Do-it-yourself Halloween: making costumes, food and fun

Holding all four pipe cleaners (99 cents for a pack of 20 at Michael's), center them at the base of the pop and wrap them around the stick once so there are four legs on each side. Bend the legs.2. Glue on googly eyes (99 cents for a pack of 35 at Michael's).Note: Adapted from familyfun.comInside decor: Creepy couchHave you ever wondered how to chinese remi decorate your home for a scary Halloween party? It can be relatively easy and cheap, too. Turn your sofa into a creepy masterpiece.1. Start with ripped cheesecloth ($2.29 a pack for 2 square yards) (we used two packs) at Michael's.2. We added one orange throw pillow ($14.99) at Bed, Bath and Beyond and one black throw pillow decorated with a skeleton head ($12.99) at Target.3. Complete your scary look with a large hair bulk black spider ($7.99) and rats ($4.99 to $7.99) all from World Market.Face paintingWe asked face-painting expert Jessica Dana to help us come up with an easy way to make a big impact with Halloween face paint. Here's how she achieved the purple monster:1. Start by brushing purple face paint all over the face, including the neck and ears. (Grease face paint available for $1.99 a color at Johnnie Brock's stores.)2. Next, take a coral color paint and outline a lopsided mouth, starting at one end of your natural mouth and extending a couple inches to the other side. Using white paint, draw in crooked teeth. Fill in the surrounding area of the mouth with coral paint bulk hair and then outline all the teeth and the mouth with black paint.3. For the scar, start by drawing a "wound" with red and black paint. Next, using regular household thread, tie five or six knots around a pencil. Cut the string. Slide each "stitch" off the pencil and then cut the loop. Then, using an adhesive such as Spirit Gum ($5.99 with remover at Spirit Halloween Superstores), attach the stitches to the wound.4. For the eyebrows, draw lines with a small brush using black and white face paint.5. Add a basic pair of false eyelashes ($4.99 at Spirit Halloween Superstores).6. The hair was transformed using weave pieces and plastic spiders pinned in place with bobby pins.