When was the last time you saw a creative use for a mini pumpkin? During Fall they’re usually displayed next to a bunch of other mini pumpkins, just sitting there and looking all tiny and cute. Or being painted on Kountry Kitchen-style or being made into kid crafts… Learn how to transform the little buggers into something cooler using these tutorials. Starting with a “ghost” white mini pumpkin you can make big creepy bloodshot eyeballs. I have a feeling we’ll make a bunch of these this Halloween to go along window sills, float in punch, and add interest to props.

For the more technically inclined, you might enjoy taking apart a bicycle tire light and making a blinking LED pumpkin. As the tutorial mentions, this project is great for us who want to decorate our work space in October but don’t have the time or desk real estate for a standard sized pumpkin. Plus, it’s always fun to gut electronics.

Have you seen any interesting projects involving mini pumpkins, or have you come up with a unique way to use them in your Halloween decorating? Drop us a comment and let us know.

It’s March 1st, kids: only 8 months left! 2007 has unofficially been dubbed “The Year of the Zombie”, with numerous movies slated for release, which is in turn inspiring all sorts of creepy, crawly products. Naturally, we’ve been brainstorming ideas daily for this year’s Halloween decor theme and I wanted to share some of our newest online finds with y’all.

First up are some magnet sets from Sick on Sin. You have to love a store that knows Every Day is Halloween! If you dig their illustration style you might also enjoy the Zombie Love set of buttons.

In an effort to line the walls in everything zombie we’ve stumbled upon Atomic Monkey Design and their zombie posters*. My favorite, although a rather morose message, is the “Better One in the Head than the Living Dead” poster shown at left. Is it wrong that I immediately envision hanging this above my bed? Probably, but for a zombie lover it’s too cool a phrase and artwork to pass up. Reminds me of a car I once saw driving that had a “redead the undead” bumper sticker. I was so shocked that someone a) created and b) bought such an awesome zombie-related item that I almost got in an accident trying to get another look at it.

For those of you not on Fright Catalog’s mailing list; their spooktacular savings sale has been extended until 3/20/07. Get up to 25% off by entering in the coupon code FCSALE during checkout. I suggest some Gortraits (gruesome morphing portraits) to add the extra creepyness that your hallway walls have been moaning for.

Finally, these amazingly illustrated Spider Portrait cards definitely fit the “creepy, crawly” bill, and would make a great surprise for a fellow Halloweenie. Imagine waking up one overcast March morning, cursing the calendar for separating you from Halloween, and then finding a member of the Spider Family in your mailbox. The images are actually sewn onto card stock, which looks amazing, and makes them ideal for framing if you can’t bear to part with the cards. Available from the awesomely named Head Explodie.

*[via Retro Crush]

Well boils and ghouls, you made it through the holidays. It’s the beginning of the year, and a whopping 9.5 months until Halloween. It might seem like you’ve got plenty of time to prepare, but there are actually 2 time-sensitive online offerings that you need to check out before January 15th.

First, Fright Catalog is offering 20% off your total order, using coupon code FC20. It’s the off season, and a lot of products are not currently in stock, but now is still a good time to stock up. We just purchased the Solar Corpse Light, which we were enamoured with last Halloween, and are anxiously awaiting its arrival. Like you’ll be reading in an upcoming article, its never too early to start planning for next Halloween, and sales like this are excellent places to start.

Next up is Dark Candles, who is the “originator of gothic and horror themed candles for… people with dark and eccentric tastes”. Hey, that’s you! They have a limited edition set of holiday themed scents, aptly called Dark Holidays. The black “Midnight Mass” candle sounds like quite a mood setter, and there is also a matching body care line in the same rich scent. After January 15th these candles disappear… Via [Ghost Droppings]

It may be too early for some of you (amateurs), but the folks at BuyCostumes are offering a whopping 50% off all their clearance items until December 31, 2006. That’s 50% off adult costumes, kid costumes, pet costumes, costume accessories, party decor, party supplies and anything else that is marked as clearance. We’re using this opportunity to snag a couple costumes that we had our eye on this year, but were out of our price range. Assuming the holidays haven’t bankrupted you yet, this is a great chance to stock up on Halloween supplies at killer prices.

Coupon Code: use code OUTTAHERE06 to receive 50% off any clearance items, while supplies last.

I think it’s probably that other huge holiday that encourages the spirit of giving, but Ray from Raven’s Blight wants to share some Halloween freebies with you anyway. In addition to the 300+ spooky paintings, illustrations, and other artwork on display at his site, he also offers an ever-growing collection of free Halloween paper crafts. Using cardstock paper, you print out his intricate artwork, do some careful cutting and gluing, and you’ve created your own Hearse Playset, Deluxe Coffin Giftboxes, or Zombie Mask. There are tons of designs available beyond those, including other masks and playsets, board games, dice games, mini monsters, and book covers. It’s a fantastic resource for Halloweenies and those interested in “goth art”. The projects range from simple to “you’ll spend all afternoon on this”, so you can undoubtedly find activities to keep you and your kids occupied as you countdown the last few days to Halloween.

There is also a free Haunted Cottage available from Free Digital Scrapbooking. The cottage displays your pictures in its windows and is “only the first in a larger collection you can purchase and download to create an entire spooky village”. The Spooky Shack is also available for purchase.

Don’t have an awesome printer? How about a tree? Using this fairly simple tutorial you can learn to transform maple leaves into a bouquet of firey Autumn-colored roses. Since you can use many other materials besides maple leaves, the possibilities are endless with this idea. I would like to see a creepier version made from dark or painted leaves, swaddled in some cheesecloth or other rags. What a perfect bouquet for a Corpse Bride costume.

There’s only 2 little weeks left until Halloween, but that’s still plenty of time to transform your home into a trick-or-treater’s best nightmare. Take these DIY wreaths, for example. While the wreath is typically used around Christmas time, this makes it perfect to transform for ghastly Halloween usage. People expect traditional pine boughs and red ribbon when they think of wreaths, and you can catch them off guard with spooky adaptations that include monster fur and fake gore. It is the ability to change the mundane into the macabre that has made Halloween so popular.

Both of these projects are incredibly simple, and don’t require sewing. Just a quick trip to your local Halloween store or Joann’s, and about an hour of construction and you’ll have a Halloween wreath that’s far creepier than anything available at the stores. There’s also a tutorial for a Trinket Wreath at Craft Bits that’s as easy as plugging in a glue gun. For more inspiration, there are some unique Halloween wreath images on Google, as well as some creative takes on the Monster Wreath on Flickr.

Have you made a Halloween wreath or found a good tutorial online? Please share the details using the comment form below.