DIY Halloween Props « Halloween Ideas

Halloween Food Hacks: How to Make Shrunken Heads Out of Apples & Potatoes

A great Halloween party depends on the right spooky ambience. Having some shrunken heads in strategic locations is an easy, fun way to get your guests in the right (frightened) frame of mind, and they require items you can easily find in your kitchen or at the local grocery store.

How To: Make a Cardboard Captain America Shield for Halloween

As if Captain America: The First Avenger wasn't awesome enough, Marvel hit us with Captain America: The Winter Soldier this year, and it was even more spectacular than its predecessor. Grossing nearly $260 million in domestic sales, it's safe to say America loves Captain America and we'll probably get a heavy dose of Captain costumes this year for Halloween. Anyone can buy a costume from the store, but what will help set you apart from everyone else is a badass DIY Captain America shield, unm...

News: How to Make a 'Magic Crystal Ball' Talking Hologram for Halloween

Give your ghoulish guests on Halloween a realistic spooky display of a head speaking inside a magic crystal ball. To make this even creepier, the talking head is the ghostly Madame Leota from Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion. To recreate this Halloween decor, you'll need a flatscreen TV, glass bowl, DVD player, a DVD of Leota's incantation, fake snakes, and some fabric.

How To: Turn a Cute & Innocent Teddy Bear into a Man-Eating Grizzly Zombie for Halloween

Humans aren't the only ones who get to take part in the festivities on Halloween. We give our pumpkins human faces and dress up our pets, so why not include toys and stuffed animals in the fun?

How To: Carve a Tasty Watermelon Brain for Halloween

Brains? If you've ever played Plants vs. Zombies, then you already know that brains are a delightful treat for our undead brethren. For those of us still living, we can still indulge in some brain-related dining for Halloween next week. If you're holding a dinner party or just want to make some cool, creepy looking fruit, then this DIY Watermelon Brain is perfect. In order to create this delicious dish, all you will need is a peeler, sharp knife, cutting board, watermelon, and... a brain. Wel...

How To: Make a Cheap, DIY Fog Machine for Your Halloween Party

Need to add some spooky ambient fog to your super-scary Halloween party? Rather than shelling out money for a fog machine you'll probably only use once a year, make a trip to the nearest drug store and pick up a bottle of glycerin, a gallon of distilled water, a 2-liter bottle of cola, a disposable mini-pie tin, and a big candle in a jar.

How To: Make a Cheap & Easy Prop Skull

Skulls. What spooky Halloween décor or staging of Hamlet is complete without a skull or two popping up? For ghoulish special effect and/or setting a dramatic scene, skulls are absolutely integral. Well, with some artistry, hardware supplies, and a good dose of patience, you can create your own inexpensive prop skulls for use however you please.

How To: This Skillfully Carved Jack-O'-Lantern Lets You Perform Experimental Pumpkin Brain Surgery

There are a lot of ways you can use pumpkins to decorate for Halloween. Of course, there's always the traditional jack-o'-lantern, but if you want to step it up a bit, you can make them glow in the dark, or put them to work for you by turning them into surveillance pumpkins to catch pranksters who prefer the 'trick' in 'trick-or-treat.'

How To: Make Realistic-Looking Fake Blood

Store-bought fake blood isn't too expensive, but the consistency and color are always the same. Real blood varies, from bright red when oxygenated (arterial blood) to deep, dark red when deoxygenated (venous blood), and it can be either thick or thin. So to achieve the best special effect, you're better off making a batch of DIY fake blood yourself to get the look and texture you're going for. And it's very simple to do.

How To: Build an Arduino-Based Voice Changer for Your Costume

If you're dressing up as someone iconic for Halloween, having the right voice can make or break your costume. Think about it—having a Darth Vader lookalike walk up to you and start talking like Alvin the Chipmunk would probably ruin the effect (and possibly be a little creepy).

How To: Create a Cheap and Easy Burning Coals Prop for Halloween

Turning your abode into a haunted house of horror for Halloween takes a lot of time and work. Finding ways to build props on your own can save you some money that's better spent elsewhere.

How To: Carve an Amazing Halloween Pumpkin: 5 Sinister Jack-O’-Lantern Designs

Need help with some last-minute pumpkin carving? This guide will show you 5 different jack-o'-lantern designs just in time for Halloween.

How To: Prevent Carved & Uncarved Pumpkins from Rotting

Pumpkin carving and decorating is a favorite October pastime. After you've carved an amazing design or face into a pumpkin or two, you want to show it off through your window or set it out on your porch for the neighbors to see.

Recipe for Horror: How to Make Fake Blood Capsules for Halloween

Want to go the extra mile with your scary costume this Halloween? Use fake blood capsules. At an opportune moment, fake blood can slowly dribble out of your vampiric mouth like you've just finished sucking blood out of an innocent bystander's neck. Or, if you're a zombie, it'll look like you've just finished feasting on the flesh of some poor non-zombie sap.

Halloween Food Hacks: How to Make Bloody Jello Worms the Right Way

The interwebs is a great source of information, but sometimes said information is not always legit. That can be frustrating when it comes to making fun food, costumes, and arts and crafts for Halloween, like this bowl of "bloody" gummy worms.

How To: Complete Your Captain America Avengers Costume with One of These DIY Shields

So you've decided to go as Captain America for Halloween and you've got everything from the helmet to a sweet pair of red boots. You've even managed to get your hands on some Super-Soldier Serum (or a realistic set of inflatable muscles), so you've got the physique, too. But what's missing? His shield! In order to make your Captain America costume legit, you cannot skip the shield. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to make yourself a DIY shield—so you can fend off enemies and look good doing it. ...

Lazy Jack-O'-Lanterns: 11 Creative Ways to Decorate a Halloween Pumpkin Without Carving

A well-executed jack-o'-lantern can be pretty damn impressive, but some of us lack the carving skills necessary to pull it off and end up disappointed. Sometimes you just don't want to put in all the time required to cut open a pumpkin, gut it, and chisel an elaborate face or cool design into it.

How To: Too Lazy for Jack-O'-Lanterns? Make Your Pumpkins Glow in the Dark This Halloween

Halloween is less than a couple weeks away, so it's about that time you start thinking of cool ways to decorate your house (if you haven't already), and pumpkins are an obvious choice. Pumpkins are one of the cornerstones of Halloween celebrations, dating all the way back to the early 19th century. Carved jack-o'-lanterns are a great way to add some spookiness around the house, but that takes time, skill, and effort. Creating cool glow-in-the-dark pumpkins requires no carving at all—and looks...

How To: Make Your Jack-O'-Lantern Shine Lite-Brite Bright This Halloween

I loved my Lite-Brite as a kid. There was just something about using those little multicolored pegs to make my own designs, and it's not exactly a secret that kids love anything that lights up (LED sneakers, anyone?). So how do you combine the old-school fun of Lite-Brite with pumpkin carving?

How To: DIY Decapitated Head Drinking Fountain: The Perfect Way to Serve Blood-Red Punch on Halloween

Costume parties are in full effect this weekend, so with that said, how cool would this look at your Halloween party? Instructables user castor009 made two holes in the head (one for inserting the PVC tube, the other where the liquid will spew out) and insert the pipe and tubing, then stuffed it to secure everything. He then fit the bottom tubing through a pencil holder and attached it to a water pump. Then just add whatever you want to serve at the party (I would suggest anything red or blac...