What happens when you take 50 black trash bags, 3 plastic skulls, 6 plastic skeletons, and some silver tinsel from the Dollar Tree store and mix in some silver spray paint and wire??? You get a fabulous Halloween Door Garland for less than $20!!! I have been wanting to decorate the outside of my house for our Halloween Party, but I really needed to limit how much money I spent. After talking to a friend of mine who wanted to use big black trash bags as a backdrop for a photo shoot, I came up with this crazy idea. And believe it or not, this is the first time I have ever created something to decorate the front porch for Halloween. I usually keep all of my decorating indoors, but this year I wanted to extend the festivities to the outdoors by creating a garland for the front door.  Today I am going to share with you how I created the actual garland using black trash bags.

SUPPLIES |

50 - 30 gallon black trash bags
20 Gauge Wire
Wire Cutters

TUTORIAL | Halloween Door Garland

• You first want to determine how you will attach the garland around your door. I have C hooks located every 2 feet or so around the outside frame of my front door.
• Measure the height of your door to determine the length of wire you need for each side...taking into account that the bags will hang down.
• I created separate pieces for each side of the door and another one for the top.
• I then wrapped the wire ends around the C hooks to attach them and hold them in place.

Remove a black trash bag from roll and unwind. Do NOT unfold it.


Take a pair of scissors and cut along the folded outside edges.


Cut strips from the bottom to the top of the bag, leaving about 2 inches at the top.


Repeat until you have cut 5-6 strips on each bag.

Separate the cut strips and layers with your fingers.

Wad all of the strips together in your hand to help crinkle and wrinkle the plastic.


Repeat this process for each bag. This is the time consuming part. I did this over several evenings while watching TV!

Next, take a roll of 20 gauge wire and thread the end through the uncut top of the plastic bag.


Repeat this with each bag, threading them onto the wire. Add enough bags to nicely fill in each length of wire. I used about 17 bags for the sides and about 16 across the top of my door.
(My front door measures 8 feet high and 5.5 feet wide.)

I then attached each length to the top and sides of the door by winding the ends of the wire around the C hooks and occasionally looped it around the other C hooks along the way.


For more great Halloween Front Door Decorations check out my Dollar Tree Halloween Door Decor Part 2.



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