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Who can resist all those fun Halloween decorations that stores bombard their customers with every fall? Decorating for this holiday is almost as fun as dressing up, but with crunched budgets, pre-made decorations might just be out of the budget for many families this year. Making your own decorations does not have to look cheap and tacky.

To get your house ready for Halloween, try your hand at making silhouettes for the windows. All that you need is a pair of sharp scissors, black construction paper and some clear tape. Start by finding a pattern or if you have an artistic side drawing your own.

Cats, bats, witches or haunted houses work well. Just remember that patterns that are more complex will be more difficult and tedious to cut out. Simply trace your pattern onto black paper, cut it out and tape it in place on the windows. If you have several windows, try cutting through several pieces of paper at once.

A simple but spooky touch calls for recycling any dead branches in your yard. It's easy to transform these into ghostly trees with a hammer, nails, block of wood and some of that spider web that you can purchase at the store. Nail the branches to the wood, arranging them to make trees then drape the spider web about them. Voila, you have a one of a kind decoration that your guests will admire.

Who didn't make lollipop ghosts with napkins and dumdum pops when they were little? A more grown up version substitutes foam balls for the suckers and a circle of cheap white fabric (this can be purchased at the store or use an old sheet) for the napkin. First, cut the fabric into circles, you will want to play around with the size depending on the balls you have. You can leave the fabric a circle or fray the ends. Then coat the top half of your foam ball with glue. Elmer's will work but tacky glue is best. After your ghost is dry thread a long needle with fishing line and thread through the top of the foam ball twice and tying a tight not at the bottom, creating a loop to hang. The smaller ghosts make great ornaments for trees and larger ones can be hung from the ceiling.

In the craft department, you can find bags of Halloween shaped foamies. These are amazing because of their limitless possibilities. Create an alternating sequence and tape them to the wall to create a Halloween border. You can place them around window frames or tape them to lampshades.

Making Halloween throw pillows has never been easier. Find a Halloween print or black and orange fleece and cut it into 14-inch squares.

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