Halloween is not just about wearing scary Halloween costums. You will also have to decorate your house and instead of buying these from the store, you can make some of these on your own. Here are a few of them. Thanks to Paparutzi for the photo

1. You might think that ketchup is the only thing around to make fake blood but you are wrong. You can also make some using a cup of corn syrup, a tablespoon of water, 2 tablespoons of red food coloring and tablespoon of yellow food coloring. Once you mix this all together, you will realize that it looks more realistic than ketchup.

2. If you want to make people think that there are wild animals in the bushes, you will need a string of Christmas lights and some 35mm film canisters. With the canisters facing you, drill two holes on each one so you can create the eyes. Now put the string of Christmas lights so that the light will come out of each hole. To make it stay in place, put a piece of tape over it.

Should you be using white lights, cut a small piece of red cellophane wrap and put this over the lights to create the impression that there are wolves behind the bushes.

3. In order to create tombstones, you will need some Styrofoam, a can or two of grey sprain paint and a marker. Cut the Styrofoam to the desired size and height, spray it over using the spray paint and then write down the name of the person on the gravestone. When you are finished, plant these on your porch.

4. To create some home made bats, you will again need some foam. Another option will be to use construction paper. When you have the materials, cut them out in the shape of bat. Paint these black and then stick this to you ceiling or plaster this on your window.

5. If you have a chandelier inside your home, go to the forest and see if you can pick up a few dead branches. When you bring them home, try to put these around your chandelier.

6. You can also create some Halloween décor using some old glass jars. Put in some plastic insects and body parts and then mix this up with food coloring and water. To make it look more authentic, put in ragged gauze or a waxed string then put this on the dining table.

7. Spiking the punch bowl is probably something you did back in college but for Halloween, people will surely laugh when they see a hand inside. For this, you will need a plastic glove and some ice. Put the ice inside the glove then close it so the ice will not go out and the glove will be able to float in the bowl.

8. Halloween is not the same without a pumpkin. You can’t make this so you have to buy one from the store. You can take out the contents inside then put a candle or just buy the already carved one and place this in front of your house.

There are other Halloween decorating ideas you can do inside and outside your home. All you need to do is browse for a few ideas online and then follow the instructions.

Instead of Halloween costums, let’s talk about pumpkin seeds and yummy snacks this time. Before you throw away those pumpkin seeds you carve out of your Jack-O-Lantern this year, think twice!! There is good dietary benefit in those seeds, not to mention a yummy snack that even the kids will love. Here’s how to prepare and cook your pumpkin seeds.

Prepping the Seeds

First, after you have scooped your pumpkin, put the seeds in a glass bowl. Next, separate the seeds from all the stringing pumpkin meat. You’ll need to do this fairly quickly because once you’ve let them sit and they’ve gotten too dry, they will be harder to clean.

Using a cold-water rinse, finish taking off what is left of the stringy meat (there will be some little bits left more than likely) off the seeds. Place a strainer in the sink so you don’t lose all that pumpkin goop in your sink drain.

Once your pumpkin seeds are completely clean, put them on a waxed paper cookie sheet to dry. You’ll leave them to dry overnight. Sorry, you can’t eat them until tomorrow.

Optional: If you like your seeds salty, you may want to let them sit in a bowl of salt water overnight. Be careful though and don’t over salt the water. Remove from bowl of water and dry as stated above.

Now that your pumpkin seeds are prepared, let’s get to the actual cooking of them. Here are both a microwave and oven baked recipe for you to choose from. Note: Preparation is the same for both of the following recipes.

Microwave Pumpkin Seed Recipe

Place salted butter in a microwavable rectangular baking dish and heat for about 30 seconds. Place seeds into pan and toss through the melted butter. Spread the seeds out evenly into one layer on the bottom of the dish. Microwave on high for about 8 minutes or until seeds are a light golden color. Make sure you stir the seeds every couple of minutes while in the microwave to prevent burning.

Oven Baked Pumpkin Seed Recipe

Spray your seeds with butter spray. Cook for 1 hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Watch for them to be lightly brown. When they are done, take them out and season with your favorite seasonings. Some popular seasonings include salt and garlic. Let them completely cool before enjoying.

Pumpkin seeds (pepitas) are not the only seeds that can be eaten this way. The seeds from butternut and acorn squash can also be cooked just like pumpkin seeds. Give them a try too.

