Kellye Fox | 

12 DIY Dollar Store Halloween Decorations to Scream About

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Halloween is a time for fun and thrills. With the right Dollar Tree Halloween decorations, it doesn’t need to cost a lot of money either! Generic Halloween decorations? BOO. I’m over it. If you are too, try these ridiculously easy ideas for Halloween DIY decorations.

This list of DIY Halloween decorations will help you find creative and inexpensive ways to enjoy Halloween this year. Follow our Dollar Tree page to get the best deals on your DIY projects this Halloween. And don’t forget about candy coupons to treat your visitors.

Download the Krazy Coupon Lady app for money saving tips, deals, and cooupons.

Halloween DIY Decorations Guide

Craft supplies and Halloween decor for sale at dollar tree.

If you’re looking for the best Halloween decorations this year, look no further than Dollar Tree. They carry all the best decorations and props for any kind of party or your home decorating.

Here are a few of KCL’s best tips for Dollar Tree shopping to help you save when you shop:

  • Buy in bulk! Throughout this article, you’ll find direct links to Dollar Tree’s online store where you can order decor essentials like candles, tea lights, and canning jars. Although each item is $1.25, there’s typically a minimum order quantity unlike store purchases.

  • Save on shipping! Order items in bulk online and ship them to your local store for pickup. Keep in mind that you can’t return online orders, so don’t buy too much, hoping you could return what you didn’t use! The Dollar Tree return policy for in-store purchases are really just exchanges of any unopened items with a receipt. No cashback is offered.

  • Use coupons to save when you shop in stores. Some of our Halloween DIY ideas use everyday items that probably have a coupon available. Check our coupon database for essential coupons, like dishwashing liquid and toilet paper, and see if your local Dollar Tree has these items available.

Here are 12 DIY Halloween decorations.

1. Create Dollar Store Halloween DIY creepy specimen jars for a Halloween party with plastic toys and dish soap.

Large mason jars filled with water, food coloring, and dish soap, containing dollar tree plastic eyeballs, spider, and snake.

Could DIY Halloween decorations be any better?

Materials needed to make a spooky Halloween centerpiece:

To get started, fill a mason jar with colored dish soap,your preferred spooky items and seal. This craft offers a lot of room for your own creativity since you can mix and match colored soaps and cheap fillings. Look for plastic Halloween decor like spiders and snakes as well!

A person adding plastic eyes balls and spiders to a jar filled with dish soap and water.

Did you know that there are many other Dawn dish soap uses to make your life easier? Yep, not just for Halloween crafts.

2. Make a bleeding candle with red melted candle wax or crayon.

Two photos side-by-side; A person using a lighter to melt a red crayon all over the outside of a red white candle making drips down the ...

You’ll just need some plain white pillar candles and red crayons. That’s it! Dollar Tree Halloween decorations are seriously the best.

Materials needed to make a creepy Halloween candle:

With a careful hand, hold a red crayon over a candle. Use a utility lighter to heat the red crayon until it melts. As it melts, move it around the candle to create a spooky bleeding effect. Let dry before using.

3. Use a Sharpie to turn regular wine glasses into wicked goblets for Halloween drinks.

glasses of wine with a red beverage in them and spiderwebs drawn on the stem of the glasses

Materials needed to make a creative Halloween wine glass:

Use an oil-based Sharpie to design a simple cobweb design on the steam of each wine glass. You may spend a little more on the Sharpie, but you can make a ton of Dollar Tree Halloween wine glasses with it! Tip: Use the Sharpie to personalize each wine glass with a guest’s name and decorate the stems with this simple spider web effect.

someone holding wine glass next to a sharpie paint pen and drawing on stem of wine glass

You could even throw a party and make-your-own costume (be sure to use Spirit Halloween savings tips)!

4. Keep Halloween punch cool with a frozen hand.

someone holding a plastic glove of water and a ice hand in punch bowl

Materials needed to make a spooky Halloween centerpiece:

Just freeze water in a plastic glove, then use it to keep your punch cool…and creep out your guests. Our beverage coupons and alcohol coupons pages can help you save money when you’re filling up your punch bowl.

Need some candy to go with your punch? Here are some scary good ways to save on Halloween candy.

5. Use hot glue, spider rings, and spray paint to make a sinister Halloween vase.

A black vase covered in silver plastic spiders and a 3D spider web, filled with orange, yellow, and purple flowers.

Materials needed to make a Halloween centerpiece:

First, use a permanent marker to draft your web. Then trace over the lines with hot glue.

someone using a sharpie to draw web on a vase and then someone using hot glue on the web

Spray on a couple of coats of flat black paint, then hot-glue plastic spiders (painted spider rings with the bands cut off work too!) onto your dried vase.

someone spray painting a vase black and sticking fake spiders on it

TIP: Applying a primer before the black paint will help the paint stick to the glass.

