle light.

Halloween face painting - elf/goblin/sprite

Elf, Goblin, Sprite? I just painted in a way that suited the ears I'd been given.


A friend gave me her green ears • sitting by the fire

Here I am as a Goblin type of critter in 2005. It was a mild dry October that year so we had the party outside around a tiny barbecue based bonfire with orange tea light lanterns and pumpkins around the garden.


Halloween Invitation 2011

When I was a kid I absolutely LOVED it when we were out Guising (Trick or Treat) and would occasionally go to a house that had made an effort to be spooky. In the 70's it was very rare to encounter that and I vowed when I grew up I'd always dress up for the Guisers. Since Asda in the UK was bought by Walmart there was a definite importing of Halloween as a commercial concept and all the other supermarkets have followed suit so Halloween themed houses are much more prevalent these days, but I far prefer a home-made look rather than a bought one and for me getting creative is the most fun part of Halloween. Having ME has meant not a lot of partying but having had a nice Fancy Dress dinner for 4 last year I decided to increase that this year and tweaked the Elfish Goblin with some fangs to make the above e-vite for it.

Halloween costume inspiration

Junya Watanabe - Commes des Garçons - Autumn/Winter 2008-09

When friends say they don't have anything to make a fancy dress costume with I always remind them that you'll never be stuck for a costume if you have some old tights and a bin bag (panty hose & trash bags). Several of my best, indeed 1 prizewinning, outfits were made with those basics and perhaps some wire or cardboard scraps, or a bit of tinfoil to tweak my own clothes into creations fit for any costume party.

I've had a LOT of fun over the years stretching old tights over shapes to make weird headwear but beware, I found out, to my great dissapointment, that sometimes people think you've made a bad attempt at being Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) from Star Trek.

The collection above by Designer Junya Watanabe is clearly not made from bin bags and tights, but the effects are similar, albeit painstakingly sewn and crafted, not held together with glue, pins and tape like my 'collections'. The point is that you just need to use your imagination a bit. Costumes don't have to be about recreating something that already exists. Some people may look at you with bafflement if you don't dress as a character but don't let that stop you coming up with something creative and original if you are feeling inspired.

Update: A follow on post shows the work of Hendrik Kerstens who uses a plastic bag to style his daughter like the Dutch Masters.

Free Halloween invite & tutorial

Part of my 2005 Halloween Party Invite (180dpi 15cm wide)

Want to use this to make you own invites?
• Click the invite above to enlarge the black and white image.
• Save to your hard drive.
• Scale to the size you need and print out.
• Colour in the lettering by hand - orange, bright red and green work well.
• Leave it at that and add your details on the back. or read on for the 3D version...

Here is my original mock up (a bit streaky as the ink was running out).

Place party details behind the front flap in contrasting colour


Flip over tabs of different heads on the body.


Wig hand coloured to match the text.

Well, not so much a Tutorial as a 'Look how I did it'. When I made this originally it was actually part of a flip to change card showing the body with my head in various fancy dress outfits from previous years with Jack Skellington as the main one and Ghostly Woman, Dia de Los Muertos Skull and Edward Scissorhands as flip down options simply attached with a bit of Scotch tape at the top, like a hinge. The corners of the flip tabs are folded forwards on the left so you know they can be lifted and and backwards on the right to make the layers stick out a little from each other to give a better 3D look. I cut a slit in the centre of the card so that the text on the front would fold back to reveal party details in a contrasting colour underneath. The Tree and landscape silhouette was from a photo I took nearby and the oversized moon was added in Photoshop. Why not try making one with things related to where you live.

I hope you can have some fun with this or are inspired to try something of your own. I'd love to hear if you do. I hope to post more Halloween inspiration through the week.

Frozen Planet - Amusing Penguin thief

I know I tend not to post video links but my brother sent me this chuckle worthy link of a Penguin stealing stones. Much more amusing than it sounds, mainly because of the way they walk and the shifty guilty way he looks around. I'm not sure if everyone will be able to view it because sometimes BBC things don't play everywhere. It was filmed as part of the new Frozen Planet series with David Attenborough which starts in the UK on Wednesday (26th Oct 9pm BBC1) which I'm sure will be great since the team they have are always dedicated to hanging around for months on end in the most extreme or uncomfortable conditions waiting for the best shots.

And since I'm linking to a bit of animal humour, Simon Tofield (who's first comedy animation several years ago, Cat Man Do, reminded me so much of Mr P's cat) has another one called Double Trouble which is spot on what is was like with the cats I cat sit for when a new kitten was introduced, including the bit where it goes under the rug.