30 Frugally Decorative Dollar Store Halloween Crafts and Decorations for Spooky Fun

Trying to spruce up your home with some Halloween fright? Seriously, it is amazing how many awesome spooky crafts you can make yourself with just a few simple, cheap supplies from the dollar store. Check out these 30 projects for thrifty Halloween fun—most of these are easy enough that you can make them with your kids.

Jump to:

• 1. Creepy Halloween Votive Candles
• 2. Easy $3 Ghost Candles
• 3. Halloween Frames
• 4. Posh Halloween Pumpkins
• 5. Spider Web Vase
• 6. Skull Candlesticks
• 7. Concrete Pumpkins
• 8. Whimsical Trick or Treat Pumpkins.
• 9. Crashed Witch
• 10. Skeleton Fairies
• 11. Creepy Crow Wreath
• 12. Skeleton Vase
• 13. Dollar Store Halloween Wreath
• 14. Spooky Bush Eyes
• 15. Halloween Village on a Budget
• 16. Halloween Headbands
• 17. Skeleton Hand Necklace
• 18. Easy Halloween Craft Candles
• 19. Metallic Skull Door Knocker
• 20. Candle Holders with Eyes
• 21. Halloween Hoot Plate
• 22. Candy Corn Frame
• 23. Pumpkin Lights
• 24. Skeleton Hand Wreath
• 25. Eyeball Wreath
• 26. Milk Jug Luminaria
• 27. Printable Halloween Luminaria
• 28. Ghostly Tablecloth
• 29. Bleeding Candles
• 30. Ghostly Mirror

1. Creepy Halloween Votive Candles

It’s hard to even describe these unusual votive candles—and there is no end to the variations you could use to make them exceptionally eerie. Each one has an old photograph with the eyes cut out so that they glow an unsettling yellow. They actually look pretty cool with the lights on, too. Check the source link for a full tutorial.

2. Easy $3 Ghost Candles

Sometimes, it really is the simplest ideas that are the most brilliant. These ghost candles are almost effortless to make—you just need to grab some cheap white candles from the dollar store and draw on some ghost faces using a Sharpie. The total cost for these was only $3. Amazing!

3. Halloween Frames

For this project, you will need around $12 of supplies. The steps are relatively quick and easy, and you can, of course, customize these frames to say anything you want in any font you choose.

4. Posh Halloween Pumpkins

Love pumpkins, but looking for something a little different from your old-fashioned Jack-O-Lantern this year? One idea is to create these really cool vintage-style pumpkins on silver platters. They look really posh and aristocratic to me, very eclectic and cool. Check the source link for step-by-step instructions!

5. Spider Web Vase

Looking at the finished result here, you would hardly guess that this project started its life as a cheap clear vase from the dollar store. As its creator says, sometimes all you need is a few simple supplies and some imagination and creativity, and you can create something really fantastic. You can do this project in around an hour!

6. Skull Candlesticks

Here is a great example of literally just stacking up a few simple, cheap supplies from the dollar store to create something awesome. The glitter skulls were a dollar each, and the candlesticks cost 74 cents total. The only other supply is a 2-pack of battery-powered tea-light candles, which also cost $1. Set these items one atop the other, and you get spectacular Halloween spookiness!

7. Concrete Pumpkins

A lot of the ideas in this list are for temporary holiday decorations, which you will probably just stash away in a box after the season ends. But what if you are looking for something that you can place in your garden as a permanent fixture? These concrete pumpkins are surprisingly easy to make—you just use a child’s plastic jack-o-lantern as a mold. I imagine they weigh a ton, but they look incredible!

8. Whimsical Trick or Treat Pumpkins.

This idea is very much like the posh pumpkins that I shared with you before. The idea is simple: you paint some pumpkins white, stack them up, paint “Trick or Treat” on them, and put them on a pedestal. It looks really cool!

9. Crashed Witch

Here is a simple, cute, and funny idea for Halloween décor, which would look great next to your door. Believe it or not, all of these supplies are super cheap—you can grab the shoes at a yard sale or a thrift store. Put them all together, and you have a totally awesome prop!

10. Skeleton Fairies

Here is a whimsical project that only requires a couple of supplies: some faux butterfly wings and some tiny plastic skeletons, both of which you could pick up at a craft store. You just pull the wings apart and then glue them to your skeletons. You can set them around, or you can hang them up from the ceiling. They look very cool!

11. Creepy Crow Wreath

The creator of this project purchased the crows a while back from the dollar store, knowing that they might come in handy someday but without knowing what to use them for. Finally, she came up with the idea of combining them into a wreath. It just goes to show—you may already have the materials you need lying around somewhere to create something spectacular—you just need some inspiration!

12. Skeleton Vase

Earlier, I shared a spider vase with you; this is another simple vase you can create using dollar store supplies—a creepy skeleton vase! Check out the source link to find out what you need and how you can create your own.

13. Dollar Store Halloween Wreath

Here is another wreath you can make using a few items from your local dollar store: a crow, a lighted skull, some skeleton decorations, garland strands, a foam wreath, some ribbon, and some push pins and bat decorations. Check out the link for a full tutorial!

14. Spooky Bush Eyes

If you are looking for a fun and easy idea for sprucing up your yard for trick-or-treaters, one great project is these spooky bush eyes! They are, believe it or not, made out of repurposed and repainted plastic jack-o-lanterns. This is a fun project to do with your kids!

