Halloween – Homemade Face Paints, Food and Ideas
Frighteningly Frugal Fun!
The average American family spends over $100 per year on Halloween goodies. With aisles full of costumes, decorations and candy, Halloween can become expensive quickly. Fortunately, many spooky effects and tasty treats can be made at home for a fraction of the cost. These DIY ideas help stretch your budget while encouraging creativity and hands-on fun for the whole family. Below you’ll find simple homemade face paints and special effects, recipes for creepy-but-delicious snacks, and party game ideas that keep kids entertained without breaking the bank.
Homemade Face Paint
Ingredients for one color:
1 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp water
1/2 tsp cold cream
food coloring
Mix the corn starch, water and cold cream in a small container such as an old muffin tin cup. Add a few drops of food coloring and blend until you reach the desired color and consistency. This amount makes one paint color; mix additional batches for other colors. Apply with clean brushes or cotton swabs and remove with soap and water when finished.
Fake Wound
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp petroleum jelly (Vaseline)
1 layer tissue
cocoa powder
2–3 drops red food coloring
Combine petroleum jelly and red food coloring in a small bowl, stirring with a toothpick. Add a pinch of cocoa powder to darken the “blood.” Separate a single layer of tissue and tear a roughly 2×3 inch piece. Place the tissue over the area where you want the wound, then cover and shape it with petroleum jelly so the center sits slightly lower than the edges. Fill the center with the red petroleum jelly mixture and lightly dust cocoa powder in the center and around the edges for a realistic, darkened look.
Wormy Baked Apples
Ingredients (makes 6):
6 apples
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
6 gummy worms
1 cup whipping cream (optional)
Core the apples from the blossom end but leave the stems intact. Mix raisins and chopped walnuts and stuff the cavities of the cored apples. Arrange the apples stem-side up in a 9×13 baking pan. In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, water, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg; heat and stir until the syrup boils. Pour the hot syrup around the apples and bake uncovered at 350°F, basting occasionally, until apples are tender and the skins begin to crack, about 30–35 minutes. Cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes.
To serve, place each apple in a small bowl and spoon extra syrup around it. Cut a hole in the top of each apple and tuck in a gummy worm so most of the worm dangles out. Offer whipped cream on the side for drizzling.
Makeup and Costume Tips from Suz
You can add this to your Halloween hints—I make excellent monsters–I use a women’s mud mask for the base skin, let it dry & crack and shade with dark eyeshadow, rim the eyes with red and chew those dental tablets that show where you need to brush —looks like a bloody mouth… and twigs and baby powder in your ratted up hair. Make a shroud out of a sheet and tear the edges off and stomp it in the dirt.
- Fake Blood – Mix 2/3 cup white corn syrup, 1 tsp red food coloring, 2–3 drops blue food coloring to darken, and a squirt of dish soap to help it run realistically.
- Abrasions – Layer brown, red and black eyeshadow on the area. Dab blood into the center with cotton balls. Use a comb to scratch gently in one direction and dust cocoa or clean dirt around the wound for realism.
- Black Eye – Apply red and blue eyeshadow around the eye socket and blend for a bruised effect.
- Bruises – For fresh-looking bruises, blend red and blue shadows over bony areas; for older bruises, use blue and yellow shadows to simulate fading.
- Look Old – Dust the face with baby powder, draw thin dark lines for wrinkles and soften the edges to blend. Reapply powder for a powdered, aged appearance. Add baby powder to hair for gray streaks.
- Deviled Eyeballs – Prepare deviled eggs and top each with a green olive stuffed with pimento to resemble an eyeball.
- Radioactive Juice – Mix equal parts Mountain Dew and blue powdered drink mix for a neon effect.
- Toxic Juice – Add green food coloring to lemonade to create a spooky, toxic-looking beverage.
- Brains – Scramble eggs and add a few drops of green, yellow or blue food coloring for a gruesome brain-like look.
- Bloody Eyeballs – Briefly boil cherry tomatoes for about 30 seconds, cool and peel to use as bloody eyeball props.
- Goblin Hand – Freeze green powdered drink mix (like Kool-Aid) mixed with water inside a rubber or latex glove and float the frozen hand in a punch bowl.
- Spider Webs – Use the tape from old cassettes or black yarn to fashion webbing. Stretched cotton balls also make convincing small spider webs.
- Glass Jack-o’-Lantern – Paint a pumpkin face outline on a clean spaghetti or pickle jar with black paint, fill in around it with orange paint, and place a candle inside for a safe, reusable jack-o’-lantern.
- Halloween Guess-It Game – Create mystery boxes by cutting a hole in the top of a shoe box or laundry box and covering each box with black spray paint. Decorate the outside with pumpkins or spiders. Place a single creepy-feeling item inside each box for players to reach in and guess. Examples:
- Eyeballs – grapes or peeled cherry tomatoes
- Intestines – cooked spaghetti
- Skin – a lightly oiled piece of plastic bag
- Brains – scrambled eggs
- Hair – an old wig
- Bones – thoroughly washed chicken bones placed in sand
- Vomit – chunky salsa
- Fingers – hot dogs cut into finger-sized pieces
- Teeth – corn nuts, pine nuts or popcorn
- Pumpkin Hunt – Hide mini pumpkins around the yard like an Easter egg hunt. Let kids find and decorate them using glue sticks and construction paper cut-outs for little ones.
- Edible Slime – Pour lime gelatin into a glass bowl; once it begins to set, stir in gummy worms, chill until lightly set and serve for a gooey treat.
- Bloody Popcorn – Add red food coloring to melted butter and toss with popcorn for a gruesome snack.
- Gummy Worm Ice Cubes – Freeze gummy worms in ice cubes and add them to drinks; cut worms in half if needed for smaller glasses.