Decorative Halloween Windows

Halloween is right around the corner, and fun decorations can help to make that spooktacular night fantastic. Create your own painted decorations to make your house stand apart this Halloween. You can paint your own window designs just like you've seen around town at commercial businesses. All it takes is a little planning and elbow grease. Create the coolest, spookiest designs on the block this Halloween.

Halloween Haunted House

Materials:
Windex
Paper towels
Acrylic paint: black, yellow, orange, red, white, blue and green.
Assorted paintbrushes
Paper plate
Cup of water

Select a window that is located on the front side of your house. You want your art to be easily viewed from the road.

Wash the window or windows thoroughly. Make sure you dry the windows completely before you begin painting.

Paint your window display by working from the bottom up. Divide the display into thirds. Paint the bottom third green. Allow the green paint to dry. Once it is dry mix a small amount of green with red until a slightly darker green emerges. Paint individual grass lines throughout your picture.

Using geometric blocks and white paint complete the house section of your painting. Make sure that the house slightly overlaps the green grassy area. The house base should be rectangular. Add columns to the top of the house and then triangles to create a two or three story design. The house should be simple, and it is okay if it looks like it might topple over. That helter-skelter feeling gives the house a spooky deserted appearance. Allow the white paint to dry.

Paint the house in bright colors. Mix and match colors. Feel free to create new colors by mixing the colors in your color palette. I used turquoise blue for the base rectangle (bottom section of my house), and painted the columns orange, yellow, green and purple. After the columns are dry paint black arched lines around the columns. Make sure that the lines arch slightly downward in the center. This will help your house to look more three-dimensional. Add as much or as little detail as you like.

Mix red and orange paint until a bloody-orange appears. Paint a large harvest moon behind the house. Make sure that there is minimal space between the moon and the grass. Allow the paint to dry completely.

Working from the side of your painting, paint the black silhouette of the trees. Make sure that the trees look gnarled and craggy. My inspiration where the trees from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. The trees should extend up over the top of the house and across the moon.

If desired, add white ghosts onto the picture. Remember to keep the ghost in proportion to the house. Paint a small circle for the ghosts head and add a white tail to make the ghosts appear to be moving.