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• Recipes: Halloween snacks that taste wonderful but look awful
  

• More decorating tips

  If you love decorating for Halloween but don’t want to bust your wallet, try these:

  • Line your sidewalk or front porch with small- to medium-sized jack-o’-lanterns and place a black felt mask around the pumpkin.

  • Make your own centerpiece with broken branches and stretchy spider webs.

  • Replace your decorative candles with black candles.

  • Put plastic skulls and spiders on tabletops and staircases.

  • Hang stretchy spider webs from your lighting fixtures.

  • Use plastic ring spiders for napkin rings.

  
  

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  Flashlight favors

  • Orange flashlights

  • Orange bucket with black ribbon

  • Black decorative gift filler

  • Orange cardstock

  • Martha Stewart spider stickers

  • Martha Stewart glitter letters

  •  Black ribbon

  CUT a square out of the cardstock, then snip the corners off to make tags. Then place one spider sticker on each tag. Next, use the letters to spell out “take one” or “for you.” Use a hole punch to create a hole at the top. Thread ribbon through hole and tie to flashlight.

  EMPTY gift filler into bucket. Place flashlights on top.

  
  

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  Pumpkin ice bucket

  •  1 large pumpkin

  •  1 large clear bowl

  •  Sharp knife

  USE a very sharp knife to cut top off pumpkin.

  SCOOP out all insides of pumpkin.

  PLACE bowl inside. Fill bowl with ice.

  ADD your drinks.

  
  

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  Ghouls Gone Wild

  Adapted from Country Living magazine

  •  3 large paper wedding bells

  • 2 small paper wedding bells

  •  1 piece of black construction paper

  •  2 yards of tulle

  • Glue Dots

  • Scissors

  CUT out ovals for eyes and mouth from construction paper.

  ATTACH construction paper to wedding bells with Glue Dots.

  CUT pieces of tulle to fit over ghosts, then drape them over each one.

  
  

• Wicked Witch Pudding Cups

  Adapted from Parenting magazine, October 2010.

  1 package of black licorice twists

  Black permanent marker

  Scissors

  4 vanilla flavored pudding snacks (at room temperature)

  Red and yellow food coloring

  Four 3-inch round chocolate cookies

  20 pieces of candy corn

  4 chocolate sugar cones

  Chocolate decorating icing

  DRAW the witch’s eyes, nose and mouth on each pudding cup with a marker.

  REMOVE the lids from the pudding snacks and mix four drops of red and four drops of yellow food coloring. Color will turn orange.

  CUT four pieces of licorice lengthwise and then cut them into 3-inch strands (for witch’s hair).

  PLACE three, 3-inch licorice pieces around the edge of each cup to form the witch’s hair. Place a cookie on top.

  SQUEEZE a light coat of decorating icing on top of each cookie. Place five pieces of candy corn on top of icing.

  CUT two pieces of licorice lengthwise and tie each into a bow around the top of the sugar cone. Turn cone upside down and place on top of candy corn.

  Yield:

  4 cups

  
  

• Dark and Spooky Cocktail

  Adapted from Claire Robinson for Food Network Magazine

  Decorating sugar for the rim of the glass

  Juice of 1 lime, plus 1 lime wedge

  Ice

  1 / 4 cup dark rum

  1 / 4 cup ginger ale

  Small plastic spider

  SPREAD out the decorating sugar on a small plate. Rub the lime wedge around the rim of a martini glass; dip the glass in the sugar. Then fill with ice.

  COMBINE the rum and lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice and shake well. Carefully strain into the glass, minding the sugar on the rim.

  TOP the drink with ginger ale and add the plastic spider on the rim of the glass.

  Yield:

  1 drink

  
  

• Halloween Cheese Cutouts

  Sliced cheddar cheese

  Sliced black olives, optional

  Halloween cookie cutters

  Black plastic skeleton platter

  Crackers

  PRESS cookie cutter into cheese. Lift and place cheese shape on a decorative platter. Serve with crackers.

  Optional: Add eyes, nose and mouth to the cheese shapes with black olives.