An Autumn Entrance

Happy Halloween!

You're throwing a Halloween party and you've got the inside all decorated, but what about the outside? Here are ideas for your entry that can take you from October through November.

What's Halloween without jack-o'-lanterns? For this project, you could buy fresh pumpkins. However, to make this entryway last through Thanksgiving and to keep the pumpkins light enough to hang, try plastic pumpkins. You can purchase carveable plastic pumpkins from craft stores. Here's how to dress your entryway for the season.

Materials and Tools:
pumpkins (fresh or plastic)
small, handheld knife for carving pumpkins
a spool of sturdy, bendable wire
nails
fake spider webs
embellishments: old leaves and plastic bats, skeletons, bugs, ghosts, goblins, and other spooky creatures
floral foam
twigs
black fabric

Steps:

1. Line up the pumpkins. Draw a design either by freehand or by using a stencil on the pumpkin. Cut out the design with a knife. Two notes of caution — carveable plastic pumpkins are flammable so candles should not be used to light them. Also, plastic is a bit tougher to cut than the real deal, so adults should do the carving.

2. Once the pumpkins are carved, hang them at different levels in the entryway. To do this, poke a hole with a skewer in the back of your pumpkin. Cut another hole next to it and thread a string of wire through both holes and out of the pumpkin. Twist the excess wire together. Hang the pumpkins from nails strategically positioned over and around your porch entrance.

3. To make your entry more scary, embellish with the spider webs, making sure to pull them out very thin to make them look real. Next, hang plastic bats and bugs the door. Prop a skeleton on the doorstep.

4. Take a few more plastic pumpkins and instead of carving them up with a scary grin, cut a large hole in the front. Fill these pumpkins with floral foam and stick a few twigs in for decoration. Hang a few more bats and creepy crawlies off the twigs.

5. Next, drape average porch chairs with black fabric. Make them creepy by adding eerie embellishments.

6. Leave a little dry ice in a bucket of water near the entry. The smoke it creates wll give the entire doorway a spookier vibe.

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