Halloween Idea #21
Make a scarecrow for your front porch or yard to great your trick or treaters. Surround it with a scary or autumn scene to really make it stand out!

Stuff jeans and an old shirt with newspaper, use a stuffed mask or plastic pumpkin for the head. Add some straw for effect. If you want to go  more horror themed, use one of the many latex scarecrow masks that can be found. There are some very creepy ones that would look great with this set-up!

You may want to sew the shirt to the pants like we did for our scarecrow. It keeps it from coming apart and makes it easier to stuff. We used fiberfill, like the stuff used for pillows, to stuff ours. We also attached a pair of old work boots to the bottom of the pant legs. When done, we sat him on our porch swing and there he still sits!

Halloween Idea #22
Use mini ears of Indian corn, mini pumpkins and gourds to embellish your Halloween party table. They make excellent arrangements for an autumn table as well.

Find a cornucopia or "horn of plenty" basket at any craft store or mass market retailer that sells Halloween and autumn decorations. Fill it with any little things that you want, such as mini gourds, mini pumpkins, mini Indian corn, pine cones, small wheat stalks and other items that you find for an autumn table. Some stores carry bags of mini gourds and pumpkins to be used for decoration right in the vegetable section! You can even add a few apples but they will soil after a while so keep an eye on them!

Halloween Idea #23
Tie small glow sticks to string attached to helium balloons and let them sail over your house for spooky lights in the sky. Make sure to tie off the strings to something solid so they do 't get away! Check out this Goblin Light article on how we make them every year.

You need high intensity glow sticks so you can see them hanging brightly in the sky above your house. There are some companies that make these and they last extra long. Try looking for sporting goods or survival goods stores that use them for emergency lighting.

You can pick up the balloons and helium tank at most craft stores.

Halloween Idea #24
Black lights add an eerie touch to your party or haunt. You can find them all year long at hardware stores but they really come out at Halloween season. Most stores that carry Halloween supplies will have black lights.

Use the actual florescent lights as opposed to screw in bulbs which are not a true U.V. light.

You can put together your own at a hardware store by buying a florescent light fixture and a florescent U.V. black light tube. If you want a really long one, this is the way to go!

Halloween Idea #25
To make a simple "smoking cauldron" use a plastic cauldron partially filled with hot water, then add some dry ice and a glow stick. Use this to create an eerie centerpiece for your table or on a porch.

We have some tree stumps in our yard that we cut off, leaving them a couple feet high, which come in handy for setting these on for Halloween night.

Check out this article for lots of ideas on uses for dry ice in your Halloween decorations and haunt. Just be VERY CAREFUL handling the dry ice! It can burn skin very easily. Always wear a pair of heavy leather workman's gloves so you don't burn the palms of your hands or get frost bitten!

Halloween Idea #26
Games can really hold a kids Halloween party together and keep it from being a flop! Give prizes to each winner of each game, they don't have to be fancy. Check out the Halloween aisle at mass market stores like Wal-mart and you'll find bags of inexpensive Halloween items to use as prizes, like little puzzles, rings, toys and such.

Make sure to have lots of entertaining games ready to go. The classic "Hal O. Ween and his Squishy Body" is a great one, you'll find the instructions to it and more here. Have the kids play a game, then maybe carve pumpkins, then another game and your child's party will be the hit of Halloween!

Halloween Idea #27
Pumpkins come in so many shapes, sizes and colors now! It's hard to choose just which ones you want but you have to remember that you should pick them out by need. When choosing a pumpkin to carve for Halloween, make sure that you find one that fits the carving idea you have.

If you are using a carving kit that uses chisels, almost like carving wood, so the light glows through the flesh of the pumpkin to show a design then you'll need a thick walled heavy pumpkin. You might even want to use a white pumpkin for effect.

If using a template, make sure that it will fit. Visit Pumpkin Carving 101 for lots of pumpkin carving information. 

Halloween Idea #28
Make your own pumpkin carving kit by using things from around the house, like an ice cream spade, to clean out the inside of your pumpkin. An ice cream scoop with teeth on the edges really cut down on the cleaning time of gutting the pumpkin and a large kitchen spoon helps keep your hands clean if you scoop it out with that.

You can also go to a dollar store and buy some inexpensive knives and sharpen them to use for cutting open the top and carving the design. Any type from a large chef's knife to a thin filleting knife will have a purpose.

Halloween Idea #29
Now that you have a nice set of tools just for carving pumpkins, you need a proper storage box to keep them in! We picked up this great tool box that just happened to be orange and it makes the perfect carving tool kit.

After use, make sure to wash and clean all of your tools and put them back in the tool box so you'll know where to find them the next Halloween. Have any of the knives sharpened and you'll be all set for carving! You can also pick up a few pumpkin carving and stencil kits at after Halloween sales and use them the following year.

Those kits are great for collecting the tiny saws, punches and other tools that you need to do stencil carving.

Halloween Idea #30
You can make your own pumpkin carving stencils from clip art and your printer. Find something simple that you like, make a negative of it and print it out! For more complete instructions on making your own stencils visit this site to learn how!

Keep in mind, when buying your carving pumpkins, the sizes that you'll need to go with the stencils that you want to use. You can get them enlarged at some office supply stores that can do copy enlarging in black and white.

You should choose a simple picture of clipart to use as your stencil, use a pumpkin carving set to carve.