I've been seeing cute ideas with pumpkin topiaries lately. It looks like all you need to do is stab a dowel through three or four different sized pumpkins and they can be real or fake. You can paint them, carve them, decorate them with other natural materials etc. You could get cheap styrofoam pumpkins on clearance after Halloween and make one for next year.

Pumpkin Topiary


Pumpkin Pal Topiary : Holidays and Entertaining : Home & Garden Television

And a bunch of ideas here:
Pumpkin Topiaries - Blissfully Domestic Living

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We made little ghosts yesterday to hang in the window (I couldn't figure out a better place to put them, so I just tied them to the blinds )



I cut some shopping bags into squares for M to color on with permanent marker. Then we stuffed the heads with the handles and printed-on pieces of the bags, and tied them with black yarn. We got 7 little ghosts out of 3 plastic bags.

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Fabric pumpkins
These are mine:

Here are some pretty simple instructions for making some:
How to Make a Fabric Pumpkin | eHow.com

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Here are some cute little Halloween treat jars made from recycled baby food jars!

Make It and Love It: Treat Jars

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Paper Pumpkin Snowflakes! How cute are these, and how easy and fun to make with the kids.

There are step-by-step instructions here.

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Halloween advent calendar

We made this last year - it was my husband's idea. I had it laminated at Kinko's for a couple dollars. M knows how to count, so she is enjoying moving the magnet to a new number each day. She's been going around saying "it's 5 day!" all day.

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Check out this article with some great, inexpensive Halloween decorative crafts you could do with your kids!

http://mommysavers.com/celebrations/...ail_jacobs.htm

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Cute "Fall" decorative blocks, in 3-D. This is inexpensive if you have wood scraps and fabric scraps lying around. This would be also cute with mini pinecones for Christmas.

Instructions: Make It and Love It: Autumn Blocks

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Check out this cheap and easy way to decorate a lampshade for Halloween!
Instructions: Going Batty !!!!!

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Supplies:

White construction paper
Black permanent marker
Stapler
White crepe paper
Tape
String

Instructions:

-First decorate a 6-by-18-inch piece of white construction paper with ghostly eyes and a horrific mouth.

-Then roll the paper to form a tube shape and staple the ends together.

-Next cut eight (8-foot-long) strips of crepe paper and drape them over the top edge with both ends hanging down to create "tails." Secure with tape.

-For a handle, cut a 30-inch piece of string and staple the ends to opposite sides of the top of the decoration.