Green Your Halloween: Re-Purpose Junk into Decorations

Halloween is just round the corner and for those of you who want to trim up for the occasion we thought we’d share some money saving, recycling ideas. Don’t waste your money on those plastic, tacky decorations in your local supermarket. With a little imagination and a few bits of junk you’ll have individual decorations your neighbours will envy.

• If you’ve got a few empty jars lying around create your own Halloween props. Find an image of a squashed face and print it out. Stick it in a jar filled with water and add a few realistic tufts of hair. If you use a laser printer the ink shouldn’t run when it gets wet. A gruesome 3D face will appear as long as it’s flush with the glass.
• Keep vampires at arm’s length with an attractive but effective garlic wreath. Find some bulbs of garlic that still have the dried greens and they can be plaited together for an unusual front door decoration.
• If you’ve got some wood lying around why not add some of your own gravestones to the front garden. All you need is some paint, a saw and hammer and nails.
• Turn a book into a pumpkin in the blink of an eye. Rather than buying a pumpkin only to throw it away when Halloween is over, find a book you’ve read and cut it into a Halloween shape. With a little bit of glue, orange paint and ribbon you’ve got your very own eco-friendly pumpkin.
• Turn your unwanted flower pots into Halloween decorations with some orange and green paint. Paint jack o’ lantern faces on them or use pieces of paper.
• An ideal kids decoration can be made using cereal packets and strips of white material. Wrap the boxes up to look like mummies and add some black stickers for mouths and eyes.
• Make your own natural stamps by cutting potato halves with a skull and crossbones. And let your kids go made using washable paint.
• If you’re stuck for a Halloween costume but need to find something for a last minute invitation cut a skull face out of an old tee-shirt and wear it over a plain, dark top.

Here at Rubbish Please we would like to wish you a very happy Halloween.