These three budget Halloween decor ideas made from newspaper are the perfect way to infuse your Halloween decorations with some inexpensive fun. I LOVE to decorate for Halloween and each year I mix it up by picking a new theme as a jumping-off point for my decor.
This year I decided the headlines are nothing but scary, so they are PERFECT for a Halloween craft supply. I don’t get the newspaper at our house anymore but when I saw it at the Dollar Tree I grabbed a copy and decided it would be the theme for Halloween this year. I have SIX newspaper Halloween decorating craft ideas coming at you this season – three in this blog post and three that will come next week, so stay tuned.
Black and white is always a favorite look of mine and newspaper fits the bill perfectly. Add the fact that it’s cheap and adds a worn in, cozy feel to your home and I’m sold. I started off with one project and it slowly snowballed into six. Feel free to change the newspaper to book pages, scrap paper, tissue paper, or any other type of paper you can think of. Let’s get started with these fun and easy Halloween craft ideas. Please watch the video in this post for all the DIY details, but here is a written and photograph version as well:
Newspaper Candy Corn Garland
- Grab a few layers of newspaper and cut them into quarters.
- Use yellow and orange acrylic craft paint. With a sponge brush, paint strips on the lower half of your newspaper piece. A traditional candy corn is white on top, orange in the middle and yellow on the bottom. The newspaper page will serve as the white for this craft. You don’t have to paint till the edge, but you do want to get close. I like the paint to be shear so the newspaper still shows through some. Paint your pieces side by side so you paint all the pieces with the same width of paint color.
- Once the paint is dry, stack your newspaper quarters. Make sure to line up the colors.
- Fold the stack in half.
- Cut a half candy corn shape, feel free to sketch a design first if you are more comfortable. You can cut multiple pieces at a time. If you need to cut another stack use a cut piece as a guide.
- Flip your candy corns over and space how you would like them on the garland.
- Use a hot glue gun to glue ribbon or jute twine to the back of each candy corn. Glue close to the edges to help prevent the newspaper from curling.
- Hang and enjoy!
Newspaper Bat Decor
- Use black construction paper for the body of your bat. You will want to cut the same shape in three sizes.
- Use newspaper for the bat wings. Sketch a pattern for yourself and then cut a stack of wings. Again in three sizes to match your bat bodies.
- Hot glue craft wire to the back of each wing, extending to where the wing meets the body. Glue the wings to the body.
- Use black acrylic craft paint and a dry brush technique to add some definition to the wing edges and centers.
- Tape or glue your bats to a surface for a fun flutter of bats!
Newspaper Bow
- Ribbon can get expensive and if you’re like me I never have exactly the color I need on hand. These DIY bows fix both of those problems!
- Paint your newspaper with acrylic craft paint to match the candy corn. Or make any color you want with this fun idea! Let it dry completely.
- Cut newspaper into 1 inch strips – cut painted and plain newspaper.
- I added in some ribbon I had on hand in Houndstooth, orange and yellow, but you could use ALL newspaper strips if wanted.
- Stack your strips, alternating colors and direction.
- Squeeze the center of the bow and wrap it tight with jute twine, leave the twine long in back so you can use it to tie the bow wherever you want to use it. . You can use a colored ribbon on top of the twine for a pretty center if desired.
- Trim the ribbon and newspaper pieces to a uniform length and fluff your bow.
- I added mine to the candy corn garland to finish it off.
I combined these three DIY projects into a cute kitchen scene. I really love how they all look together and I love the price even more! Budget Halloween decor ideas are the best. Make some of these cute projects and share them with me when you do! Happy Halloween Y’all!
Lynnett Ratchford says
Thanks, Kim. I don’t do Halloween, but these tips could be adjusted for other occasions or holidays. I especially liked the bow. I love your free scriptures each month and always save them.
Kim at Salvaged Living says
thanks Lynette and yes – you can always use these ideas for other things!