Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Life

Tag: Halloween

  • Have a Spooktacular Halloween

    The following recipes and spooky craft ideas will result in one hauntingly good Halloween.

    Hauntingly Good Recipes

    • Grab your witch’s cauldron and stir up this delicious pumpkin ginger soup.
    • This tombstone taco dip is to die for. Tortilla tombstones anyone?
    • These deadly good cupcakes are easy to whip up. Bake cupcake flavors of your choosing, and once they have cooled, top them off with chocolate icing. Crush a few Oreos or chocolate cookies and sprinkle the crumbles on top of the icing to look like dirt. Next, pipe R.I.P in black icing onto the top half of a Milano cookie and stick it into the cupcake so the top part sticking out resembles a gravestone. You can also place the cookies into a brownie.
    • Eight-legged cake pops anyone? First, make a batch of cake pops and cover the outside in fine chocolate sprinkles. Then, stick eight legs out the side and top it off with two candy eyes. Creepy, crawly, delicious.
    • Make a beautiful pumpkin cake out of two bunt cakes! Bake two bunt cakes and add orange food coloring into the batter so it’s nice and vibrant when you cut into it later. Once the cakes have cooled, flip one cake upside down and ice the bottom, which is now facing up. This icing layer will help keep the two bunt cakes together. Gently place the other bunt cake on top. If it’s wobbly, you might need to use a few dowels. Then cover the entire thing in orange icing, stick a pretzel stick out of the top center for the stem, and voila, you made a pumpkin cake!
    • Creep it real with the following frighteningly delicious Halloween recipes.
    • Spooky and healthy is always an option. All you need are green apples, strawberries, peanut butter, and sunflower seeds. First, cut the apple into slices. Take each slice and cut out a sliver in the middle that will serve as the mouth. Shmear peanut butter into the sliver (the mouth) and place a thin slice of a strawberry sticking out of the bottom to look like a tongue. Use sunflower seeds to make rows of teeth and top it off with two candy eyes.
    • Trust us, you knead these spiced pumpkin doughnuts in your life.
    • Create spooky and sweet Halloween drinks that will raise your guests’ spirits.
    • Top off your cocktails with a creepy eyeball. Place a blueberry inside of a lychee, and you have the perfect Halloween cocktail.

    Deadly Décor and Party Ideas

    • No smoke machine? No problem. Take a diffuser or humidifier and carefully place it into a fake cauldron and turn it on for a smokey effect.
    • Swap out your family photos for a night and create a gallery wall of your favorite monsters. For a cohesive look consider printing them in black and white.
    • Buy a few plastic cloches at a discount store to create a few hauntingly cool displays. Place a small skeleton head in one, a few fake spiders in another, and maybe some fake eyeballs in a third.
    • Bubble, bubble, spiders, and trouble. Fill a clear glass soap dispenser with a light-colored soap and put several small plastic spiders in it to create a spooky effect.
    • Upcycle your empty tissue boxes to create spooky creatures and mischievous monsters. Transform one into Frankenstein by painting the entire thing green and topping it off with stitches and a face. Paint one orange and draw a jack-o-lantern face on the side to make a pumpkin. The kids will love gluing on googley eyes, drawing silly faces, and creating their own original creatures.
    • Fill two or three clean, sterile gloves with water, tie them up, and place them in the freezer. Leave them in until they are solid ice. Right before your guests arrive, fill your punch bowl with a delicious drink and a little bit of ice, so the liquid cools down. Take your ice hands out of the freezer, remove the glove and place your frozen creepy hands in the punch bowl for spooky ice.
    • Halloween table ideas:
      • Place a black runner down the center of the table and top it off with red rose petals, skeleton hands, and a large skull in the center.
      • Fill vases with black branches, twigs, and red roses.
      • Lay a giant skeleton along the middle of the table and fill its torso and ribcage with candy.
      • Place purple fairy lights in a clear vase to create a glowing glass centerpiece.
    • Get crafty with the kids! Let your kids stick their thumbs in orange paint and make thumbprints all over a white pumpkin. Once the paint has dried, they can paint little jack-o-lantern faces and stems onto the prints to make them all into pumpkins. You can use white paint on an orange pumpkin and paint the thumbprints to look like spooky little ghosts.
    • Buy a variety of vases at your nearby thrift store and spray paint them black. After they dry, grab a paint pen and write different potion titles on them. “Spooky Juice” “Witches Brew” “Dragons Blood”

  • Ways to Give Back on Halloween

    Help others have a Spooktacular time this Halloween. There’s a variety of ways you can give back to your community, from helping a neighbor decorate to donating your leftover candy.