Leftover Storage

You can store any leftovers of your pumpkin seeds in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 3 months. If you choose to refrigerate them, they will last for about a year in an air tight container.

Baked pumpkin seeds provide a great source of dietary fiber along with a nutty flavor. So, instead of popping that bag of popcorn tonight, grab your favorite Halloween movie, sit back with your toasted pumpkin seeds and enjoy.

Thinking about how you can save money this Halloween? Why not consider Halloween costums that you design from used odd and end clothing and accessories? Thrift or Goodwill stores offer these items at a small portion of what you would pay at a Halloween or retail store. You can also network with other moms and swap off old costumes for the one you want. With some creativity and legwork, you can make any of the following costumes.

Argh Matey! – Pirate Costumes

Pirate costumes will be huge this year. You need baggy black or brown pants cut below the knee. Pirates wore baggy white shirt that are cuffed up. A solid baggy vest, unbuttoned, would be worn over the shirt. Add a bright scarf tied around your waist. Army boots, large gold hoop earrings, sword, eye patch, hat or bandana tops this outfit off. If you live in a colder region you might want to look for a long black coat.

BOO To You Too! – Ghost Costumes

The ghost is the oldest and easiest ghoulish outfit around. You need a large white sheet that completely drapes your being. With arms down cut any excess off the bottom up to an inch from the ground. Cut out eyeholes. White eye make up keeps the ghost entirely white. You can carry a pumpkin or maybe a glow stick for that added touch.

If I Only Had a Brain! – Scarecrow

With the right straw hat and a little straw, a scarecrow can easily be done. Oversized, old and sloppy is the key. You will need old overalls or jeans that you can patch with bandana type material, a flannel shirt, work boots and work or garden gloves. Be sure to stuff straw or raffia inside your shirt and leave some hanging out wherever you can. A blackbird attached to your hat, silk daisies or a corn cob pipe would be good accessories. Paint your face base white and proceed with black paint for a triangle nose and circle eyes. Paint your lips a bright red extending the make up beyond your lips for a straight smile.

10 Hut! – The Always Popular Football Player

Another inexpensive Halloween costums idea that looks sharp while using odds and ends is the football player. You may have or can easily network to get the pads, helmet, shirt, cleats and pants for this easy costume. Black make up under the eyes is all that is needed. Oh, don’t forget to carry the football for the full effect.

For that finishing touch, to make your costume creation into the real thing, you will probably be looking for the odd accessory. Maybe a mask, a hat or a beard, or possibly it could just need some fangs, some make believe blood or stage makeup. Check out BuyCostumes.com. They have a large selection covering a great range of stuff and are bound to have what you need. You’ll find them here.

As soon as this year’s festivities are done, start thinking about next year! Once Halloween is over, it’s time to hit the discount stores. Often, outfits and accessories can be picked up for half the price or less. Thinking ahead on what your needs will be the following year will save you a ton of money, especially if you’ve got more than one person in the family dressing up. Don’t forget the garage sales too. This past Spring I bought my son’s character costume at a garage sale for two dollars. Outstanding savings I must say. Clearly, with a little imagination and a bit of planning ahead, you can create Halloween costums that the kids will love and so will your checkbook.

The perfect and scariest Halloween costums would not be enough without the mask. Since the face is first thing that people gaze on to when he or she meets somebody, a Halloween mask worn during a party would definitely determine how scary can you get.

Today, there are so many Halloween masks being sold in various bookshops and specialty stores out there. You can choose from your favorite characters from horror, thriller, or sci-fi movies. You can even find masks which as truly Halloween inspired such as ghosts, ghouls, and monsters.

In most specialty stores, the most popular Halloween costums masks include gaping wraith mask, glow in dark hockey mask, meateater mask, Batman the dark knight Joker mask, deep sea mask, devil’s rejects Captain Spaulding mask, whispers hooded mask, Harry Potter dementor mask, elegant devil mask, leatherface deluxe mask, Batman the dark knight grumpy clown mask, that’s not funny clown mask, got your goat mask, red skull mask beanie, white skull mask beanie, skull mask blue beanie and so much more. If you are into departed celebrities, you can even find some which are created in their memory.

But, if you are the type who gives so much emphasis on creativity, uniqueness, and resourcefulness, then you should try making your own mask. The following are just some of your options in making your very own Halloween mask:

1. Improvised latex Halloween masks. Many people would agree that latex or hard plastic masks could be quite uncomfortable once worn. And why not? These are made from synthetic plastic materials and can even be harmful when not used properly. So if are not into wearing latex masks sold in specialty shops, you can create your very own latex inspired mask.

