How to Spookify Your Dorm with $5

Have a craft-tacular night with your roommates

Looking for a few Halloween DIYs? Make your own craft-tacular fright on a college budget!

Step one: Set the mood 🕯️🍁

Turn up the fall vibes.

Grab a hot drink, get the pumpkin spice scent going (we all love to hate it), turn on “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” and put those pumpkin cookies (or chocolate chip for the traditionalists) in the oven.

Step two: Get crafting

Tonight, we craft.

It’s easy to achieve a ‘chilling’ effect with materials found around your house or with a trip to the Dollar Store. We have two devilish DIYs for the ghost with the most to decorate this fall:

Haunted Portraits and Ghostly Garland

Haunted Portraits

Materials Needed:

• Paint: we used white, black, green, and orange, but feel free to think outside the jack-o-lantern!
• Brushes: any standard pack
• Frames: any size or design- optimal to find ‘spooky’ looking frames, but open to interpretation

To begin, de-assemble the picture frame.

Tip: There is usually a paper inside the frame between the back and the glass. This can either be removed completely OR for an even more sustainable craft you can reuse it! Just paint it and turn it into your background.

Here, we opted to paint the direct back of the frame black to demonstrate resourcefulness — but again think outside the pumpkin patch!

For example, replace the black background with the page of an old book for an even creepier look.

Next, the fun part: deciding what Franken-ghost you’re going to create! You can keep your ghost scary, or do a friendlier Casper approach like shown.

Looking to elevate your ghoulish portrait? Add other spooky elements! Here we added black cats, pumpkins, and gave them all faces of course!

Once you’re satisfied (or scared, whichever comes first) with your painting, secure the glass back in the frame and your ghoul is officially trapped.

Now, Display it!

Once dry, hang on the wall or set on any desk or shelf to add a spooky twist to your dorm this season!

If you’re more of a Werewolf than a VanGhough, don’t fret! You can do a simple version of this craft and keep creativity to a minimum.

Ghostly Garland

Materials needed:

• String: can also be ribbon, yarn, or similar
• Old book: one you don’t mind destroying
• Tape: could also use glue
• Scissors, pencil, and sharpie

To begin, tear out 5–10 pages of the old book (readers close your eyes for this part). Your garland can be as long or as short as you want, so go wherever the wind takes you… or should I say wherever the pumpkin rolls.

After tearing out your pages, you can sketch a ghost outline shape on the page and cut.

If you want to add some pumpkin spice to your garland, you can also sketch a simple pumpkin shape and repeat the same process. Just don’t forget the stem!

Tip: for best results, use the first cut out to make replicas onto the other pages. This ensures they all come out the same size/ shape, unless you are going for a more abstract look.

Next, the best part- drawing their spooky (or silly) faces! Some crafters may choose to repeat the same classic face on every ghost, but feel free to get creative and try out some different looks, it gives them personality.

Tip: For the pumpkin detail, simply make a lines resembling ( ( ) ) on the front.

Now with your little army of ghouls, it’s time to bring this craft to life.

— Actually to the after life.

Cut a piece of string, yarn, ribbon (crafter’s choice), to the length you would like your garland to be, depending on the number of ghosts and pumpkins you’d previously cut out.

Tip: The ghosts will be spaced about 2–4 inches apart, so cut your string accordingly to the number of ghosts and ultimately how long you want the garland to be.

Then, flip over all your cutouts and tape or glue the back onto the string. Keep in mind the string should be at the top of the ghost or pumpkin for the best ‘floating’ effect.

Now, get those ghosts haunting!

To hang, simply tape the two ends of the string to a wall, shelf, table, or wherever a spooky season upgrade is needed!

These two fang-tastic DIYs are the perfect way to add some fall festivity to your dorm, apartment or bedroom!

Many of the materials can be found around your house already, a great way for college students to keep their budget low and their Halloween spirit high!

Happy Crafting, Lumberjacks!

Don’t forget to share your Franken-creations with us on Instagram @nauflagstaff or use #MyNAUview