    1. As we all know – kids grow fast. Instead of putting your kid’s previous Halloween costumes in a box to collect dust, donate them to those who might not be able to afford their own. There are children out there who would love a second-hand costume.
    2. If you enjoy crafting and have time to spare, perhaps you can create costumes for those who can’t afford their own. If you’re not an expert with the sewing machine, consider crafting a few simple pieces such as superhero capes or costumes you can make simply by gluing items together. Here are fifteen no sew Halloween costumes that you can make. There’s an assortment of delightful disguises that don’t require you to pick up a needle or thread.

    3. Donate fun Halloween décor or help a neighbor decorate their home. Some families might not be able to afford holiday decorations for their yard, while others might not be physically able to put them up. Lend a helping hand and assist your neighbors in making a killer yard. Make sure you’re following the proper safety guidelines while decorating. Discover several hauntingly good décor ideas below:

    Use colorful construction paper to cut out pumpkins and ghosts. Attach them to a string so you can hang them up outside. You can also repurpose old sheets or towels to make spooky ghosts that hang from trees.

    Upcycle toilet paper rolls to make a bunch of monsters. Paint a few rolls in a variety of colors and once they’re dry, draw on polka dots or scales. Create a mummy by wrapping thin strips of toilet paper around it. Paint one green to make a Frankenstein friend. Then use a black marker to draw on hair, a mouth, and stitches. Create as many as you want using items such as googley eyes, glitter, tinfoil, and anything that can add some flair.

    Recycle old tissue boxes to create a merry band of mischievous monsters. Flip the empty tissue boxes upside down and paint the outside so they resemble spooky little creatures.

    Use balloons to create fun floating ghosts and spooky creatures. Gently draw ghost faces on white balloons and Jack-O’-Lanterns on orange balloons.

    4. Host an outdoor Halloween party for the kids in the neighborhood. Uncover fun activities and recipes that everyone will love.

    5. Give back to those who serve our nation and donate your left-over candy. Operation Gratitude is a Halloween Candy Give-Back program that collects and donates candy to deployed troops, veterans, and first responders. Show someone some appreciation and send them a candy care package.

  • Have a Hauntingly Good Halloween

    Let’s get spooky and crafty! Below are a ton of fun Halloween recipes, critter-approved craft ideas, and of course, tons of clever costume ideas. 

    Halloween Recipes for All Creatures

    • Grab your spoons and get ready for delicious soup. Try this incredible pumpkin ginger soup or this curried coconut pumpkin soup recipe.  
    • This pumpkin bread recipe will result in one spectacular loaf that friends and neighbors will love.   
    • These spider deviled eggs are just as cute and creepy as they are yummy.           
    • It’s safe to say everyone loves pizza. Add a fun twist this Halloween by using each pepperoni as the center or body of a spider. Then place leftover red sauce into a piping bag and draw eight legs on each pepperoni side. Create a non-meat-lovers pizza that will be so good that people will not be able to take their eyes, or hands, off it. Start by placing slices of mozzarella around the pizza. Cut olives into slices and put a slice in the middle of each mozzarella to form the pupil. Then pipe red sauce around the olive to create a bloodshot look. 
    • This tombstone taco dip is to die for. Get ready for tortilla tombstones and refried bean dirt. 
    • For a healthy, spooky snack, grab a few apples and a jar of peanut butter. Take a green apple and a few strawberries and cut them into slices. Take a slice of apple and carefully cut out a sliver in the middle to resemble an open mouth. Shmear peanut butter in the sliver (the mouth) and place a thin slice of a strawberry sticking out of the bottom to create the tongue. Use sunflower seeds to make rows of teeth and place two candy eyes on top.

    • Check out these wickedly fun Halloween cupcakes that everyone will want to sink their fangs into. 
    • These spider web cookies will get you eight thumbs up. The first step is to cover a sugar cookie in white icing. Use black icing to draw a few circles that resemble a bullseye or target. Before it dries, take a toothpick and draw lines from the center of the circle outward, so it starts to look like a web. 
    • Mummy Oreo critters are a fun dessert that everyone will admire. First, dip your Oreos in white chocolate or white icing, covering the entire cookie. Then put white icing in a piping bag and going back and forth across the cookie pipe horizontal lines across, so it looks like mummy wraps. Then add two candy eyes, or you can pipe yellow eyes on yourself.

