12 Spooktacular Saving Halloween Ideas

SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN SALE

SAVE UP TO 50%

Hurry! Our Halloween Sale 3rd November. You can save up to 40% on selected fabric beds, bunk beds, mid-sleepers and so much more!

To celebrate Flair Furniture’s Frightening Half Price Halloween Sale, we’ve some great ideas on how you can save even more money this Halloween by making your own Halloween costumes, decorations and even food. Quick, easy and fun to do there's something for the whole family!

First of all, there are two super scary dresses,

A black witches dress:

Take any old black dress and cut triangular rips at the hem, so it looks like it’s full of spiky points, oh, and make the hem uneven too.
Repeat this for the arms.
Add any sheer black fabric that you have – try and get spider or cobweb print ones – and wrap it around the shoulders and/or waist.
For a spooky contrast, add some dayglo/ fluorescent/high-vis colours.

Or a Corpse Bride-inspired look:

With any old white dress, you could repeat the above steps but add drops of red food colouring or fake blood to give it the horror movie effect.
Then add some scary red thread eyeballs.
Finally, draw on some spiders’ webs, or add a stick-on spider to them.

Devil’s guts and witches’ eyes:

Create a bit of fun for your kids by blindfolding them.
Beforehand, cook some tagliatelle and let it go cold.
Tell them to put their hand into the “devil’s guts”.
Peel a couple of grapes and tell your kids to hold out their hands and drop them in, telling them that these are the eyeballs of a witch.

If spiders are what you like here are a couple of spooky ideas:

Spider picture frame:

Take a picture frame and disassemble it.
On the back of the frame, stretch apart some cotton wool balls or spray cobwebs and pin them to the frame.
Turn it over and on a front corner stick a plastic or cut-out black spider.
Finally, hang it on your wall or your front door.

Spider Web:

Use a pin to mark a centre point and then stick several more fanning out from it.
From the middle, start weaving black or white thread round and round between the spoke points to create the web.
Then add some cut-out/plastic spiders to finish the look.

Witch make-up:

Choose greenish, ghoulish make-up hues to make yourself look scary.
Add some black lipstick and black eye-shadow for extra effect.
Blend it out into the green to create a smoky effect.
Draw a spider or two and even a web onto your cheeks or forehead.
From the edge of your mouth, paint little black points up and down across your face towards both sides, so your mouth looks like an enormous super scary ear-to-ear slash.

Witches' wreath:

Draw a 16-in diameter circle on paper to use as a guide (it’s easy using a pencil on an 8-in piece of string tied at the end to a drawing pin).
Place thin spiky twigs in the rough shape of the circle: don’t worry if it looks more like a pentagon. Tie them together with floral wire or fishing line.
Then build up this frame with more small spiky twigs.
Paint it all black and put an ominous-looking black bird on the top or entwine some rubber toy snakes and paint their eyes red!

Eyeball wreath

From a craft or hobby shop, buy a wreath and bag of balls both made from polystyrene.
Paint round eyes on the balls in green, evil shades of purple or with blood-red streaks.
You can even stick a trail of slightly unravelled crimson yarn thread from it as if it’s the membrane that’s come straight from the eye socket.
Paint the wreath black, then stab the wreath with a cocktail stick and push the eyeball onto the stick.
Continue this all around at different angles so the ring is covered with eyes looking everywhere.
Hang up the wreath on a door or from the ceiling and have a circle of eyes staring down at you as you look up: what a sight for sore eyes!

Jar of eyeballs:

Hard boil some eggs (smaller hens’ or even quails’ eggs are good for this)
When cold, paint on some scary eyes with food colouring, let them dry and then pop them into a jar with some green food colouring.
Once finished, you could actually take them out and eat them!

Creepy jarheads:

Take a close-up selfie in panoramic mode as you’re pulling a scary face.
Move your mobile slowly from the left to right around your face and see the scary result.
Add some contrast and other visual effects.
Print it off and cut it to the size of the large jar you’ll put it into.
If you laminate the image, it’ll look better and last longer.
Fill the jar with water, add a few drops of food colouring – green, purple or red go well – then just pop your ghoulish picture inside.

Scary plates:

Print out a black & white image of a skull or creepy spider – old botanical drawings are ideal for this.
Carefully cut around and as close as you can to the image, then using decoupage glue, stick it face down onto an unwanted plate, so the white of the paper faces upwards.
Use a credit card to press it down and fully stick it to the plate.
Wipe away any excess glue and let dry overnight.
The next day, add warm water and let the skull paper soak for 10 mins.
Pour away the water and very carefully using your finger: rub off the white paperback of the image.
Remove all the bits of paper and wipe the plate down.
You’ll reveal the skull staring out at you! Seal it with more decoupage glue and leave it to dry for 24 hours.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

You will need:

1 Pumpkin	2 TSP ground cumin
2 TSP ground coriander spice	3 TSP garam masala
3 TSP olive oil	1 onion, finely chopped
2-ins ginger, peeled, finely chopped or grated	3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated
900ml vegetable stock	100ml crème Fraiche, or double cream, plus more when serving

First of all:

Heat your oven to 180°C.
Chunk the pumpkin into skin-on wedges.
Remove the seeds with a spoon (reserve them for toasting: see below) and mix the wedges in a bowl with 1 TSP each of the cumin, coriander and garam masala, plus seasoning and 2 TBSP of olive oil – so they’re well covered.
Spread them on a baking tray, and roast them for 25 minutes on each side.
They’ll feel nice and soft then when you prod them with a fork. Cool them on the tray.

After that:

Fry the onion with a pinch of salt for 10 minutes until soft then add in the remaining 1 TBSP olive oil.
Add the garlic, ginger, garlic, chilli flakes, 1 TSP each of the cumin, coriander and garam masala and fry for a couple more minutes to enrich the flavours.
Pop in the vegetable stock and simmer gently.

Finally:

Once the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, scoop out the soft flesh from the skins with a spoon and pop it into a stock pot
Take off the heat and use a hand blender to blitz it smooth.
Add seasoning and extra garam masala and chilli flakes if you want it spicier.
Pop it back on the heat and stir the cream through it.
Simmer gently and serve with extra cream and a pinch of chilli.
Top with toasted pumpkin seeds, if you like.

Toasting the seeds:

Wash them and remove any flesh or stringy bits. Dry them and smear them in oil and any spices, then roast them in a hot oven for 15 mins until crisp and golden. Scatter them over the soup or pop them into salads etc. Keep them for up to a week in an airtight container.

At Flair Furniture we’re all about saving you money. Now you can save even more – up to half price with our Spooktacular Halloween Half-Price Sale. Take a look now.