As Halloween comes closer, Skyline students begin decorating, with store-bought decorations and their very own Do-It-Yourself crafts. From ghosts to pumpkins, scary to cute, DIYs offer a wide variety of ideas for beginner and advanced crafters. DIY has become an important part of art and culture, impacting the way people design and decorate.
From various Halloween themes, pumpkins are the most iconic. From origami pumpkins to carving and painting, they are a staple when it comes to Halloween. Pumpkin desserts are also a common find when it comes to fall, including pumpkin pie and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Skyline student Layla Christensen said, “You do see them around Thanksgiving, but pumpkins are more popular and known as Halloween stuff.”
Taking 80-120 days to grow, pumpkins are planted in early May and throughout the month of June; and are fully grown and in full color around late September and early October. The length in time to grow pumpkins could explain why they are popular decorations for October, and mostly seen as fall decorations.
An easy pumpkin DIY to make around Halloween is a pipe cleaner pumpkin. The materials needed to get started include: six pieces of colored pipe cleaner. Start by wrapping the pipe cleaner into circles until three individual circles have been made. Next, take three more pipe cleaners, twisting or braiding them together. Once completed, put the circles overtop of each other at a diagonal, tie the circles together by tying your braided pipe cleaners around the three circles. Flatten the pipe cleaners down until they can stand up on their own.
Another fun DIY to include is, if pumpkins are available but carving a pumpkin just isn’t going to cut it, painting pumpkins. For this, grab a pumpkin, paint brushes, and some acrylic paint. Pick the paint colors and paint whatever is desired on the outside of the pumpkin. If wanted, add Fairy Lights around the outside of the pumpkin for a twist.
Between the option of cute or scary, most students prefer cute DIY’s. When asked, one student, Nadia Mellem, said that she prefers decor that is “cute […] something that’s not dark and eerie.” Some cute and easy DIY’s to make during the Halloween season include paper spiders, bats, and mummy jars. The paper spider DIY can be made by cutting out four circles of equal size, and folding three of those circles in half. Then, the folded circles may be glued together and stuck to the unfolded remaining circle. Lastly, cut strips of black paper to mimic spider legs and glue to the back of the spider. If wanted, googly eyes can also be glued onto the front of the DIY. Paper bats are one of the simpler DIY’s of the three. The paper bat can be made by simply folding a paper in half, and drawing half of the bat’s body and wing. Then cut out the drawing and unfold it. From there the bat can be taped to the wall. The next DIY can be made with elastic bandages, a jar, glue, and googly eyes. First, take the jar and cover the outside with glue. Then wrap the jar in the elastic bandage, and let it dry. Afterwards, googly eyes can be glued on. A candle may be added to the inside of the jar for a spookier look.
