Halloween Party Decorating on a Budget - 2010

Parties can be extremely expensive to throw, so when we decided to host a Halloween Party, I knew that we we needed to start collecting decorations early to get good deals and stay on a budget. To my surprise, we were able to buy the majority of our decorations from the Dollar Store, saving us a lot of money. Yesterday I put everything up so that I would know what else we needed to buy before the party. I am happy with how things turned out and I think we spent about $60-$70 on everything, which could have been roughly 3times that amount if it weren't for most everything being $1!Now Adam gets to live in a scary house until October 23rd! So, here are the mostly completed pictures and projects from my halloween party decorating on a budget:

 I really wanted to incorporate a crime scene into the decor, so I found this Fake Blood Recipe collection and decided to go with the realistic option. When I went to make it I found that I had no food coloring, so I subbed red sugar sprinkles and it actually turned out very well! I used a fork to splatter it onto these white hand towels that I got at the dollar store.
Fake Blood Recipe
2/3 c. Corn Syrup
1/3 c. Warm Water
5 Tbsp Corn Starch
4 tsp red food coloring - I used 3 tbsp red sugar sprinkles instead
1 Tbsp Powdered Cocoa
2 drops of green or yellow food coloring - I didn't use

Mix the corn starch with the water in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the corn syrup. Add the food coloring slowly, checking for color

 I really liked the idea of using our red christmas lights to simulate a more bloody theme and keep things eerie

 I got the hands, feet, liver, bags of fingers and shattered bloody glass all at the dollar store. I used the fake blood recipe on the knives by dipping the tip in the bowl of blood and holding the knife up straight to let the blood drip down, then I froze for about 4 hours. I also love the roaches. I put one on the floor and spooked myself with it! We got a bag of about 10 at the dollar store.

 I am usually really bad with the cobwebs and hate how they get stuck to you, but I decided to web just about everything hanging up in the house.

 Here is my cemetery. Since the living room is just a big open space, I wanted to cover about 1/4 of it with the graveyard. I got the tombstones and skulls at the dollar store. I used black trash bags, cutting them at both sides and taped them to the floor. I plan to have some black lights as well as a strobe light in the direction of this. I also found a graveyard backdrop for $1 but am going to go back to a different store and see if they have 2 more, because that would be great as a backdrop to this against the white wall.

 Bloody gauze and cobwebs cover the fireplace

 More Christmas lights and 'creepy cloth' add some accenting to the other corner of the living room

The front door got me pretty frustrated as I wanted to put so much on it. It all worked out and I got 'creepy cloth', caution tape, lights and cobwebs all up!

We also have lots of bugs and rats and fingers to put in/by the food and beverages, so I think that for under $100 we did a great job creating a haunted atmosphere! Can't wait to see it all in action.