Do you have some Halloween Cookie Cutters? Thats all youll need to make these first three fun and memorable Halloween treats.

Terrifying Tortilla Chips: Start with some flour tortillas and spray a bit of canola oil on them. Sprinkle parmesan cheese or cinnamon and sugar on them. Then cut fun shapes out of the tortillas with a bat, ghost or pumpkin cookie cutter. Put the shapes into the oven for a crispy treat.

Spooky sandwiches: Make your favorite sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly works just fine. Then, using a cookie cutter, press hard into the sandwich and youll get a spooky treat. If you use a pumpkin shape cookie cutter, add licorice or candy corn to make eyes and nose on a jack-o-lantern face.

Creepy Cheese and Cold Cuts: Buy packaged cheese (the kind that you peel the plastic off). Also, buy some cold-cuts. Using a cookie cutter, make spooky shapes. Present the cheese and cold cuts on a platter as an appetizer or have a sandwich smorgasbord and allow your guests to use the creepy cheese to make their own sandwiches.

Here are a few more last-minute ideas for Halloween fun.

Wicked Witch Fingers: Do you have some dough and almonds? Believe it or not, you can make witch fingers. Just stretch out the dough into a finger-shape including a knuckle. Then, take the almond and press it into the end to make the fingernail. You can experiment with different colors to make witch fingers creepier. Paint the fingernail with food coloring (grey or black is perfect), or make the dough a creepy green color. Oooh spooky!

Green Anything: Take your favorite foods and add a drop of green food coloring to them. Are you in the mood for French toast? Make it green. How about pudding? Make it green. You can even serve green milk with your cookies. Youll be the coolest mom on the block.

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Baking is a tradition on Halloween, and aside from the cookies and cupcakes, there are other recipes which can be used to make the occasion even more special.

Instead of regular cookies how about ghost cookies? Using your favorite cookie recipe, you can shape the cookies into little ghosts. Your kids can decorate them with different color icing, or use M&Ms right after they are taken out of the oven.

Here is a great recipe for brownies shaped into ghosts. Make the brownies as you normally would, then before they cool, cut a ghost shape using a paring knife. Then melt white chocolate and using a piping bag, make the outline of the ghost on the brownie. After it has cooled you can pipe in the eyes and mouths, using any color frosting you choose.

If youd like to make bat cakes, simply follow the steps to make a chocolate cake. Place the prepared ingredients onto a baking sheet. When the cake is finished, you can cut out bats with a paring knife. Set them aside to cool. Melt some dark chocolate and pipe in their eyes and noses. In fact, you can use dark chocolate to make the bat wings and attach them to either side of the bat cakes. Your kids will be in chocolate heaven!

Halloween is a time of costume making and preparing special treats. Its the one time of the year in which kids are allowed to not only help in making treats, but consuming them as well. Whatever treats you prepare on Halloween will be handed down to your kids, and their kids. So have a great time and enjoy the day with your family on the sweetest day of the year.

Cobweb Brownies

You can get everyone into the fun spirit of Halloween by baking up a batch of brownies covered with ‘cobwebs’. Doesn’t that sound inviting?

Ingredients:

Brownies

4 1 oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing

7 oz marshmallow cream
1 oz semisweet chocolate

Preparation:

In a 2-quart saucepan, dissolve the chocolate over a low heat and stir in the butter, warming until thoroughly melted. Remove from heat and blend in the sugar, mixing well. Allow the mixture to cool while you prepare the other ingredients.

Beat the eggs and then blend in the vanilla extract. Slowly sprinkle on the flour, stirring well. Then pour on the chocolate/butter mix and blend for 1-2 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 350F/175C.

While you’re waiting, pour the batter into a 13″ x 9″ x 2″ baking pan. For easiest removal, you can spray some olive oil non-stick spray onto the pan first, but with a non-stick Teflon pan it usually isn’t necessary. Bake for 30 minutes. Test by inserting a toothpick and seeing that it comes out clean.

Remove from oven and pour the marshmallow cream over the brownies. To get very thin, spiderweb-like lines you can use a small-diameter cooking syringe. Break up the lines by melting the 1-oz of semisweet chocolate and dripping small blobs at the intersection of two lines of cream.

Allow to cool and you’re ready for treats!

Icky Eyeballs

What would Halloween be without some gore? And what is ickier than some gooey eyeballs?

