There's nothing tricky about creating wickedly clever decorations with Halloween spirit. Contributing Editors Matthew Mead and Ki Nassauer show you how.

SKELETON CREW
Greet guests and trick-or-treaters with this whimsical apparition. Etch a jack-o'-lantern face into a ghost-white Lumina pumpkin using pumpkin- or wood-carving tools to reveal the bright golden flesh. Place the pumpkin atop a vintage plant stand, adding the lid of an enamel teapot as a jaunty hat. Two more small pumpkins nestled in maple leaves look like hands.

Matthew's Secrets
This tiered iron plant stand is from the 1940s, but any era or design will do, as long as the overall shape suggests a human form.