    • Dip caramel apples in the chocolate of your choice and add little candy eyes to make spooky yet scrumptious treats. Dip one apple in white chocolate to make a mummy and pipe on the eyes. To make a pumpkin keep the apple covered in caramel and use chocolate to pipe on a jack-o-lantern face. Create a Frankenstein by adding green food coloring to white chocolate and covering the entire apple. Then use dark chocolate to pipe on hair, stitches, and a face. Using caramel, attach little pretzel sticks to either side of the apple to create Frankenstein’s bolts. 
    • This boo-tiful dirt and worms cake is covered with crushed chocolate cookies and slimy, gummy worms. Your kids will love helping bake and decorate this delicious treat.   
    • You knead these spiced pumpkin doughnuts in your life. 
    • Creep it real with this tasty but gross-looking brain drink.  
    • Create spooky and sweet Halloween drinks that will raise your guests’ spirits. 

    Boo-tiful Halloween Crafts and Décor  

    • Upcycle toilet paper rolls to make a bunch of monsters. Paint a few rolls in a variety of colors and once they’re dry, draw on polka dots or scales. Create a mummy by wrapping thin strips of toilet paper around it. Paint one green and make a Frankenstein friend. Then use a black marker to draw on hair, a mouth, and stitches. Create as many as you want using items like googley eyes, glitter, tinfoil, and anything else to add some flair.

    • Use balloons to create fun floating ghosts and spooky creatures. Once the balloons are blown up, gently draw ghost faces on the white balloons, Jack-O’-Lanterns on orange balloons, or make any monster faces you want.  
    • Recycle old tissue boxes to create a merry band of mischievous monsters. Flip the empty tissue boxes upside down and paint the outside to make spooky little creatures. Paint one box green for Frankenstein, one orange for a pumpkin, and one white for a scary skeleton. Then just paint on their faces with permanent markers or paint pens. 
    • These wickedly fun witch decorations will put a spell on you and your guests.  
    • Light it up on Halloween. All you need are lanterns and black construction paper. Cut out moons, stars, bats, or any shape you want and attach them to the outside of the lanterns. Light the lanterns with battery-operated candles, and the black paper will form fun silhouettes as the light dances around the lantern. 
    •  Learn how to create Halloween decor from ordinary objects you already have at home.  
    • Use pom pom balls to make scary little spiders. For the body, glue one large black pom and one medium black pom pom together. For eyes, glue many small googley eyes to the front of the medium pom pom. To create the legs, cut black pipe cleaners into eight pieces and glue four along each side. 

    • Upcycle glass bottles to form spooky cool Halloween décor. Use different colored wax or old crayons and carefully drip wax down the top of the bottles. We recommend using black, red, and white wax. You can also drip red crayons down the sides of old white candles to give the appearance of oozing blood. 
    • Discover an assortment of Halloween wreaths that will result in a hauntingly good-looking door.  
    • Stitch together your very own Frankenstein. Since Frankenstein is a creation assembled from an assortment of humans… stick to the same approach. Each person in your family can contribute an article of clothing and stuff it with newspaper. Set up all of the limbs and pieces in a chair, so it resembles a body. For a face, decorate a pumpkin, place it on the shoulders and boom… your own personal Frankenstein. 
    • Uncover tons of frighteningly fun haunted front door ideas.  

    Clever Halloween Costumes 

    • Create an adorable sundae costume. Get a white t-shirt for vanilla ice cream and brown pants that look like a cone. Grab a white tutu that you will wear over the pants. Using various colors of construction paper, cut out a bunch of rectangles that will be your sprinkles. Glue the sprinkles onto the shirt. Glue a red pom pom ball onto a headband for the cherry on top and attach a stem cut out of paper. 
      I think we can all agree that pets in costumes are purely amazing. Check out these clever costume ideas for you and your pet.  
    • Get popping with this DIY popcorn costume. Buy a pair of red and white vertical striped bottoms to resemble the popcorn container. If you cannot find striped pants, buy red pants and use white duct tape to make the stripes. Grab an old white or light-yellow t-shirt and some white computer paper. Rip each piece of paper in half and crumple them up. Spray-paint the crumbled paper with yellow to give your popcorn some butter. Then glue the crumbled popcorn balls onto the shirt and all done. 
    • Transform your little one into an adorable yet mischievous mouse with this simple DIY mouse costume.  
    • Here are tons of easy-to-make kids costumes that you can make at home.  
    • Do the robot! Grab a small moving box for the head and one of the top four flaps off. Then cut a rectangular window for eyes on one of the sides. For the body, cut the top and bottom flaps off of a larger box. Then cut out two holes where the arms can stick out on either side. Paint the boxes silver or cover them in aluminum foil. Create robot buttons and added details by painting different colored bottle caps and gluing them on the front. You can cut out gears and other things using construction paper. Don’t forget to use straws or pipe cleaners to make its antennas. 