Ingredients:

1 cup miniature marshmallows
6 oz lemon gelatin
2 cup water
2 cup pineapple juice
16 oz cream cheese

Microwave the water in a medium bowl on high for 3 minutes, then remove and pour in the lemon gelatin to dissolve it. Add the marshmallows, coating them well. Pour on the pineapple juice and stir. Let the mixture sit while you warm the cream cheese to soften it. Mix in the cream cheese. Then heat the entire mixture in the microwave for another minute. Stir until well blended.

Refrigerate the mixture for two hours. A melon ball scoop makes for a great tool to carve out some eyeballs. As an alternative, you can cool the mixture in rounded ice cube trays. The tops will be squarish, but you can turn them over and bunch them all together to disguise this.

Now use blue food coloring to paint on the irises. A drop of black food coloring in the center does nicely for the pupils.

Ghoulishious, no?

Make a whole array of Halloween holiday treats and your little devils will all turn into angels.

Nature Scavenger Hunt If you live in a rural area or have a park near by, you could have a nature scavenger hunt. Make a list of things readily available that are safe for the children to collect, such as a maple leaf (maybe of specific color), pine cones, different color rocks, acorns, etc. Give each child or team a list and a paper bag to collect their treasures. You could even hide some things in the area they will be searching such as mini pumpkins or pre-wrapped treats.

Decorations Scavenger Hunt This will take a bit more planning; yet can be a lot of fun. Go around your neighborhood looking for interesting and unique decorations. Make note of the address, name of the family or possibly stores. Then give a list describing the decorations and the children have to find the location where the decorations reside and write it down. If they arent old enough to write, be sure your teams are split with older children or adults.

Costume Scavenger Hunt Sometimes businesses, malls or plazas have a Trick or Treat time earlier in the day and have their employees dress in costumes. List several different costumes they might find and see who can find the most costumes on the list. They could have the person sign their paper when they find the different costumes.

Photo Scavenger Hunt If you have enough adults with either Polaroid or digital cameras, you can have a photo scavenger hunt. This is a good alternative to having the children gather things, especially if you live in an urban area where there may not be many things the kids can collect legally. Once all the teams are back to the starting point, they can compare pictures to determine the winner. This also allows for people to find the same thing and have a more specific list of items. This can be done for more than one age group, by having more obvious clues for the younger children and more difficult ones for the older kids.

If the weather isnt nice, you can have an indoor scavenger hunt and hide things around the house. Some rules will need to be given such as if a door is closed, that room doesnt have any of the items in it. Give clues for the items they are looking for and a bag for collecting. Candy, apples, mini pumpkins, small toys and Halloween themed items are great for indoor scavenger hunts and lots of fun for the kids.

Apple bob Fill a large tub with water and apples. Let kids take turns bobbing for apples.

Costume contest Once all your guests arrive at the party, take a vote on the best and scariest costumes. Add as many categories to your list as you want and hand out a grand prize to the best costume.

Pin the nose on Jack o Lantern This is a spin-off version of the all-time favorite game among children. Make a huge Jack o Lantern, leaving off his nose. Let kids take turns being blindfolded and pin (or tape) the nose on Jack.

Pumpkin carving contest Hold a pumpkin carving contest. See who can carve the funniest or silliest face into a pumpkin.

Make a mask Give younger kids at your Halloween party construction paper, round-ended scissors, markers and glue. Let them make their own face masks for the party. Punch a hole in both sides of the mask and tie string or tiny elastic on the mask.

Guess how many seeds Place counted pumpkin seeds in a large bowl or jar. Each party guest takes turns guessing how many pumpkin seeds there are. Whoever guesses closest to the correct numbers wins a prize.

Pumpkin seed spitting contest Cut the top off a large pumpkin and remove the inside meat and seeds. Give each kid five seeds and see how many seeds they can spit into the pumpkin from a distance.

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Snot cubes
Refrigerate yellow and green Jello (any flavors) in ice cube trays. Serve chilled.

Worms in snot
Make snot cubes, as directed above, out of Jello. Insert gummy worms in each cube of Jello then refrigerate. Serve chilled.

Bad apples
Using a small, sharp knife cut a small, round hole in one side of the top of an apple. Insert a gummy worm inside the hole. Create display of bad apples in a wooden bucket.