15. Halloween Village on a Budget

What’s the easiest and cheapest way to create a spooky Halloween village that you can display on a table somewhere in your house? Just buy a cheap Christmas village set from the dollar store and repaint everything in darker colors! Hang a few rubber bats over it, and you’ve got a spooktacular display!

16. Halloween Headbands

Trying to find a quick and fun way to add a little Halloween spirit to an outfit? One great idea is simply to put on a Halloween headband. You can make these using any supplies you’d like, so you can personalize them as much as you want. Check out the video below for a quick tutorial!

17. Skeleton Hand Necklace

Here is another fabulous wearable dollar store Halloween craft idea: a skeleton hand necklace! I think this necklace actually looks surprisingly elegant (to the point where if you like a gothic style, you could likely get away with wearing it on other occasions). I imagine that there are a lot of variations on this theme that you could try as well for a slightly different look.

18. Easy Halloween Craft Candles

All of these candles look absolutely incredible, and it turns out that they are super easy and cheap to make using simple supplies from the dollar store. Check the source link for a full list of materials and instructions.

19. Metallic Skull Door Knocker

Isn’t this knocker absolutely fabulous looking? If I didn’t know better, I would assume it was made out of real metal. In reality, it started its existence as a cheap plastic prop from the dollar store. A layer of metallic spray paint later, and it looks incredible.

20. Candle Holders with Eyes

This is an eye-catching craft (pun not intended) that you can make with just a few materials from the dollar store. It is cheap and easy, and the result looks phenomenal—though maybe more adorable than creepy.

21. Halloween Hoot Plate

This idea comes from BargainBriana.com, the same blog that brought you the googly-eyed candle above. Briana has a lot of excellent ideas for thrifty Halloween crafts, and the rest of her blog is well worth checking out as well. This Halloween hoot plate is really easy, and there are so many variations you can do with this project!

22. Candy Corn Frame

Some people love candy corn—others can’t stand it because they feel it tastes way too sweet. If you would rather skip out on eating your candy corn and use the bright colors to decorate instead, you will love this quick dollar store project for a candy corn Halloween frame!

23. Pumpkin Lights

Finally, here is one more great project from Briana. For this one, you need nothing more than a pair of scissors, a strand of orange lights, and a package of orange Halloween straws with pumpkin details from the dollar store. You can combine these materials to make really awesome pumpkin lights!

24. Skeleton Hand Wreath

You can see at a glance exactly what this is—it is a wreath made out of plastic skeleton hands from the dollar store, all of which have been coated with metallic spray paint. It looks like a kind of skeletal sunburst and actually has quite an awesome aesthetic effect. Very cool work!

25. Eyeball Wreath

For this project, all you need is a foam wreath from the dollar store and some free eyeball printables (preferably a color printer as well). Obviously, this project was made with Halloween in mind, but I find it pretty mesmerizing with the fun shapes and colors. I actually could imagine this being a great year-round addition to your home if you enjoy quirky and eclectic décor. Bravo on an awesome and cheap art project!

26. Milk Jug Luminaria

If you have ever lived in the Southwest, you are probably familiar with luminaria, sometimes called “luminaries”—brown paper bags with candles inside that are set up to celebrate Christmas (not Halloween).

Despite the fact that they are traditionally associated with Christmas, they have, to some degree, become linked with Halloween as well over the years. So you will find that there are quite a few dollar store crafts that involve making luminaria for Halloween.

Here is a very simple, easy, and fast Halloween luminaria craft that uses milk jugs instead of paper bags. Wouldn’t these look awesome lining the steps to your front door?

27. Printable Halloween Luminaria

This is such a brilliantly simple and effective idea! All you need to do to make these amazing luminaria is print out the images, load them up on double-sided scotch tape, and adhere them to the insides of the paper bags. Add in some battery-operated candles, and voila—you have awesome Halloween luminaria!

28. Ghostly Tablecloth

This is a very cool idea that actually works as a subtle prank. If you are hosting a Halloween party this year and you are going to have a sit-down meal at some point, you can artistically decorate your table with a ghostly tablecloth as the centerpiece.

At first, your guests probably won’t notice anything other than some cheesecloth piled up aesthetically, but when they take a closer look, they will realize a ghostly face is staring back at them! You can bet that you will get some great reactions with this one.

29. Bleeding Candles

If you are setting up some candles for Halloween, why not go the extra mile and make them creepy? To make these bleeding candles, all you need are a few materials: basic white pillar candles, red wax, and black carpet tacks. The final effect looks totally awesome!

30. Ghostly Mirror

If you thought that the ghostly tablecloth from before was cool, you may be even more impressed by this ghostly mirror. I am really blown away by this one; you need to create the entire thing from scratch using mirror effect paint, and there are a lot of steps involved. It looks like once you put it all together, though, you end up with a really realistic-looking prop. Imagine how startling this would be if you were visiting someone’s house for a Halloween party and casually went to glance in the mirror! Check the source link for the full set of materials and instructions.

As you can see, there are a ton of really cool crafts you can make using extremely inexpensive supplies. Most of these projects should cost you only a few dollars, and the majority of them can be done within a couple of hours or less. Have fun and enjoy a spooktacular Halloween!