  • BHGRE Season of Sharing

    Welcome to the BHGRE® Season of Sharing series, designed to help you celebrate the upcoming holidays with style and safety top-of-mind. From Halloween through New Years’, we’ve got everything you need to gather in new ways, creating cherished memories as you go.

    Plus, to help lift-up communities during these difficult times, our BHGRE network has also highlighted the different charitable events they are involved in this year. Be it a blood drive, food pantry, toy collection or fundraiser, the BHGRE network shares ways for you to get involved in your community, specific to your location.

    Be it party planning tips, gift ideas, activities, recipes and inspiration on ways to give back, the BHGRE® Season of Sharing has what you need to create an unforgettable holiday season.

     

     

  • How to Decorate for Halloween Without Being Kitschy with Interior Design Pro Jennifer Adams

    Instead of the usual kitschy Halloween decorations you’ve done over and over again, try something new and chic this year. These classy yet playful DIY home décor ideas will inspire and create just the right Halloween ambiance.

    Go With a Spooky Wreath

    The entryway or porch is where most of the action happens when trick-or-treaters and guests come knocking at your front door. Adorn your door with a spooky wreath, like one made out of dried twigs, vines or dark-colored flowers. Add black bats or spiders hanging from their webs to create an eerie vibe.

    Decorate with Lights

    String up seasonal lights around your porch or front and backyard trees. You can also have carved, miniature gourds or pumpkins with tea lights inside lighting up your outdoor walkways and stairways.

    Scary Black Cutouts

    For a creepy front yard, use cutouts or decals for your windows. For a stylish look, don’t overdo them. Instead, keep the look simple and minimal—for instance, a couple of well-placed ravens, bats, or a ghastly ghoul or witch.

    Create a Gothic-Inspired Table

    Hosting a Halloween dinner party? Decorate your dining table with a gothic flair. Create a color palette of deep reds, blacks and purples, as well as gold; use textiles like velvet and silk. You can arrange your table with a gorgeous velvet table runner, vintage candlesticks, and a bouquet of dark red roses. For additional drama, play with black or red glassware and plates with accents of gold.

    Black and White Pumpkins

    Instead of the standard orange and black, go with white and black. Rather than carving your pumpkins, you can paint them!  Create spooky faces or whimsical patterns in contrasting colors to make them really stand out. 

    Monochromatic Décor

    If you want to go simple, then decorate your home with only one color, like white, black or orange. You can create a fun yet classy monochromatic ensemble for your entryway or around a fireplace and mantel.

    Haunting Floral Arrangements

    Experiment with unconventional arrangements by using feathers, dried and fresh plants and flowers, twigs and vines. Keep the color palette dark and rich with pops of bright color. Look for unique vases or containers.

    Dia de los Muertos

     For a twist, celebrate Halloween by using the Mexican Day of the Dead as your décor and party theme. Display vibrant and colorful sugar skulls, candles and folk art, like a paper cutout string banner called a papel picado. Have skull masks for your guests to wear, or even better, turn it into a party activity by letting them decorate their own masks. And don’t forget to serve up traditional Mexican foods and drinks!

    Want some funds to help you decorate for Halloween? Click the banner below and subscribe to the blog to enter to win $1000 during the Fall for Your Home Sweepstakes.

  • Halloween Party Games

    Halloween-themed games are a fun way to get party guests into the spirit of the holiday and break the ice.

    There are plenty of games to play that are perfect for every age. From bingo and word searches to pumpkin tosses and guessing games, entertainment is easy to find this Halloween.

    Here are some of our favorite Halloween party games:

    Halloween Pumpkin Patch Hunt

    Set up a pumpkin patch indoors or outdoors with real or plastic pumpkins. Hide toys, candy and money inside them. Let guests search for treasures and tally each person’s findings if you want to name a winner.

    Wrap the Mummy

    Use crepe or toilet paper to wrap one guest as a mummy. Teams should decide if they want to play to create the most artistic, scariest or fastest mummy. When it’s time to unwrap them, make a game out of seeing who can pick up the trash the fastest.

    Pin the Face on the Jack-o-Lantern

    Just like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, your party guests will pin the face on a giant jack-o-lantern. Make this game out of construction paper or felt. Create funny and scary features to pin on a bare pumpkin.

  • Throw a Spectacularly Spooky Party this Halloween!

    Look how time flies! It’s October already and you know what that means – Halloween! If you’re planning to throw a party, make it spectacularly spooky with these decoration ideas.

    Witch’s Broom

    Witch's_BroomServe up these wonderful witch’s broom apps made from breadsticks, pretzels, and some licorice rope!