Monster Mash
In a large bowl, combine the following ingredients:

* 10 cups popcorn
* 1 pound plain M&Ms
* 1-14 oz. jar dry roasted peanuts
* 1 cup raisins (optional)
* 1 cup Reeces pieces (found in baking isle by chocolate chips)

Bowl of Brains
Scramble several eggs. To get the gray brain color, mix in green, red, and blue food coloring as you beat the eggs before cooking them.

Buggy Ice Cubes
Insert gummy worms or raisins (for bugs) in ice trays with water and freeze. Insert frozen buggy ice cubes in your bowl of party punch.

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1. Trick-or-Treat bucket
Supplies: ice cream bucket, construction paper, markers, crayons, glue, glitter (any craft supplies)
Directions: Use construction paper to draw ghosts, pumpkins, scarecrows, etc. Cut out your decorations and glue them to the outside of an ice cream bucket.

2. Trick-or-Treat goody bags
Supplies: small brown paper bags, Halloween stickers, markers, treats (candy, pencils, erasers, bubblegum, etc.)
Directions: Decorate paper bags in Halloween themes using your art supplies. Put treats inside bags. Fold the top of the bag down and tape shut with a Halloween sticker.

3. Tiny pumpkins
Supplies: acorns, orange paint, and green paint
Directions: Lay acorns on a sheet of newspaper. Paint the bottom of the acorns with orange paint. After the orange paint dries, paint the top of the acorns green (for the stem of the pumpkin). Allow to dry thoroughly.

4. Spooky Spiders
Supplies: black construction paper, cotton balls or cotton stuffing, black pipe cleaners, small bowl or saucer, and a stapler
Directions: Using black construction paper, trace around a small bowl or saucer. (Cut out two circles per spider.) Place stuffing or cotton balls on first circle. Lay second circle on top of cotton stuffing and staple half-way around. Insert 3-4 pipe cleaners on each side, then staple the second half of the circles together. Bend pipe cleaners to make the legs of the spider.

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Bobbing for Apples A classic Halloween party game has always been bobbing for apples, however some kids dont like putting their face in the water or dont want to mess up the make up that took a long time to perfect. One variation of this game is to tie the stems of the apples to varied lengths of string and then hang them up. Then the people have to put their hands behind their back and try to take a bite out of the apple. You can also play the game using marshmallows.

Mummy Wrap Up Divide guests into small groups. Provide them each with a roll or two of toilet paper and see who can use the tissue paper to wrap up one of their teammates the fastest. The first one to complete their mummy using the entire roll wins.

Jack-o-Lantern Faces Hang a picture of a jack-o-lantern on the wall and have matching face pieces cut out of black paper for the eyes, nose and mouth. Place sticky-tack on the back of the pieces. Blindfold each player when it is their turn and play the same as pin the tail on the donkey except players put the eyes, nose and mouth on the pumpkin face. Younger children can do just the mouth, while older children and adults can do the entire face for more of a challenge.

Ghost Hunters Cut out several paper ghosts and divide the players into two groups. Have one team hide the ghosts around the room. The other team has to hunt down the ghosts. Play continues until all ghosts are found. The team that hunts the most ghosts wins.

Ghost Bowling Collect ten empty one or two liter soda pop bottles (use the larger bottles for younger guests). Paint the bottles white and decorate with silly ghost faces. Use a small playground size ball as the bowling ball. If you can find orange ones, decorating them as jack-o-lanterns can add to the fun.

Upset the Candy Dish Place chairs in a circle, facing in, having one less than the number of players. Whisper in each childs ear the name of a favorite Trick or Treat candy. They will become this piece of candy in the candy dish. Have one person stand in the middle of the circle to be it. The child in the middle will call one or two types of candy. If the candy name thats called is matches the one the children are, they should stand up and try to move to another empty seat. Occasionally, the child who is it calls out, Upset the candy dish. and all the players need to move to a new seat. If any of the candy kids cant find a seat they then become it.

Pirates Treasure Fill two small buckets with sand and place inside a larger washtub or box. Bury treasure in the buckets such as small prizes or candy. Each player receives a plastic spoon to dig for their treasure. Divide players into two teams. Position players around their designated bucket and tell them when to start. They dig in their treasure chests until every piece is found. The first team to find all their treasure wins.

