You can BOO

Black electrical tape

Scissors

Skein of gray yarn

2 yards of black fabric, depending on the size of your child

1/2 yard green fabric

Glue gun, hot glue sticks

Black and green thread

Witch's broom ($10, Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store)

Green-and-black striped socks ($2.56, on sale, Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store)

1. Hair: Cut a slew of 20-inch strands of yarn. Cut a strip of electrical tape and press a bunch of the yarn strands onto it. Tape another strip of electrical tape over it to secure the hair. You can do this in small sections and tape the yarn bunches to the rim of the hat. We opted to make one long strip of yarn hair, and sew a piece of elastic connecting the two ends for a wig that would sit under the hat. Leave a section free of yarn for the front of the child's face.

2. Robe: Fold the fabric in half so the short ends meet, then cut an approximately 7-inch hole for her head. Have your child slip on the robe; then cut a fringy edge on the bottom. Sew along the sides to create a body and sleeves. You can belt the robe with a black ribbon, but we found green fabric to fashion into a basic belt. We used a safety pin to hold the belt together and glued a black button over the spot where the pin would show.

3. Spooky accessories: Our witch is wearing striped socks and a stuffed snake necklace.

Red beads for snake's eyes

Long stick

Marker

Polyester fiberfill

Scissors

Thread

1. Make a long snake's body on the wrong side of the fabric, broadest at the head and tapering to a point to the tail side.

2. Cut out two pieces leaving a ¼-inch seam.

3. Fold the fabric and cut a small 'V' shape with folded end at the broader end.

4. Put both the snake body pieces on top of each other and position the fold of 'V' inside the snake's head to make the mouth of the snake

6. Turn it inside out and stuff the polyester fiberfill in the snake's head well using the stick.

7. Cut out a forked tongue for the snake with the red imitation leather and glue it inside the mouth of the snake.

8. Glue or sew red beady eyes on top of snake's head.

9. Fill the body with polyester fiberfill or plastic pellets. When the snake is full, sew its tail close.

Old white sheet

2 yards white tulle

¼ yard batting

Black felt

1/2 yard black ribbon

White, stretchy sweatband ($1, Jo-Anne Fabric and Craft store).

2. For the hat: Cut out four triangular-shape quarters, with rounded edges. Sew or glue the four quarters together, start with two of the triangles. Lay the two triangles exactly on top of the fabric with the "right sides" of the fabric, the sides intended to face outward, together on the inside. Stitch or glue from the point of the triangle down to the edge on one side of the triangle only. Open the two stitched triangles and lay a third triangle on top of the two stitched pieces, again right sides together; stitch on the third piece from the tip of the triangle down to the edge. Open up the fabric to lay down the fourth triangle and stitch it into place, right sides together. You will now have a solid piece of batting that is starting to curl and will no longer lie flat. Fold this entire piece so that the two remaining edges are on top of each other. Rather than adding a band and finishing the ends, we tucked the ends into a white sweatband.

3. Mask: Our ghost is a wearing a store-bought felt mask from Target ($1) that we doctored by cutting out the purple felt backing that showed and making the eyeholes larger.

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 Michaels.

2. We added one orange throw pillow ($15) at Bed Bath & Beyond and one black throw pillow decorated with a skeleton head ($13) at Target.

Here's an easy way to make a big impact with Halloween face paint:

1. Start by brushing purple face paint all over the face, including the neck and ears.

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 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, attach the stitches to the wound.

4. For the eyebrows, draw lines with a small brush using black and white face paint.

6. The hair was transformed using weave pieces and plastic spiders pinned in place with bobby pins.

Green gourd ($3 to $7)

Black fabric

Purple button

Gray yarn

Googly eyes

1. Cut pieces of yarn to desired length for witch's hair.

2. Glue the hair to the top of the gourd.

3. Glue googly eyes to top portion of the gourd, which will be the face.

4. Fashion a black hat out of fabric and glue on its head.

6. Glue the fabric pieces together, and glue a purple button where the ends meet

Dried gourds ($3 to $7)

White spray paint

Twine or wire to hang

Black paint

1. Clean gourds with a soapy solution to remove dirt. We scrubbed them with a medium-bristled brush. After cleaning, let stand until fully dry.

2. Drill holes along the top of the gourd so you'll be able to thread twine or wire through for hanging.

3. We had better results spraying the gourds while they were hanging rather than lying on the ground. Use a white spray paint or primer to paint the entire gourd white. It took several coats and two cans of spray paint to get good coverage on five medium-sized gourds.

4. Let the white paint dry.

5. Use black paint pens or paint on the eyes and mouth of the ghost.