Halloween Decorating

TIPical Mary Ellen host Mary Ellen Pinkham and decorating expert Roman Rajtar show they have the "fright stuff" for creating inexpensive, easy-to-make decorations.

Save those old paint cans, coffee cans or other tin or aluminum cans to create Halloween luminaries. Just follow these simple steps:

1. First fill the cans with ice and water and put them in the freezer until the water freezes into a solid block. While the cans are in the freezer, either draw a design or find one in a craft book to use as a template.

2. Place the frozen can on a towel to help steady it, and use a small hammer and a nail-setter to make holes along the outside of the design (figure C).

3. When the water melts, add some sand to the can to weight it down and put a candle inside to create a scary glowing Halloween decoration (figure D).

• Create a centerpiece with an autumn theme, using miniature gourds and pumpkins that can be found at a local grocery store or farmer's market (figure E). Fill a glass vase with the tiny gourds, and arrange twigs, cattails and other fall plants in the vase. Collect leaves, stems and other plant material from the yard, or buy some from a florist.

• Gourds too small to carve can also be turned into candleholders. Remove the stem and carve out a hole large enough to hold a tall candle or votive candle. Make several and arrange them as a centerpiece or line them up on the porch.

• While transforming a pumpkin into a horse-drawn coach might be too ambitious a project, it's easy to turn one into a homemade vase. Here's how:
  
  
  
  1. Find the roundest pumpkin possible, cut off the top and scoop out the insides.

  2. Using a plastic container that fits easily inside the pumpkin, put a cube of floral foam inside the container, and wet it with enough water to make a small pool at the bottom of the container.

  3. Arrange flowers, dried leaves and berries to create the desired look. These would be great centerpieces for a table.
  
  
• Instead of cleaning up cobwebs, create them for the holiday. A spider web--complete with a resident--is the perfect decoration for a large picture window, doorway or wall.
  
  
  
  1. Take a roll of white yarn and begin by making a cross, fastening the yarn to the perimeter of the area to be covered.

  2. Attach the yarn in diagonals over the cross. Tie the yarn in the middle of the cross, moving out and around in a circle, securing with a knot each time the yarn passes over the cross or a diagonal.

  3. Make a spider with pipe cleaners for legs and a pine cone for the body. Spider eyes can be made with mini-marshmallows that are painted yellow and inserted into the pine cone.

• Even the best Halloween display can be made better with sound effects. Buy a compact disc of spooky sound effects and set the stereo for continuous repeat play, or record an effects tape at home on cassette. Just yell, scream, and beat on a piano if one's available. Connect a small, battery-powered tape player to a miniature speaker and put both inside an artificial jack-o'-lantern along with a flashlight.