Everything but the spray paint will cost $1.25, making it a must for your Dollar Tree Halloween decorations.

6. Draw spooky faces on white candles with a permanent marker to make Dollar Store Halloween DIY candles.

Ghost faces drawn onto the outside glass of a white pillar candle.

Materials needed to make ghost candles:

These little Dollar Tree DIY Halloween candles can be as cute or as creepy as you like. Look for tall, white pillar candles and stock up on permanent markers. Dollar Tree will have name-brand Sharpies available in an individual package for $1.25 in store, or you can buy in bulk online (same per item price but in larger quantities).

7. Make lollipop spiders with pipe cleaners and googly eyes for a spooky Halloween treat to share.

three spiders made out of tootsie pops, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes

Spider candy treat supplies:

Twist four pipe cleaners around the base of a lollipop, bending the ends to look like feet. Finalize your design by gluing on googly eyes.

Pipe cleaners being twisted around a lollipop candy.

If you’re afraid you’ll end up with too much candy, then check out these fun ways to use leftover Halloween candy!

8. Fill jars or vases with cotton balls, spider rings, and glow sticks to make Halloween centerpieces.

someone putting glow sticks into mason jar filled with cotton balls and fake spiders and jar lit up

Mason jar Halloween centerpieces supplies:

This is one of my favorite DIY Dollar Tree Halloween decorations! Start with a mason jar and add cotton balls until full. Gently squeeze in spider rings along the sides and add glow sticks to create a spooky effect. You can keep them for next year, too. Just replace the glow sticks!

9. Turn plastic skulls and plant saucers into a creepy Halloween candle holder.

Three skulls stacked on one another making a candle holder.

Materials needed to make a spooky Halloween centerpiece:

Glue the first skull to the base of an upside-down terra-cotta plant saucer. Then, add glue to the top of the first skull. Use masking tape to hold the second skull on top of the first as the glue dries. Repeat this step between gluing each piece.

someone gluing a fake skull on a plant saucer and tape holding them together

Wait for the glue to set before attaching each new piece. Allow glue to dry (with masking tape attached) at least 24 hours before painting.

someone spray painting plant saucers and fake skeletons glued together black

Spray, let dry, and you’re done! It isn’t a complete Dollar Tree Halloween decoration, but it’ll be a showstopper for sure!

10. Mummify candle holders with gauze and googly eyes for easy DIY Halloween decorations.

Vases wrapped in guys, with googly eyes glued to the front of them, making them look like mummies.

Mummy candle supplies:

To prepare these trick or treat-ready decorations, wrap gauze around each candle holder and secure it with a hot glue gun. Glue googly eyes to complete the look.

someone wrapping candle holders in gauze and googly eyes

You could also wrap spider web mesh around the candleholders.

Candle holders lit and unlit with gauze wrapped around around them, googly eyes glued on to make them look like mummys

11. Turn string lights into ghosts with cheesecloth and ping-pong balls.

string ghost lights on a tree branch

Halloween ghost decor supplies:

Drill or nail a hole in the ping-pong balls large enough to fit around the bulbs on string lights. Insert toothpicks into each ping-pong-ball hole, and use masking tape to secure the toothpicks.

Use a Sharpie to draw ghost faces on the balls.

someone using a drill to stick holes in a ping pong ball, putting toothpicks in them and drawing faces on them with sharpie

Cover a box with wax paper, and stick each toothpick/ping-pong ball through so the balls are standing (leave about 2 inches between balls).

Create a solution of 2 parts Mod Podge and 1 part water. Soak 5×5-inch cheesecloth squares in the solution before draping over each ping pong ball. Wring each cloth well before placing over the balls.

someone wrapping the ping pong balls in cheesecloth with mod podge

Take balled-up pieces of wax paper and stick them under the cheesecloth to give your ghosts some shape. When dry (about 24 hours), insert the lights into the balls, and you’re done! While these DIY Halloween decorations are pretty time-consuming, we think they’re worth it…and awfully cute!

12. Transform toilet paper tubes into eerie Halloween candlesticks with hot glue.

three toilet paper tubes with fake candles on top

Halloween candle supplies:

Use hot glue to create faux candle wax along the top of a toilet paper tube. Then add a thin line of hot glue to the top inside of the tube—this is where your LED tea light will sit.

When dry, spray paint the roll.

someone gluing drips on toilet paper tube and spray painting them white

These are perfect if you don’t want actual candles—and fire—at your party, especially around kids.

These Halloween ideas are Pinterest-worthy, and they’ll make your seasonal decor cute. You may have some of the crafting supplies already to decorate with these ideas.