Here’s a super cool retro guide to making your own costumes and carving jack o lantern’s the Popular Mechanics Halloween way. First off, a witch costume with a surprise meowing, grimacing black cat will be sure to get a laugh!  I adore the style of the little witches hat.

Tin Ear Tommy has light up ears and nose! Complete wiring how-to included for this cute Halloween mask.

I find this headless horseman with light up jack o lantern appropriately spooky.

Mister Mars is a rectangular robot with a water pistol that shoots anyone careless enough to press his panic button. There’s a cuckoo clock costume where the wearer operates the hands! A walking matchbox and a bat made from underwear and an umbrella wrap up the costumes in the Popular Mechanics Halloween issue. Some fun techniques for pumpkin carving and decorating with pumpkins outside the box below. I really love the witch’s den pumpkin!

Non-traditional ways of decorating and tools for the purpose of carving are shown above, as an apple corer is used to make perfect circles for eye. A butternut squash gives the illusion of hair or a hat on your Halloween pumpkin!

Painting is another technique, especially if you don’t feel like getting sticky pumpkin guts all over creation. I think this painted face looks properly creepy! An old school 60-watt Christmas flasher light is used as a flasher, and “skin carving” is another unique method of creating an interesting holiday jack-o-lantern.

I hope you divine some inspiration from these new old ideas!