My Last-Minute Trick-or-Treat House

Around 11:30 AM on Halloween, I decided to decorate and hand out candy.  At 7 PM, I had finished with only purchasing electric tea lights and candy.  It was quite the rush to gather materials, paint, hang, cut, clip, stretch, etc., but it got done using a lot of stuff I had around the house.  A lot of the time was actually spent on cleaning up the front yard.

I made hanging lanterns out of aluminum cans, decorated them a bit with black spray paint, and used bits of bicycle inner tube for the hanger.

The ground lanterns were previously painted tin cans that I just recoated in either black or orange.  To keep them from blowing over, I added some pebbles.

Lump charcoal and chalk decorated the sidewalk and directed trick-or-treaters.

 I set up an evil alter to a gargoyle I had in my yard.  Thank goodness for having an odd appreciation for yard kitsch.

The bloody bench was an very old drop cloth.  For old paint splotches from previous use, I covered in red spray paint.  Then I mixed some red and brown finger paint and mushed it around and splattered it.  I draped a bit of rusty chain over it and placed a mum planter with fading blooms next to it.

I used 5 black trash bags in all for banners and the witch/evil nun.  The witch/evil nun was a necessity for covering up an overly pretty topiary obelisk, and I only used a Styrofoam mannequin head, a couple of trash bags, and some black electrical tape.  Electrical tape was also used for hanging up some of the trash bag banners and roping off certain areas of the garden.

The pumpkin was carved in 15 minutes.  We already had it but never got around to carving it.  I wish it had been better, but perfectionism goes out the door when in a complete butt rush to get it done.

I used bulldog clips for hanging strips of bicycle inner tubes on the arbor at the entrance of the yard.  Thanks to the bicycle inner tube contest on Instructables, I had plenty of material already on hand.

Cleaning the yard was probably the most tiring.  There were plants on the tree hangers, and those hanging pots had to be taken down to make room for the hanging lanterns.  I clustered potted plants together with the heavy and/or dangerous ones on the outside to discourage any thievery.  It was just a lot of little things because of a lot of it hadn't been done in a long time.