Pulling together your own creepy decorations can be a fun family activity that's easy on the wallet.

Story highlights

Pumpkins and wreaths with DIY touches can add whimsy, sophistication to holiday decor

Use doilies and coffee filters to make garlands that look old, beautiful and a little creepy

Wrap a foam wreath base in yarn, embellish with flowers, for customized wreath

Bonus costume ideas for Mom and Baby: Chef and lobster, plane and aviator

CNN  — 

With Halloween on a Monday, there’s still the entire weekend to get into the holiday spirit. Decorating the home is a great way to celebrate, especially if you have children or want to postpone the feeding frenzy until next week.

It doesn’t have to be the standard store-bought fare, and it doesn’t have to be a daylong undertaking, says crafter extraordinaire Emily Grosse of Assemble Gallery & Studio in Seattle. Pumpkins on the front porch and a wreath on the door with few special do-it-yourself touches can add visual interest, sophistication and whimsy.

Grosse took a few minutes from leading crafting workshops and children’s Halloween parties to share a few ideas from a variety of sources. For more home and style ideas, check out her blog, neatLOAF.

Pumpkins as candy corn: Instead of choosing the perfect round pumpkin, take oddly shaped ones and spray-paint the tops white and bottoms yellow. Our pumpkin is now a candy corn.

Handmade yarn wreaths: Instead of hanging a fake-leaf wreath, tightly wrap a foam wreath base in yarn and embellished with a few felted flowers, all in autumn hues.

Garland made from doilies and coffee filters: By using white and natural-colored filters, the florets look old and beautiful and still a little creepy … a bit Miss Havisham.

Bonus: Costume ideas for Mom and Baby: Mom can be the chef, and Baby can be the lobster in a pot. Or, Mom can be the plane and Baby can be the pilot. How else would you pull that off?

Here are a few more ideas borrowed from Apartment Therapy and beyond:

Best Halloween party decorations: Budget-friendly ideas for dressing up furniture, lighting and the food table for your holiday bash.

Creepy botanical gardens: Creepy plants and flowers grow year-round that seem made for Halloween, from the eyeball plant to the bat-faced cuphea. But even just adding a few tiny tombstones to a small terrarium gives you a creepy graveyard scene that’s also pretty darn cute.

Make your own Halloween dinnerware: Cheaper and more fun than buying Halloween dinnerware, all it takes is some cheap plates, a porcelain pen and painters tape to make your own.

DIY decor for the whole home: Novel takes on traditional themes, from candy jars and birdcages to garland and Spanish moss centerpieces.