Green Halloween Tip #2 - Save Those Decorations!

"Try to re-use Halloween decorations in the same way that Christmas ornaments are used from year-to-year, instead of throwing them away each November first. Most of all, use this holiday to think about your everyday habits and actions to reduce waste 365 days a year. The scariest aspect of Halloween may not be the ghosts in the attic, but the waste on the floor. Individual actions can make a huge difference for our future!

If you don't already have decorations here are 13 great ways to choose or make some green ones yourself!

Thirteen Eeeko-Halloween Decorations

Below are thirteen suggestions for Halloween decorations you can make with reused and recycled items. If buying decoration materials, try using non-petroleum based and/or recycled products with minimal packaging.

SPIDERS

* Instead of buying plastic, petroleum based spiders, make fake spiders and cockroaches out of rocks, pipecleaners, and paint. Collect rocks, paint them black, and use non-toxic, water-based 3D fabric paint for eyes. Attach and wrap pipe cleaners around the rock and leave enough hanging off the edge to bend into legs. Paste these spiders to everything!

* Take old string and paint it with non-toxic, glow-in-the-dark paint to make a spider web.

DINNERWARE AND CENTERPIECES

* Plates/Utensils/Glasses
To save trees and petroleum, avoid using plastic and paper plates, cups and utensils. Instead, use real plates, or ask guests to bring their own, perhaps with a theme matching their costumes. For example, if a guest dresses as Mother Earth, he/she might bring a real plate with a floral design.

* Black, Red, and Orange Candles
Conventional candles are often petroleum based. Pure Beeswax candles set an eco-friendly Halloween mood, and the natural smell is mellow and compelling.

* Creepy Crawly Vases
Glue spiders (see above) and Halloween shapes cut from fabric or paper onto glass vases, mason jars, or plastic or terra cotta flowerpots. Place big, dried twigs in the pots, and hang more spiders from the twigs. One can even attach doll heads, or other doll body parts found lying around the home. Adding cleaned and dried animal bones (chicken, steak, etc.) also looks scary.

SKELETONS AND SCARY PEOPLE

* Cardboard Skeleton
To avoid buying conventional plastic or virgin wood-based paper skeletons, make one with old cardboard or posterboard, using an anatomy or Halloween craft book for guidelines. Paint the skeleton with non-toxic, glow-in-the-dark paint. Put a hat, some feathers, or spiders on its head for decoration.

* Scary Stuffed Guy
Make a scary person by stuffing old clothes with newspaper, and use an old mask (from goodwill or your attic) for a face. Splatter non-toxic, water-based red paint on the figure to make him scarier, and stick a knife in him somewhere.

OTHER EFFECTS

* Hanging Tin Lanterns:
Used tins (soda cans, olive oil tins, large tomato sauce tin) make interesting hanging lanterns. Cut faces into the tins with a strong knife. Glue a beeswax candle in the bottom with a glue gun. Poke holes near the lid of the tin and thread a metal wire through to hang the lanterns.

* Vampire Repellant:
Hang garlic and crosses outside your front door.

Abandoned Building:

1. Board up windows with old plywood or cardboard painted like wood. Attach spiders and maybe some green slime.
2. Cover furniture with white sheets and place ghosts (made of sheets and pillows) on them. Splatter nontoxic red ink or paint on the sheets for the "fresh blood" look.
3. Suspend old sheets or gauzy fabric from trees to look like ghosts. Have a small radio in or next to a tree playing strange sounds (e.g. someone screaming, moaning, or rattling chains). If using batteries, make sure they are rechargeabl e.
4. Write scary messages backwards on the windows and/or mirrors with bar soap or lipstick.
5. Take vines and drape them around the room.

Graveyard: Use handmade gravestones to make a graveyard outside your house. Make gravestones with large rocks, old cereal boxes, or big pieces of used styrofoam (do not buy it!) that you have shaped with a sharp cutting tool. Paint the gravestones gray with a nontoxic, water-based paint, and write guests' names on them.



[via-Environmental Defense] & [via-http://www.care2.com]