Spooky Silhouettes for Halloween

Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds comes to mind with this easy-to-make Halloween wall decoration. Find a clip-art birdcage image and make a large print at a copy center. Spritz the print with coffee to give it an aged appearance before hanging. For an extra eerie effect, incorporate a few well-placed crow or raven decorations.

Decorate your staircase with a spooky skeletal exhibit. Use clips to hang computer generated artwork from curtain rods, and spritz the prints with coffee to give them an aged and wrinkled appearance. Embellish your railing with a doily-and-coffee filter garland, accented with bows made with a wide black ribbon.

Mysterious and a wee-bit eerie, silhouettes are a perfect backdrop for a whodunit or a costume who-is-it. Frame a Munsteresque montage with enlarged images from a clip art book. If you like, vary the portrait pool. Spiders, crows, and bats also make great specimens.

This shelf-bracket-turned-sconce will shed new light on your nocturnal ways. A poster-board bat supported by a dowel takes flight on the bracket. Dim the lights and let the candlelight glow to set a moody vibe.

There's no waiting till the midnight hour for these little critters to make their presence known. Scattered along a stair landing, your cardstock cutouts will make guests' skin crawl. With a feline in pursuit, a game of cat and mouse ensues.

When you're on the hunt for ways to give your house a haunting ambience, take note of the decorative doodads in the arts-and-crafts stores. Dangling from satin ribbon, these felt chandeliers -- perhaps intended as gift-bag embellishments -- fit right in with the silhouette theme and table decor.

Instead of splurging on holiday-only dishes, cast a peel-and-stick spell on plain stemware and plates. Adhered spider stickers give goblets and salad plates a punch of pattern. Packing tape (who knew it came with designs?) makes a graphic border on the fronts of dinner plates; cut strips to the desired width. When the party is over, peel off the embellishments and presto -- the dishes are back to basic.

Scrapbooking pages turn fireplace-match holders into bewitching party favors or hostess gifts. Use a glue stick to adhere paper and then decorate with stickers, ribbons, or strips of matching paper.

Who says a Halloween gathering has to have orange? Black teams with white on this table to give a touch of sophistication. A pop of lime green in the center adds autumn-inspired grace.