Halloween is an eerie time. Everyone dresses up in their most frightening costumes and decorates their houses to scare both friends and strangers alike. But the process itself doesn’t have to be scary. These quick and easy tips will help you have a frighteningly good Halloween.

Junior Thomas Lile-Henley had been working on his costume for a while and he’s got a few tips.

“Last year for Halloween I went to the Halloween Haunt at Worlds of Fun and there was a guy there that had a pretty good costume,” Lile-Henley said. “I was inspired to create one a lot like it. It’s a scarecrow.”

The background for this scarecrow is a pirate got lost in a corn field hundreds of years ago and was reincarnated as a monster. Lile-Henley was so dedicated to this that he missed football games and spent a lot of free time on his costume.

For his costume, Lile-Henley took a red-colored shirt and pants and ripped them up to look like flesh. Then he cut a 55 gallon barrel to look like a rib cage. After that he made ‘blood’ out of water, red colors, potassium and sodium products. He then covered burlap with the blood gel and covered the entire thing in straw. He bought the mask online.

“You just have to have creativity and be able to make a character. You have to have dedication and put time into it,” Lile-Henley said.

Senior Macey Kern understands that hoodies have the potential to become something magical- or medieval.

“Freshman year I made a Toothless Hoodie from ‘How to Train Your Dragon,’” Kern said. “I bought the hoodie and then I looked up online the shape of his eyes. Then I traced it out and spread the hoodie out to try to space everything out. Then I glued it down and last second I thought ‘I want to add spikes.’ I did that by putting two pieces of felt together and I cut it so it had little flaps and then I glued them down.”

Your hoodie can be any character you want it to be. Any icon from Batman to Courage the Cowardly Dog. The only limit is your imagination. You’ll need: one hoodie (color depends on your character), felt and hot glue.

Senior Macey Kern also makes decorating as easy as pumpkin pie.

Take a clean baby food jar or can. Then paint the glue onto the jar and wrap crepe paper around it. Next, paint another layer of glue and let it dry. Then make the face out of black construction paper. Cut out the eyes, mouth, and all other facial features. Put the face on once the jar is dry or while the it is still sticky.

Here’s what you’ll need: baby food jars or cans, orange crepe paper and construction paper. You can even put a candle in them to light up your home on Halloween night. Give them time to dry, which should take around 20 minutes.

A werewolf, vampire and a mummy walk into a house. Sounds like the start of a joke, but the real joke is how tame your friend’s costumes are going to look after they see your candle dripping with blood.

“I just thought it was a good idea to add a little twist to Halloween,” freshman Alicia Romanowski said, referring to her ‘bloody candle.’

Take a white candle and set it somewhere where it will be safe to drip. Take a red crayon and light it with an open flame. Let the red wax drip onto the candle. Keep your hand steady for the best results. Here’s what you’ll need: one white candle, one red candle or crayon and an open flame to melt the wax

Instead of a whole costume a simple mask will do, according to Sophomore Jade Rains.

She made a Phantom of the Opera mask that takes inspirtaion from The Purge.

This simple idea doesn’t require much. Here’s what you’ll need: blank mask (store bought or cut from paper), paint and/or markers, hot glue and a stick to hold it up or a string to keep it on your face.

“You don’t really have to do anything, just get the mask and go crazy,” Rains said. “The Purge was super scary and Phantom of the Opera mask was also kind of creepy so I thought ‘why not merge the two together?’”

Imagine being a knight in shining armor, riding into battle. Or a Samurai, living according to Bushido (The Way of the Warrior). Senior Liam Arciga found a way to make those things a reality.

“Each year the orchestra has a contest for best costume. Freshman year I decided ‘why not go all out?’ So I made a Samurai costume that I used for the orchestra concert and for the Renaissance Festival,” Arciga said.

He didn’t stop there, however. After freshman year, Arciga continued to make armor and perfect his technique. Now he’s sharing it with others.

“I first go out and research what I’m looking for. If it’s a historical set, I look at how historical sets are actually made. If it’s a sci-fi set, I’m looking at how anatomically it would fit on the body,” Arciga said. “I get a ton of reference photos. Then after that I just cut it out of the foam, clober it all together, spray on some paint and call it a day.”

Here’s what you need: EVA foam, spray paint, hot glue and tools to cut the foam.

“There’s a sort of pride in looking at it,” Arciga said. “Especially if you’re making a movie set of armor. There’s a sense of pride to see it compared to an artists depiction or even the movie rendition of armor you’re making.”

Most can agree on what one of the better parts of Halloween are: to make candy. Senior Macey Kern used construction paper, tissue paper and glue to make this kind of candy.

“Cut a piece of white construction paper in the shape of a triangle. Next, you need to have little pieces of orange, white and yellow tissue paper,” Kern said. “These pieces do not have to be identical. You will start on the bottom of the triangle with the orange tissue paper. You crush the paper and wrap it on your finger so you can dip it in glue. Continue this with the three colors making the shape of a candy corn. Finally, let the glue dry.”