I love the idea of miniature things. I have fallen in love with mini pumpkins in the supermarket called munchkin pumpkins but couldn't find mini broom sticks anywhere! So I decided to make my own!

We collected twigs for the broom handles from the local park and I used a few handfuls of straw from a packet of pet bedding from the local discount store. (I have enough straw to make a thousand brooms and the house smells like a rabbit hutch but at £1 it was still good value for what I needed!) I had some elastic bands in the kitchen junk drawer so I reckon they ended up costing less than a penny each!

Simply bunch lengths of straw together and cut along one end for an even line. Tie the bunch round the twig with a small elastic band. I added Halloween plastic rings (I found for 5p each in a local charity shop) round the broom sticks for extra colour. But they look just as effective without.

You can hang them in a garland, use them on your buffet table as place card holders or glue them to a wreath for the front door like we did.

All mini witches welcome at our house!

I have spied lots of crafty Mummies creating these hanging ghosts so had a go at making our own. My favourite idea has to be this ghost family of material draped over honeycomb paper bells! The lady ghosts have lacy bow necklaces and we left some untied! I used a hot glue gun to attach the string to the polystyrene ghost body.

I realised after I had bought the lining fabric (just over £1.50 a metre and I bought 3m that made 8 ghosts) that the old pile of muslins I have left over from small boy's dribbly days would have worked just as well! So we made a few extra!

If you have a few old muslins lying around then try making your own. All you need is glue, scissors, some wiggly eyes and a polystyrene egg or ball shape for the body. Simple but spoooooky decorations!

A cheap and cheerful welcome to your trick or treaters, inspired by See Vanessa Craft!

I used a stencil for the lettering but you could easily do it by freehand. (I like the neatness of the stencil!)

All you need is a plain coil door mat, paint and use cookie cutters for your halloween shapes.

The mat isn't as easy to print on as paper, so fill in any gaps on your foot prints with a brush and extra paint.