Here, you’ll be needing poster board or light weight cardboard, elastic or tongue depressor, and various embellishments to make the mask stand out. The instructions are quite simple, you need to cut the board with the shape of your face, cut it out, punch holes in each side of the mask and decorate it using various embellishments such as poster paints, feathers, glitter, and everything you wish to put in. The good thing about this is you can make your mask as scary and as ghoulish as you want it to be.

2. Simple paper and cloth masks. This is quite popular and easy to do because all you will be needing is a used cloth which can come from a used pillowcase or shirts, permanent markers, a pair of scissors, and lots of duck tape. Doing a paper and face mask is easy because all you have to do is lay the cloth flat and cut a hole in the center of the cloth. Afterwards, you need to take a piece of paper and draw the mask that you like. Then, turn the cloth inside out and lay the mask face down.

Using the duct tape, tape the sides of the mask down to the cloth and cut the eye holes. Let the duct tape grip the cloth and paper well then you can now decorate your Halloween mask using markers and other crafts and embellishments that you want to include.

3. Your very own printed mask. If you are not the type who is into work stuff such as cutting, pasting, and drawing, you can still make your very own Halloween costums mask through the use of computer. Today, there are so many sites, which offer Halloween mask patterns, which are ready for printing.

You can choose from a wide array of styles and characters depending on what or who would you want to portray. If you are knowledgeable on various computer programs and software such as Photoshop, you can design your very own Halloween costums mask and print it out.

Organizing a Halloween party for kids can be both quite enjoyable and at the same time challenging. There are several things that you will need to plan ahead and a whole bunch of things that could possibly go wrong. Plus, you’re talking about planning a ghoulish Halloween party for kids whose attention span can be as short as a candle fuse. The party can easily go out of control with kids getting rowdy, trying to best one another with their Halloween costums, treats, etc.

Although having some sort of control would be a great but also remember that this is a children’s party, an iron hand rule would be overdoing it. Now there are several ways to make your audience listen. One way would be to make them busy by having them participate in party games. There are quite a number of party games that you can organize that would certainly grab the attention of your kids.

If you’re familiar with the game called Mummy Wrap, you know the kids will be glad to participate with this one. As the name of the game implies, it involves wrapping someone with mummy wraps which in our case equates with a roll of toilet paper. The game is simple. You just need to group the kids into small groups and have them designate someone to wrap. At your cue, the wrap the “mummy” with toilet paper from head to feet. The group that were able to wrap fully their mummy the fastest would be the winner.

Several Halloween games I know are just variations of exiting party games. We have the Halloween musical chairs and the freeze dance. Both I’m certain you already know. It doesn’t hurt to be a little creative with your chairs. You can easily make the children feel it’s a Halloween game it you make the chairs ghoulish looking like maybe making them appear like tombstones or using darker colored chairs and adding some cobwebs.

And don’t forget the music. You can easily find Halloween music in the nearest record store or in the internet. For further enjoyment, you can ask the kids to dance in a “monstery” or ghoulish kind of way. You can even give a prize to the kid that will give the best monster dance.

Don’t forget to give prizes to your game winners. This will encourage them to participate ze to the kid that will give the best monster dance.

Don’t forget to give prizes to your game winners. This will encourage them to participate in the next games.

Another game which seems to popular is the building a scarecrow game. This involves having several groups of children make their won scarecrow using pillow cases, old clothes, newspapers, cardboards, tapes or adhesives, and markers. You will have to prepare some old clothes for this one. The children will definitely enjoy making something that often see in television and books.

You can also have a Halloween candy hunt which basically is a variation of the Easter egg hunt. By this time, we just hope that the kids haven’t discovered yet the candies you hid around the area.

Don’t forget to have a scary story telling time as well. Ask one of your guests or friends to tell a story to the kids at the party. Avoid making the story too scary though.

There are other ghoulish Halloween party games that can still do. Just remember that this is the children’s day and your objective is to have them enjoy the day.

To complete and make the perfect day you are going to need some ghoulish decorations for effect. And don’t forget your ghoulish Halloween costums. You will find everything you need in the Halloween Costums SuperStore. Pop in and have a look around, they have far more than just costumes. They have the largest online selection with very competitive prices and no hassle fast delivery which is quite often free. You’ll find them right here.