Miniature Coffins

As tiny props around the candy bowl, hung on the front door frame or sitting in a window sill, coffins only six inches long makes a great decoration. They can be filled with flowers, candy or dolls to complete the picture.

They’re also super easy to make. Just use your favorite drawing program on the computer and make the classic coffin shape. This is the ‘toe pincher’ style in which the overall shape narrows at the bottom and top, with a wider section in the middle.

Use the software to help you get the angles right (slightly larger than 90 degrees at the base and top, about 150 degrees at the ‘elbow’ section). The sides, foot and head section are rectangles.

Then just print out the results on stiff, black cardstock, using bright lines for the outline of the pieces. Cut out the shapes and use ice cream sticks or toothpicks with a little household glue to put the coffin together.

Full-sized Coffins

For a life-size prop the effort is a little greater, but the plans are basically the same. Acquire a few slats of plywood for the base, top, sides, foot and head sections. With careful planning three 4′ x 8′ pieces of plywood will be plenty.

Here, a protractor can help you get the angles right. Or, you can use large sheets of plain wrapping paper or blank newsprint to make a template. You could draw lines directly onto the plywood, using a protractor and tape measure. Or, you can make an outline of the piece on these large sheets of paper then tape them onto the wood.

Then, just use a standard power saw to cut out the pieces you need. A handsaw would do, but that’s a lot of work for eight sections. To assemble the result into a safe, sturdy prop L-braces and hinges are the easiest way to go.

With a power screwdriver/drill you can attach L-braces to the base in a few minutes. Then attach the foot, head and sides by using screws to connect those parts to the base. Now all you have to do is attach the lid or top.

Standard, kitchen cabinet hinges work best. Screw four of them along one side on the inside of the coffin, near the top. The hinge center should protrude just above the rim of the side piece. Then flip the hinge ‘open’. Get someone to hold the lid above the ground or benchtop and insert screws into the lid through the hinge flange.

Paint the coffin black using standard black primer. Spray paint would work, but that method takes a long time and a lot of paint.

Go to your favorite Halloween site and decorate your coffin with a skeleton, or a stuffed dummy, blow-up doll, or whatever ghoulish figure you can dream up!

Fortunately, you don’t have to have millions of dollars worth of special lights or be a director of photography to light your Halloween scene. Just follow some of these special tips from the pros…

Paradoxically, one of the major factors to effective lighting is not light at all, but the shadows cast by lit objects. It’s those deep, high contrast shadows that turn a pastoral daylight graveyard into a frightening nighttime cemetery. So, to get the same effect for your front yard cemetery scene, front porch or the areas around your bushes do what the pros do.

Aim your lights at steep angles. That creates very long shadows. It’s what we can’t see that really counts. Also, don’t use too many lights. One or two is plenty to cover a wide area. You want to cover, not reveal.

Continue that ‘theme’ by keeping the wattage low on all lights. That hides detail and adds to the air of mystery. When we can only see dimly, we imagine all kinds of things, especially when there are the right kinds of props and decorations to help our fears along.

Light from unusual angles. Your face looks normal when illuminated from above and to the side. It creates shadows beside the nose, beneath the eyebrows and under the jaw that we don’t even notice consciously. But reverse the direction of the light, come from below, and suddenly you have a scary look. It creates shadows we do notice, and it makes us uncomfortable.

The same principle applies when you’re lighting your home or a Halloween horror house. We can see objects, but they appear strange. Things don’t look like we’re used to and that is unsettling.

Anytime the eyes and brain can’t perform their normal function efficiently - picking out and identifying objects in the environment - we feel threatened. That’s because we know that under those circumstances we can’t deal very well with what might pop out. That creates a sense of foreboding. And that is just right for creating the mood in a Halloween scene.

Changing colors helps, too. Normal daylight is white with a yellow tinge. Change it to a deep blue, a harsh red, or that purple that comes from blacklight and again you have changed the normal environment. That helps create the sense that things are new and, in dim light, hard to anticipate.

Achieving that effect is easy. Use blacklights or red bulbs. Put colored gels (plastic filters) over a white bulb. Drape blue cloth in front of a fixture. Just make sure to keep all plastic or cloth far enough away to eliminate any fire hazard.

Change the way things look with shadows, dim light and colors and you can inexpensively light your Halloween scene the Hollywood way. You’ll be a big hit with the fans.