We’ve already featured a ton of inspiring Halloween parties from many creative & talented people, so I wanted to do a different sort of Halloween post myself… one that highlights several different DIY food & styling ideas that could be utilized in any Halloween celebration.
So, below you’ll find 11 such ideas – from Halloween food & drinks to decor. Whether you’re hosting a big party or just looking to make a festive Halloween snack at home, I hope you can have some fun with these! 👻
Potions Halloween Party Printables
My Potions Halloween Party printables are available in our store! Use them to add instant style and personalized details to your party.
You can edit the custom text yourself – right on the website – whenever (and as often as) you need to! Click here to buy this collection.
1. Creepy Potion Jars
It’s easy to make creepy “potion ingredients” from simple items and colored water. Here, cauliflower + black water = “Zombie Brains”, plastic snake + black water = “Snake Venom”, and sand = “Bone Dust”. Add decorative labels and tint the water black to make the ingredients even creepier! I bought the apothecary jars at HomeGoods several years ago and this is probably the zillionth time they’ve been used… they are SUCH a great party staple to keep on hand.
2. Bat Bites
These little pesto-cheese creatures are adorable and so easy to make! Get the recipe here. I think the ingredients used in the recipe make this more of a grown-up treat, but you could follow this same styling method with sweet ingredients to make them kid-friendly. I’m thinking of something like a sweet cream cheese or cake ball mixture rolled in crushed Oreos with cookies and cinnamon chips or thin wafer cookies for the “wings”. :)
3. Printable Paper Details
If you’ve followed HWTM for a while, you probably know that paper details are my thing. 🥰 They are just such an easy way to add personality to any celebration!
I used our Spells and Potions collection in the purple/orange colorway for this shoot. Many of the pieces – including the banner – are editable using our online customizer!
4. “Freestanding” Skeleton
Make a fast, cheap, and high impact statement with a decorative paper skeleton that’s “freestanding” instead of stuck to the wall. I found this cool vintage looking skeleton on clearance at Michaels, then used glue dots and a dowel rod to prop him up on the table. I filled a coke bottle with sand to anchor the dowel rod “spine” + more glue dots to arrange and stretch out his arms and legs in specific ways on the table.
5. Salty Bones with Blood Dip
These “Salty Bones” are so easy to make using store-bought breadstick dough… and even more fun served with marinara “Blood Dip”! Use push pop containers to display them in a unique, outside-the-box way. Since each container only holds one breadstick, make sure to have a tray of extra “bones” nearby that guests (or family members) can grab as they please.
6. Tombstone Sandwiches
This is one of my favorite Halloween food ideas because it’s so easy & versatile! Cut finger sandwiches into tombstone shapes using a cookie cutter – or just by free-handing it like Sonny did here. Display the sandwiches on a kale “graveyard”.
I used a ziploc back with a tiny hole cut from one end to pipe “RIP” on top of the tombstones in mustard, which worked well for these Reduced-Fat Smoky Cheddar Tombstone sandwiches. You can switch up the piping ingredient depending on the recipe though – for example, use red jelly for PB&J “tombstones”!
7. Olive Spiders
If you REALLY want to creep someone out, toss an edible “Olive Spider” in their martini or salad! This recipe is very simple & easy to follow, but also a little tedious because of how tiny the rosemary “leg” pieces are – so grab a friend to help you make them or put on a good show to keep you company while you work.
8. Dangerous Drinks
Use creepy, cautionary Halloween stickers to dress up your drinks. The cool vintage looking “potion labels” I used here were also purchased on clearance at Michaels. Another super easy idea that always looks great is to hook plastic spider rings around the base of stemware. For the drink itself, serve a blood-red punch or cocktail!
9. Speared Eyeballs {Drink Garnish}
You know the “dangerous drinks” mentioned above? Well – they get even CREEPIER with a bloody “speared eyeball” garnish. GROSS – I know… but that’s the point! These are actually made from lychee fruit, raspberry jam, and a blueberry… so they taste a lot better than they look. ;) Use them in sweet cocktails or any fruit based punch.
10. Rotten Eyeballs
I’m realizing that eyeballs are really going through the wringer in this post. 😆 For an easy Halloween treat that’s also on the healthier side – serve black grapes in sugar free berry jello and dub them “Rotten Eyeballs”. This is a fun snack for special Halloween lunches too.
11. Witch Cauldron Garland
This easy & inexpensive DIY garland ended up being one of my very favorite elements of this shoot! I’ve had a bunch of these little plastic cauldrons sitting in my Halloween storage bins for a couple years (they were left over from a Harry Potter party a while back). You can always find them around Halloween time, but I’ve yet to actually use them for HALLOWEEN until now… LOL
I embellished each one with sequin trim then simply strung them on some twine. They all kind of slid to the middle at first, so I secured each handle with a little piece of twine to keep them in place, which worked like a charm! You could really have fun with the embellishments on this one… have plastic snakes or gummy frogs peeking out of each cauldron, rim them with “candy drips“, etc.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Hope you can use some of these tips! :)
P.S. Here are a few more tips from the shoot that weren’t covered above:
- Add height to your table with upside down wooden crates and mason jars wrapped in cheese cloth
- Add festive bling to jars, dishes, and frames with adhesive rhinestones
- Black cheesecloth is the perfect material for a cool Halloween table backdrop
Potions Halloween Party Printables
Printables are my favorite *secret weapon* for adding unique style to any celebration! Click here to customize my Potions Halloween Party collection for your own party – instantly, online.
Halloween Styling: 11 Creative Ideas for ANY Spooky Soirée http://t.co/mDsHMXHBjR #weddings
Do you mind sharing what font was used for “Halloween” on the first banner? I’ve been looking for something similar for ages….
Hi Amy – the font is called Desire and you can find it here: https://creativemarket.com/Borgeslettering/13716-Desire
I just bought it a couple days ago and am already obsessed with it! :)
Thanks so much! :)
Awesome! I love the Salty Bones in Push Pop containers and the Olive Spiders with their rosemary legs are really great!
My new font Desire being used. Great work! https://www.hwtm.com/2013/10/creepy-creative-halloween-ideas-for-any-halloween-party/ via @hwtm_jenn
Love the lychee eyeballs!
My homemade Jack o Lantern cookies would go so well with this set up.
Halloween is this week! Make my Jack O Lantern Halloween Cookies! Recipe and detailed tutorial on my blog
http://reinventingnadine.blogspot.com/2013/10/halloween-jack-o-lantern-decorated.html
I love the cocktail garnishes! the little rosemary spiders and eyeballs are wonderful. I also like how you are using relatively inexpensive items (like spider rings and plastic cauldrons) so creatively!
I came here because I saw your comment at creative market under the Desire typeface shop… you are amazingly talented, I have really enjoyed your design, the way you use tis type and also those Halloween bits
Hostess with the Mostess has done it again–made Halloween decorating a little easier. Love the pesto cheese bats and the tombstones are made simply from bread–smart. And those olive spiders are adorable (thank goodness they're dead!!). Thanks for the DIY instructions Jennifer!!
Love the speared eyeball drink garnish idea!