Halloween can take many themes and feelings. It can be downright scary, or it can be fun and silly. Your Halloween dcor may involve spider webs, bats and ghosts, or it may hint at axe murderers, villainous vampires or mummies. So the drop-dead awesome DIY projects you can use may be limited to the way you want to haunt, err, decorate your home. Here are some ideas you'll shriek for.

Broomstick Way

Use a collection of old, dusty brooms to line your driveway or walkway. Turn the broomsticks upside down and stick the end a few inches into the ground to secure them. The broomsticks can be painted or decorated in orange lights, fake spider webs, or both.

Halloween is in the Air

Hang ghastly decorations in trees and off your roof or anything else that's tall. Use fishing string to hang your decorations so they appear to be floating.

Ghosts can be made from old white pillow cases stuffed with batting, newspaper or grocery bags. Make the head of the ghost by stuffing the center and then pulling it tight with a rubber band or elastic hair tie. The bottom can be cut up to make a more whispy appearance. You can also take these ghosts and prop them up on broom sticks (with the broom part removed) around the yard.

To make bats or spiders, use balls of newspaper secured with duct tape and spray painted black, orange, purple or green as desired. Pipe cleaner, bent metal hangers or paperclips can be used to form the bat wings or spider legs. For additional thickness, use aluminum foil or paper wrapped around the legs or wings, and spray paint them as well.

Pumpkin Patches

Use large garbage bags full of stuffing, and spray paint them orange to make large, round pumpkins (if you can find orange garbage bags, even better). You can also paint a face on them with black to make them look like jack-o-lanterns. Or you might try illuminating them with lights on the inside of the bag, pressed up against the outside of the bag.

What Would You Like on Your Tombstone?

Old sheets of wood make for sturdy, re-usable mock graves for a cemetery theme. You can either prop them up against something (like a tree or boulder) or construct wooden frames to prop them up. Gray, black and white paint can be used to make a gloomy, stone like faade. Then use stencils or stamps with black paint to write your epitaphs and add decorative scrolls and designs. You can either write RIP in large letters, or add funny or realistic epitaphs.

Here are some real epitaphs from Boot Hill in Tombstone, Arizona:

Here lies Lester Moore.

Four slugs

From a forty-four.

No Les

No More.

Here lays Butch.

We planted him raw.

He was quick on the trigger

But slow on the draw.

Here lies George Johnson, hanged by mistake 1882.

He was right,

we was wrong,

but we strung him up

and now he's gone.

Stranger look as you pass by -

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, soon you shall be.

Prepare for death and follow me.

He was young

He was fair

But the Injuns

Raised his hair

Here are some funny ideas if you want to add some humor to your Halloween decorations, but many, many more can be found on the Internet.

I told you I was sick.

Rest in Pieces

She always said her feet were killing her

but nobody believed her.

Bad to the Bones

He was Dead Serious

Learn more about this author, Laura Lee Winger.
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