Looking to elevate your Halloween and fall decor game this year? We’ve got you covered with these nine unique DIY pumpkin decor and jack-o-lantern ideas that will add a touch of spookiness and creativity to your space. These projects are not only fun to make but also budget-friendly, making them perfect for Halloween through Thanksgiving.

1. Burlap Bag Pumpkin

Stacy Davis came up with an adorable DIY project involving burlap to create jack-o-lanterns. Using orange burlap, green paint for accents, and a bit of masking tape and black craft paint for the faces, she crafted these charming decorations. Assembling the pieces with hot glue, adding stuffing for shape, and creating a drawstring stem completed this cute and cost-effective Halloween decor in just about 18 minutes.

2. Junk Pumpkins

@JagCagDesign offers a unique and rustic twist to jack-o-lantern decorations using faux pumpkins and old hardware. The process involves painting the pumpkins with textured craft paint and adding a creative face using various salvaged “junk” pieces like old drawer pulls, metal stars, and screws, attached with Sugru moldable glue. You can even distress the paint, add extra elements, or turn one pumpkin into a scarecrow for a collection of charming and distinctive jack-o-lanterns.

3. Pill Bottle Pumpkin

Paula Skulina’s craft project recycles a medicine bottle into an enchanting jack-o-lantern decoration. Removing the label, cleaning the bottle, adding a jack-o-lantern face, attaching a pumpkin or gourd stem, and decorating the top with leaves and tendrils made from bind wire or twine results in a festive Halloween vignette and a unique home decor piece.

4. Scrap Wood Pumpkins

Build It Thrifty’s project involves crafting wooden jack-o-lantern decorations from scrap wood. Cutting and shaping the wood, drilling holes for stems, painting, and adding details create reusable Halloween decor items that are simple and fun to make. These pumpkins will add a rustic touch to your fall decor.

5. Hydro-Dipped Pumpkins

Wreaths of Joy demonstrates how to hydro-dip real pumpkins with colorful spray paint, creating unique and vibrant colors. These colorful pumpkins are meant to enhance floral arrangements and stand out as decorative pieces. Experiment with various color combinations to match your Halloween theme.

6. Pumpkin Planters

Alicia W shares a creative way to turn plastic pumpkin pails into planters for Halloween and the fall season. The project involves adding rebar rods for support, drilling holes in the bottoms of pumpkins, and filling them with soil and flowers. This results in a spooky yet fun porch decoration that can transition from fall to Halloween.

7. Paper Clay Jack-o-Lanterns

Bryan’s Workshop demonstrates how to create paper clay jack-o-lanterns for Halloween decorations. Making paper clay from unscented toilet paper, wood glue, and joint compound, molding it around an armature, painting, and decorating with faces creates handcrafted decorations suitable for outdoor use.

8. Jack-o-Lantern Topiary

Rob & Courtney M guide you in creating a Halloween pumpkin topiary for your porch using hollow plastic pumpkins, a PVC pipe, and planting mums in a planter. Detailed steps for carving the pumpkin faces, assembling the stack, and planting the mums are provided. Add fairy lights for nighttime visibility to complete this charming and festive Halloween pumpkin topiary.

9. Concrete Pumpkins

Diana Wearing’s DIY project involves making concrete pumpkins using plastic treat pumpkins as molds. The hypertufa-concrete mix consists of peat moss, perlite, cement, and added color for a non-gray finish. Once dried, the plastic molds are removed, revealing concrete pumpkins that can be used as decorations from Halloween through Thanksgiving.

These unique DIY pumpkin decor and jack-o-lantern ideas offer a wide range of creative options to make your Halloween and fall decor stand out. Get crafty and transform your space with these affordable and imaginative projects. Happy decorating!